Professional Ethics, Jurisprudence, and Cultural Sensitivity

Cultural Sensitivity o They can identify how culture affects a wide range of human
experience and they have a framework for organizing
observations of cultural difference
• Being aware that cultural differences and similarities between o We recognize people from this stage through their eager
people exist without assigning them a value – positive or negative, questioning of others
better or worse, right or wrong o This reflects a real desire to be informed, and not to confirm
prejudices
ETHNOCENTRISM o The key words of this stage are getting to know or learning
• Viewed as lacking acceptance of cultural diversity and intolerance • ADAPTATION TO DIFFERENCE
for outgroups (Berry & Kalin 1995) o Individuals are able to expand their own worldviews to
• This lack of acceptance of cultural diversity has a strong tendency accurately understand other cultures and behave in a variety
to lead to negative stereotypes toward other cultural/ethnic of culturally appropriate ways
groups, negative prejudice and negative behaviors against these o Effective use of empathy, or frame of reference shifting, to
group members (Billiet et al. 1996) understand and be understood across cultural boundaries
o It is the ability to act properly outside of one’s own culture
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE (ICC) o At this stage, one is able to walk the talk
• Conceptualized as an individual’s ability to achieve their • INTEGRATION OF DIFFERENCE
communication goal while effectively and appropriately utilizing o One’s experience of self is expanded to include the movement
communication behaviors to negotiate between the different in and out of different cultural worldviews
identities present within a culturally diverse environment (Portalla o People at this position have a definition of self that is marginal
& Chen 2010: 21) (not central) to any particular culture, allowing this individual
• ICC is comprised of three dimensions, including intercultural to shift rather smoothly from one cultural worldview to
awareness (cognitive aspect), intercultural sensitivity (affective another
aspect), and intercultural effectiveness (the behavioral aspect)
(Chen & Starosta 1996) ETHNOCENTRIC STAGES OF INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY
• DENIAL
DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL OF INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY o At this stage of cultural sensitivity, people don’t recognize
• DENIAL OF DIFFERENCE cultural differences and experiences
o Individuals experience their own culture as the only real one • DEFENSE
o Other cultures are either not noticed at all or are understood o At the defense stage of cultural sensitivity, people recognize
in an undifferentiated, simplistic manner some differences, but see them as negative because they
o People at this position are generally uninterested in cultural assume their culture is the most evolved, the best one
difference, but when confronted with difference their • MINIMIZATION
seemingly benign acceptance may change to aggressive o Individuals at this stage of cultural sensitivity are unaware
attempts to avoid or eliminate it that they are projecting their own cultural values
o Most of the time, this is a result of physical or social isolation, o They see their own values as superior
where the person's views are never challenged and are at the o They think that the mere awareness of cultural differences is
center of their reality enough
• DEFENSE AGAINST DIFFERENCE
o One’s own culture is experienced as the most evolved or best ETHNORELATIVE STAGES OF INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY
way to live • ACCEPTANCE
o This position is characterized by dualistic us/them thinking o At this stage of cultural sensitivity people are able to shift
and frequently accompanied by overt negative stereotyping perspectives to understand that the same ordinary behavior
o They will openly belittle the differences among their culture can have different meanings in different cultures
and another, denigrating race, gender or any other indicator o They are able to identify how experiences are influenced by
of difference one’s culture
o People at this position are more openly threatened by cultural • ADAPTATION
difference and more likely to be acting aggressively against it o Individuals who are at this stage of cultural sensitivity become
o A variation at this position is seen in reversal where one’s own more competent in their ability to communicate with other
culture is devalued and another culture is romanticized as cultures
superior • INTEGRATION
• MINIMIZATION OF DIFFERENCE o People who are at this stage of cultural sensitivity are able to
o The experience of similarity outweighs the experience of shift easily from one cultural frame of reference to another
difference o They develop empathy for other cultures
o People recognize superficial cultural differences in food,
customs, etc.,. but they emphasize human similarity in
physical structure, psychological needs, and/or assumed
adherence to universal values
o People at this position are likely to assume that they are no
longer ethnocentric, and they tend to overestimate their
tolerance while underestimating the effect (e.g. privilege) of
their own culture
o In other words, as explained by the Canadian Center for
Intercultural Learning, people who adopt this point of view
generally approach intercultural situations with the
assurance that a simple awareness of the fundamental
patterns of human interaction will be sufficient to assure the
success of the communication
✓ Such a viewpoint is ethnocentric because it presupposes
that the fundamental categories of behavior are
absolute and that these categories are in fact our own
• ACCEPTANCE OF DIFFERENCE
o One’s own culture is experienced as one of a number of equally
complex worldviews
o People at this position accept the existence of culturally
different ways of organizing human existence, although they
do not necessarily like or agree with every way