Cultural Adaptation

1. The AUM model

-The goal of effective intercultural communication can be reached by reducing anxiety and seeking information. This is referred to as uncertainty reduction.

1. In the first phase, migrants realize that their assumptions are wrong and need to be altered.

Living on the Border

-As international migration increases and more and more people travel back and forth among different cultures, the lines between adaptation and reentry becomes less clear.

2. In the second stage, migrants slowly begin to make sense of new patterns through communication experiences.

3. The Phenomenological Model

- This model contains 3 phases:

1. Taking things for granted.

2. Making sense of new patterns.

3. Coming to understand new information.

Identity and Adaptation

How individual migrants develop multicultural identities depends on 3 issues.

1. The extent to which migrants want to maintain their own identity, language, and way of life compared to how much they want to become part of the larger new society.

2. Day- to-day interactions with others in the new society.

3. The involvement and the ownership of political power.

3. As migrants begin to make sense of their experiences and interations in new cultural contexts, they come to understand them in a more holistic way. This enables them to fit the new information into a pattern of cultural understanding.

The interpretive approach focuses on in-depth descriptions of the adaptation process, often employing a phenomenological approach.

An interpretive approach emphasizes the complex and continuous nature of cultural adaptation.

2. The Interpretive Approach

There are three such interpretive models:

1. The U- Curve model

2. The W-Curve model

3. The phenomenological model

The critical approach reminds us that cultural adaptation depends on the context. Some contexts are easier to adapt to than others, and some environments ae more accepting.

3. The Critical Approach

However, there is an upside to the arrival of these new immigrants.

These immigrants have been described to enrich, revitalize, and resurrect culture within their environment.

2. The W-Curve model/theory

- This model/theory was adapted because some migrants simply experience another "U". This may be due to anticipation of returning home, culture shock again, and then another gradual adaptation.

-The second "U" may relate to personal change and expectations.

Cultural Adaptation

def.- The long term process of adjusting to and finally feeling comfortable in a new environment (Y.K. Kim, 2001, 2005)

How one adapts depends on the host environment:

-Welcoming Environment

-Hostile Environment

Although the U curve seems to represent the experiences of many short term migrants, it may be too simplistic for other types of migrants.

Thus...

1. The U-Curve model/theory

- The main idea is that migrants go through fairly predictable phases in adapting to a new cultural situation.

Local institutions, like schools, religious institutions, and social service agencies, can facilitate or hinder immigrants' adaptation.

Class issues often enter into the picture.

Sometimes immigrant workers are seen as necessary but are not really welcomed into the larger society because of their class.

Sometimes the discrimination and class issues result in conflict between recent migrants and emigrants from the same country who have been in the host country for a long time.

1. Anticipation: The first phase is the anticipation or excitement phase. When a migrant first enters a new cultural context, he or she may be excited to be in the new situation and only a little apprehensive.

3. Adjustment: The third phase is adjustment, in which migrants learn the rules and customs of the new cultural context.

After several years, a migrant may adapt and adjust, but he/she will acknowledge that life in the new environment still has its challenges.

Not everyone experiences culture shock when they move to a new place.

During the shock phase, migrants may experience disorientation and a crisis of identity. Because identities are shaped and maintained by cultural contexts, experiences in new cultural context often raise questions about identities.

2. Culture Shock: The second phase, culture shock happens to almost every one in intercultural transitions. Individuals face many challenges of transition in new cultural contexts.

It is a relatively short-term feeling of disorientation of discomfort due to the unfamiliarity of surroundings and the lack of familiar cues in the environment.

There are 3 Communication approaches to studying cultural adaption:

1. Social Science Approach

2. Interpretive Approach

3.Critical Approach: Contextual Influences

1. The Social Science Approach

1. The individual in the adaptation process

This model assumes that to communicate effectively we will gather information to help us reduce uncertainty and anxiety.

How?

1. Have a solid self-concept and self-esteem

2. Have flexible attitudes and behaviors

3. Have flexible categorizations of others (avoid stereotypes!)

Finally, this model requires that people be open to new information and recognize alternative ways to interpret information.

There are several kinds of uncertainty, but the book talks about two main types of uncertainty.

Migrants also need to reduce the anxiety that is present.

Not enough anxiety shows that the migrant doesn't care.

Too much anxiety causes a loss of focus.

Balance is definitely needed!

1. Predictive uncertainty is the inability to predict what someone will say or do.

2. Explanatory uncertainty is the inability to explain why people behave as they do

*Overly positive and overly negative expectations lead to more difficulty in adapting.

The Social Science Approach focuses on:

1. The individual in the adaptation process

2. The individual's character and background

3. The individual's outcomes of the adaptations

There are 3 Models in the Social Science Approach

1. The Anxiety and Uncertainty Management (AUM) model

2. The Transition Model

3. The Integrative Model

2. The individual's character and background

-the individual's character includes age, gender, preparation level, and expectation

*these characteristics can influence how well the migrant or individual adapts

2. The Transitional Model

This model involves how an individual deals with the culture shock and adaptation of a new environment.

Some examples include moving away to college, getting married, or moving from one part of the country to another.

Neither of these preferences for dealing with new situations is right or wrong. Individual preference is a result of family, social, and cultural influences.

Psychologists have found that most individuals prefer either a "flight" or a "fight" approach to unfamiliar situations.

Migrants who prefer a flight approach tend to hang back, get the lay of the land, and see how things work before taking the plunge and joining in.

Migrants who take the fight approach use the trial-and-error method. (me)

1. Psychological Health is the most common definition of adaptation, one that concentrates on the emotional state of the individual migrant.

3. Outcomes of Adaptations

There are 3 aspects of adaptation:

1. Psychological Health

2. Functional Fitness

3. Intercultural Identitiy

2. Functional fitness involves being able to function in daily life in many different contexts.

3. The Integrative Model

What role does communication play in the adaptation process?

A huge role! Adaptation occurs through communication.

3. Intercultural identity is an identity based on two or more cultural frames of reference.

-more communication= better adaptation, more culture shock

-less communication= longer adaptation time, less culture shock

Migrants can either:

1. reject the new ideas

2. try to fit them into their existing framework

3. change their frameworks completely