Intercultural Attitudes

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Kim and Goldstein (2005) focused on students’ favorable expectations of study abroad programs through identifying intercultural attitudes. They measured 282 college from the USA freshmen on the factors of ethnocentrism; intercultural communication apprehension; language interest and competence; prejudice, intolerance of ambiguity; and expectations of study abroad programs. The authors concluded in their research that levels of language interest, low ethnocentrism, and low intercultural comprehension were the variables that best predicted favorable expectations of study abroad. Female students participating in the research were found to have greater language interest and less ethnocentrism and intercultural communication apprehension; not surprisingly,…show more content…
66), suggesting social learning theory as a potential theoretical basis to guide research in this area. Social learning theory posits that an individual’s behavior can be predicted based on two factors: an individual’s expectation that with the performance of a particular behavior a particular reward will ensue and second, the value that the individual places on that particular reward. McLeod performed a series of focus groups in an English-speaking and a French-speaking location. This study looked more at outcomes than antecedents, yet the information discovered may be useful in analysis of the preparation of students for study abroad…show more content…
I apply the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1980, 1991) as my research theory. This theory has been widely used to understand how different types of beliefs motivate intention and actual behavior (Armitage & Conner, 2001). A more complete discussion will be given in the next section. We believe that the elements of TBP are reflective of categories of factors that have been demonstrated as important in the context of short-term study abroad decisions, but that have not been included in previous studies applying TPB to a study abroad context. Results from our study aid in the understanding of students’ decision-making process to participate in a short-term study abroad program. TPB suggests that beliefs and their corresponding attitudes influence intentions, which drive actual behavior. We hypothesize that students’ intentions to participate in a short-term study abroad program are predicted by study abroad-related behavioral, control, and normative beliefs the students

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