To achieve successful intercultural interactions, it is essential to exercise cultural self-control. Cultural self-control involves self-monitoring to eliminate any behavior or expression that may be deemed unacceptable by another culture (Baehr, 2022).
There are a variety of definitions used to describe cultural awareness. What all these definitions say, in one way or another, is that cultural awareness is the knowledge, awareness, and acceptance of other cultures. Implied in this broad definition is what is known as cultural sensitivity, or the acceptance of people from different backgrounds. Said another way, it is the ability to recognize the differences inherent in diverse cultures without placing any particular value on those differences. That is to say that no specific way of thinking, feeling, or behaving is superior to another. Rather, cultural differences only describe cultures, they do not determine the worth of those cultures.
Cultural competence can be defined as the ability of both parties involved to have a pleasant and successful interaction. Here are eight factors that help to ensure successful intercultural interactions:
Open-Mindedness
In an article titled The Structure Of Open-Mindedness, Jason Baehrdefines an open-minded person as one who “characteristically moves beyond or temporarily sets aside his own doxastic commitments in order to give a fair and impartial hearing to the intellectual opposition” (Baehr, 2022, p. 209). Naturally, to set aside one’s doxastic commitments, one must first acknowledge that they are there. These commitments may have arisen for several reasons, however, fundamentally they exist to avoid cognitive inconsistency and the ambiguity it creates. To be sure, studies have revealed closed-minded people tend to have a much lower tolerance for ambiguity.
Non-Judgmentalism
Defined as the willingness to remain in contact with negative emotions or aversive experiences, a position of non-judgement avoids the creation of a secondary position (the judgement about the negative experience or emotion), and the distancing that arises from this secondary position. In short, it allows us to experience the emotion or experience as it is without making anything of it or putting distance between ourselves and our experiences. In a cross-cultural exchange, as with any relational exchange, be it intrapersonal or interpersonal, judgement separates us from experience. We are no longer a participant in the experience. Instead, we are the judge of it. Not surprisingly, judgementalism is correlated with increased negative affect and depressive symptoms (Shallcross et al., 2022).
Mindfulness
The American Psychological Association defines mindfulness as the awareness of one’s internal states and surroundings. This awareness is the observation of thoughts, emotions, and experiences that can help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses (APA, 2018). Like cultural self-awareness, mindfulness acts to identify and recognize our own beliefs, assumptions, and biases, but also to recognize how these things are influencing the present moment.
Cognitive Flexibility
In an article titled Demystifying Cognitive Flexibility: Implications for Clinical or Developmental Neuroscience, Dinah Dajani and Lucina Uddin define cognitive flexibility as “the ability to switch between thinking about two different concepts or to think about multiple concepts simultaneously” (Dajani & Uddin, 2022, p. 23). The switching between different tasks means that we must quickly tend to the task at hand, and, in doing so, integrate new information. In this sense, cognitive flexibility refers to the ability to quickly reconfigure our minds (Braem & Egner, 2019). This reconfiguring of the mind can mean countering past premises, creating new categories of information, and, at the core, accepting new ways of understanding.
Tolerance for Ambiguity
First identified by Else Frenkel-Brunswik while researching ethnocentrism in children, a tolerance for ambiguity was originally observed in connection to authoritarian personalities (Adorno et al., 1950). Today, a tolerance for ambiguity acts to define and measure how well an individual responds when presented with an event that results in ambiguous stimuli or situations. People who are ethnically prejudiced tend to reject ambiguity more than their peers. Moreover, there appears to be an association between tolerance of ambiguity and psychological well‐being (Hancock & Mattick, 2022).
Behavioral Flexibility
Behavioral flexibility is the ability to cope with new stimuli or resources. It involves achieving the same task outcome using different solutions. In a cross-cultural context, it means adapting one’s behavior to meet the expectations of different cultures. For example, some cultures use physical touch regularly in interactions, while others do not. Also, preferences for physical distance vary among cultures (Ranganathan et al., 2020).
Cross-Cultural Empathy
Empathy is the ability to sense others’ emotions and imagine their thoughts and feelings. It involves seeing the world from another’s perspective and sharing their feelings. Empathy helps us connect and understand people from different cultures and backgrounds, both cognitively and emotionally.
Ethnorelativism
Ethnorelativism is the opposite of ethnocentrism. While ethnocentrism views one’s own culture as superior, ethnorelativism accepts and understands that each culture has its own values, beliefs, and norms. It recognizes all cultures as equally valid and important, seeing individuals within their cultural context. Ethnorelativism breaks down the division between in-groups and out-groups (Columbia Business School, 2021.
Keeping these factors in mind will lead to successful intercultural interactions.
Course excerpt from Cultural Awareness in Healthcare
Cultural Awareness in Healthcare is a 3-hour online continuing education (CE) course designed to examine cultural disparities within the healthcare system. It includes activities aimed at enhancing awareness and fostering greater cultural competence among participants. Click here to learn more.
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