Research On The Application Of Anxiety And Uncertainty Management In Intercultural Communication

Based on the intercultural communication scholar William Gudykunst's Anxiety and Uncertainty Management (AUM) theory, the thesis aims to study the application of AUM in intercultural communications through the case study on Shanghai foreign residents'perception to Shanghai culture.Anxiety and Uncertainty Management is the central process in intercultural communications. Uncertainty and anxiety are present in almost all intercultural situations including intercultural communication, which are the basic barriers for communication in intergroup situations. Shanghai culture is diverse and compatible and it is a harmonious combination of localization, colonization and internalization. In recent years, an increasing number of foreigners have come to Shanghai for education, work, or for the purpose of enjoying family life here. But some of the foreigners could not fully perceive the characteristics of Shanghai culture due to the lack of communications with local people even though they have lived in Shanghai for a considerably long time. The author has conducted a research on the foreign residents in Shanghai to investigate the application of Gudykunst's AUM theory to the perception of Shanghai culture, trying to figure out the factors that influence their cultural perception.Ten typical sites are selected to represent and reflect the characteristics of Shanghai culture. 280 copies of questionnaire are distributed through handout and emails to the overseas students, residents in Jinqiao and Gubei communities, foreign employees, e-pals met on the internet and so on, and 235 valid copies of questionnaire are collected.50 foreign residents are chosen at random for an interview during the process of collecting questionnaires. Quantitative and qualitative data analyses are conducted by SPSS 16.0 to explore the research purpose.Through the research, the author finds:(1) The foreign residents cannot perceive all the aspects of Shanghai culture. They are more sensitive to and satisfied with the colonial and international aspects of Shanghai culture, which are comparatively similar to their own culture. But they do have the motivations to get acquainted with Shanghai local and traditional culture; (2) Anxiety and uncertainty are significantly correlated with perception. Cognitively, anxiety leads to biases in how to process information, and uncertainty affects the way the foreign residents think about the host cultures; (3) There are mainly three factors that affect the perception of Shanghai culture:motivation factors, knowledge factors and skill factors.Finally, some strategies of the application of AUM to intercultural communication are proposed. The author suggests that we should enhance our skills of intercultural adjustment and ambiguity tolerance, develop intercultural awareness and be mindful to the process of intercultural communication with local encounters.