COMM 2303 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Cognitive Dissonance

• School: Northeastern University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMM 2303
• Professor: Margaret Williams

Document Summary

Intercultural relationships are relationships formed between individuals from different cultures: benefits of intercultural relationships. Knowledge about the world gained through relational learning. Gaining new skills: challenges of intercultural relationships. Lack of motivation to learn about a new culture. One can enter an intercultural relationship with negative stereotypes. There is anxiety associated with new cultural settings. Need to explain why you are friends with a person who is different. Need to explain to your community why you are friends with someone different. Need to recognise and respect differences: thinking dialectically about intercultural relationships. Contextual factors contribute to the development and maintenance of our intercultural relationships. Similarity principle: attraction to people who are similar to us. Cognitive consistency: finding people with shared beliefs gives us cognitive consistency. Some aspects of communication may be idiosyncratic (specific to only you). People can be both privileged and disadvantaged.