Intercultural Conflict Research Articles

Enhancing intergroup relations among children: A field test of the Miller-Brewer model

Miller and Brewer's theoretical model was tested in a field experiment intended to reduce intercultural conflict between religious and secular Jewish Israeli children. 74 religious and 69 secular children participated in a joint enrichment program for gifted youth. Contact between the two groups was arranged so as to manipulate decategorization, by teaching academic content with an Interpersonal or Task orientation. In addition, the small activity groups in the enrichment programs were established according to Cross-cutting (Gender × Religiousness) or Convergent boundaries. Social acceptance of outgroup children was measured at the first session and after 6 weeks. At the tenth session generalization was measured. Results comparing the sixth session to the first, showed an increase in social acceptance towards religious outgroup members among ingender persons only, and for task oriented classes only. Generalization results indicated that the religious ingroup bias, exhibited at the first session, was eliminated. These findings raise questions regarding the applicability of the Miller-Brewer model when the conflict is real and intense, and field study rather than laboratory analogue conditions prevail.

El amante bilingüe

This article deals with intercultural conflicts in the literary production of a bilingual society. After a brief description of the author and his work, we discuss the novel El amante bilingue of Juan Marse with its specific techniques and references to the bilingual and bicultural situation and finally we point out the aspects of a good translation (in this case from Spanish to German).

Coping with culture-based conflict: Implications for counseling research and practice.

Interpersonal conflict related to sociocultural group membership was examined with a multicultural university sample. The Social Group Conflict Scale (SGCS), collective self-esteem (CSE), and Bradburn affect scale were administered to 248 university students. The current study attempted to replicate and extend the findings on social group-based conflict recently proposed by Dunbar, Sue, and Liu. Results indicated that 51% of the subjects reported encountering interpersonal conflict attributable to their social group memberships, with ethnicity being the most frequently attributed group category. Significant gender and ethnic differences were noted in coping approach employed in responding to the conflict event. The current findings are considered in regard to effectively assessing and responding to intercultural conflict for mental health practice.

Multicultural training in pediatric and clinical child psychology predoctoral internship programs

Surveyed directors of training of pediatric and clinical child psychology predoctoral internships regarding the extent of multicultural training within their programs. Respondents completed a brief survey assessing faculty and trainee ethnic composition, recruitment of minority trainees, content of training curricula, and perceptions of barriers to multicultural training. Ratings of the importance of multicultural training and the presence of minority interns were directly related to the presence of minority faculty. Recruitment of minority trainees appears to occur largely through program announcements. Didactic seminars on multiculturalism and informal resolution of intercultural conflicts predominate internship settings with less emphasis on formal structures for addressing multicultural conflicts. Implications for internship training are discussed.

UNDERSTANDING INTERCULTURAL CONFLICT THROUGH AN ANALYSIS OF KERNEL IMAGES AND RHETORICAL VISIONS

This study endeavors to deepen our understanding of intercultural conflict by the detailed development of a particular case. The case chosen is the controversy over spearfishing between the largely white protest community in northern Wisconsin and the Native American (Anishinabe) community in the same region. This study identifies and examines a kernel image which serves simultaneously as common and uncommon ground across the two communities, thus helping to escalate and prolong the conflict. This process is further explored through the identification and articulation of the rhetorical visions which embody the common sense of a community and are expressed through the collective discourse of that community. Finally, implications for intercultural conflict in general are discussed.

Intercultural conflict: A case study

This paper takes a case study approach to intercultural conflict. The particular case in question is the controversy which began with the publicized killing of over one thousand dolphins at the island of Iki. The paper explores key symbols in the conflict and posits community specific notions of emotion, personhood, and communication as fulcrums of conflict which can assist in the understanding and managing of intercultural conflicts. The paper seeks not only to account for this specific conflict, but to raise telling issues which get at the heart of any intercultural conflict.

