Obviously one can change nationality by becoming a citizen of another country, although most people do not. While our personal identity choices express who we are, our social identities align us with particular groups. The colleagues parents, friends, and community had been using that term casually; as such, using that racial term in everyday speech was an ingrained behaviour that did not hold the level of offense for him that it did for the community that he was referring to. Do you think diversity training should be mandatory or voluntary? Your social identity can also be connected to your cultural identity and ethnicity. For example, one of our authors had a white South African colleague who, in casual conversation, used a racial term to refer to black South Africans. Saenz, A., Census Data Shows a Changed American Landscape, ABC News, March 21, 2011, accessed October 9, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/census-data-reveals-changed-american-landscape/story?id=13206427. If you consider the division between leaders and followers on a team, those who make decisions and voice their opinions when they do not agree are promoted to higher ranks, while those who are happy to go along with the consensus remain followers. Even though he looked different, he never gave much thought to his identity. After a long, uncomfortable silence, one of the men piped up and said, You can stand in any line you want, maam., She felt frustrated that they seemed to be so unhelpful. There is also deviation from and resistance to those patterns by individuals and subgroups within a culture, which is why cultural patterns change over time. An individual's/group's identity is ? 4.1 Principles and Functions of Nonverbal Communication, 5.4 Listenable Messages and Effective Feedback, 6.1 Principles of Interpersonal Communication, 6.2 Conflict and Interpersonal Communication, 6.3 Emotions and Interpersonal Communication, 6.4 Self-Disclosure and Interpersonal Communication, 8.2 Exploring Specific Cultural Identities, 8.4 Intercultural Communication Competence, 9.2 Researching and Supporting Your Speech, 10.2 Delivery Methods and Practice Sessions, 12.1 Speaking in Personal and Civic Contexts, 14.1 Leadership and Small Group Communication, 14.3 Problem Solving and Decision Making in Groups, 15.1 Technological Advances: From the Printing Press to the iPhone, 15.2 Functions and Theories of Mass Communication, 16.3 New Media, the Self, and Relationships. You may not have spent much time considering your own preferences and habits, or the impact of these on the people you work with. But if an African American becomes president of her colleges Black Student Union, she may more intensely avow her African American identity, which has now become more salient. avowed identity is the the identity you give yourself while ascribed is the identity others assign to you. Although they may be aware of differencesfor example, between races and gendersthey either dont realize there is a hierarchy that treats some people differently than others or they dont think the hierarchy applies to them. Ascribed Identities from governments and peers, correct or not, are enacted for the purpose of categorization and generalization. Our parents, friends, teachers, and the media help shape our identities. Having a better knowledge of your own interpersonal communication preferences will allow you to better understand yourself, your identity, and motivations. There were no signs to indicate which line was designated for what, so she didnt know which line to stand in or what the respective lines were for. Method: Forty semistructured interviews were conducted with DACA recipients who attend a 2- or 4-year college in California. While the stages in this model help us understand how many people experience their identities, identity development is complex, and there may be variations. To extend the previous example, there has been a movement in recent years to reclaim the label nerd and turn it into something positive, and hence, a nerd subculture has been growing in popularity. By 2030, racial and ethnic minorities will account for one-third of the population (Allen, 2011). the arousal of any of your senses. Because of this lack of recognition of oppression, members of dominant groups may minimize, dismiss, or question the experiences of nondominant groups and view them as complainers or whiners. Recall from our earlier discussion of identity formation that people with dominant identities may stay in the unexamined or acceptance stages for a long time. Jones Jr., R. G., Communicating Queer Identities through Personal Narrative and Intersectional Reflexivity (PhD diss., University of Denver, 2009), 13032. Theres that guilt. Learning about difference and why it matters will help us be more competent communicators. Difference matters because people are treated differently based on their identities and demographics and patterns of interaction are changing. Whenever we encounter someone, we notice similarities and differences. Do you recall the communication channels we discussed in the Foundations module? Self-analysis is the process of examining and studying emotions, personality and the behavior of a specific individual. Why do you think the person ascribed the identity to you? Personal identities are components of self that are primarily intrapersonal and connect to our individual interests and life experiences. A male participant in a research project on identity said the following about redefining his male identity: I dont want to assert my maleness the same way that maleness is asserted all around us all the time. Both groups may be restrained from communicating about difference due to norms of political correctness, which may make people feel afraid to speak up because they may be perceived as insensitive or racist. We dont always say what we really mean; therefore, some reading between the lines occurs when we are communicating with someone, particularly if their reaction is not what we expect. But some organizations extend their