Cross-Cultural Interview Analysis in Health Assessment Context

This report presents a cross-cultural analysis of an interview conducted to explore communication barriers and effective strategies in a healthcare setting. The assignment involved conducting an interview with an individual from a different cultural background, focusing on cross-cultural communication elements. The report includes a literature review that highlights the significance of cross-cultural communication in the modern era, discussing globalization, cultural biases, and the psychology of culture. The methodology section details the interview process, including the interviewer's preparation, techniques used, and selected excerpts from the interview that illustrate cross-cultural interactions. The analysis compares and contrasts the interview techniques with those described in the literature, identifying strengths such as prior cultural knowledge, simple language, and the use of humor, while also addressing potential areas for improvement. The report emphasizes the importance of awareness, preparation, language, humor, and openness in facilitating effective cross-cultural communication within the context of a health assessment.

Running Head: HEALTH ASSESSMENT IN A BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL CONTEXT
INTRODUCTION
In this assignment cross-cultural analysis of an interview conducted by me is
done. The content of the whole interview is not added into the paper instead a limited
excerpt which talks about the cross-cultural elements is added. This research aims
to unveil barriers laid in the path of cross-cultural communication. Need and
significance of cross-cultural communication along with modes and means that have
made its commencement possible are also discussed. In the end, methods to
eliminate communication barriers in the context of different cultures are discussed.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The modern era has witnessed diffusion and amalgamation of people from different
cultures. This credit for this astonishing process goes to globalisation and
advancement in communications. The process of increased, intensified and ever-
growing interconnectedness of people refers to globalisation. It has lessened the
importance and significance of borders as diffusion of ideas, art, culture, and
technology have become easier and more feasible than the past. In a cultural
context, this process has brought people from different cultures together, for
example, students at an international university come from different countries,
people from different continents visit other regions for the sake of jobs. Keeping
these developments in mind when the cross-cultural exchange has become the norm
of the day, effective and productive cross-cultural communication has become the
need of the hour (Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki, 2016).
No field of human life has resisted diffusion of different cultures into it.
Education, healthcare, business, and tourism every field and profession has become
heterogeneous in terms of its composition and makeup. No country presently is self-
sufficient in human capital for all of its industries and businesses. In this regard,

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interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds has become a routine day
task. Despite the initiative of numerous schemes, projects and frameworks the
process of cross-cultural communication still lags a number of potential advantages
that it could have had achieved. Cultural biases and prejudices are integral to this
situation. Cultural difference, bias, prejudice or uniqueness prevails at one or the
other point quite dominantly (Mead and Jones, 2017).
Psychology of a particular culture is a decisive determinant as far as the
effectiveness of cross-cultural communication is concerned. Psychology of culture is,
in fact, a wholesome collection of all the ideas, theories, practices and way of life of
that culture. The pattern of behaviour of a person while communicating with another
individual from a different culture is dependent upon the psychological basis of the
culture from where the interacting person belongs. It this way, the psychology of a
culture can serve both as an impetus to effective cross-cultural communication as
well as a barrier laid in the path of effective communication (Keith, 2019).
For effective cross-cultural communication, a number of tools and techniques
can be used. These include awareness, preparation, language, humour, and
openness. When these tools are employed in the process of communication, cross-
cultural communication becomes less biased more deliberate, and the
communication goals and objectives are met effectively.
Awareness of the culture of the person with whom the communication is taking place
provides greater relief and ease in the process of communication. Cultural clichés
and jargons can be interpreted easily. The body language and gestures can be
translated effectively. By dint of awareness the person who communicates stands in
the shoes of the other person or group from a different culture (Almeida et al., 2019).
In this way, the knowledge of cultural biases, prevalent ideologies, social norms and

