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Psychological perspectives 55

4. Psychological perspectives: social psychology,
language, and intercultural communication

Madeleine Brabant, Bernadette Watson and Cindy Gallois

1. Introduction

Intercultural communication has a long history in social psychology and in
many other fields. Indeed, the tradition of language and social psychology
(LASP: e.g. Giles and Coupland 1991) emerged from studies of intercultural
communication, as social psychologists in the 1960s and 70s aimed to add their
own insights to research in linguistics and anthropology. Today, most scholars
in language and social psychology consider intercultural encounters to be at the
heart of their field (see Gallois, McKay and Pittam 2004).
Because the literature from psychology is so large, we can barely scratch its
surface in a single chapter, and we have been very selective. Readers wanting
more detail might wish to explore the series of volumes on intercultural com-
munication published since the early 1980s by Sage, in particular the volumes
on theories in intercultural communication (Gudykunst 2005; Kim and
Gudykunst 1988; Wiseman 1995), as well as other chapters in this volume. In
addition, there are many books (particularly Robinson and Giles 2001) and two
major journals (Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology and International Jour-
nal of Intercultural Relations) that have a largely psychological approach to
intercultural communication. In this chapter, we attempt to describe the major
features of the social-psychological perspective which distinguish it from other
approaches, along with a critique of this perspective and some suggestions for
the future.
We examine two major traditions in the study of intercultural communi-
cation in social psychology. The first of these traditions, the larger in terms of
numbers of scholars and studies, is generally known as ‘intercultural communi-
cation competence’ (ICC). Key assumptions underpinning this research are,
first, that intercultural communication is essentially interpersonal communi-
cation where interactants may not be using the same set of social and communi-
cation rules, and secondly, that if interactants acquire the relevant skills and
knowledge, competent and effective communication will follow. The second
tradition takes as its point of departure that intercultural communication is pri-
marily ‘intergroup’ communication. Researchers in this tradition emphasize the
socio-historical context and the intergroup relations between cultures. They
argue that these factors are the main determinants of the motivations and behav-
iours in an intercultural encounter.