Acculturation Scales: African American Acculturation Scale

Acculturation is defined as the extent to which an ethnic minority individual participates in the values and beliefs of the dominant ethnic-majority culture. Acculturation can be thought of as a continuum from traditional at one extreme, to bicultural in the middle, to acculturated at the other extreme. Traditional individuals retain almost exclusively the values and beliefs of their culture of origin and do not participate in the majority culture. Bicultural individuals are fluent in both their culture of origin and that of the majority. Bicultural individuals can further be classified as “blended,” having melded aspects of both cultures, or “code-switchers,” those who alternate between the two cultures. Acculturated individuals participate almost exclusively in the majority culture and have rejected most aspects of their culture of ...