In a previous article, I wrote about my concern with Christian organizations employing the Intercultural Development Inventory for two reasons, the undermining of the image of God and the undermining of objective moral values.
Since then, I came across a list of all 50 of the IDI questions in a dissertation’s appendix. I had the opportunity to analyze all the questions rather than just the ones mentioned in academic articles. I was surprised at how many questions concerned polarization, the second part of the continuum in a monocultural/ethnocentric mindset. According to the IDI website, “Polarization can take the form of Defense (‘My cultural practices are superior to other cultural practices’) or Reversal (‘Other cultures are better than mine’).”[1] Polarization, according to the IDI creators, is assuming that a value in one culture can be superior or less superior than a value in another. Thus to score highly for ‘polarization’ indicates that one is hostile to or, at least, insufficiently supportive of, institutional diversity.