A Comparison of Canadian and Japanese Cognitive Styles: Implications for Management Interaction

Many American and Canadian companies seeking to form joint ventures and alliances with Japanese companies, or to negotiate contracts with them, have discovered that the interaction can be difficult and frustrating. Value differences and preferences for different management practices have been identified that contribute to these interaction problems. However, little research has investigated potential differences in cognitive style that might also contribute to intercultural conflict. This study compares samples of Canadian and Japanese MBA students using the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) and links the findings to interaction difficulties reported in the literature.

Social, cultural and religious constraints to freedom of scholarship and science

The scientific worldview and the value placed on individual freedoms, concepts which have matured over the past three centuries, have greatly contributed to human progress. In a world characterised by widely different cultural, social and economic trajectories of development and by imperialistic attitudes to human progress, the application of these modern concepts have regrettably also given rise to the most devastating threats to survival of our planet. It is these paradoxical effects of “progress” and the balance between them that account for a diversity of constraints to freedom of science and scholarship. As with other “ideologies” the balance is tipped in an unfavourable direction when the approach to application becomes “totalitarian”. Human progress and global welfare are dependent on a new and deeper understanding of forces creating and sustaining intercultural conflict and on endeavours to overcome these by promoting wisdom, humility and foresight in the application of knowledge for the longterm ...

Conceptions of Time and Time Experience. A problem in Intercultural Communication. Case-Study: Rwanda

The confrontation between people from different cultures causes a lot of problems, most of all communication problems. They are too often considered as only langu- age-problems, but the so-called "cultural-shock" is a lot more comprehensive. Reducing any cultural problem to language troubles, means ignoring the non-verbal and other cultural principles that make cultures so rich and different. The experience of time and the concepts of time are such principles, rooted in culture and traditions. For the members of the culture in question, these time-principles have become so natural that they remain unexperienced or even unconscious, but they might surprise, even irritate, the members of other cultures. The scientific discipline called "chronemics" examines how humans perceive, structure and use time as communication. Every culture has its own conception of time and its own customs for the use of time. In this sense the Western culture is totally different from the Central African culture in Rwanda. This often causes intercultural conflicts when Europeans working in Rwanda are confronted with the different attitudes towards time of the Rwandese people and vice versa. The purpose of this research is to find an answer to the question whether the intercultural communication between Rwandese people and Europeans (sometimes, often, always) is disturbed because of misunderstandings caused by the differences in their time-codes. This survey contains two parts: first, a literature study on intercultural communication and time as a message system with references to the two cultures in question and second, a field study in Rwanda consisting of 120 questionnaires answered by Europeans and Rwandese people who work together.KEY WORDS: chronemics, communication science, intercultural communication, formal time, informal time, Rwanda

Tijdsconcepten en Tijdsbeleving, een Probleem uit de Interculturele Communicatie. Case-Study: Rwanda

Conceptions of Time and Time Experience, A Problem in Intercultural Communication. Case-Study: Rwanda. The confrontation between people from different cultures causes a lot of problems, most of all communication problems. They are too often considered as only language-problems, but the so-called “cultural-shock” is a lot more comprehensive. Reducing any cultural problem to language troubles, means ignoring the non-verbal and other cultural principles that make cultures so rich and different. The experience of time and the concepts of time are such principles, rooted in culture and traditions. For the members of the culture in question, these time-principles have become so natural that they remain unexperienced or even unconscious, but they might surprise, even irritate, the members of other cultures. The scientific discipline called “chronemics” examines how humans perceive, structure and use time as communication. Every culture has its own conception of time and its own customs for the use of time. In this sense the Western culture is totally different from the Central African culture in Rwanda. This often causes intercultural conflicts when Europeans working in Rwanda are confronted with the different attitudes towards time of the Rwandese people and vice versa. The purpose of this research is to find an answer to the question whether the intercultural communication between Rwandese people and Europeans (sometimes, often, always) is disturbed because of misunderstandings caused by the differences in their time-codes. This survey contains two parts: first, a literature study on intercultural communication and time as a message system with references to the two cultures in question and second, a field study in Rwanda consisting of 120 questionnaires answered by Europeans and Rwandese people who work together.

