Lesson 6: Cultural Dispositions

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism refers to the tendency of people to place their culture as superior to all others and to judge those cultures in terms of the standards and values of their own (Hall, 2005, Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2005, Ferraro, 2006). It judges the actions and beliefs of other cultures in terms of their own culture with the position that their culture is better than any other. It is perhaps the greatest single obstacle to encourage and help a person from one culture understand a person from a different culture.

A fundamental assumption of ethnocentric people is that their way of doing things is the correct and best way. Their way is the normal way and other ways practiced by different cultures are wrong and inferior.

All people are ethnocentric to one degree or another. Knowing the degree of your ethnocentrism is helpful in countering or controlling it when interacting with different cultures. It allows you to examine your practices and either adapt to those presented by the new culture or affirm that you wish to continue doing things the way you are, while allowing for differences in others.

Ethnocentrism is expressed in 3 increasingly ethnocentric and difficult ways.

• Stereotypes
• Prejudice
• Discrimination