Transcript Acculturation in Psychology: From psychological

Acculturation in Psychology:
From psychological anthropology
to cultural psychology
Dr. R. G. Tonks
Camosun College
March 26th 2002
Acculturation in Psychology:
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From psychological anthropology
to cultural psychology
Overview of systems in psychology
From the early days of psychology &
culture to contemporary studies
Cross-Cultural Psychology
Cultural Psychology
An Eriksonian interpretation of
identity and acculturation
Systems of Psychology
• Classic styles of the
history of psychology
involve examining the
systems or paradigms
of psychology.
• Beyond the various
specific theories and
perspectives two
broad worldviews are
present.
Two worldviews: Tonks (1997)
• Natural Science
• Objective
• Deductive
Explanation
• Human Science
• Subjective
• Interpretive
Understanding
• Literal
• Univocal Laws
• Universal(Etic)
• Expressive
• Equivocal Pluralism
• Contextual (Emic)
(Erklaren)
(Verstehen)
Experimental-Behavioristic vs.
Humanistic from Staats (1987)
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Experimental
Objective events
Atomistic
Laboratory
• General
(nomothetic)
• Precision &
Measurement
• Prediction & Control
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Humanistic
Subjective events
Holistic
Naturalistic
Observation
• Individual
(idiographic)
• Qualitative
Description
• Understanding
Staats con’t
• Scientific
Determinism
• Mechanistic in
Causation
• Passive Respondent
• Conditioning &
Modification
• Valueless Science
• Self-Determination &
Freedom
• Spontaneity in
Causation
• Originality, Creativity
& Activity
• Self-actualization &
Personal Growth
• Values in Science
Two Psychologies of culture
• Cross-cultural
studies the ‘causal’
relationships to
behaviour and
cultural
experience, with a
focus on the
generalisability
(Berry et al., 1992)
• Cultural principles:
• Mediation through
artifacts
• Historical
Development
• Practical Activity
(Cole, 1996)
The early years and beyond
• Many views present at the turn of
20th century including . . .
• Psychological Anthropology
• Völkerpsychologie
• Cross-cultural psychology
• Indigenous Psychologies
• Cultural Psychology
Psychological Anthropology
• Edward Burnet Tylor (1832-1917)
proposed a quantitative approach to
the study of institutions by looking at
their common features
• William Halse Rivers (1864-1922)
Studied sensory functioning in
"primitives" and refuted theory of
superior sensory acuity
Völkerpsychologie
• Lazarus & Steinthal (1860) Journal
of Folk-Psychology and Philology
• Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
Historical studies of language,
custom, myth, art, tools…
- Four Ages of Mankind
• Frans Boas (1858-1942) historical
& environmental influences on art and
mythology, language and thought.
Indigenous Approaches
• Malinowski (1884-1942) - need to
take the ‘natives’ perspective.
• Heelas & Lock (1981)
Indigenous Psychologies: The
anthropology of the self.
• Kim & Berry (1993) Indigenous
psychologies: Research and
experience in cultural context
Cross-Cultural Psychology
• Price-Williams (1979) identifies the
roots of Cross-cultural psychology in
anthropology but distinguishes it
from sociology with an emphasis on
the impact of the social setting on
the individual.
• Berry et al. (1992) identify CrossCultural psychology with the following
goals:
Berry et al. (1992) con’t
• Test and transport: testing theories
and hypotheses as universal ‘etics’
• Explore and Discover: in overcoming
testing ‘failures’ find new phenomena
• Integrate: bring together various
studies to establish a universal
theory of psychology explaining
similarities and differences
Berry’s Acculturation Model
• Anthropological Roots
• Based upon Multicultural Ideology
• Framework - fourfold classification
• Related Characteristics
Inroads from Anthropology
• Redfield, Linton and Herskovits (1936)
• Acculturation: "those phenomena
which result when groups of
individuals having different cultures
come into continuous first-hand
contact, with subsequent changes in
the original cultural patterns of
either or both groups"
(p. 149, italics added).
Berry’s Multicultural Ideology
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Political activism in Australia
Trudeau’s 1971 multicultural policy
The assumptions for positive identity
1 maintenance of cultural traditions
• 2 fostering of positive inter-group contact
• 3 development of tolerance for diversity
• 4 learning of the two official languages
The policy…intends to ...
