Cultural practice, contact and change 2

Question 1

Modernisation:

Answer 1

· Economic development/industrialisation
- Changes in eco-cultural framework
- Expect cultures to adapt to new context
· Prediction: cultural beliefs and values will become more secular and more rational
· (Inglehart & Baker, 2000)

Question 2

Post-modernisation:

Answer 2

· In context of economic prosperity/security
- Shift from manufacturing to service economy
· Prediction: cultural beliefs and values will become post-materialistic
- Less focus on survival
- Greater focus on self-expression
(Inglehart & Baker, 2000)

Question 3

Testing cultural change:

Answer 3

· 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

Question 4

Sources of intercultural contact:

Answer 4

· Plural societies:
- Migrants
- Sojourners
- Refugees
- Tourists
- Indigenous people
· Why there?:
- Voluntary - forced
- Sedentary - mobile
- Permanent - temporary
· Global communications:

Question 5

Acculturation:

Answer 5

· 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)

Question 6

Effects of intercultural contact:

Answer 6

· 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

Question 7

Adaptation (ABCs):

Answer 7

· 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

Question 8

Outdated view of acculturation:

Answer 8

· Separation (cultural maintenance) vs assimilation (relationships with dominant group)
· Key question (for minority members):
- Is it considered to be of value to maintain cultural identity and characteristics, or to maintain relationships with dominant group?

Question 9

Acculturation strategies 1:

Answer 9

· Berry’s (1990, 1997) theoretical model distinguishes TWO key questions:
1. Is it considered to be of value to maintain cultural identity and characteristics?
2. Is it considered to be of value to maintain relationships with other groups?
· These are separate questions!

Question 10

Acculturation strategies 2:

Answer 10

· Assimilation:
- Yes - relationships with dominant group
- No - cultural maintenance
· Integration:
- Yes - relationships with dominant group
- Yes - cultural maintenance
· Marginalisation:
- No - relationships with dominant group
- No - cultural maintenance
· Separation:
- No - relationships with dominant group
- Yes - cultural maintenance

Question 11

Acculturation strategies 3:

Answer 11

· 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)

Question 12

Acculturation strategies 4:

Answer 12

· 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
- Assimilation and separation show intermediate and more variable outcomes, depending on context

Question 13

What do we mean by integration?:

Answer 13

· 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)

Question 14

Settler vs non-settler societies:

Answer 14

· Berry et al. (2006) distinguished between
- “settler societies” (e.g. Australia, Canada, USA)
- “non-settler societies” (e.g., France, Germany, Sweden, UK)
· Some key results:
- Integration more common in settler societies
- Separation predicts psychological adaptation better in non-settler societies
- Also varies with culture of origin

Question 15

Strategies of dominant group:

Answer 15

· Multiculturalism:
- Integration
- Needs policy and values
· Melting pot:
- Assimilation
- Also ‘pressure cooker’
· Segregation:
- Separation
- Also ‘rejection’
· Exclusion:
- Marginalisation
- Extreme = ethnocide

Question 16

Cultures and identities:

Answer 16

· Self-categorisation theory (Turner et al., 1987)
- Intercultural context -> cultural identities
- Culture used to define self
· Social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979)
- Striving for positive cultural distinctiveness
- Also maintain cultural continuity against threat
- Threats to majority and minority identities
· (reviewed by Schwartz, Vignoles, Brown & Zagefka, 2014)

Question 17

Majority group identity processes:

Answer 17

· Cultural majority members MAY feel threatened
· Symbolic threats to national identity
- Different cultural practices could undermine distinctiveness and/or continuity
- Depending on how national identity defined
· Realistic threats to social dominance
- Perceived competition or loss of privileges
· Reject minority members or identity expressions
- Intergroup hostility, prejudice, discrimination
- Assimilationist policies
· (reviewed by Schwartz, Vignoles, Brown & Zagefka, 2014)

Question 18

Minority group identity processes:

Answer 18

· Minority cultures rejected by majority
· Perpetual foreigner syndrome (Wu, 2001)
- Assimilation required but not possible
· Segmented assimilation (Portes & Zhou, 1993)
- Assimilation to a pan-ethnic minority identity
· Reactive ethnicity (Rumbaut, 2008)
- Rejection  identification  wellbeing (Branscombe et al., 1999)
· (reviewed by Schwartz, Vignoles, Brown & Zagefka, 2014)

Question 19

Globalisation 1:

Answer 19

· Intercultural relations on global scale
- NB cultural contact no longer depends on geography
· All cultural groups inhabit broader global context
- Global culture ≈ Western culture
- Americanisation, Westernisation, McDonaldisation
- But also Japanisation, World Music, etc.
· Local and global cultural identities
· (see Jensen, Arnett, & MacKenzie, 2011)

Question 20

Globalisation 2:

Answer 20

· Pressures to maintain cultural differences
- Loss of distinctiveness would be loss of identity
- Anti-globalisation movements (e.g. anti-capitalism protesters, fundamentalists, national separatists)
- Tourist gaze values cultural ‘authenticity’
- “Westernised” identity can also be distinctive
· (see also Jensen, Arnett, & MacKenzie, 2011)

Question 21

What is the future of culture?:

Answer 21

· Increasingly problematic to treat nations as self-contained sociocultural systems
- International mobility (tourism and migration)
- International mass communication
- Changes in eco-cultural context
· Yet cultural differences persist
- Development in parallel
- Maintaining cultural distinctiveness