148 Part 1 Basic Communication Processes
c Think about social identity. The first impression that most people got
of Puck was that of a jock, but he also identified closely with his Jewish
heritage. Artie, who used a wheelchair, was often seen as “different,” but his
acceptance among this new peer group led others to see past his disability
and view him as they would any other teen. In addition, the members of
the football team and cheerleading squads who also participated in glee
club tried to balance expectations of them as athletes and “popular kids”
with their participation in the traditionally outgroup glee club.THINGS TO TRY Activities
- LaunchPad for Real Communication offers key term videos and encourages self-
assessment through adaptive quizzing. Go to bedfordstmartins.com/realcomm
to get access to:
LearningCurve
Adaptive Quizzes.Video clips that illustrate key concepts, highlighted
in teal in the Real References section that follows.- On a blank piece of paper, begin listing all the co-cultures to which you belong.
How many can you come up with? How do they overlap? If someone asked you
to identify yourself by using only one of them, could you do it? Could you rank
them in order of importance to you? - Make a list of all the places where you have lived or traveled. (Remember, this
does not just mean “travel to foreign countries.” Think about trips to other
neighborhoods in your city or areas of your state.) Create a bullet-point list
to describe the attitudes, customs, and behaviors of each place that seemed to
typify the area. How was communication different in each area? How was it
similar? - Many popular films in the United States are based on foreign language films
from other cultures, such as The Departed (2006, based on the Hong Kong film
Infernal Affairs, 2002), The Tourist (2010, based on the French film Anthony
Zimmer, 2005), and Let Me In (2010, based on Sweden’s Let the Right One In,
2008). Watch one such film, as well as the original foreign language film that
inspired it. What cultural changes to the story can you detect? How do the non-
verbal behaviors of the actors differ? - Do a little virtual shopping in the toy department of an online retailer, and use
the search options to see what kinds of toys the retailer suggests for girls versus
boys. What do these suggestions say about culture, gender, and the ways in
which children play? Do these nonverbal messages influence culture, or are they
more of a reflection of culture?