Accenturalisation Flashcards
Acculturation
process of cultural & psychological change due to contact between 2 or more cultural groups
Acculturation strategies
The individual level includes a change in an individual’s behaviour. This includes 4 different strategies used by individuals
- assimilation
- integration
- seperation
- marginalisation
Assimilation
This is when an individual leaves their original culture and adopts the behaviours and values of their new culture
Integration
When there is an interest in adopting the behaviours and values of the new culture, while still maintaining the original culture
Seperation
When an individual maintains their own culture and minimises contact with their new culture
Marginalisation
results when an individual is not really able to maintain their original culture, but because of exclusion or discrimination, it is not possible to assimilate into the new culture.
Two studies
Leuke & wilson
Shah a
Leuke & Wilson aim
to investigate the variables that may predict acculturative stress in a nationally representative sample of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans
Participants in leuke & Wilson
2095 asian Americans, 1271 were 1st generation immigrants who were 18yrs old or older when they came to the US, rest of sample was born in the US to 1st generation immigrant parents. Sample consisted of several different asian cultures (Chinese, Filipino & Chinese)
L W method
semi-structured interviews** (allows some structural conformity and different
answers but also to go off on tangents and have rich data)
L W procedure
- Participants: around 2000 Asian Americans (1200 were 1st-generation immigrants who were 18 or over when came to US, rest born in US to 1st- generation immigrant parents) sample included several Asian cultures: Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese etc.
- Interviewers had cultural & linguistic backgrounds similar to sample population.
- Interviews conducted over Internet or face-to-face.
- A randomly selected sample of participants was contacted to validate the data taken from interviews.
- Interviewsmeasured participants’ level of acculturative stress& impact of language proficiency, language preference, discrimination, social networks, family cohesion, and socioeconomic status on acculturative stress.
L W results
- Around 1400 participants (70%) had acculturative stress (according to the found score)
L W conclusion
Lower acculturative stress:
- Bilingual language preference (build up networks of support within and outside theircommunity)
- Sharing similar values and beliefs as a family
- Satisfaction with economic opportunities and their immigration decision Higher acculturative stress:
- Can only speak one of the languages: doesn’tknow native language well enough todiscuss sensitive issues with family members and native citizens, or may have limited or no abilities in English
- Negative treatment e.g. prejudice, xenophobia, harassment, and threats
criticism of acculturation on health
- most studies of acculturation & health rely on a uni-dimensional understanding of acculturation - acculturated vs non-acculturated to the receiving culture, ignoring the 2nd dimension proposed by berry(1997), the ties w the original culture
- as a result of this, it is not clear whether the observed effects of immigration on health are due to immigrants’ adaption to receiving the culture, loss of connection w the heritage culture, or both
- another criticism is that it is not the process of acculturation that seems to matter, but the culture to which one is acculturating. there were other studies that did not show a significant correlation between the risk of being overweight & the duration of residence
The immigration paradox
- Many studies of acculturation have reported that “greater” degrees of acculturation were associated with problematic health outcomes - a phenomenon known as theimmigrant paradox.
- moving to a new culture results in a personal battle betweenenculturation – maintaining one’s cultural identity – andacculturation, changing one’s culture in order to fit in
- leads to acculturative stress