. . . break down discriminatory attitudes and cultural jealousies
[where] National Unity, if it is to mean anything in the deeply
personal sense, must be founded on confidence in one's own
individual identity; out of this can grow respect for that of
others and a willingness to share attitudes and assumptions. . . .
and so contribute to a richer life for all. (Trudeau cited in Berry,
1984, p.354).
The Framework
tradition maintenance & other group contact
• Yes to maintenance
Yes to contact
• Yes to maintenance
No to Contact
• Integration
• Separation
• No to maintenance
Yes to contact
• No to maintenance
No to contact
• Assimilation
• Deculturation
• Marginalisation
Related Characteristics
• Integration almost universally
demonstrates a "substantial
relationship with positive
adaptation" (1997, p. 24). . . And
"integration seems to be the
most effective strategy if we
take long term health and wellbeing as indicators"(Schmitz cited
in Berry, 1997, p. 25).
. . . Continued . . .
• Marginalisation consistently is found
to be least successful in positive
adaptation (Berry, 1997; Sam &
Berry, 1996).
• Acculturative Stress has been
characterised as: “one form of stress
that is due to challenges in the
process of acculturation...”
Acculturative Stress
• “lowered mental health status
(especially anxiety, depression),
feelings of marginality and alienation,
heightened psychosomatic symptom
level, and identity confusion.”
(Berry et al., 1992, p. 284).
• Found to be higher amongst:
involuntary migrants, nomadic peoples,
women, more aged, middle phases,...
Acculturation & Identity
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Bridging Berry’s model with Marcia’s
Traditional Cross-cultural approach
Methodological concerns
Applying the acculturation model to
the ‘cultures’ of psychology
Ego-identity Framework
• Yes to search
• Yes to Commitment
• Yes to search
• No to commitment
• Achievement
• Moratorium
• No to Search
• Yes to Commitment
• No to search
• No to commitment
• Foreclosure
• Diffusion
Methods
• Subjects
Sample contained 111 females and 29 males
• Mean age was 21.37 years SD= 3.07
• Mean years in Canada were 16.97, SD= 7.42
• Measures include updated version of
Berry’s questionnaire (20 culture domains)
• EOMEIS-II - paper and pencil version of
Marcia’s ego-identity interview
• Jean Phinney’s (1992) Ethnic Identity
Development scale
Scale Means
Variable
Integration
Assimilation
Separation
Deculturation
Marginalisation
Mean
81.14
56.10
59.87
57.34
47.58
Standard Deviation
8.18
6.59
6.27
6.98
7.07
Ethnic Identity
Achievement
Achievement
Moratorium
Foreclosure
Diffusion
26.58
5.22
65.79
52.89
31.61
48.59
9.53
9.35
11.97
9.80
Methodological Challenges
• Questionnaire form of EOMEIS-II
doesn’t clearly distinguish Moratorium
from Diffusion
• Participants expressed concern over
double- barreled nature of acculturation
questions
The Cultural Critique
• Misra & Gergen (1993) critique Crosscultural psychology indicating that it
is about variables, not culture and
imposes western ‘etic’ dimensions
• Carl Ratner (1997) similarly suggests
that it involves: Fragmentation
(atomism) and Qualitative Invariance
(reduction of qualitative differences
to quantities)
Acculturation of
Psychologists
• Paranjpe (1993) indicates that the debate
between cross-cultural psychologists and
cultural psychologists parallels the conflict
over culture facing people in acculturation.
• Tonks (1996) follows this up, suggesting
that an integrative approach might best
serve both psychology and the individuals
performing research on psychology &
culture (i.e., Berry & Paranjpe)
An Integrative Approach
• Drawing from both traditions
• General Approach to find common
themes and predictive trends
• Specific Approach to find greater
meaning and personal experience
Metropolis Study on
Immigrant Youth Identity
• Participants: 53 immigrant youth ages
15 - 25 with a mean age of 19.9 years
from a variety of countries of origin.
• Measures:
Immigrant Identity Interview
enables exploration of identity and
acculturative styles along with stress
and adjustment.
• Quantitative and Qualitative
History Making of Identity
• Built on Erikson’s notion of identity
“A sense of identity means being at one
with oneself as one grows and develops;
and it means, at the same time, a sense of
affinity with a community's sense of being at
one with its future as well as its history--or
mythology” (1974, pp. 27-28, italics added)
Hermeneutical methods
• Case history making through ‘clinical’
interview methods. Using disciplined
subjectivity and grounding of case in
community history and identity.