Educating for democratic behavior in an intercultural context

Educating for democratic behavior in intercultural contexts is an old and frustrating issue with a new and growing relevancy. The main avenues through which it tries to achieve its goals —educating the child as a democratic knower, as a rational thinker, and as a tolerant actor —are discussed and analyzed. It is argued that what is common to these three avenues is their origin in the same basic positivist presuppositions: that the total separation between the “self” and the “other” can and should be achieved; that the self can and should be objective in judging the other; and that through objective reasoning, the correct solution for every social conflict can be found. These positivist presuppositions are erroneous when they refer to the social domain, that is, that becoming more objective, knowledgeable, and better critical thinkers is unattainable and undesirable. Instead, we should teach children to enrich the construct system by which they interpret themselves in relation to the other through a dialectic with the other's subjective prejudices as experienced in intercultural conflicts. This alternative approach and its praxis implications are presented.

Family Effectiveness Training: An Intervention to Prevent Drug Abuse and Problem Behaviors in Hispanic Adolescents

Evidence ispresentedfor the efficacy of Family Effectiveness Training (FET). FET is a prevention/intervention modality designedfor use with Hispanicfamilies of preadolescents who are "at risk" for future drug abuse. Family Effectiveness Training targets a constellation offactors that putfamilies at riskfor developing a drug abusing adolescent. Intervention strategies target existing maladaptive family interactions, and prevention strategies target two common stressors in Hispanic families: intergenerational and intercultural conflicts. Seventy-nine Hispanic families meeting the criteria for "at-risk"families constituted the subject population. Families were randomly assigned to either an FET condition or to Minimum Contact Control Condition. A Solomon Four Group Design was used to test the effects of both the intervention and the assessment procedures. Three sets of analyses were conducted: (I)for all subjects, 2 X 2 ANOVAs investigating the effects of intervention and preassessment on posttest outcome scores; and (2) for subjects with preassessment, ANCO VAs investigating the effects of FETand control conditions on outcome, using preassessment scores as covariates; and (3) repeated measures ANO VAs investigating the long-term impact of FETfrom pre to post tofollow-up. There were no significant effects due to preassessmentfor any of the variables measured. Families in the FET condition showed significantly greater improvement than did control families on independent measures of structuralfamilyfunctioning, problem behaviors as reported by parents, and on a self-administered measure of child self-concept. FET impact was generally maintained at the time of a six-month follow-up.

Cultural factors in working with Southeast Asian refugee adolescents

The purpose of this paper is to present some of the unique socio-political-cultural factors that impact upon the psychological development of Southeast Asian refugee adolescents. As a special group of youngsters, they are confronted with the developmental crisis as adolescents, adjustment problems as refugees, and intercultural conflicts caused by the immense value differences between Eastern and Western cultures. In working with this population, clinicians are urged to take into account the special stressors resulting from the refugee and cultural experiences. Three areas of assessment are recommended: (1) assessment of major stresses (migration stress, acculturation stress, life cycle stress, and family stress); (2) assessment of strengths; and (3) assessment of culturally specific responses to mental health problems. Different treatment modalities are also discussed. It is hoped that the practical suggestions presented in this paper can lead to more culturally relevant care for this group of youths.

A Jungian commentary on the 'ordinary' dreams of the Yolngu.

A psychiatrist trained in Jungian analytical psychology looks at the dreams of nine Australian Aborigines from Arnhem Land. Religious imagery and the theme of intercultural conflict predominate. The relationship between religious imagery and the concept of Self in Jungian psychology and Self psychology is discussed.

A Group Course on Inter-Cultural Conflict

A Group Course on Inter-Cultural Conflict