Culture Shock as Theoretical Frameworks - Research Paper Example

? Culture Shock Introduction Culture shock refers to the problems faced by an individual to adjust himself in a cultural setting which is different from his or her culture. It is essentially a personal experience and cannot affect every individual alike. Even for a particular person, it affects him in different ways at different instances of occurrence. Contacts are gradually increasing within and also amongst societies. For instance a person might travel to a different society, usually a different nation to pursue education or his or her profession. A culture shock takes place within every person who undergoes or experiences something quite unfamiliar to him or her. Even if a student is not aware of the culture shock, he or she is always aware of the differences in culture and social setting. A student in this context is basically a sojourner who stays temporarily in another social setting. So is a worker or the missionaries or armed forces. In order to perform efficiently it is important for these people to adapt to the new culture. This adaptation might be costly to them in terms of both individual and physical health conditions. The United States has been witnessing the largest inflow of foreign students. The exchange of education provides a very useful instance to reflect this phenomenon. In 1955 the number was around 34000 from the overseas and it grew to 450000 in 1996. As a result of the rising levels of migration from the economically backward nations to the wealthier ones, the societies are moving form predominantly mono-cultural to multicultural setting. Societies of US, Britain and Canada are eventually transforming themselves into culturally diverse ones. As the ambience of an individual changes or as the person relocates to a different cultural background, he or she needs to build some new perspectives or thoughts along with behaviors in order to fit into the new surroundings. A culture shock is basically a process instead of being a particular event and its impact grows weaker as it recurs in the life of the same person. This is because the individual learns new strategies to adapt to these changes once he faces the new situation. (Pederson, vii) The paper will emphasize upon the culture shock related experiences encountered by students who move abroad to earn a foreign degree and eventually work there or return to their home country. Culture Shock – theoretical frameworks A culture is referred as the collective psychological plan formation of the human mind. While the time one takes his food is decided by his human nature driven by hunger, the way the food is eaten is decided by one’s culture (using fork or using hands). Again whether an individual is going to choose the fork and knife to eat i an individual decision irrespective of what the cultural programming suggests or what the society infers.(Nunez, Mahdi, and Popma, 5) The theoretical setting of similarity attraction hypothesis is applicable in this circumstance. This hypothesis states that an individual tends to interact, feel comfortable with and trust people with whom they share something common in the cultural settings. This might include religion, values and beliefs apart from interests and other characteristics. Cross cultural communications occur between the people who tend to differ in terms of these essential characteristics. Another theory which might be studied in this respect is the cultural distance hypothesis. In this theoretical setting, the geographical distance plays a major role in understanding the cultural differences. For instance Australia and New Zealand are comparatively more similar in terms of cultural setting compared to India and USA. The more the cultural distance is, the greater is the probability of experiencing cultural shock. In fact empirical evidence can prove that Australian executives are more comfortable working in Auckland than at Taipei (Ward, Bochnan and Furnham, 9). The experience of a student who moves aboard for his studies usually undergoes five stages of culture shock. Peter Alder has proposed the importance of this stage theory. These stages are described as parts of an instructive and developmental procedure which incorporate both positive and negative outcomes. The first stage is the honeymoon stage where the individual just arrives in a new land. The student still identifies with the people of his homeland but is also excited about the new society with the curiosity of a tourist. The second stage identifies with the subsequent period of difficulties which the individual faces for the first time. He goes through a feeling of self blame or inadequacy experienced because of not being able to meet the requirements of the new social setting. The third stage comprise of a process of adjustment the individual goes through. This is referred to a process of reintegration by adapting to the new values. The individual is able to evaluate the good and bad elements of both the cultural backgrounds. This is also the stage when a person has almost reached a bicultural background and a balanced perspective arises. The fifth stage suggests that the student is able to deal with both the cultures and has achieved bicultural background. Usually, whether this stage is finally achieved or not remains a controversy and when this stage of multiculturalism cannot be reached the student is found in a stage of culture shock. There are also other models of adaptation to the multi-cultural set up and failure to adjust which finally leads to a culture shock. These models usually follow a U- curve where the process of adjustment begins form a comfortable zone and moves down to a stage of hostility with the self where the two cultures are