Acculturation Theory

Fundamentals

The core meaning of acculturation refers to the process of cultural and psychological change that takes place as a result of contact between cultural groups and their individual members. Such contact and change occur for many reasons (such as colonization and migration); it continues after initial contact in culturally plural societies, where ethnocultural communities maintain features of their heritage cultures over generations; and it takes place in both groups in contact. Adaptation refers to the longer term outcomes of the process of acculturation. Occasionally, it is stressful, but usually it results in some form of mutual accommodation between groups and among individuals. The initial interest in acculturation examined the effects of European domination of colonial and indigenous peoples. Later, it focused on how immigrants (both voluntary and involuntary) changed following their entry and settlement into receiving societies. More recently, much of the work has been involved with how ethnocultural groups and individuals relate to each other, and how they change, as a result of their attempts to live together in culturally plural societies. Nowadays, all three foci are important areas of research, as globalization results in ever-larger trading and political relations. The concept of psychological acculturation refers to changes in an individual who is a participant in a culture-contact situation, being influenced both directly by the external (usually dominant) culture and by the changing culture (usually nondominant) of which the individual is a member. There are two reasons for keeping the cultural and psychological levels distinct. The first is that in cross-cultural psychology, individual human behavior is viewed as interacting with the cultural context within which it occurs; hence, separate conceptions and measurements are required at the two levels. The second reason is that not every group or individual enters into, participates in, or changes in the same way; there are vast group and individual differences in psychological acculturation, even among people who live in the same acculturative arena.

A framework that outlines and links cultural and psychological acculturation, and identifies the two (or more) groups in contact, provides a map of those phenomena which need to be conceptualized and measured during acculturation research. At the cultural level, researchers need to examine key features of the two original cultural groups prior to their major contact. It is essential to understand this precontact variation among the groups that are now attempting to live together in a larger society. New settlers bring cultural and psychological qualities with them to the new society, and the existing society also has a variety of such qualities. The compatibility (or incompatibility) in such qualities as religion, values, attitudes, and personality between the two cultural communities that are in contact needs to be examined as a basis for understanding the acculturation process that is set in motion in both groups. It is also important to understand the nature of their contact relationships. It may be one of domination of one group over the other or of mutual respect or hostility. Finally, at the cultural level, researchers need to understand the resulting cultural changes in both groups that emerge during the process of acculturation. No cultural group remains unchanged following culture contact; acculturation is a two-way interaction, resulting in actions and reactions to the contact situation. In many cases, most change takes place in nondominant communities. However, all societies of settlement (particularly their metropolitan cities) have experienced massive transformations following years of receiving new settlers. The gathering of this information requires extensive ethnographic, community-level work. These changes can range from minor to substantial and from being easily accomplished through to being a source of major cultural disruption.

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