• Rennie (1999) Grounded theory uses:
• Hermeneutics
• Sociology of knowledge
• Qualitative criteria
Elliot, Fischer & Rennie (1999)
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Provide a number of criteria, including:
Owning one's perspective
Situating the sample
Grounding in examples
Coherence
Resonating with readers
Participants
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36 females & 17 males from
Hong Kong (23)
Taiwan (16)
Asia (8)
World (6)
Age, Residence and Arrival
vs. Acculturative Attitude
Attitudes
Length of
residence
Age of
Arrival
Number
Separation
5.34
14.59
29
Assimilation
11.75
7.25
2
Integration
9.26
10.72
22
Correlations among Stress &
Arrival, Residence & Adjust.
Age of
Arrival
Length of
Residence
Years to
Adjust
Stress at
Arrival
.538
-.498
.624
Probability
.002
.005
.040
Number
30
30
29
• Vivian reported moderate (7) stress at arrival
due to loss of friends, 2 years later (10)
• "I start dating my boyfriend [at age 15]. My mom get
really, really, really crazy because my dad not living
here. Kind of like there is a major problem . . . .mom
like say kill me. She hate me so much she can't control
herself. And there is times that I don't want to go
home. I left home. I cry so many times. I find that
while I still live here, I hate it here so much, and my
mom too I think she gets so depressed, cause that time
my mom didn’t get work. She stay home all the time.
Like she has nothing to do.”
• Tony (age 14) reported great stress at arrival (9.5)
"I didn't [that I] feel belong to both groups. . . But I totally didn't
feel I belonged to the Canadian . . . [that] is one of the most
difficult time for me because you really don't feel like you belong
anywhere… I always missed my friends back in Taiwan. I missed
them a lot. And I felt troubled that I couldn’t understand why that
I didn’t have friends here. I guess one reason I acknowledge now
is that I was too young. There was just too many things that I
didn’t do now. I guess coming here at that young age, facing that
kind of problem, I think would be difficult for most people. And
of course there is so many other Asians living right here, I found
that people find different ways to cope with that problem. Some
of them sticks to their own groups, some of them who came a lot
earlier don’t feel that transition as much as people who came at
my age. And I mean there was a lot of confusion."
Percentage of people for
Birth Place vs. Acculturation
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Asia other World Other
Separation
61
81
25
0
Assimilation
0
0
0
33
Integration
39
19
75
67
Percentage of people for
Birth Place vs. Ego-Identity
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Asia other World other
Diffusion
0
6
0
0
Foreclosure
44
75
38
0
Moratorium
26
19
50
50
Achievement
30
0
12
50
Mean Age of Arrival &
Residence across Birth Place
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Asia 0ther World other
Age of
Arrival
12.3
15.6
11.1
8.9
Length of
Residence
7.4
4.7
9.0
10.6
Number
23
16
8
6
Mean Age of Arrival &
Residence across Family Type
Satellite
Astronaut
Intact
Age of
Arrival
15.4
11.9
10.8
Length of
Residence
5.2
7.7
8.7
Number
19
16
19
Mean “Other” Stress
across Family Type
Satellite
Astronaut
Intact
"Other"
Stress
5.5
8.3
8.1
Number
19
16
19
• Vivian talks about her mother:
“ She stay home all the time. Like she has nothing to do.
• Like I talked to my dad like for many times but still
like the problem wouldn’t solve that much. But like
as times go by, I think it take like one to two years
for our family to get more easier, get like, I don’t
know how to say it but that time is just so dramatic.
I don’t know how I handle it. . . . Yeah, very
difficult.
• Yeah, when I get older and when she accept me that
I have a boyfriend. I still have my boyfriend.”
• Marcus reports on his involuntary
migration as part of a ‘satellite’ family…
“Well, pretty bad . . . It’s not about like, like it’s two fold
right. One is that my parents didn’t listen to me, didn’t
listen to my feelings. That’s one thing because I’ve been
living in Hong Kong for eighteen years and then . . . like
they sent me here. Um, by that time I was really unsure
about this place and also I was worried because I didn’t
know whether I can get use to this life.
• That was one major problem because in particular like,
well my parents, well I will respect them but I wasn’t very
close with them because I was raised by a nanny. So…
....I usually talk to my friends and stuff and more than my
family.”
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Marcus reports feeling:
• "just depressed. . . Well, feeling not [like I] very much
want to go out because I don't know the place. . . Well, I
got depressed, I got depressed for other reasons now. . .
