How to measure ICC

Milton Bennett created the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) to explain the observed and reported experience of people in intercultural situations. It is a model of a multi-level scale that reflects cognitive structures and describes the different ways in which people react to cultural differences. With his scale, Bennett assumes that as one’s experience of cultural difference becomes more sophisticated, one’s competence in intercultural relations increases. Each stage is indicative of a particular worldview configuration, and certain kinds of attitudes and behavior are typically associated with each such configuration (Bennett, “Measuring intercultural sensitivity”, pp. 421-422).

The CMIS is arranged into six different stages. The first three stages are considered to be ethnocentric, meaning that one’s own culture is experienced as central to reality. With the different stages, one distances oneself from an ethnocentric perspective and develops a more ethnorelative view. The second three stages are ethnorelative, meaning that one’s own culture is experienced in the context of other cultures (Bennett, “Developing Intercultural Sensitivity”, p. 14).

1. Denial

During this stage one’s own culture is experienced as the only real one, dealing with other cultures is avoided by establishing psychological and/or physical isolation from differences. (Bennett, “Developing Intercultural Sensitivity”, pp.14-15).

2. Defense

One’s own culture or an adopted culture is experienced as the only good one. This stage is characterized by us/them-thinking and stereotyping (Bennett, “Developing Intercultural Sensitivity”, pp. 17-18).

3. Minimization

Elements of one’s own cultural worldview are experienced as universal, thus other cultures are considered to be similar despite the differences (Bennett, “Developing Intercultural Sensitivity”, pp. 18-19).

4. Acceptance

People at this stage accept culturally different ways of living. This acceptance does not necessarily mean liking or agreement. Other cultures are included in one’s experience as equally complex but different constructions of reality are recognized (Bennett, “Developing Intercultural Sensitivity”, pp. 19-20).

5. Adaptation

One acquires the ability to shift perspective in and out of another cultural worldview; therefore, one’s experience might include the different cultural experience of someone in another culture (Bennett, “Developing Intercultural Sensitivity”, pp. 21-23).

6. Integration

One’s experience of self is expanded to include the movement in and out of different cultural worldviews (Bennett, “Developing Intercultural Sensitivity”, pp. 24-25).

The ethnorelative stages are ways of seeking cultural difference, either by accepting its importance, by adapting a perspective to take it into account, or by integrating the whole concept into a definition of identity (Bennett, “Developing Intercultural Sensitivity”, pp. 14-15).

Sources: 

Bennett, Janet, et al. “Developing Intercultural Sensitivity: An integrative approach to global and domestic diversity” The Diversity Collegium Membership as of June 1, 2001 to February 2002, 2001.

Bennett, Milton, et al. “Measuring intercultural sensitivity: The intercultural development inventory.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations, vol. 27, 2003, pp.421–443