Term | Definition |
culture | the totality of learned, shared symbols, language, values, and norms that distinguish one group of people from another |
societies | groups of people who share common symbols, language, values, and norms |
in-groups | groups of people with which a person identifies |
out-groups | groups of people with which a person does not identify |
ethnicity | people's perceptions of ancestry or heritage |
nationality | one's status as 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 besides their national citizenship |
individualistic culture | a culture in which people believe that their primary responsibility is to themselves |
collectivistic culture | a culture in which people believe that their primary responsibility is to their families, their communities, and their employers |
low-context culture | a culture in which people are expected to be direct and to say what they mean |
high-context culture | a culture in which people are taught to speak in an indirect, in-explicit way |
low-power-distance culture | a culture in which people believe that no one person or group should have excessive power |
high-power-distance-culture | a culture in which certain groups, such as the royal family or the members of the ruling political party, have much greater power than the average citizen |
masculine culture | a culture in which people cherish traditionally masculine value and prefer sex-specific roles for women and men |
feminine culture | a culture in which people cherish traditionally feminine qualities and prefer little differentiation in the roles of women and men |
monochronic culture | a culture that views time as a finite and tangible commodity |
polychronic culture | a culture that views time as holistic, fluid, and infinite |
uncertainty avoidance | the extent to which people try to avoid situations that are unstructured, unclear, or unpredictable |
mindful | aware - as in being aware of how other cultures' behaviors and ways of thinking are likely to differ from one's 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 understood only by people from the same culture |
adapt | to change one's behavior to accommodate what others are doing |