Scale Description

The Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) was developed by Chen and Starosta (2000) to assess individuals’ sensitivity during communication and interaction with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Intercultural sensitivity concerns the way individuals approach cultural differences during interpersonal communication, including their willingness to participate in intercultural interactions, their respect for cultural differences, their confidence when communicating across cultures, their enjoyment of such interactions, and their attentiveness to their communication partners.

The ISS provides a multidimensional assessment of intercultural sensitivity through five subscales: Interaction Engagement, Respect for Cultural Differences, Interaction Confidence, Interaction Enjoyment, and Interaction Attentiveness.

Objective

The primary objective of the ISS is to assess individuals’ responses to people who may differ from them in terms of behavior, perceptions, or feelings during the process of intercultural communication.

Participants are asked to consider how they personally approach individuals from other cultures and how they feel toward them.

Through this approach, the scale provides information about different aspects of an individual’s orientation toward intercultural communication and interaction.

Scale Dimensions

The ISS consists of five subscales representing different aspects of intercultural sensitivity:

Interaction Engagement: Assesses individuals’ feelings and engagement regarding their participation in intercultural communication.

Respect for Cultural Differences: Reflects the individual’s orientation toward and tolerance of the opinions and cultures of other people.

Interaction Confidence: Assesses the degree of confidence and assurance individuals experience within intercultural environments.

Interaction Enjoyment: Reflects individuals’ positive responses when interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Interaction Attentiveness: Assesses the effort individuals make to understand the culture of their communication partner during intercultural interactions.

Item Scoring

According to the source document, the scale consists of 24 items, including both positively and negatively worded statements.

Participants are asked to respond while considering how they approach people from other cultures and the feelings they experience toward those individuals.

Responses are provided using a five-point Likert scale ranging from:

1 = Strongly Disagree
2 = Disagree
3 = Neither Agree nor Disagree
4 = Agree
5 = Strongly Agree

Negatively worded items require appropriate reverse scoring before subscale and total scores are calculated.

Distribution of Items Across Subscales

According to the source document, the items are distributed across the five subscales as follows:

Interaction Engagement: Items 1, 9, 11, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24. Item 19 is negatively worded.

Respect for Cultural Differences: Items 2, 7, 14, 16, and 18. Items 2, 7, 16, and 18 are negatively worded, whereas Item 14 is positively worded.

Interaction Confidence: Items 3, 4, 5, and 6. Item 4 is negatively worded.

Interaction Enjoyment: Items 8, 10, and 13.

Interaction Attentiveness: Items 12, 15, and 17.

Statistical Analysis and Scoring

Scores for the five subscales are calculated by summing the corresponding item scores after the necessary reverse scoring of negatively worded statements.

Interaction Engagement

Scores range from 9 to 45. Higher scores correspond to more positive feelings regarding participation in intercultural communication.

Respect for Cultural Differences

Scores range from 5 to 25. Higher scores correspond to a greater level of orientation toward or tolerance of other individuals’ opinions and cultures.

Interaction Confidence

Scores range from 4 to 20. Higher scores indicate a greater degree of confidence and assurance within an intercultural environment.

Interaction Enjoyment

Scores range from 3 to 15. Higher scores correspond to a more positive response when interacting with individuals from different cultures.

Interaction Attentiveness

Scores range from 3 to 15. Higher scores indicate greater effort to understand the culture of the communication partner during intercultural communication.

Total Score

The overall Intercultural Sensitivity Scale score ranges from 24 to 120.

Higher Total Score → Higher Level of Intercultural Sensitivity

Lower Total Score → Lower Level of Intercultural Sensitivity

The overall score can therefore provide a general measure of intercultural sensitivity, while the five subscale scores provide more specific information about the different aspects assessed by the instrument.

Validity and Reliability

According to the source document, the scale was adapted into Greek by F. Kossyvaki, using an independent back-translation procedure.

The internal consistency reliability of the individual subscales was reported to be at moderate levels.

More specifically, relatively low Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were reported for:

Interaction Engagement: α = 0.57

Interaction Attentiveness: α = 0.50

However, the reliability coefficient for the overall Intercultural Sensitivity Scale was reported as satisfactory:

Total ISS: Cronbach’s α = 0.78

These findings indicate that the reliability of the individual subscales should be considered when interpreting subscale-level results.

Applications

The ISS can be used in research examining intercultural sensitivity, intercultural communication, attitudes toward cultural differences, and interactions among individuals from different cultural backgrounds.

Its multidimensional structure enables researchers to examine overall intercultural sensitivity as well as specific aspects of intercultural interaction, including engagement, respect for cultural differences, confidence, enjoyment, and attentiveness.

The scale may therefore provide useful information for studies concerned with how individuals respond to cultural differences during interpersonal communication.

Interpretation of Results

Higher overall ISS scores correspond to higher levels of intercultural sensitivity.

Subscale scores can provide additional information about the specific aspects of intercultural interaction assessed by the instrument.

For example, an individual may demonstrate relatively high respect for cultural differences while reporting lower confidence during intercultural interactions. Examining both the overall score and the individual subscale scores can therefore provide a more differentiated representation of the respondent’s intercultural sensitivity.

Interpretation should also consider the reliability characteristics reported for the individual subscales, particularly where lower internal consistency coefficients have been observed.

References

Authors: G. M. Chen & W. J. Starosta (2000)