Example Of Cross Cultural Acculturation

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Adapting to a new culture for living and working purposes is neither a new nor recent phenomenon. People’s interest in this concept even goes back to the accounts of Marco Polo, who wrote about his travelling and living experiences over the course of years spent in China. At that time, it was not possible for people to regard these narrations as cases of acculturation, yet all the stories of Marco Polo, Captain Cook or Columbus that we can have access today are successful examples of cross-cultural visits. As for systematic and empirical investigation of cross-cultural research, acculturation is one of the most complex areas of research that anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists have been studying and researching for more than …show more content…

These reactions may vary from completely adopting to to completely rejecting the social norms of the host culture. (Eisikovits & Shamai, 2001; Sigad & Eisikovits, 2009). According to Berry and Sam (1997), cross-cultural adaptation has two dimensions, including psychological adaptation and sociocultural adaptation. Psychological adaptation refers to “a set of internal psychological outcomes including a clear sense of personal and cultural identity, good mental health, and the achievement of personal satisfaction in a new cultural context” (Berry, 1997, p. 17). On the other hand, socio-cultural adaptation refers to “a set of external psychological outcomes that links individuals to their new context, including their ability to deal with daily problems, particularly in the areas of life, and work and school” (Berry, 1997, p. …show more content…

Oberg(1960), an anthropologist by whom the term culture shock was coined defined it as an “occupational disease...the anxiety that results from losing all of our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse” before an individual feels comfortable in a new culture (p. 177). Subsequent research found that not all sojourners experience the same level of anxiety, or experience anxiety for the same length of time (Church, 1982; Stening, 1979). This resulted in the study of cross-cultural adjustment as an individual difference criterion, which could potentially be predicted, rather than as a fixed period of anxiety that all sojourners will necessarily experience when they enter a new culture (Black,

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