Transcript Acculturation

Living in a
Multicultural World:
Acculturation
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Acculturation: to move towards a culture
First defined as culture change resulting
from contact between two autonomous
cultural groups
Immigrants, refugees, colonized
Where is the heart of the change?
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Dominant group or non-dominant group?
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Psychologically, two issues need to be better
understood to know how people will respond.
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1. how much are one’s own cultural identity and
customs are of value and are to be retained
2. inter-group conflict: are relations with other
groups of benefit?
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Is it of value to maintain cultural identity?
Yes
No
Is it of value to
Maintain relationships
Yes
No
Integration
Assimilation
Separation
Marginalization
Acculturation strategy
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Integration: positive views towards host and
origin
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Assimilation: attempt to fit in and fully
participate. Little or no effort to maintain
traditions
Acculturation strategy
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Separation: maintain traditions but little
attempt to participate in host
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Marginalization: little effort to participate but
loose traditions….
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How do we know where on this diagram, a
dominant and a non-dominant group falls?
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National policies, ideologies
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Group goals, attitudes
Lost Boys
Who adjusts?
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Predictor of acculturation success is
language ability (Ying & Liese, 1991).
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Cultural distance (difference in overall way
of life)
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Social complexity match
Cultural fit (personality similarity
Need for cognitive closure
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Desire to have a definite answer
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Need connection in order to overcome
unease of uncertainty
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Initial contact group is important and sets
on a trajectory.
Acculturative stress
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The stress that accompanies this process
Psychological question
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What happens to us as humans when we
come into contact with another culture?
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Common feeling is stress
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Acculturative stress
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quote]The first I want to say sorry I know a little English. I
hope you understand all of this. Of course you need to know
why I shooting? Because undercover cop gave me a lot of
ass during eighteen years I got seven years and eight month
delivery to grocery in the California came back New York on
the August 2007. [/quote]
When he writes that the undercover cop gave him a lot of
ass, he most likely is describing his harassment by the police
for the last 18 years.
He sounds like he worked for seven years and eight months
as a grocery deliver person in California and then moved
back to New York.
What changes with acculturation?
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Male gender norms
Education
Adolescence
Ideas of autonomy
Patterns of risk taking behaviors
What is slowest to change?
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Parenting beliefs and practices
Female gender norms
What does acculturation mean to us?
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Should we all be ‘americans’?
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Obesity, life expectancy, deliquency?