Cultural Differences
As stated by the question to be answered in this brief report, there are many psychologists that assert that there can be barriers and issues that exist when a person of one cultural background interviews someone from a different cultural background. The differences in culture can be things like religion, race, ethnicity, upbringing and nation of origin, just to name a few. Just one example would be Muslims that come to the United States and find a culture that is entirely different than what they are used to or acclimated to in their country of birth. While it is possible to achieve an interview-oriented connection with someone from a different cultural background, bridging the divide can be quite difficult even with the best of intentions.
Analysis
One major barrier when it comes to bridging the cultural divide in an interview or discussion of any sort would be religion. Indeed, the common and dominant religion in the United States would be Christianity, whether one is speaking of the Catholic Church or another denomination or sect (e.g. Protestants, etc.). However, to suggest that Christians are the only ones around in the United States would obviously be false. There are a good...
There are also an increasing amount of atheists and agnostics that believe, respectively, that there is no god or that it is impossible to know for sure whether one exists. Just as one example of the implications for an interview, a devout Catholic interviewing a Muslim who believes in sharia law would have very different worldviews, points-of-view in general and beliefs. This is a fairly extreme example but it is absolutely one that could happen. Other cultural divides that can occur would be between people from different countries being interviewed by an American native and this holds true even if the non-American in the equation speaks English (Leri, 2015).
There can even be divides when it comes to a person raised in a suburban and/or middle class (or higher) background interviewing someone who was raised in a poor urban environment. Quite often, such an interview like the one just mentioned would involve a white person and a black or Hispanic, respectively. The perceptions, worldview and so forth of those two parties would tend to be very different. For example, a minority person in an…
