Intercultural relationsIntercultural relations, sometimes called intercultural studies, is a relatively new formal field of social science studies. It is a practical, multi-field discipline designed to train its students to understand, communicate, and accomplish specific goals outside their own cultures. Intercultural relations involves, at a fundamental level, learning how to see oneself and the world through the eyes of another. It seeks to prepare students for interaction with cultures both similar to their own (e.g.
Cross-cultural studiesCross-cultural studies, sometimes called holocultural studies or comparative studies, is a specialization in anthropology and sister sciences such as sociology, psychology, economics, political science that uses field data from many societies through comparative research to examine the scope of human behavior and test hypotheses about human behavior and culture. Cross-cultural studies is the third form of cross-cultural comparisons.
TransculturationTransculturation is a term coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1940 (from the article Our America by José Martí) to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures. Transculturation encompasses more than transition from one culture to another; it does not consist merely of acquiring another culture (acculturation) or of losing or uprooting a previous culture (deculturation). Rather, it merges these concepts and instead carries the idea of the consequent creation of new cultural phenomena (neoculturation) in which the blending of cultures is understood as producing something entirely new.
Henri TajfelHenri Tajfel (born Hersz Mordche; 22 June 1919 – 3 May 1982) was a Polish social psychologist, best known for his pioneering work on the cognitive aspects of prejudice and social identity theory, as well as being one of the founders of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology. Tajfel grew up in Poland. Because of Polish numerus clausus restrictions on Jews in university education , he left Poland to study chemistry at the Sorbonne in France. At the outbreak of World War II, he volunteered to serve in the French army.
Intergroup relationsIntergroup relations refers to interactions between individuals in different social groups, and to interactions taking place between the groups themselves collectively. It has long been a subject of research in social psychology, political psychology, and organizational behavior. In 1966, Muzafer Sherif proposed a now-widely recognized definition of intergroup relations: Whenever individuals belonging to one group interact, collectively or individually, with another group or its members in terms of their group identification, we have an instance of intergroup behavior.
