Lecture 18: Cultural Internalization Flashcards
Koestner’s daughter’s classmate and motivation story
One of Koestner’s daughter’s classmates transferred schools because the school used stickers to motivate kids
do most people who work with kids motivate them effectively?
no, most people who are working with kids are often actively working against intrinsic motivation
internal conflict of immigrants
- Many immigrants experience an internal conflict between heritage and mainstream values
- They will behave in different ways in different settings
my big fat greek wedding
- The #1 Romantic comedy of all time
- It became a word-of-mouth phenomenon
- It was written by a Canadian comedian who largely joked about how tough it was to have two Greek parents
- In the movie, the protagonist meets an American man and falls in love but is worried that her parents won’t approve because they are very traditionally Greek
what is the common sentiment of immigrant parents regarding culture?
that their kids should be proud of their culture, but this becomes complex in a multicultural society
Gazette article, 2005 on cultural internalization
“Parents inevitably want to pass on some of the values that shaped their upbringing (ex, politeness and respect). For some immigrant parents trying to do this can be challenging as their children navigate two different cultural universes.”
Koestner’s childhood
- Koestner and his brother wanted to be “All-American”
- The U.S. is more of a melting pot where you’re not encouraged to maintain your culture
- Hitler was Austrian and Koestner didn’t want to be associated with him
- He never wanted his dad to drive him and his teammates to baseball because of the traditional music he listened to
cultural conformity and gender
The pressures to conform are always worse on girls than on boys
Austrian things Koestner didn’t internalize
- Going to German school on Saturday mornings
- Eating wursts
- Wearing lederhosen
- Accordion lessons
- Polka dancing
- Playing soccer
Koestner’s parents on cultural internalization
- Koestner’s mom was excited about becoming American but his dad wasn’t
- This was the same thing with Tula’s parents in My Big Fat Greek Wedding
cultural internalization
the process by which cultural beliefs and practices are adopted by the individual and then enacted in the absence of immediate external contingencies or constraints
impact of outright rejecting your culture
- Outright rejecting your culture isn’t a good thing to do psychologically
- It’s a central part of your identity
- Rejecting it can lead to anxiety and depression
Deci and Ryan’s theory of internalization
- Children are willing and even active participants in the process
- There are different processes by which internalization occurs, such as introjection and identification/integration
- These different internalization processes result in qualitatively different styles of self-regulation
- The social context influences which internalization process and regulatory style occurs
introjection
taking in a value or regulatory process but not accepting it as one’s own
identification and integration
fully assimilating a regulation with one’s core sense of self
example of introjection
cribs with roofs over them to prevent kids from getting out
what is necessary for internalization
more democratic parents and culture
Downie et al., 2004 study method
- Measured cultural internalization by asking how much and why people pursue specific cultural traditions and practices and classified it as external introjected or identified
- Also measured positive and negative affected experiences in heritage and host cultural contexts and global well-being
- The study included both self- and peer-reports