in constant conflict and then it gradually moves up the curve to a comfort zone incorporating both the cultures and all the individual features. The idea working behind this U-curve model is that with time the process of adjustment to stress and adaptation becomes easy as the individuals’ “internal capacity to cope” enhances (Pederson, 4). However several weaknesses have been found in this hypothesis. The process of adjustment might not be a smooth linear function. Unlike the case of adjustment procedures, there has been less research which highlights culture shock phenomenon or describes various stage in which the shock occurs. Traditionally culture shock models described this phenomenon as a disease which might result in an impermanent or everlasting disability which may or may not be cured with the right kind of treatment. The culture shock is often described as a reaction of the foreign students who might mourn for the people they left back at home. The process might also be explained as that of the “survival of the fittest”. Such a shock originates from a conflict of values leading to further clashes and misperceptions. Sometimes the reason behind culture shock is traced back to a lack in social skill where those students who have lack in the same will find problems in adjusting to the same. The incidence or level of the shock however relies on previous inter-group associations, and circumstantial aspects. Reasons behind relocation and cultural differences A student might decide to relocate for a wide range of reasons. Normally they do so in search of better earning opportunities, to know about the pattern of foreign education systems which might be more in demand within the domestic country especially in the professional scenario. In the topical times, employers consider candidature with international business and cultural background of high value. The large level of exchange that takes place in ideas, fellowships, scholarship programs have ensured that a large number of students are going to the western countries especially and getting absorbed in the foreign culture. The tenure of study might last form six months to three years or even more depending upon their decisions to stay or work in the foreign land. Though American students also move out of their country to study the number is insignificant in front of the number of students who move to America from other nations to get enrolled in the highly esteemed American institutions (around 400000 foreign students in comparison with 89242 American students who moved out) (Haynes, 85). The forces of globalization have a strong impact on education system. Many immigrants from the Middle East and Africa have tried to merge into the education culture of places like America and Europe. The international communication system has enabled every student to gain access to the best teachers and most innovative ideas or knowledge base. In this backdrop the students who are not ready to accept a lifelong educative environment and those who cannot integrate knowledge from various streams of education and languages cannot have access to the expected levels of well being and economic privileges. The students who cannot respect the other cultures are more than likely to feel left out and might even experience a rising resentment. Such factors essentially contribute to the difference between economic status and the conflicts of cultures across the world. The challenge to education is to give form to the “cognitive skills, interpersonal sensibilities, and cultural sophistication of children and youth whose lives will be both engaged in local contexts and responsive to larger transnational processes” (SuA?rez-Orozco & Qin-Hilliard, 3). Two areas are to be dealt with – paradox of complexity and paradox of difference. The paper here concerns the paradox of difference. Now, this will incorporate the cultural adaptability and ethnic identities. By the commencement of the 21st century the “color line” in US is becoming more complex in nature owing to the gradual mobility in political and cultural boundaries which at one point of time distinguished the nations as well as the people residing within them. Such “cultural communications and miscommunications” get reflected in the schools as well as workplaces. As Geertz puts it “all modern nations….contradict themselves: they contain multitudes” (SuA?rez-Orozco & Qin-Hilliard, 4). Such interactions might at times result in conflicts. For instance, the western concept proposes the freedom to choose one’s spouse or marriage partner. However a student who is a native of the Middle East might find this idea of love marriage “culturally incomprehensible” and this would be surprising to his Swedish classmate (SuA?rez-Orozco & Qin-Hilliard, 4). Now, easing out these differences requires a certain investment of energy levels which need to be used and connected in order to strengthen the ability of human intellect to understand multiple viewpoints. Negative emotions strengthening the chance for a culture shock Practically, research in the area of cultural shock refers to the exposure of people to cultural impacts which are unfamiliar or unknown to them. An individual who traveled between cultures does not find life to be very easy. Despite the fact that such interactions between cultures have some positive outcomes as well, the negatives seem to outweigh the positives. Certain fields however deserve further research. For instance it is important to trace what aspects of cultural differences affect an individual and to what extent (Furnham and Bochner, 247). First and foremost it is important to do away with the fears while looking forward to a proper life in US. When person is scared it takes aware the impetus to work