William Gudykunst's Anxiety / Uncertainty Management Theory

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Critique of William Gudykunst's Anxiety / Uncertainty Management Theory

Everyone has experienced cross cultural differences one-way or the other. Even if you have not been to another country, you probably have experienced the frustration, nervousness, or difficulty in communicating with someone from a different culture. Dealing with the difference in slang, dialects, and overall cultural diversity, can be a very difficult situation to manage.

Seeing these problems, William Gudykunst developed his Anxiety/ Uncertainty Management Theory. In this he includes 47 axioms to help people of different cultures communicate more efficiently.

Using a humanistic approach I agree with Gudykunst in his belief that "anxiety and uncertainty are the basic causes of all communication failure in intercultural situations."(Griffin, 410). Also, humanistically, his developement of the 47 axioms is appropriate because he leaves room for interpretation by the individual applying these axioms to their own personal experiences in intercultural situations. He does so by bringing the aspect of min...

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