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larger built up of the society is realised. Not only this but also minute details of
likeness in terms of food, sports, and other activities can also be made known by dint
of this awareness factor in the cross-cultural communication (Piri & Riahi, 2018).
While communicating in a cross-cultural context, an element of preparation
before communicating is also very important. In this research, the research
methodology adopted is an interview and before conducting the interview of James
Smith who happens not be from Australia, the element of preparation has helped a
lot to dig out deeper cross-cultural analysis. This tool does simple tasks of telling
ways of greeting the people, what and how to offer in food, sitting etiquettes and a lot
more. These trivial details make up the larger canvass of cross-cultural
communication (Liu, Poirier, Butler, Comrie and Pailden, 2016).
If there exists any one thing that contains the slightest and minutest details of
the culture, then that certainly is language. The language itself has social and
cultural interpretations. Those cultures which use the same language may exhibit
differences in a few words, proverbs, and jargons but the overall alphabetic makeup
and dictionary remain the same. Language can serve both as the most effective tool
that helps make communication effective as well as it can serve as the greatest
barrier laid in the path of effective cross-cultural communication. Language
represents the ideals that society holds highly revered. It puts light on the overall
behaviour, action, and psychology of culture. When the cultures being examined
have the same language the cross-cultural communication and resultant analysis are
more effective and precise (Bonvillain, 2019).
Humour is another important tool that can make cross-cultural communication
effective and productive one. Humour does not always refer to cracking jokes and
behaving oddly; instead, it refers to wit, brevity, and preciseness in a lighter tone.

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Moreover, it makes the situation less stressed and strained. When humour is aided
with openness during the process of communication, the results are even more
magnanimous. Participants from different cultures can share their views peacefully
and they, in good faith, accept respect and reverence for their cultures. In fact, the
real beauty of life is diversity. With the cross-cultural exchanges both at the national
and international level, the beauty of diversity has been well understood (Goddard,
2018).
METHODOLOGY (INTERVIEW AND INTERVIEW PROCESS)
The interview under discussion was conducted on James Smith at a coffee shop.
Time was taken earlier from him. I reached five minutes earlier at the shop and
waited for him quite anxiously. He arrived exactly on time. I stood up, shook hand
and greeted him with a good evening. The interview was roughly twenty minutes
long. I did not make a recording of the interview as Smith did not permit so I had my
notepad with me and I took shorthand notes of what he said. Hereunder are
presented only some of the most impressing questions that played a significant role
in making a cross-cultural analysis. All the techniques and tools of making cross-
cultural communication effective and productive one are used while conducting the
interview. This enabled me to question Smith more openly, and it also allowed him to
cross-cultural barriers and represented true identity of being an American (Cridland,
E, Jones, Caputi, and Magee, 2015).
(Selected excerpt from the interview)
Me: (While the waiter placed sandwich before us and cutlery as well, I grabbed both
knife and fork while he used both one by one with the right hand ) We have a
different style of using cutlery than Americans.

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Smith: It seems so glutton that holding a knife in one hand and fork in other and
eating like boars.
Me: Your style seems rather disconcerting. (silence). How does American culture
see the consumption of coffee? Do we Australians actually feel pride in taking in
good coffee?
Smith: Different ways of making coffee are presently used, but we are not obsessed
with one brand like Australians are for mom-and-pop coffee (giggle).
Me: How do you see communication at the workplace in America?
Smith: I feel it is direct, blunt and deliberate. No baggage of longish arguments.
Whatever the matter is say and that to says it all.
Me: Pretty much like America
Smith: How do you see your culture?
Me: Well, Australian culture, as I have lived in it is affluent, educated and happy one.
I notice life in America is stressed and obsessed. Each group is obsessed with its
own bias and prejudice.
Smith: You are right. Though we are the oldest democracy of the world, still
realisation of the dream of equal human rights and fundamental freedoms for
everyone living in America is still a myth. I agree with your stance to a larger extent.
Me: How do you see ideologies prevalent in your country?
Smith: Haha! You used the right word "ideologies". Yes, a number of ideologies are
prevalent here. Every third person has the potential to come up with his or her
ideology, but the essence of the working of the country (at least in papers) has
remained the same as it was a century ago perhaps.
Me: How do you see non-native people coming to your country for education, job or
any other concern?

