When cultures meet Flashcards
Modernisation
- Economic development/industrialisation
– Marx’ concept of ideology as ‘superstructure’
– Changes in eco-cultural framework
– Expect cultures to adapt to new context - Prediction: cultural beliefs and values will become more secular (less religious) and more rational
(Inglehart & Baker, 2000)
Post-modernisation
- In context of economic prosperity/security
- Shift from manufacturing to service economy (where people work more in things like hospitality industry, financial services, advertising- occupation where you’re not making things but providing services to people)
- Prediction: cultural beliefs and values will become post-materialistic
– Less focus on survival
– Greater focus on self-expression
(Inglehart & Baker, 2000)
Testing cultural change
what survey and 2 things
- World values survey
7 waves from 1981 to present
Representative national samples in >75 countries - Traditional → secular-rational values
God less important, lower respect for authority, lower national pride, abortion more accepted, childrearing more focused on independence and less focused on obedience and religion - Survival → self-expression values
Self-expression and quality of life more important, economic and physical security less important, people report being happier, more people have signed or would sign a petition, homosexuality more accepted, people are seen as more trustworthy
The Inglehart-Wezel World Culture Map (2020)
Bottom tradition- top secular
As countries become more economically developed, they would move from bottom to top and left to right
Inglehart and Baker (2000) economic zones
- Looked at economical development in terms of GDP per captia
- Countries towards the top left tended to be poorer and countries towards the top right tended to be richer
- They also looked at change over time
- The regions of the world stay pretty much the same in relation to each other- movement of countries is often upwards and towards the left
- In times of economic stability you seem values getting more traditional
Sources of intercultural contact
- Plural societies
– Migrants
– Sojourners
– Refugees
– Tourists
– Indigenous people - Why there?
– Voluntary—forced
– Sedentary—mobile
– Permanent—temporary - Global communications
Acculturation
- Classic definition
- in practice, what does on group usually change?
- Classic definition:
“Acculturation comprehends those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact with subsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups” Redfield, Linton, & Herskovits, 1936, cited in Berry, 1997, p. 7) - In practice, one group usually changes more
– ‘Acculturating group’ vs. ‘receiving society’
– Minority vs. majority (numerical or power/influence)
Effects of intercultural contact
- Adaptation processes
– Affective
– Behavioural
– Cognitive - Acculturation strategies
– Changes (or not) in practices, values and identifications - Intergroup relations
– Power differentials
– Peaceful/hostile - Cultural changes
– Both groups
– Can lead to emergence of new cultures
Adaptation (ABCs)
- ABCs of coping with “culture shock” (Ward, Furnham, & Bochner, 2001)
- Affective
– (a.k.a. “psychological adaptation”)
– Psychological well-being vs. anxiety, stress, depression - Behavioural
– (a.k.a. “sociocultural adaptation”)
– Learning effective social skills for new cultural environment vs. social difficulties in everyday functioning - Cognitive
– Beliefs, values, and cultural identity
Outdated view of acculturation
SEPARATION (cultural maintenance)
vs.
ASSIMILATION (relationships with groups)
Acculturation strategies
Berry’s (1990, 1997) theoretical model identifies TWO key questions…..
- Is it considered to be of value to maintain cultural identity and characteristics?
- Is it considered to be of value to maintain relationships with other groups?
Acculturation strategies
- Assimilation
✔️ Relationships with dominant group
❌ Cultural maintenance - Integration
✔️ Relationships with dominant group
✔️ Cultural maintenance - Marginalisation
❌ Relationships with dominant group
❌ Cultural maintenance - Separation
❌ Relationships with dominant group
✔️ Cultural maintenance
Acculturation strategies
- Individuals’ strategies measured in terms of:
– Preferences for contact
– Preferences for cultural maintenance
– Cultural identities
– Language use and proficiency
– Cultural practices (food, clothing, media, etc.)
– Family and peer relationships - Largest study to date:
– 4000 young immigrants, 30 ethnic groups, 13 nations
– Cluster analysis shows four predicted groupings (Berry, Phinney, Sam & Vedder, 2006)
Acculturation strategies
In most samples surveyed…
– Participants tended to prefer integration to the other acculturation strategies
– Participants who adopted integration showed the best psychological adaptation / least stress
– Marginalisation is least adaptive (people who reported being marginalised tended to report poor well being as well)
– Assimilation and separation show intermediate and more variable outcomes, depending on context
(e.g., Berry, 1990, 1997; Berry & Sam, 1997; Berry et al., 2006)
BUT …
What do we mean by integration?
- Living with multiple cultural identities
(cf. frame-switching studies) - Bicultural identity integration
Perceptions: harmony or conflict?
Strategies: blending or compartmentalising? - Integration predicts well-being
Especially harmony
(Benet-Martínez et al., 2002)
