ABSTRACT
Programs with a positivist base that are focused on knowledge acquisition and simple cross-cultural contact cannot legitimately claim an outcome of intercultural learning, which is based on constructivist assumptions of intentionality and self-reflexiveness. This chapter accepts the premise of the editors that traditional study abroad programs are largely positivist or relativist, and it establishes that intercultural communication has emerged largely from constructivist roots. There are three rather dismal implications of positivism for the idea of "culture’’ itself. One is that culture is the kind of metaphysical speculation that is precluded from study. The second dismal theoretical implication of positivism is the polar opposite of the first. The third dismal implication of positivism for intercultural theory is epitomized by much of the field of cross-cultural psychology. Because positivism specializes in description, it implies for the practice of intercultural relations that descriptive knowledge alone is sufficient for success in intercultural encounters.
