CROSS-CULTURAL
ADAPTATION
AN INTEGRATIVE THEORY
YOUNG YUN KIM
INTRODUCTION
•
DESCRIBES THE PROCESS OF CROSS-CULTURAL
ADAPTATION AS IT UNFOLDS OVER TIME
•
EXPLAINS THE STRUCTURE OF THIS PROCESS
•
IT IS BASED ON THREE ASSUMPTIONS (“OPENSYSTEMS”)
1. HUMANS HAVE AN INHERENT DRIVE TO ADAPT AND
GROW
2. ADAPTATION TO ONE’S SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OCCURS
THROUGH COMMUNICATION
3. ADAPTATION IS A COMPLEX AND DYNAMIC PROCESS
THE PROCESS OF CROSSCULTURAL ADAPTATION
• CULTURE IS DEFINED AS:
an imprinted pattern of knowledge, attitudes, values, perceptions
and a set of behaviors that permeate all life activities
Culture has a pervasive role in shaping individual behavior
• ENCULTURATION: culture gives status and assigns the role of
an individual in the life of the community (through socialization
process)
• ACCULTURATION: the process of learning and acquiring the
elements of the host culture
• UNLEARNING/DECULTURATION: losing or putting aside
some of the old cultural habits / new responses are adopted in
situations that previously would have evoked old ones
The Stress-Adaptation-Growth
Dynamic
• STRESS: the generic response that occurs whenever the
capabilities of the individual are not adequate to the
demands of the environment
Personality disintegration, state of disequilibrium
Activation of a defensive mechanism to minimize the
effects of the disequilibrium
Response behaviors: selective attention, denial, selfdeception, avoidance, withdrawal, or, hostility, cynicism,
compulsively altruistic behavior
The Stress-Adaptation-Growth
Dynamic
• Adaptation: stress is temporary; it leads to adaptation
because strangers strive to meet and manage the
challenge by acting on and responding to the host
environment
• Growth: the stress-adaptation experiences bring about
change and growth
internal transformation
 creative responses to new circumstances
 a crisis once managed by the strangers presents an
opportunity for a strengthening of their coping abilities
The Stress-Adaptation-Growth
Dynamic
 Overtime the stress-adaptation-growth dynamic plays out
NOT in a smooth linear progression, but in a cyclic and
continual draw-back-to-leap pattern
 Dialectic relationship between push and pull, or
engagement and disengagement in the psychological
movements of strangers
 Even those who interact with the natives with the intention
of confining themselves to only superficial relationships
are likely to become – given sufficient time – at least
adapted to the host culture “in spite of themselves”
Intercultural Transformation
OUTCOMES OF THE ADAPTATION PROCESS
1. INCREASED FUNCTIONAL FITNESS: synchrony
between strangers’ internal responses and the external
demands in the host environment
2. PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH: ability to
communicate and the accompanying functional fitness
in the host society / psychological well-being
3. INTERCULTURAL IDENTITY: the original cultural
identity begins to lose its distinctiveness and rigidity
while an expanded and more flexible definition of self
emerges
THE STRUCTURE OF CROSSCULTURAL ADAPTATION
• PERSONAL COMMUNICATION
HOST COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE
• SOCIAL COMMUNICATION
1. HOST INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
2. HOST MASS COMMUNICATION
3. ETHNIC INTERPERSONAL AND MASS COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS
THE STRUCTURE OF CROSSCULTURAL ADAPTATION
• ENVIRONMENT
1. HOST RECEPTIVITY
2. HOST CONFORMITY PRESSURE
3. STRENGTH OF THE STRANGER’S ETHNIC GROUP
• PREDISPOSITION
1. PREPAREDNESS
2. ETHNICITY
3. PERSONALITY TRAITS
a. Openness
b. Strength
CONCLUSION
• This theory portrays cross-cultural adaptation as a
collaborative effort in which a stranger and a receiving
environment are engaged in a joint venture
• Cross-cultural adaptation is ultimately the gift of the
individuals
• Cross-cultural adaptation is not an extraordinary
phenomenon that only exceptional individuals can achieve.
Rather, it is simply an incident of the normal human
mutability manifesting itself to the work of ordinary people
“stretching” themselves out of the old and familiar