reach to further meet employee needs, for example, by providing food, social gatherings, professional development opportunities, career progression, and so on. While this is not a separatist movement, a person who is hearing impaired may find refuge in such a group after experiencing discrimination from hearing people. She went and said, Excuse me, sorry to bother you, but I need to have my visa sorted out and I dont know which line Im supposed to stand in., The men looked at her, staring daggers at her. Intensity: Greater intensity, in brightness, for example, also increases perceptual selection. Additionally, common ways of being and acting within a cultural identity group are expressed through communication. Also, a young African American man may question his teachers or parents about the value of what hes learning during Black History Month. explain how key factors of diversity influence your workplace behaviours. Why do you think the person ascribed the identity to you? Finally, the other man said, Maam you can stand in that line there, pointing to the line that happened to be closest to her. This plays a big part in communicationand miscommunicationwith other people. In fact, hierarchy and domination, although prevalent throughout modern human history, were likely not the norm among early humans. Dominant identity development consists of five stages (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). (1996). For example, when a baby is crying, we, as adults, wonder, Has the baby eaten? Ask yourself the question Who am I? Recall from our earlier discussion of self-concept that we develop a sense of who we are based on what is reflected back on us from other people. The focus is then turned to perception, including how selective perception can often negatively affect interpersonal communication. List some of your personal, social, and cultural identities. Ascribed identities are personal, social, or cultural identities that are placed on us by others, while avowed identities are those that we claim for ourselves (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). In these situations, it is more likely that stereotypes and prejudice will influence our communication. All the people in the other line were men. Novelty and familiarity: Both of these increase selection. Do you enjoy working in a sociable environment, or do you prefer to work in a more solitary environment? Your social identity gives a sense of who you are, based on your membership in social groups. In such cases, the interaction is bound to be frustrating for both parties. Your perception of the world, and the way you communicate this, is shaped by your cultural identity. Culture is negotiated, and as we will learn later in this chapter, culture is dynamic, and cultural changes can be traced and analyzed to better understand why our society is the way it is. Have you worked with others who seem to clearly match one or more of the definitions youve uncovered? No amount of effort or desire can influence our ascribed status. At what time of day do you feel most productive? Martin, J. N., and Thomas K. Nakayama, Intercultural Communication in Contexts, 5th ed. We work to earn money so that our basic needs will be met. Perception is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information to represent and understand the environment. Were there any stereotypes involved? In the acceptance stage, a person with a dominant identity passively or actively accepts that some people are treated differently than others but doesnt do anything internally or externally to address it. Explain why difference matters in the study of culture and identity. Now there are two, and I dont know what theyre for because there are no signs, and so I dont know which line Im supposed to be in. After doing some shuffling with her bags and passport, about 10 minutes after first standing in line, she had a huge realization. The cultural constructs of gender and power often play a part in workplace communication, as certain behaviours become ingrained. Difference also matters because demographics and patterns of interaction are changing. The Five-Factor Model of Personality in the Workplace. Has he been startled? She started looking at the people in her line. In the United States, the population of people of color is increasing and diversifying, and visibility for people who are gay or lesbian and people with disabilities has also increased. Unpacking the definition, we can see that culture shouldnt be conceptualized as stable and unchanging. According to Belbins research, these categories are stable across cultures. An ascribed status is a social status that you didn't choose and is usually given to you from birth. She laughed and laughed. We may literally have a parent or friend tell us what it means to be a man or a woman. In the passive acceptance stage, we must be cautious not to blame individuals with dominant identities for internalizing racist, sexist, or heterosexist norms. The socializing institutions we discussed earlier (family, peers, media, religion, and education) often make oppression seem normal and natural. Motivation: People will select perceptions according to what they need in the moment. Why is it that we react so differently to the babys behaviour in contrast to the adults, even though the trigger may be very similar? The 2010 Census shows that the Hispanic and Latino/a populations in the United States are now the second largest group in the country, having grown 43 percent since the last census in 2000 (Saenz, 2011). Psychologist Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1943) described a series of need levels that humans experience. For example, historically, immigrants to English-speaking countries adopted anglicized names so that their names would be easier to pronounce and so that they could more easily fit into the new culture. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles that may impede our valuing of difference (Allen, 2011). If so, how? 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