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Anxiety/Uncertainty Management Theory (AUM)

Lead

Anxiety/Uncertainty Management Theory (AUM), also known as Uncertainty Management Theory, is a communication theory with an initial application to intercultural encounters and development of relationships that expands upon Charles Berger’s Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT).  URT addresses the feelings of uncertainty that one feels when meeting a stranger.  The goal of URT is to reduce feelings of uncertainty by increasing knowledge about the stranger and using that information to predict behaviors.  AUM’s expansion of URT is the focus of initiating new interactions and encounters with of those of different cultures and managing the uncertainty and anxiety that accompany such an interaction. While AUM began as a guidance for approaches to different cultures, Gudykunst’s continued work can now be applied to any unknown situation or when an outsider enters a new group.

Background

William Gudykunst, a former U.S. Navy cultural relations specialist, whose job was to assist American families with assimilation and adaptation to life in Japan, extended Berger 's Uncertainty Reduction Theory to include the unique aspects of the anxiety and uncertainty that that accompany the entry into a foreign culture. Those of different cultures respond to strangers and new situations in different manners. "Cross-cultural encounters are affected by insufficient or incomplete knowledge about cultural practices or language differences." (p. 480) The goal of AUM is to manage anxiety and uncertainty associated with the increased unknowns of a new culture.

Content

At its onset, AUM posited that when a stranger, someone new to a culture or situation, enters a communication opportunity with the in-group, the culture or group that is unknown to the stranger, that stranger experiences uncertainty and anxiety. The stranger is in situation in which he/she is an outsider and is not familiar with the culture.  Uncertainty of new situations is the cognitive, thoughtful, perception of the unknown, the inability to predict behaviors, reactions, the lack of knowledge of what will happen.  Anxiety in new situations is the affective, emotional response to the unknown, the unease, and the worry of what will happen.  James Neuliep (2012) explains “uncertainty affects the way people think about communication…[and]…anxiety affects the way people feel about interacting with someone else” (p. 1).

AUM theorizes about not the reduction of uncertainty and anxiety, as with Berger’s Uncertainty Reduction Theory, but with the management of uncertainty and anxiety.  Uncertainty and anxiety are an aspect of all relationships, but increase when one enters a new situation or culture.  The response to each can be very helpful in the situation, leading to questioning, paying attention to non-verbal cues, and other methods of gaining information helpful to the intended communication.  The management of uncertainty and anxiety also creates an attention to the influence of the maximum and minimum thresholds of them on communication.  The maximum threshold of uncertainty and anxiety is the point at which the stranger may not be able to comfortably communicate due to the uncertainty and unknown of the situation.  The minimum threshold of uncertainty and anxiety is the point at which the stranger feels they know too much about the situation and communicates poorly based upon assumptions.

Gudykunst's Anxiety/Uncertainty Management

AUM’s goal is effective communication.  Effective communication is achieved when the person receiving the communication interprets it as the sender intended.  With effective communication there is understanding between the stranger and the in-group, with minimal misunderstanding on each side. Gudykunst posits that effective communication is best achieved through mindfulness, as opposed to mindlessness.  To be mindful is to pay attention to the communication and the receiver and to work to ensure the communication is received and understood.  Instead of assuming all communication is interpreted as it was intended, “mindfulness…means to negotiate meaning with strangers” (p. 4).

Within AUM, Gudykunst initially introduces seven predictors of levels of uncertainty and anxiety based on new communication; self-concept, motivation to interact with strangers, reactions to strangers, social categorization of strangers, situational processes, connections with strangers and ethical interactions.  Gudykunst also initially introduced 47 axioms of AUM and adding an additional 49 axioms of AUM in later writings. These axioms and theorems attempt to outline the relationships between the seven predictors and additional variables, such as positive expectations and moral inclusiveness that can help one further predict the response to situations.

A few examples of the original axioms (with predictors):

Self and self-concept: An increase in the degree to which our social identities influence our interactions with hosts will produce an increase in our ability to manage our anxiety and an increase in our confidence in predicting their behavior.  [Boundary Condition] This axiom holds only if hosts are perceived to be typical members of their culture. (Axiom 1)

Motivation to interact with strangers/hosts: An increase in our sense of security in our personal and social identities will produce a decrease in our anxiety and an increase in our confidence in predicting host behavior. (Axiom 11)

Reactions to strangers/hosts: An increase in the degree to which hosts accommodate to our behavior will produce a decrease in our anxiety and an increase in our confidence in predicting their behavior. (Axiom 17)

Social categorization of strangers/hosts: An increase in our awareness of hosts violations of our positive expectations and/or their confirming our negative expectations will produce an increase in our anxiety and a decrease in our confidence in predicting their behavior. (Axiom 25)

Situational processes: An increase in the complexity of our scripts for communicating with hosts will produce a decrease in our anxiety and an increase in our confidence in predicting their behavior. (Axiom 26)

Connections with strangers/hosts: An increase in the quantity and quality of our contact with hosts will produce a decrease in our anxiety and an increase in our ability to accurately predict their behavior. (Axiom 34)

Ethical considerations - Anxiety\ Uncertainty\ Mindfulness and Effective Communication:  An increase in our understanding the host culture stocks of knowledge will produce an increase in our ability to manage our anxiety and our ability to accurately predict hosts behavior [Boundary Condition] This axiom only holds when we are mindful. (Axiom 40).

This sampling of axioms begins to illustrate the relationship between the predictors and additional variables that may influence anxiety and uncertainty negatively or positively.

Application

AUM has applications in the real world when one enters a situation in which one is a stranger. Gudykunst, himself, penned an article about the application of AUM to intercultural adjustment training when someone is newly exposed to a cultural to which they will need to adapt, such as the military or humanitarian work. Gudykunst explains that the goals for training will be to "1) understand how their abilities to manage their uncertainty and anxiety influence their abilities to adapt to new cultures, 2) successfully manage their anxiety in new cultural environments and 3) successfully manage their uncertainty in new cultural environments" (p. 232).

Additionally researchers, such as Neuliep, Ni and Wang, and Hammer, Wiseman, Rasmussen and Bruschke, have applied the AUM theory to evaluate international students' perceptions of communication satisfaction and adaptation within a host culture. While, Miller and Samp applied the theory to evaluate the differences in anxiety and uncertainty in knowing one would be communicating with a stranger from within their culture versus the anxiety and uncertainty of communicating with a stranger from outside of their culture.

Critique

There are a few critiques of Gudykunst’s Anxiety/Uncertainty Management theory. One critique from Griffin addresses the volume of information Gudykunst includes in his creation of “a theory in the ‘grand’ tradition”, which can precipitate a danger "that the student of communication could easily be overwhelmed by the sheer quantity and detail of Gudykunst's theoretical predictions" (p. 436). 

Stella Ting-Toomey, a colleague of Gudykunst’s that also worked in the field of  intercultural adjustment poses the possibility the theory has some aspects of “Western bias" as exhibited by the need of the stranger to have control in  the new environment. A theme she states "is highly valued by Western, individualistic cultures, but not necessarily by Eastern, collectivist cultures" (p. 437) This point of view brings into question the likelihood if an overarching theory of intercultural communication is possible.

An additional critique of Mitchell Hammer, another colleague that worked with Gudykunst on an uncertainty/anxiety based theory of intercultural adjustment, pointed out that while researchers have used the theory to evaluate anxiety and uncertainty in specific situations, there has not been significant study testing the actual axioms and theorems of the AUM theory.