Intercultural Relations and Behaviour – (B.A.)

The world is experiencing the age of globalization. Efficiently communicating and interacting with people from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds is becoming ever more important in daily settings. The goal of the Intercultural Relations and Behavior; curriculum (IRB) is to equip students with the necessary skills to deal successfully with the diversity globalization brings about. This requires profound theoretical intercultural understanding on two levels: How does culture influence individual as well as collective behavior? Consequently, the IRB program combines two levels of analysis. A micro-level analysis is advanced by Social Psychology: How do individuals think, feel, and act and how is their thinking, feeling, and behavior influenced by the social environment? How does culture affect the ways we perceive others and interact with them? What are stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination and what can be done to reduce biases in interpersonal perception andbehavior? How are the relations between members of different social groups formed and what are typical biases in inter-group settings? What are the underlying processes of the social interaction and communication?

This molecular level of analysis is complemented by a macro-level perspective on supra-individual processes which is advanced by comparative courses from various social sciences (e.g., Sociology, Political Science, Mass Communication, as well as Economics), asking how societies, political systems and their public discourse differ from one another. What are values and how can survey research assess them? What are the underlying processes of value change? What is the role of personal trust, relational networks and social capital in the functioning of the larger structures of society?

While the primary focus of the IRB curriculum is a theoretical one, it also includes more applied courses on management and on intercultural competence and training.