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Smith: I do not feel much at peace with the immigrants. People attribute this attitude
as American prejudice or any other detestable, but it is not wholly and solely this. I
believe it is the difficulty to communicate effectively and to get to know ideas of
another.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
According to the techniques mentioned above the interviewer should be
aware of the cultural context and social details of the interviewee in great depth.
While conducting the interview, I do not have had an ideal knowledge sufficing all
aspects, but I had significant knowledge of American culture. For the preparation
technique, the interviewer should prepare oneself mentally as well as materially
before going to conduct an interview. While conducting the interview, I was mentally
prepared and excited to conduct the interview. I took my notepad and a ball-point-
pen with me while going to conduct the interview.
As far as the technique of humour is concerned; ideally it is suggested not to
crack jokes or laugh loud. Keeping the environment light is good. During the
interview, we laughed once in a while, and the environment never got stressed or
tensed. The openness technique mentioned in the literature review suggests that the
interviewer should be open and deliberate and questions should not be made tricky
and open-ended. During the interview, I remained open and the interviewee
reciprocated with the same.
Lastly, as far as language is concerned, when the language is the same (as
English in this case) jargons, clichés and slangs must be avoided. During the
interview, no use of slangs, jargons or clichés was made

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STRENGTHS OF INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES
Keeping the aforementioned literature review in mind the analysis of the
interview conducted by me come up with the following strengths. First of all, I had
prior knowledge of the American culture because not only I lived in American for
some time but also I conducted side research before conducting the interview.
Secondly, the simplicity of language and absence of jargons also made this interview
quite productive. There are numerous differences between slangs, jargons and
clichés followed in American English and Australian one. Not only this but also I tried
to kept mood witty and humorous. Though we both laughed only once a while during
the interview but we kept the environment light. The sandwiches and coffee added to
ease in understanding food habits and a lot of other questions emerged from this
activity. Lastly, both of us were prepared for the interview as I had already informed
him about time and place. In this way, we were mentally prepared. These minute
details made the cross-cultural communication very effective. Not even once in
during the interview any communicational bottleneck appeared.
ANALYSIS
Reporting
For the interview that I was supposed to conduct my research, I asked my
next door neighbour who is an American, James Smith to allow me to interview him.
Like a typical American, he grew excessively suspicious of my aims and motives for
this interview. At one time, he considered informing authorities as well. When I
showed him my module assessment and its requirements, only then he was pacified.
He agreed to meet me on Saturday evening. We decided the nearest coffee shop for
the interview because not only it is spacious but also the turnout of customers is

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significantly less here. This made that coffee shop a peaceful, serene and calm
place for us to conduct the interview.
On the given day I arrived five minutes earlier and ordered the waiter for
coffee and sandwiches. James Smith arrives exactly on time. I stood up; we shook
hands and sat down for the interview. During the interview, I noticed he grew
suspicious of me many times. Perhaps this is personal possession that cannot be
avoided by anyone. The environment there was clean and calm. No disturbance like
horns of vehicles and people rushing in or out was there. This assisted me a lot in
focusing on my subject and making this cross-cultural communication effective and
productive one. I noticed and recording a number of cross-cultural differences. Some
of these are discussed hereunder.
Food choice and Eating Habits
Food is one of the most important elements of culture. Australian and
American culture differ in terms of food choices and eating habits quite significantly.
Americans tend to eat with the right hand only. The same hand used both knife and
fork. In this way, their eating process seems bit disconcerting and lethargic to
Australians who eat with both hands, fork in one hand and knife in the other ( Davis,
Bryan, Hodgson & Murphy, 2015).
Moreover, the food industry of American and Australia is also significantly
different. A successful giant in America may not enjoy success and expansion in
Australia, for example, the Starbucks which had to close down as many as seventy
locations in Australia due to the traditional Australian style of coffee. They could not
replace their coffees with that of Starbucks (Davis, 2015).

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Dressing and Color Combinations
When it comes about dressing, Australian style can be distinguished from
American one quite effectively. In American, the dress code is so strong. This may
not be provided explicitly by legislation or stately orders, but the society and the
culture have defined dress code for each event, and anyone who goes out of this
fixed paradigm is looked down. Sorting odd one out is not a big task in America; in
fact, culturally people are proficient in doing this task (Szabo, Ward and Fletcher,
2016).
Ideological Basis
Culturally the ideological basis of American and Australia differ as well. In
Australia, the prevalent ideologies can be broadly categorised as liberal or
conservatism while in America as many as three of such ideologies can be traced.
These include progressives, moderates, and liberals. The way of thinking of liberals
of Australians and that of America differ as well because they thought the process is
affected and influenced by cultural and historical constraints (Mendes, 2017).
Public Perceptions
America is the hub of white supremacy. Though racial biases, especially in
context to the superiority of Whites over the coloured people, are prevalent across
West it gets intensified and aggravated in the United States of America. Publically
there is a widely held belief that the Native American whites are better than any other
person living in Australia. In Australia, white supremacy and following it with zeal and
rigidity is not so common. These are the reasons that Americans are stressed,
depressed and traumatic while Australians are higher on the Index of Happiness.
This shows the flexibility and adaptability of the Australian culture (Smith, 2015).

