TAMU COMM 335 Final Exam questions with correct answers
globalization CORRECT ANSWER the process by which the world is now characterized by an interrelated, interdependent, global community with a seamless
movement of capital, labor, people, and data across national borders
dominant culture with example CORRECT ANSWER collective people in a society who possess those instruments of power that set the societal agenda that the
majority commonly follows; not necessarily numerical power but more about control of major institutions such as government, education, the media, and the economy example: white male Christians in the U.S.
co-culture with example CORRECT ANSWER groups of social communities that exhibit perceptions, values, beliefs, behaviors, or practices that are different enough to distinguish them from the dominant culture; however there can a be dual
membership such as Mexican-American
example: gay, disabled, female, Latino, old, etc.
relationship between dominant and co-culture CORRECT ANSWER there is controversy over their relationship! some say that the co-cultures simply co-exist with none superior to the other but others question whether co-cultures can truly mutually co-exist. Does one ultimately usurp the other?
culture shock and models of culture shock CORRECT ANSWER a mental state caused by the transition that occur when you go from a familiar cultural environment to an unfamiliar one and discover that your normative, established patterns of behavior are ineffective
models: U-curve (honeymoon -> crisis -> adjustment) W-curve (honeymoon -> crisis -> recovery -> adjustment -> honeymoon at home -
> crisis at home -> recovery at home -> adjustment at home)
how to guard against culture shock CORRECT ANSWER - learn about the language
- guard against ethnocentrism
- learn about the host culture
- work to maintain your own culture
ethnocentrism CORRECT ANSWER (in class) judging other cultures using your own culture's standards
(in textbook) a conviction that one's own culture is superior to all other cultures
how do you balance/why is it necessary to balance generalizing with individual uniqueness? What guidelines can help with this? CORRECT ANSWER necessary because every individual is shaped by a multitude of sources and culture is only one of them. to avoid generalizing: - cultural generalizations must be viewed as approximations not absolutes
- when you generalize, it should deal with primary values and behaviors of that particular culture
- try to use generalizations that can be supported from a variety of sources - conclusions and statements about cultures should be qualified an tentative, never absolutes (usually, often, sometimes, etc.)
definition of culture CORRECT ANSWER many different definitions
- the human made part of the environment
- a set of human made objective and subjective elements that in the past have increased the probability of survival and resulted in satisfaction for the participants
in an ecological niche and thus became shared - the totality of that group's thoughts, experiences, and patterns of behavior and its concepts, values, and assumptions about life that guide behavior and how those evolve with contact with other cultures -culture's function is to essentially make life unproblematic for people by "teaching" them how to adapt to their surroundings
definition of communication CORRECT ANSWER the dynamic process in which people attempt to share their thoughts with other people through the use of symbols
in particular settings; it is dynamic, symbolic, contextual, learned, and has consequences different models: linear, interactive, and transactional (with transactional being the best model for it) uses: identity, person perception, interpersonal needs, and persuasion
various components of communication CORRECT ANSWER - source
- encoding
- messages
- channel (means by which the message is sent like phone, by mouth, email, etc.) - receiver
- decoding - feedback (response to message)
- noise (can be environmental, psychological, or semantic)
elements of culture and how do they represent that culture is systemic? CORRECT
ANSWER Elements
- religion
- history
- values
- societal organizations
- language systemic because culture is integrated where all the elements are interconnected and influence each other; for example, values regarding materialism can stem from
a variety of sources (history, family, or religion) and can influence things such as family size, work ethic, use of time, and spiritual pursuits
deep structures and why they are important CORRECT ANSWER - conscious and unconscious assumptions about how the world works
- unifies a culture
- makes each culture unique
- explains the how and why of a culture's collective action which is something difficult for outsiders to understand - carry the culture's most important messages
- they endure, are deeply felt, and contribute to each person's identity - 3 enduring deep structures: family/clans, state/community, and religion/worldview