effectively and with commitment. Hence the expected outcome is not reached. Such reactions are common in circumstances of change mainly because human beings are often prone to resist changes and change requires n effort given quite consciously by an individual. This is a frequent emotion experienced by an individual who lands in foreign land. Fear arises out of uncertainty and the problem of indecisiveness which is the essential drives in life and help in making people economically successfully when carried out on timely basis. It is very common to miss one’s homeland and culture when he or she is in a phase of struggle. The fond memories of one’s home often tend to limit his or her courage to face the world. Often this fear, coupled with nervousness, compel people to return homewards (Amy). Culture shock for sojourners and American born Arabs Taking the instance of the Middle East people or the Moslems coming to USA for studying could be interesting especially after the 9/11 occurred. Sometimes students come to USA from places like Dubai in order to complete their studies and then return tot heir homeland. At times they are found to interact with the Christians and being extremely tolerant of their religious traditions and are even helpful. a candidate from Syria was picked up in USA after the attack as he was wrongly suspected of having links with Al Qaeda and was taken to prison for a year. The case is different with the Arabs born in America (Bishai, 2004). In most cases English is the language they converse at home though in many cases they hold on to traditional beliefs regarding delicate issues like marriages. There are Egyptians staying in US who do not identify with the people of Egypt and claim to be Americans. Many of them have hardly visited their home country. the Pakistani movie In The Name of God (2007) highlights the impact of the 9/11 on the lives of harmless Moslems on one hand and on the other it depicts how a Pakistani man staying in Britain brings her daughter to her homeland to get her married to someone from their religious background despite the fact that she was born and brought up in Britain and was in no way like a traditional Moslem bride. However, despite coming to US as a sojourner, I received immense help from the natives of America who helped me with my language apart from other things and have been quite friendly in their disposition towards me. Hence going by the theoretical framework explained before, my journey along the U-curve was quite smooth. As stated before culture shock is a personal experience and the same might differ in case of different individuals. In my case it was far form being a shock. I was rather surprised because of the notions I had in mind when I landed here. The welcome I received from the other American students revealed their acceptance of my culture. The American host family I lived with even took the trouble of cooking chicken since I would not eat pork. I found my religion and language being respected and these experiences helped me change my outlook which is far from what the media preached. Conclusion The countries have come closer with the closeness in the economy and it is common nowadays to experience the society as a multi-cultured one. People from a country moves to the other countries to integrate into the society. The people from the other countries bring some distinctive cultural traits with them, which become part of the society. USA has become one of the most developed economies of the world. The development of the economy in the country attracted people across the world. They went to the USA to be part of the development and make them economically stable. A practice has emerged in the case of imparting education to the diverse group of students. In the modern world, the teachers have understood the value of providing education according to the ethnicity of the students. They have comprehended the importance of the culture in the education process. They try to embed the culture into the education of the students. This helps the students to develop their education. The main aim of this kind of teaching is to make the students aware of the mainstream culture and in the same time recognize the importance of their individual culture. As Gloria Ladson-Billings says, "It is an approach that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills and attitudes" (Culturally responsive teaching, n.d.). The subject of culturally responsive teaching has become important in the modern world because the teachers have understood that the culture helps the students to develop the thinking process and thus shapes up their future. References 1. Bishai, Sally. Mid-East meets West. iUniverse, 2004. 2. Nunez, Carlos, Mahdi, Raya Nunez and Laura Popma. Intercultural Sensitivity, Uitgeverij Van Gorcum, 2007 3. Pederson, Paul. The Five Stages of Culture Shock, ABC-CLIO, 1995. 4. SuA?rez-Orozco, Marcelo M. & Desiree Qin-Hilliard, Globalization, University of California Press, 2004 5. Haynes, Cassandra. “World Class Learning”, Black Enterprise. (May 1998.) 28.10, p.85 6. Furnham, Adrian and Stephen Bochner. Culture Shock. London: Taylor & Francis, 1986. 7. C., Amy, “All About Culture Shock”, Ezinearticles. 2011, April 7, 2011 from: http://ezinearticles.com/?All-About-Culture-Shock---A-Brief-Introduction-on-Why-We-Experience-Culture-Shock-and-Its-Symptoms&id=2698837 8. Culturally responsive teaching. (n.d.). Available at: http://knowledgeloom.org/practices3.jsp?location=1&bpinterid=1110&spotlightid=1110 (Accessed on 12th May, 2010) 9. Mansoor, Shoaib (director), Fawad Khan and Iman Ali.In The Name of God [movie], Geo Films, 2007 10. Ward, Colleen, Bochnan, Stephen and Adrian Furnham, The Psychology of Culture Shock. London: Routledge, 2001. Read More