I’m not just like exaggerating. I’m more pessimistic person
[laugh] . . . . feeling negative all the time because things
are not that good . . . . I still feel shy especially in class . . .
I feel like uncomfortable just to say it out loud, like
drawing peoples attention because I think its interrupting
other people. . . . That’s why I think it’s important to know
about English. That makes you a lot more confident about
yourself."
Mean Stress Symptoms by
Stress Reported
Family Employment Friendship Language
# of Stress
Symptoms
5.67
5.5
3.5
3.78
Number
6
2
14
9
• Helen reported having a boyfriend, a fact
that her mother was enraged by. Her
symptoms included
• “Losing hair was the main thing. And I was actually scared
that I was going to be bald. [laugh]. Not that bad but then
when you wash your hair you think, ‘wow this is too
much.’ Actually, now it’s getting back and I have really
thick hair and but I just lost almost half of it when I came
here.”
• Language (ESL) was also a great stress for
her as she reports that ...
• “Basically I can say the counsellor wrecked my life
because he wouldn’t look at my problems and I go into, I
got into all regular classes just because my English teacher
was a horrible teacher and he even criticised me by telling
me that my English level in only in grade three. For me,
English was my strongest subject in Hong Kong. I can’t
say I’m really good but among a lot of student, I’m seventh
position out of two hundred and thirty eight so that is not
really bad over there.”
• “Then he put me into what they call communication
English, you can’t go into university directly if you have
that English because that is not ESL but it’s like not as
higher level English. And so that is why right after high
school I felt depressed and I’m like I’m not gonna ever get
into university.”
• “ . . . and then my parents was really upset cause for them
university is a big thing. They think the only reason why I
am bringing you here is to get a better education, to get a
better life. Not only a better life, but like want you to
become a better person. And if you can’t get into university
and definitely I will be depressed, I will be a worse person
[laugh] and my lifestyle is gonna be not as good. And
basically for them, “it’s a mistake for bringing you over
here.”
• “And one very thing for Chinese parents is they’ll never
blame anyone else but their kids. If you say this teacher is
a whatever, then they’ll say, “it must be you being bad.” It
must be you, not hard working enough. That’s why you get
a ‘c’ or ‘d’.”
Mean Stress Symptoms by
Person Talked to on “bad day”
No One
Parent
Sibling
Friend
Partner
# of Stress
Symptoms
4.2
3.5
1
2.36
5.4
Number
6
6
3
25
8
• Suni reports: "I don’t tell anybody of my bad things .
. . I don’t do anything. I just have to sit there and clear my
mind. That’s all I do. Or when I am stressed sometimes, I
get angry for some reason. Like anything that makes me
feel bad, I turn it into anger. And then I just like slam
doors, yell at people. Like I wouldn’t yell at my friends. I
would take it out on my family. Like even if my dad asked
me like an innocent question like, “what are you going to
be doing today?” I’m like “I don’t know!!!
• I feel bad, I do. And I still do that. I’m very irritable. I
really don’t know why. You can ask anybody in my family
like they will know it – she’s really moody”
• Mary (19) from Taiwan also reports that:
"I just keep to myself" and that the most
stressful sources is "the control from my
relatives and my parents and school work."
She experiences some trouble sleeping.
• Diana (20) from Britain has lived in Canada
for 8 years and reports having had severe
ulcers when she was younger, not long after
she first moved here. She Reports:
• "I can say it to myself, like I know if something is going
wrong, like, 'this is not right,' but I don’t, like I would
never tell my sister that something is going wrong. We’re
pretty close but I wouldn’t go tell her something is going
wrong. I would never tell my parents. I might tell (?)
depending on what it was that was going on.
• That’s an English trait I think. I don’t think that British
people talk about their feelings very much. So… But if
something is going wrong, you wouldn’t admit it if you
were English, privately to anybody.
• No, I don’t, if things go wrong I don’t tell anybody.”
• she responds to the following question:
• Q So what would you do, just sort of think about it?
• “Keep it inside. I had ulcers [laugh] for a long time.”
• After recovering from that earlier bout with stress
she has adopted techniques to combat it, including
writing it out and exercise, and she says that:
• "I think as I am becoming more Canadian, um…I talk
more about that kind of stuff. But I still find it really hard
to say something is going wrong. I do."
Gender Percentages reporting
language & mean “other” stress
Language
Stress
No Lang.
Stress
"Other"
Stress
Female
30
70
7.72
Male
71
29
5.33