1 TOWARDS A COMPREHENSIVE PERSPECTIVE FOR INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION STUDY: DIRECTIONS FOR IAICS*

Intercultural communication is a broad and challenging area of study primarily because it represents the confluence of so many different disciplines of traditional study, forces us into the gaps that separate these diverse disciplines, and pushes us into the somewhat a-theoretical world of nearly chaotic change with some very fuzzy concepts. Theories about intercultural communication tend to originate within one or another of the more traditional disciplines and typically suffer the consequences of a narrowed perspective. Whereas these positions are useful for certain purposes, they often fail to provide a broad base for the synthesis of such varied areas as represented by the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies (IAICS). Thus, the purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive perspective about intercultural communication study that integrates more limited approaches and builds around the shared dimensions of human behavior. This expanded position will emphasize six primary and interdependent dimensions of human behavior: physicality, personality, sociality, politicality, symbolicity, and spirituality. After setting some general guidelines for this paradigm, separate sections will explain each of the six dimens ions and identify distinctive contributions for each. A final section will project the utility of this comprehensive perspective for the future of intercultural communication study within IAICS