| This dissertation examines the influence of the affective components of intercultural communication competence (ambiguity tolerance, open-mindedness, and empathy) on two primary facets of sojourners' intercultural effectiveness (psychological adaptation and perceived intercultural communication effectiveness). Five research hypotheses were posited about the theoretical relations among the key variables. It was hypothesized that ambiguity tolerance, open-mindedness, and empathy are positively correlated and that they have positive effects on sojourners' psychological adaptation and intercultural communication effectiveness. Using standardized, structured questionnaires, data were collected from 105 randomly selected international graduate assistants from Asia and the Middle East, and 160 Americans. All scales created and used to measure the research variables were unidimensional, and possessed satisfactory reliability. The results of a multivariate analysis demonstrated that the three affective attributes (reflecting emotional and motivational orientation) were critical for effective functioning in another culture. These affective qualities had differential effects on sojourners' psychological adaptation and intercultural communication effectiveness. Specifically, controlling for relevant background variables such as age, gender, length of stay in the United States, intercultural training, intercultural experience, knowledge of the host culture, and host language competence, the results show that: (a) ambiguity tolerance, open-mindedness, and empathy were significantly and positively correlated, indicating that they are interrelated affective attributes of competent intercultural communicators, (b) psychological adaptation and self-report intercultural communication effectiveness were significantly and positively correlated, indicating that they are interrelated facets of sojourners' intercultural effectiveness, (c) ambiguity tolerance and open-mindedness (but not empathy) had significant positive direct effects on psychological adaptation, (d) ambiguity tolerance, open-mindedness, and empathy had significant direct positive effects on self-report intercultural communication effectiveness, and (e) empathy (but not ambiguity tolerance and open-mindedness) had a significant direct positive effect on other-report intercultural communication effectiveness. The present study points to the significance of these three capacities in culture-general intercultural training programs. The findings need to be replicated in different contexts to increase their generalizability and external validity. |
