XIXth International Congress of
the International Association for
Cross-Cultural Psychology,
July 27-31, 2008,
Bremen, Germany
Chirkov & Boski Symposium:
Reflection on and analysis of current
acculturation research in psychology
‘Enculturation’, not ‘acculturation’:
Conceptualizing and assessing identity
processes in migrant communities
Peter Weinreich
University of Ulster
United Kingdom
p.weinreich@ulster.ac.uk
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Berry’s acculturation model
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Berry’s model of ‘acculturation
strategies’ is well-known and widely
acclaimed:
‘integration’
‘assimilation’
‘separation’
‘marginalisation’
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Berry’s model: Four assumptions
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1. Congenial dominant and heritage
cultures
2. Compatibility of dominant and
heritage cultures
3. Choice and strategy in relation to
dominant and heritage cultures
4. Well-being with respect to dominant
and heritage cultures
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Focus on assumption 3
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Choice and strategy in relation to dominant and
heritage cultures
False in two respects:
1) Conscious awareness of making gross identity
choices, or formulating acculturation strategies,
does not accord with the actuality of identity
processes
2) In multi-cultural contexts, the model’s
portrayal of wholesale acceptance and/or
rejection of mainstream and heritage cultures is
overly simplistic
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Beyond critique
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‘Heritage culture’ and ‘ethnic identity’
Ethnicity and ethnic identity consist of complex
agentic processes in socio-historical contexts:
more than a heritage culture of artefacts
The psychology of identity processes
Comprehending migration and ethnic identity
in multi-cultural contexts requires an awareness
of identity development and reformulation
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Ethnic identity
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Definition:
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One’s ethnic identity is defined as that
part of the totality of one’s self-construal
made up of those dimensions that
express the continuity between one’s
construal of past ancestry and one’s
future aspirations in relation to ethnicity
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Persistence of ethnic identity
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Long-term persistence of ethnic identity
that involves psychological and societal
processes that are in the political arena
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Contested, updated and reformulated in
socio-historical contexts, but with a
long-term intergenerational time-span
from ancestry to progeny, with
contrasting orientations
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Alternative perspectives on ethnic identity
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‘Primordialist sentiments’ contrasted with
‘situationalist perspectives’
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Developmental psychological processes accord
primacy to primordialist sentiments, such that
those who subsequently adopt situationalist
perspectives are in contestation with those who
remain primordialist
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Weinreich, Bacova & Rougier (2003)
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Ramifications for Berry’s model primordialist ethnicity: ‘separation’ ?
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Developmental primacy of primordialist
sentiments about ethnicity has
profound ramifications for Berry’s
notions of choices or strategies in
respect of dominant and heritage
cultures
For those with primordialist sentiments,
a resolute emotive orientation, choice is
not an option [‘separation’ category?]
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Ramifications - primordialist
ethnicity: ‘well-being’
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Primordialists tend to have the highest selfregard, such that those holding to
community-encapsulated ethnic identity
tend to have the greater sense of positive
self-regard
Their close identification with their own
ethnicity modulates little according to
mainstream or heritage context
Kelly (1989)
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Ramifications for Berry’s model situationalist ethnicity: ‘integration’ ?
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Situationalists have progressed beyond
restrictive primordial sentiments, and are
sensitive to alternative views-of-the-world
They could be considered as fitting into Berry’s
‘integration’ category, except that they
1) have not altogether relinquished the
substratum of primordialist sentiment
2) modulate their identification with mainstream
and heritage cultures according to social contexts
They too rarely make choices or adopt strategies
in respect of the dominant and heritage cultures
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Ramifications – situationalist
ethnicity: ‘well-being’
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Situationalists’ flexible adaptability
carries a cost in diminished self-regard
and greater stress, contrary to Berry’s
view that the ‘integration’ category is
the best in mental health terms
Their lesser self-regard also modulates
according to ethnic context
Kelly (1989)
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‘Enculturation’ not ‘acculturation’
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Fundamental to how migrants and
migrant offspring consider their
cultural heritage and that of the
dominant mainstream culture are their
identity processes from early childhood
through to adulthood
People’s identity processes are evidently
contingent on their biographical
experiences such that enculturation is
the operative consideration
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Why the term ‘enculturate’?
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Emphasis is on the human agentic quality,
whereby the person, through identification
with others, selectively follows through
specific enculturation processes, such as:
specific racial enculturation (‘black pride’)
particular gender enculturation (‘outing as gay
or lesbian’)
Ethnic/religious enculturation (‘Islamic umma’)
Simmons (2006)
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Continuing agentic enculturation
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These enculturation processes, perhaps not
earlier available, may become operative for
migrants who become aware of relevant
sections of the receiving society, and are
continuing agentic processes
They are continuations of biographical
developmental experiences, where in the main
agentic selection provides for greater
autonomy and innovative life-styles
The evidence challenges the notion of
acculturation whereby ‘mainstream culture’ is
monolithic and uniform
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Primordialist/situationalist
paradoxes?
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Those migrants with primordialist sentiment,
through continuing ethnic/religious
enculturation may become more stridently
primordialist
Those of more situationalist disposition,
while taking advantage of greater diversity,
enculturate elements that result in their
innovating new societal forms of their
ethnicity
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Identity processes in multi-cultural
contexts – theory and practice
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How can identity processes of migrants in
multi-cultural contexts be assessed (going
beyond critique of Berry’s acculturation
strategies)?
For example, that provides the evidence earlier
cited for:
the primordialist and situationalist orientations
to ethnic identity?
the greater modulation of ethnic identification
according to context in situationalists?
Self-regard and well-being?
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Identity Structure Analysis (ISA)
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The ISA conceptual framework consists of
psychological concepts and process postulates
It presents conceptual and methodological tools
for the empirical investigation of fundamental
identity processes that occur on migration and
in multi-cultural contexts
Weinreich, P. & Saunderson, W. (Eds.) (2003)
Analysing Identity: Cross-Cultural, Societal and
Clinical Contexts. London & New York:
Routledge/Taylor & Francis
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ISA: a nuanced approach to multi-cultural
inter-relationships
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ISA can provide evidence on:
the social and political ramifications of
primordialist and situationalist orientations
specific enculturated elements and the
manner they are used to appraise self and
others
degrees of identification with individuals
and ethnic groups according to context
psychological well-being and distress
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How ISA works
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ISA theory and practice – Weinreich &
Saunderson (2003): Analysing Identity
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Practical operationalisation – Weinreich
& Ewart(2007): ipseus computer
software
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Workshop (this Congress) - Ewart
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Conclusion: Enculturation, not
acculturation strategies
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Migration : new opportunities
Placing identity processes within the
wider socio-historical and the individual
biographical context (malign as well as
benign) emphasises that processes of
enculturation of elements or ‘partials’
of likely ‘disparate’ cultural heritages
are fundamental rather than
‘acculturation’ strategies and choices
ISA evidence – Horenczyk (2003)
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