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Responding
Having seen these cultural differences between Australia and America, the
beauty of diversity is apparent. This diversity must be endorsed instead of crushing
it. No one culture stands in absolute consonance with the other. These differences
must not hinder and impede the growth and progress of human beings. A human
race looking and reaching beyond the cultural differences should be the goal. The
need for facilitating cross-cultural communication and making cultural diffusion easier
and more feasible than ever has become an impressing need of the hour. Following
the reasons which require the cross-cultural interaction to be open, deliberate and
adaptive.
Business and Trade
One of the most strategic advantages of successful cross-cultural interaction
is the success and growth of business and trade. In the comity of nations, each
nation has to interact and deal with the other ones. This interaction is more frequent
with neighbours. It is significantly easier and more feasible for Australia and America
to trade with each other than to do the same in Asia or Africa. Not only the cultural
differences between the latter options are excessive but also there exists economic
disparity. Likewise, it will be easier for the business of both countries to adapt in the
respective environment than to do the same in Asia or Africa. These specifications
are true for every and any cross-cultural interaction (Stahl, G, and Tung, 2015).
Educational Exchanges
In order to uplift global standards of education, cultural stratification that
hinders the path of access of education to a number of groups and sects must be
eliminated. Though it is the task of government and public policy making

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departments in each and every step taken the place of effective cross-cultural
communication will remain dominant (Arvizu, S, and Saravia-Shore, 2017). In this
regard cross, cultural education exchanges are one of the best that can be adapted
to make easier this process. Students are ambassadors of their cultures. They take
along their culture and take back the culture to which they have come. In this way
process of knowing and fostering cross-cultural communication takes place and
brings in well and benefit for everyone (Arvizu, S, and Saravia-Shore, 2017).
Internet and Globalization
As mentioned at the beginning of the research the need for effective cross-
cultural communication could not have been so impressing had the presence of
internet and commencement of globalisation not been there. Even if the nationalistic
tools are adapted to hinder diffusion of one or the other culture the access to internet
and ocean of knowledge cannot be denied. People across the world have started to
appreciate cultural differences. Modern era and its conflicts have made the layman
of the world known that the ultimate peace is in learning to live together instead of
stretching borders far and beyond and isolating minds and hearts on an ideological,
territorial and cultural basis (Tsai, W, and Men, 2017).
Relating
The interview conducted above contains all of the aforementioned
approaches in various quantities. Some of these include a show of racial biases,
keeping on one' cultural style and not giving up the individuality, using preparation,
awareness, humour, and openness to make the interview more transparent but
resorting to taking pride in one's own culture as well. These are the inherent and
intrinsic traits of human beings. The spirit and essence of cooperation prevail in
human beings, but no rational human being ever keeps another person's interest

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above one's own. This trend becomes even more pronounced in cross-cultural
interaction. For example during the interview when I commented on eating style and
habits of America
Reasoning
While reflecting on the issues faced in the interview as mentioned precisely in the
above section, a number of causes or impetuses behind this happening can be
traced. These cases are briefly discussed hereunder.
There exists a stereotypic notion that conducting cross-cultural interviews is not
easy. This socially held belief, though flawed in a number of ways, deprecates the
confidence of the interviewer. Moreover, the interviewer always follows a selective
perceptive mode of interviewing. This is ingrained not only the psychology of
interviewer but also in language and techniques used for research (Katz, Lazarsfeld
and Roper, 2017).
Language barriers also play a significant role. There is a perception that Americans
speak English which is not so much true. America is a widely diverse nation. No one
language can help communicate with every single American. In contrast to this, the
majority of Australians are well-versed in language. Therefore, while conducting an
interview, language even if it is the same it becomes a barrier in terms of
interpretation and meanings of various terms, idioms, proverbs and clichés v(Luk
and Lin, 2017).
Reconstructing
The hindrances and impedances shown above while conducting the interview are
the same everywhere. Cross-cultural communication can be made effective, but it
cannot achieve its ends always and that too with precision. Keeping the research
conducted above in mind, following way forward steps can be adopted to lessen the