Microgenesis of Culture Using Intercultural Training Simulations
A growing literature is documenting the processes of idioculture formation using meaningless stimuli which subjects are asked to learn to categorize in small group problem solving settings. This approach represents one, useful, end of a continuum of needed studies on the microgenesis of culture. What it under-represents, however, is the strong emotional attachments that are a part of normal culture formation and enculturation processes. To begin to bridge between quasi-naturalistic approaches to culture formation and enculturation that are observable in Fifth Dimensions and activities in which subjects categorize ink blots or number patterns, a team of LCHC researchers is initiating a study that takes as its starting point materials that have been developed in inter-cultural sensitivity training programs and courses on intercultural communication, but which have not been subjected to rigorous and detailed analysis. A major issue we confront in this work is to be able, through a combination of daily diary keeping by participants, audio and video recordings of activities to be able to document the interweaving of cognitive and emotional changes that occur more or less simultaneously in the group and its members and that are believed to be at the heart of culture formation. (Researchers: Michael Cole, Deborah Downing-Wilson)