First IACCP PhD workshop/Regional Summer School
June 28-30, 2011
Objectives
PhD students interested in cultural and cross-cultural psychology need to come together to
learn from one another and to receive specialized training from experts beyond their own
nationalities. Just as important as the educational objective, the IACCP Regional Summer
School would help to promote cross-cultural contact and understanding among future
academic leaders, along with the broadening of their academic visions beyond the confines
of their own localities.
STREAM 1
David Sam, University of Bergen, Norway
Acculturation and intercultural relations
One working hypothesis of cross-cultural psychology is that human behavior is an
adaptation to the eco-cultural context in which the person lives. A natural question to this
hypothesis is what happens to people when they move from the culture in which they have
been born and raised to a new and unfamiliar one? Arguably, when peoples of different
cultural backgrounds come into contact with each other, they may (or may not) adopt each
other’s behaviors, languages, beliefs, values, social institutions, and technologies. However,
precisely how and the extent to which this takes place is not straightforward. Also, the
consequences of this process for the well-being of individuals are not straightforward.
Moreover, the different groups of people coming together may, or may not be very
welcoming and receptive to each other.
In this workshop, we will address three broad questions: How and how well do groups and
individuals manage the change when they come into contact with another cultural group?
How do individuals and groups relate to each other in the resulting plural society; And how
do national governments manage the intercultural relationships? These issues will be
addressed during the first part of the first day of the workshop. During the second part of
the first day, participants break into small groups to develop their research ideas. Day 2 will
involve presentation and discussion of the generated research ideas.
Reading list
Benet-Martínez, V (in press). Multiculturalism: Cultural, social and personality processes. In
K. Deaux & M. Snyder (Eds.), Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology. Oxford
University Press.
Berry, J. W. (et al.,) (1997). Immigration, acculturation and adaptation Applied Psychology,
An International Review, 46, 5 – 68.
Berry, J. W., Poortinga, Y. H., Breugelmans, S. M., & Chasiotis, A & Sam, D. L. (2011). Crosscultural psychology: Research and applications. (3rd. edition). Chapters 13 & 14 (pp.
307 – 357). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [These 2 chapters will be made
available in Istanbul as hardcopy]
Motti-Stefanidi, F., Berry, J. W., Chryssochoou, X., Sam, D. L., & Phinney, J. S. (2011 in press).
Positive immigrant youth in context: Developmental, acculturation and social
psychological perspectives. In A. Masten, D. Hernandez, & K. Liebkind (Eds.),
Capitalizing on immigration. The potential of immigrant youth. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Ward, C. (2001). A, B, Cs of acculturation. In D. Matsumoto (ed). The handbook of culture
and psychology (pp. 411-445). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Recommended books
Berry, J. W., Phinney, J. S., Sam, D. L., & Vedder, P. (Eds). (2006). Immigrant youth in cultural
transition: Acculturation, identity and adaptation across national contexts. Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
A summary of the book can be found in
Berry, J. W., Phinney, J. S., Sam, D. L., & Vedder, P. (2006b). Immigrant youth: Acculturation,
identity and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 55, 303 – 332.
Sam, D. L. & Berry, J. W. (eds) (2006). The Cambridge handbook of acculturation. Cambridge:
Cambridge University press.