Page 102 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

80 David Matsumoto, Seung Hee Yoo and Jeffrey A. LeRoux

edge of and attitude toward host culture, ethnocentrism, social distance, and
exposure to host culture members are all related to ICC (Gudykunst and Kim
1984; Samovar and Porter 1995; Wiseman, Hammer and Nishida 1989).
But it is virtually impossible to create that dictionary of culture for all the
cultures and peoples we will possibly come in contact with, and many of us do
not have the opportunities to become truly culturally fluent in this fashion. In-
stead, the vast majority of us will need to rely on a process model of intercultural
growth to engage in effective intercultural communication. As disagreements
and misunderstandings based on intercultural communications are inevitable, it
becomes important to be able to manage our negative emotional reactions when
engaging with those differences. Those who can will then be able to engage in a
more constructive intercultural process and open the door to more successful in-
tercultural interactions. Those who cannot will have that door closed to them.
Emotion management, therefore, is central to this process, and holds the key to
adjustment.

2. An emotion-focused approach to intercultural adjustment:
the psychological engine of adjustment

Emotions, in fact, are a large part of our lives. Emotions are transient reactions
to events or situations, and involve a package of cognitive, physiological, ex-
pressive, and behavioural components. When emotions are elicited, they affect
our thinking, turn on a unique physiology, make us feel certain ways, and moti-
vate us to engage in behaviour. They colour life and experiences, giving them
meaning and relevance. Sadness, anger, disgust, fear, frustration, shame, and
guilt – while all negative and unattractive – are all significant in that they tell us
something important about ourselves and our relationships with other people,
events, or situations. Happiness, joy, satisfaction, pleasure, and interest are also
important emotions in that they, too, give us important information about our
relationships with others. Emotions are ‘read-out mechanisms’ because they
provide information to us about our relationship to the world around us (Buck
1984).
Emotions are important because they motivate behaviours. Sadness and anger
make us do something, just as happiness and joy reinforce behaviours. The father
of modern day research and theory of emotion in psychology – Sylvan Tom-
kins – suggested that emotions are motivation, and if you want to understand
why people behave the way they do, you have to understand their emotions
(Tomkins 1962, 1963). For these reasons, it is only natural that we give more
consideration to this aspect of our lives vis-à-vis intercultural adjustment.
As mentioned above, we assume that intercultural misunderstandings occur
because of cultural differences. We further assume that these misunderstandings