By: Erin Tom

Have you ever visited a foreign country? Have you ever been the outsider among a different culture or the stranger among the in-group? Any of these experiences can leave you feeling anxious and uncertain of how to act as well as doubtful and insecure. This is the basis of William Gudykunst's anxiety/uncertainty management (AUM) theory. It looks at the intercultural encounters between cultural in-groups and outsiders. Gudykunst's theory suggests way to ease the anxiety and uncertainty experienced by strangers upon entering a different culture.

The best experience that I can relate to Gudykunst's AUM theory is the trip to Japan I took when I was only fourteen. I took the week and a half trip with several other students from my school and a few chaperones. For the first part of the trip our group toured around the country together. However, for the second part of the trip we were all split up and we each were put with a different family. I knew I probably wouldn't see another American for at least three days. With the security of my American group gone, the opportunity for anxiety and uncertainty to set in had surfaced.

According to Gudykunst one way to reduce anxiety and uncertainty is to minimize misunderstandings through effective communication. This is achieved through mindfulness. Gudykunst defines mindfulness, also known as conscious competence, as thinking about our communication and continually working at changing what we do in order to become more effective. In my example of staying with a family in Japan, communiction was difficult because I only knew a few Japanese words and phrases and the family I stayed with only spoke a little English. We had to continually concentrate on our communication efforts and work very hard to get our messages across. Many times we had to find different ways to communicate, such as nonverbal signals, to be more effective.

Gudykunst lays out three main factors that can also effect the levels of anxiety and uncertainty in intercultural encounters. These factors are motivation, knowledge, and skills. All of these qualities played roles in my experience in Japan. The fact that I was open to new information and motivated to take the trip to learn about and experience the culture helped to ease the uncertainty and anxiety. Before I left for Japan I was required to take weekly classes about Japanese culture. This contributed to the knowledge quality. It allowed me to have reasonable expectations of the country, a wider perspective of the culture, knowledge of similarities and differences that could be experienced, as well as general background information. The classes also added to my skills factor. They gave me the ability to empathize with and adapt to the culture, and the ability to accomadate my behavior and gather appropriate information. Taking all of these qualities into consideration lead to the reduction of my anxiety and uncertainty, making my trip as enjoyable as possible.

Experiencing initial anxiety and uncertainty is normal when entering a different culture. However, the anxiety and uncertainty can be managed by knowing Gudykunst's Anxiety/Uncertainty Management Theory.

In this example I have talked about how differences in culture can cause anxiety. One specific way various cultures differ is the type of face maintenance that is used in conflict management. This is discussed in the face-negotiation theory. To learn more about this theory click here.

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