Development of Anxiety/uncertainty Management As A Theory
Gudykunst's first model of Anxiety/Uncertainty Management theory was a fusion of the aforementioned URT and Tajfel's Social Identity Theory (1978), with a focus on intergroup communication. In 1988, Gudykunst paralleled his research slightly to attempt to explain intercultural adaptation as a result of uncertainty reduction. This version contained 24 axioms and incorporated the works of Stephan and Stephan on anxiety. The key conceptual difference between these two concepts explored by Gudykunst and the existing theory of URT was the intended outcome of the research. The outcome of URT is simply to reduce anxiety and uncertainty. Gudykunst’s intended outcome was for effective communication and cultural adaptation and not solely the reduction of anxiety. The inherent difference is that managing anxiety is to maintain it between minimum and maximum thresholds along a spectrum while reducing anxiety is unidirectional. This realization, along with the introduction of mindfulness as a factor of effective communication, led Gudykunst to finally designate an appropriate name for his research: Anxiety/Uncertainty Management theory (AUM).
Gudykunst assumed that at least one person in an intercultural encounter is a stranger. He argues that strangers undergo both anxiety and uncertainty; they don’t feel secure and they aren’t sure how to behave. Gudykunst noted that strangers and in-group members experience some degree of anxiety and uncertainty in any new interpersonal situation, but when the encounter takes place between people of different cultures, strangers are hyperaware of cultural differences. They then tend to overestimate the effect of cultural identity on the behavior of people in an alien society, while blurring individuals’ distinctions.
The purpose of the first iteration of AUM was to be a practical application with a high degree of utility. The format of AUM includes numerous axioms, which in turn converge on one another moving in the direction of effective communication. (See Figure X). The specific number of axioms has varied over the last fifteen years according to updated research in the field of cross-cultural communication.
Read more about this topic: Anxiety/uncertainty Management
Famous quotes containing the words development of, development, anxiety, uncertainty, management and/or theory:
“There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.”
—John Emerich Edward Dalberg, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902)
“Information about child development enhances parents’ capacity to respond appropriately to their children. Informed parents are better equipped to problem-solve, more confident of their decisions, and more likely to respond sensitively to their children’s developmental needs.”
—L. P. Wandersman (20th century)
“Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than find as quickly as possible someone to worship.”
—Feodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881)
“It was your severed image that grew sweeter,
That floated, wing-stiff, focused in the sun
Along uncertainty and gales of shame
Blown out before I slept. Now you are one
I dare not think alive: only a name
That chimes occasionally, as a belief
Long since embedded in the static past.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“The care of a house, the conduct of a home, the management of children, the instruction and government of servants, are as deserving of scientific treatment and scientific professors and lectureships as are the care of farms, the management of manure and crops, and the raising and care of stock.”
—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)
“If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)