Enculturation refers to the process of first-culture learning. Acculturation refers to the process of cultural change when you interact with people from another culture (i.e. second-culture learning). It is relevant to study acculturation as there is a lot of contact (1), diversity (2) and contact with other cultures (3).
Migration refers to the movement of a person or a group of persons either across an international border or within a nation. There are economic migrants (1), sojourners (2), refugees (3), asylum seekers (4) and displaced people (5).
The process of acculturation includes contact (1), influence (2) and change (3). The change occurs for individuals of both cultures. There are three stages of acculturation:
- Honeymoon stage (first few months)
This is a stage in which there is excitement of participating in a novel and exotic environment. - Culture shock stage (after the honeymoon stage)
This is a stage in which there are increasingly negative views about the host cultures. - Adjustment stage
This is a stage in which people adjust to the host culture and tend to become increasingly proficient at functioning in the new culture.
A culture shock refers to the feeling of being anxious, helpless, irritable and homesick when one moves to a new culture. The acculturating individual’s adjustment is influenced by the ease which migrants can be accommodated by the host culture.
The outcome of acculturation consists of sociocultural adaption (1) and psychological adjustment (2). Acculturation can be accompanied by acculturative stress, a reduction in mental health and well-being of ethnic minorities during the process of the adaptation to a new culture. This stress can occur because of language issues (1), perceived cultural incompatibilities (2) and cultural self-consciousness (3). It might be a proxy or a mediator for mental health.
Push factors (e.g. poverty) are factors that push a person away from a country and a culture. Pull factors (e.g. safety) are factors that pull a person towards a country and a culture.
There are several acculturation strategies:
- Integration strategy (positive views towards both cultures)
This involves attempts to fit in and fully participate in the host culture while striving to maintain the traditions of one's heritage culture. - Assimilation strategy (negative of heritage culture, positive of host culture)
This involves attempts to fit in and fully participate in the host culture while making little or no efforts to maintain the traditions of one’s heritage culture. - Separation strategy (positive of heritage culture, negative of host culture)
This involves efforts to maintain the traditions of the heritage culture while making little or no effort to participate in the host culture. - Marginalization strategy (negative views towards both cultures)
This involves little or no efforts to participate in the host culture while making little or no efforts to maintain the traditions of the heritage culture.
There are several factors which influence acculturation experiences:
- Cultural distance
This is how different a culture is from the heritage culture (e.g. difficulty of learning the new language). - Cultural fit
This is how well personal values or personality traits fit the new host cultures. - Acculturation strategies
This is which acculturation strategy is being used.
Unidimensional models of acculturation state that engagement of new culture is inevitably linked to the rejection of heritage culture. Bidimensional models of acculturation state that relationships with heritage and mainstream culture are conceptually independent cultural orientations. Multidimensional models of acculturation are relatively similar to bidimensional models but state that a person can have multiple cultural identities.
The bidimensional models constitute a broader and more valid framework for understanding acculturation, although the unidimensional model has the advantage of parsimony.
There are several reasons for the difficulty of studying acculturation:
- There are a lot of different reasons for migrating.
- There are many different groups of acculturating people.
- There are many different experiences, depending on the host culture and personality.
- There are many different viewpoints of scholars.
- There is disagreement about the directionality of acculturation.
- It is studied from many different disciplines.
Biculturals are people who have been exposed to and internalized two cultures. There are two possible integration strategies:
- Blending
This is combining both cultures and making them into one ‘mixed culture’. - Frame-switching
This is using the cultural repertoire of culture depending on the situation, switching between the cultural repertoires.
Evidence for blending comes people who have lived in a culture for a long time becoming slowly more similar to the host culture. Evidence for frame-switching comes from research with cultural priming after which a different cultural identity and values were expressed.
Bicultural identity integration refers to how well people manage their dual cultural identities. This consists of bicultural identity integration harmony; feelings and attitudes towards cultures (1) and bicultural identity integration blendedness, organization and structure of cultural orientations (2). High bicultural identity integration is associated with more positive acculturation outcomes.
Identity denial refers to when an individual’s cultural identity is called into question because the person does not seem to match the prototype of the culture. This will lead to people attempting to confirm their identity. Stereotype threat refers to the fear that one might do something that will inadvertently confirm a negative stereotype about one’s group.
It is possible that adjusting to another culture might make people more creative because creativity requires a new perspective, something which culture brings. Integrative complexity, a willingness and ability to acknowledge and consider different viewpoints on the same issue might be fostered by living in a different culture.
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