Book Reviews 121

tive. Topics such as n ach and aggression receive extended and perceptive treatment.

Segall ends the book with a consideration of how cultures change-the impact of modernization and/or acculturation. By in large the chapter deals with change on a macro scale rather than (which I would prefer) a consideration of how an individual is changed by exposure to a new culture. But, this latter tack would require a clear idea of what culture is at the individual level, a reasonable statement of which is still lacking. Thus, the failure to include studies of individual “acculturative change” in a chapter on intercultural relations is a bit strange and dissappointing. We can hope that the second edition will deal with this growing body of research and practice.

In sum, this is a really good book. While it may have flaws, they are due to the need for brevity not scholarship. Segall is consis- tently modest and erudite. Persons looking for a treatise to hook students into cross-cultural research should give Segall more than a passing glance.

Dan Landis Purdue University School of Science

Indianapolis, Indiana

THE HANDBOOK OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION Molefi K. Asante, Eileen Newmark and Cecil A. Blake (Editors)

Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1979

Intercultural communication is an amorphous field which al- most defies definition and specification of its parameters. It is a field influenced by academicians from many disciplines (e.g., an- thropology, linguistics, psychology, sociology and speech com- munication) and practitioners (e.g., cross-cultural trainers, cross- cultural counselors, international student advisors). This diversity is, on the one hand, an advantage in that it yields multiple per- spectives on the same phenomena; however, at the same time, it is

122 Book Reviews

also a disadvantage in that this makes it extremely difficult to integrate the diverse writings into a coherent whole. As with the field, this is the case with The Handbook of Intercultural Com- munication.

The book (479 pages) is divided into six parts: (1) Theoretical Considerations, (2) Conceptual Frameworks, (3) Issues in Inter- cultural Communication, (4) General Problems with Data, (5) Re- search in Specific Cultures, and (6) Practical Applications: Train- ing Methods. The majority of the 25 chapters were written specifically for this volume, although there are a few exceptions (e.g., S&napper’s chapter is a revised version of an earlier pub- lished paper and Jones’ and Saral’s chapters were originally pre- sented as convention papers). The editors have written brief introductions to each of the parts in which they summarize the content of the chapters. It is with these introductions that I have the most criticisms. In an area as diverse as intercultural com- munication-especially in a book with chapters written by scholars from anthropology, psychology, rhetoric, counseling, business, and communication-there is a need for the integration of ideas and specification of central issues in the introductions. Unfortu- nately, the editors have not seen fit to address these concerns.

The chapters themselves present a great range, not only in inclusiveness of material covered, but also in quality. To demon- strate let me briefly discuss a few of the chapters. The logical one with which to begin is the first chapter written by the editors entitled “The Field of Intercultural Communication.” Given such a title, one would expect to read about the parameters of the field, its origins, current status and possibly the future direction. Yet this is not the case. The first chapter focuses on what the editors claim are the developmental trends of “cultural dialogue” and “cultural criticism” which “provide a framework to seek a unify- ing paradigm” (p. 10). Granted, these two views may be develop- mental trends in the field, but in using them as an organizing framework much of the intellectual origins of intercultural com- munication has been left out. No mention is made in the chapter of research on intercultural contact (e.g., the Social Science Re- search Council’s Committee on CrossCultural Education produced at least six major books which impacted on the field in the late 1950s and early 196Os), culture shock, the Peace Corp (which was one of the major impetuses for the development of intercultural communication training), and other major factors which impacted

Book Reviews 123

on the current state of the field. As a result, I find the first chapter less than a fulfilling introduction to the field.

The remainder of the chapters in Part I are more effective. Chapter 2 by William Howell is an attempt to integrate Western and Eastern thought into the development of an interactive model of intercultural communication. Jerry Burk and Janet Lukens do a good job in Chapter 3 of specifying what the relevance of cog- nitive anthropology and ethnomethodology are to intercultural communication, but they do not go the extra step and explicate specifically how each can be used to study intercultural communi- cation encounters. The final chapter in Part I, written by Stanley Jones, deals with the integration of etic and emit approaches to intercultural communication. The chapter is a good introduction to these two approaches, however, the most crucial part of the article to intercultural communication specialists (The Applica- bility of Findings to the Analysis of Intercultural Communication Events) is also the shortest part of the paper (3 pages total).

Space does not allow me to discuss all 25 chapters, so for the remainder of the book let me selectively discuss a few of the papers I found interesting. The most thorough review is Sheila Ramsey’s chapter (8) on an intercultural perspective to non-verbal behavior. This paper fully met the expectations I had for chapters in a “handbook” (e.g., comprehensive reviews of the literature). Nojoku Awa’s chapter (16) on “Ethnocentric Bias in Develop- mental Research” is a good summary and review of the potential biases in doing research cross-culturally. Further, the chapter by Dorothy Pennington (22) on black-white communication also does an excellent job of summarizing what we know, examining the methodological issues and making suggestions for the future.

In that the editors have not specified what they see as the parameters of the field of intercultural communication, it is not surprising to find an intermixture of chapters in the book. To illustrate, two of the articles which present original research (K. Kyoon Hur’s, “International Communication and its Media”; and Erika Vora and Jay Vora’s, “A Cross-Cultural Study of Mate Re- cruiting through Mass Media”) focus on mass media, variables which would traditionally be classified under the rubric of “inter- national” communication. The remainder of the chapters tend to focus on interpersonal channels of communication and would more traditionally be considered intercultural in nature. In addi- tion, several chapters examine communication in specific cultural

124 Book Reviews

context (best labeled “intracultural”). For instance, Dennis Ogawa examines Asian Americans in urban settings (Chapter 18). Al- though this is an excellent article as far as it goes, I would have liked to have seen the author go one step further and discuss the implication of his findings for Asian Americans’ communication with people from other cultural groups. Similar comments could be made about the other chapters dealing with communication within a specific cultural context. While this is true, my comments are not necessarily meant as an indictment of the authors in this book. Rather, the criticism should be taken as a commentary on the state-of-the art in intercultural communication.

My final comments center around the misleading use of the term “handbook” in the title. The word “handbook” in a title usually implies a reference work which summarizes the literature in an area of study. On the whole, the chapters in this book fall short of the state-of-the art essays as might be expected in a hand- book. Further, the editors have neglected major research areas in the field. For example, articles on such important areas as inter- cultural communicator style and competence, acculturation, inter- cultural conflict resolution, intercultural relationship development are a few major omissions. Even though the current work does not fully live up to its name, there are a few summary articles which will become classic reference works (e.g., Ramsey’s chapter on nonverbal aspects of intercultural communication).

Summing up, although the book is not as complete as may be expected of a handbook, it is a contribution to the expanding literature on intercultural communication. Consequently, The Handbook of Intercultural Communication is worthy of a place on your bookshelf.

William B. Gudykunst University of Hartford Hartford, Connecticut