C chronemics: how people in different cultures structure, interpret, and under­stand the time dimension co-culture theory: Orbe’s (1998) theory that African Americans, based on their position in the larger U.S. society, develop a complex ethnic/cultural standpoint collectivism: the broad value tendencies of a culture in emphasizing the importance of the "we" identity over the "I" identity, group rights over individual rights, and in-group needs over individual wants and desires colonial ethnocentrism: the rights and privileges of groups who are in a dominant power position in a society (whether political, economical, social class, or societal level) to impose their ethical standards on other nondominant groups or powerless individuals communication adaptability: our ability to change our interaction behaviors and goals to meet the specific needs of the situation communication creativity: one of the critical criteria for evaluating intercultural communication flexibility communicative meaning: the intention and goal behind the discourse utterance compensation: conflict parties offer exchanges, compensations, or concessions for conflict issues they value differently complementary style: a "matter-of-fact" tone in delivering verbal messages compromising style: a give-and-take concession approach in order to reach a mid-point agreement concerning the conflict issue concealment: closedness; the lack of disclosure or sharing of exclusive information about either the public self and/or private self conflict communication style: patterned verbal and nonverbal responses to conflict in a variety of frustrating conflict situations conscious competence stage: individuals actively pursuing new intercultural knowledge to improve their communication competencies. conscious incompetence stage: individuals have some notions (i.e., attitudinal openness) that they behave incompetently, however, they lack the knowledge or skills to operate adaptively in the new culture consequences: taking into consideration the results that affect all parties who are directly or indirectly involved in the problematic case content goals: the practical issues that are external to the individuals involved conventional meaning: of words referring to the needed coordination between verbal message usage and the expectations or norms of the cultural context convergent thinking: synthesis and analytical problem-solving to reach a clearly-defined outcome coping stage: the struggles a couple has to face in gaining approvals from their families and friends, and the strategies they come up with in dealing with such external pressures cultural communities: a group of interacting individuals within a bounded unit who uphold a set of shared traditions and way of life cultural competence skills: the cultural knowledge internalized and the operational skills applying in the communicating scene cultural display rules: the procedures we learn for managing the way we express our emotions cultural distance: factors including differences in cultural values, language, verbal styles, nonverbal gestures, learning styles, decision-making styles, and conflict negotiation styles, as well as in religious, socio-political, and economic systems cultural identity: the emotional significance that we attach to our sense of belonging or affiliation with the larger culture cultural identity salience: the strength of affiliation we have with our larger culture culturally shared beliefs: a set of fundamental assumptions, or worldviews that people hold dearly to their hearts without question culturally shared traditions: myths, legends, ceremonies, and rituals that are passed on from one generation to the next via an oral or written medium cultural norms: the collective expectations of what constitute proper or improper behavior in a given interaction scene cultural values: a set of priorities that guide "good" or "bad" behaviors, "desirable" or "undesirable" practices, and "fair" or "unfair" actions culture: a learned meaning system that consists of patterns of traditions, beliefs, values, norms, meanings, and symbols that are passed on from one generation to the next and are shared to varying degrees by interacting members of a community culture shock: a stressful transitional period when individuals move from a familiar environment into an unfamiliar one