Key Concepts and Terminologies

Definitions Around Cultural Studies

Cultural Competency
Behaviors, attitudes and policies that are respectful of and responsive to cultures and communities, in order to enhance their health and wellness and effectively engage community members in their own care.
A set of cultural behaviors and attitudes integrated into the practice methods of a system, agency, or its professionals, that enables them to work effectively in cross cultural situations.

Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance etc

Individualism is one of the five intercultural dimensions developed by Hofstede. In short this cultural dimension looks at how much a culture emphasises the rights of the individual versus those of the group (whether it be family, tribe, company, etc).Individualist cultures include the United States and much of Western Europe, where personal achievements are emphasised.

Intercultural Communication Index

PDI (Power Distance Index) - the PDI score relates to the degree of equality or inequality between people in a country's society. A high PDI score indicates that inequalities of power and wealth exist in a country where as in low scoring countries there is more social equality.

Mood, Meta-Mood, and Empathy

Overview of Measuring People´s experience in a wide variety of subjective experiences related to emotion and mood.
•Mood concerns an individual's long term emotional states.
•Meta-mood (also known as meta-experience or reflective experience of mood) concerns a person's thoughts and feelings about his or her mood(s).
•Emotional empathy refers to the understanding and responsiveness to another person's emotional experience.

Why is Emotional Intelligence Important?

Generally, emotional intelligence improves an individual's social effectiveness. The higher the emotional intelligence, the better the social relations. In a recent review, my colleagues and I described the emotionally intelligent person in these terms: