A CROSS-CULTURAL TEST OF UNCERTAINTY REDUCTION THEORY

A model of uncertainty reduction theory was tested that was derived from Berger and Calabrese's (1975) theory of initial interactions and recent extensions of the theory (e.g., Berger, 1979; Berger & Bradac, 1982) across three relationships (acquaintances, friends, and dates) in three cultures: Japan, Korea, and the United States. The model was tested using LISREL and found to be a reasonable fit to the data for all three relationships in all three cultures. The percentage of variance explained in attributional confidence was found to be lower for friends than for dates and acquaintances. For the United States data more variance was explained in attributional confidence in acquaintances than dates; however, the findings were reverse for the Japanese and Korean data. These findings were discussed in light of previous research on uncertainty reduction theory and relationship development. Shortcomings of the model also were pointed out based on early critiques of the theory (e.g., Bochner, 1978) and a recent elaboration that examined the context in which romantic relationships develop (Parks & Adelman, 1983).     

The Influence of Cultural Individualism-Collectivism,Self Construals,and Individual Values on Communication Styles Across Cultures

Individualism-collectivism has a direct effect on communication styles and an indirect effect that is mediated through self construals and values. It was hypothesized that cultural individualism-collectivism, self construals, and values would have separate effects on individuals’use of low- and high-context communication styles. As predicted, the results of this study suggest that independent self construals and individualistic values mediate the influence of cultural individualism-collectivism on the use of low-context communication, and interdependent self construals and collectivistic values mediate the influence of cultural individualism-collectivism on the use of high-context communication. The patterns for cultural individualism-collectivism were not as clear-cut. The findings suggest that individual level factors (i.e., self construals and values) are better predictors of low- and high-context communication styles across cultures than cultural individualism-collectivism.     

ATTRIBUTIONAL CONFIDENCE IN LOW- AND HIGH-CONTEXT CULTURES

Current measures of attribulional confidence were generated to account for uncertainty reduction in the United States but have been used in tests of the theory in other cultures. This procedure may yield inappropriate measurement in other cultures. Based on a review of uncertainty reduction in high-context cultures, items were generated to tap attribulional confidence in these cultures. The new items were integrated with Clatterbuck's (1979) CL7 scale and administered to samples in Japan and the United States. A confirmatory factor analysis of the resulting data revealed two unique factors ofattributional confidence. The amount of variances and covariances accounted for by the two-factor model was over 90% in both samples. Scores on both factors were influenced by culture and stage of relationship development. Correlations between other variables (e.g, shared networks, frequency of communication) and the two dimensions also differed across cultures. It was concluded that the eight-item scale provides a derived etic measure of attributional confidence that is applicable in both low- and high-context cultures.     

The Influence of Cultural Variability on Perceptions of Communication Behavior Associated with Relationship Terms

A framework for incorporating the influence of cultural variability into theories of communication in interpersonal relationships is presented and several hypotheses derived from the framework tested. Data from two studies conducted with samples from Japan and the United States revealed that variation along Hofstede's (1980) dimensions of culture are related to intimacy ratings of relationship terms, as well as perceptions of the degree of personalization, synchrony, and difficulty of communication associated with relationships anchored by six specific terms (stranger, acquaintance, classmate, friend, best friend, and lover). Implications of the framework and findings for developing cross-culturally generalizable theories of communication are elaborated.