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Chapter 2 Key Terms
Intro to Communication Spring 2026
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Culture | totality of learned, shared symbols, language, values, and norms that distinguish one group of people from another |
| Socities | groups of people who share a culture with one another |
| In-groups | groups we identify with |
| Ethnicity | our perceptions of our ancestry or heritage |
| Nationality | our status as a citizen of a particular country |
| Enculturation | the process of acquiring a culture |
| Co-cultures | groups of people who share values, customs, and norms related to mutual interests or characteristics other than their national citizenship |
| Symbol | something that represents an idea |
| Values | the standard used to judge how good, desirable, or beautiful something is |
| Norms | rules or expectations that guide people’s behavior in culture |
| Jargon | terminology that is only understood by others in the same co-culture |
| Collectivistic cultures | where people are taught that their primary responsibility is to their families, their communities, and their employers |
| Low-context culture | people are expected to be direct and say what they mean |
| High-context culture | people are taught to speak in a much less direct way to maintain harmony and avoid offense are more important than expressing true feelings |
| Low-power-distance culture | belief that all men and women are equal and that no one person or group should have excessive power |
| High-power-distance culture | power is distributed less evenly and people are taught that certain people or groups deserve more power than others and that respecting power is more important than respecting equality |
| Masculine culture | people tend to cherish stereotypically masculine values such as ambition, achievement, and the acquisition of material goods |
| Feminine culture | people tend to value nurturing behavior, quality of life, and service to others |
| Monochronic | view time as a commodity |
| Polychronic | conceive of time as more holistic and fluid and less structured; treat time as a finite commodity that must be managed properly to avoid wasting it |
| Uncertainty avoidance | the extent to which people try to avoid situations that are unstructured, unclear, and unpredictable |
| Mindfulness | an awareness of how other people’s behaviors and ways of thinking are likely to differ from our own |
| Ethnocentrism | the tendency to judge other cultures’ practices as inferior to one’s own |
| Communication codes | verbal and nonverbal behaviors whose meanings are often |
| Code-switch | shift between jargon and pain language in order to be understood by others |
| Gestures | movements that express ideas |
| Ambiguity | a lack of certainty |
| Digital divide | the cultural gap between groups that do and do not have regular Internet access |
| Out-group | groups we see as different from us |
| Individualistic culture | people believe their primary responsibility is to themselves |