Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 Statement of the problem and significance of the present research 1
1.2 Research objectives and central theme 4
1.3 Research questions and hypotheses 5
1.4 Research methodology applied 7
1.5 Structure of the book 7
Chapter 2 Diverse Views of Culture in Intercultural Communication（IC）Studies 9
2.1 Conceptualizing culture 9
2.1.1 Catcgorization of definitions of culture 9
2.1.2 Structural-functional view of culture 10
2.1.3 Process view of culture 13
2.1.4 Critical view of culture 15
2.1.5 Postmodern view of culture 16
2.2 Philosophical foundations of diverse views of culture in IC 17
2.2.1 Two primary dimensions 17
2.2.2 Three paradigms 18
2.2.3 Paradigm wars or paradigm integration？ 20
2.3 Chapter summary 22
Chapter 3 The Fixed-Traits View of Culture：A Critical Analysis 24
3.1 Nature of the fixed-traits view of culture 24
3.1.1 What is culture？ 24
3.1.2 How do cultures vary？ 26
3.2 Representations of the fixed-traits view in contemporary IC scholarship 28
3.2.1 “Culture”in key IC publications in the US 28
3.2.2 “Culture”in selected Chinese IC publications 30
3.2.3 A“culture paradox”in contemporary research 32
3.2.4 Cultural dimensions and syndromes as“sophisticated stereotypes” 34
3.3 Contributions of the fixed-traits view 35
3.4 Limitations of the fixed-traits view 37
3.4.1 Conceptual challenges 38
3.4.2 Empirical challenges 42
3.5 Chapter summary 47
Chapter 4 Improvements of the Fixed-Traits View across Related Disciplines 48
4.1 Multiple-level cultural analysis 48
4.1.1 Individual level analysis of culture in cross-cultural psychology 48
4.1.2 Individual level analysis of culture in IC studies 49
4.1.3 Kulich's cultural analytical matrix 50
4.1.4 Summary 52
4.2 Emic approaches to culture 52
4.2.1 Etic and emic approaches perceived as complementary 53
4.2.2 Etic and emic approaches perceived as incompatible 57
4.3 Chapter summary 61
Chapter 5 The Dynamic Process View of Culture：A Review 64
5.1 Defining culture 64
5.1.1 Culture as a loose network of shared knowledge 65
5.1.2 Uneven distribution of cultural knowledge 66
5.1.3 Human agency in culture and psychology 68
5.2 Forms of cultural knowledge 70
5.2.1 Declarative knowledge 70
5.2.2 Procedural knowledge 71
5.3 Location of cultural knowledge 72
5.4 Application of cultural knowledge 74
5.4.1 Availability of cultural knowledge 75
5.4.2 Chronic accessibility of cultural knowledge 76
5.4.3 Temporary accessibility of cultural knowledge 76
5.4.4 Applicability of cultural knowledge 78
5.4.5 Moderating factors in cultural knowledge activation 78
5.5 Chapter summary 81
Chapter 6 Culture as Dynamic Processes in IC 82
6.1“Normalizing”culture 82
6.1.1 Culture as the whole story 82
6.1.2 Culture as part of the story 85
6.2 Understanding IC：A dynamic process view of culture 87
6.2.1 A cursory review of some key IC models 87
6.2.2 Underemphasized intergroup dimensions of IC 89
6.2.3 Proposing a cultural process model of IC 92
6.3 Chapter summary 99
Chapter 7 Initial Tests of the Cultural Process Model of IC（1）：Study Ⅰ 101
7.1 Culture priming 101
7.2 Research background 102
7.3 Significance of Study Ⅰ 103
7.4 Tentative research hypothesis 104
7.5 Pilot study and modified hypothesis 106
7.6 Method 107
7.6.1 Subjects 107
7.6.2 Culture and neutral primes and the social attribution task 107
7.6.3 Procedures 110
7.6.4 Data analysis 111
7.7 Results 111
7.8 Discussion 115
7.9 Chapter summary 119
Chapter 8 Initial Tests of the cultural Process Model of IC（2）：Studies Ⅱ and Ⅲ 120
8.1 Study Ⅱ 120
8.1.1 The proverb sampling method 120
8.1.2 The IC dimension of the experiment 122
8.1.3 Research hypotheses 123
8.1.4 Method 124
8.1.5 Data analysis and results 125
8.1.6 Discussion 135
8.2 Study Ⅲ 138
8.2.1 What is“over-tuning effect？” 139
8.2.2 The case 140
8.2.3 Case analysis 144
8.3 Chapter summary 151
Chapter 9 General Discussions and Conclusion 152
9.1 Summary of the research 152
9.2 Theoretical and practical implications of the present research 155
9.2.1 Theoretical implications 157
9.2.2 Practical implications 162
9.3 Limitations of the present research 164
9.4 Directions for future research 167
Appendixes 170
References 185