Cultural Adjustment
(Survival Kit for Overseas Living –L. Robert Kohls)
Cultural adjustment can cause intense discomfort, often accompanied by hyperirritability, bitterness, resentment,
homesickness, and depression. In some cases distinct physical symptoms of psychosomatic illness occur.
For some people the bout with cultural adjustment is brief and hardly noticeable. These are usually people whose
personalities provide them with a kind of natural immunity. Most of us, however, will have to deal with cultural
adjustment.
Culture shock vs. frustration: Frustration is always traceable to a specific action or cause and goes away when the situation
is remedied or the cause is removed.
Common causes of frustration: ambiguity of a particular situation
 actual situation doesn’t match preconceived ideas of what it would be like
 unrealistic goals
 not being able to see results: because of the nature of the work, because of the shortness of time of one’s
involvement
Frustration is uncomfortable but it is generally short-lived as compared to culture shock.
Cultural adjustment has two distinctive features:
1. It does not result from a specific event. Instead it comes from the experience of encountering ways of doing,
organizing, perceiving, or valuing things which are different from yours and which threaten your basic, unconscious belief
that your enculturated customs, assumptions, values and behaviors are “right”.
2. It does not strike suddenly or have a single principle cause. Instead it is cumulative. It builds up slowly, from a series of
small events which are difficult to identify
The Progressive Stages of Culture Adjustment
1.
First reaction to difference: How quaint!
2.
Point out the fundamental “sameness” of human nature
3.
Focus shifts to the differences, sometimes to such an extent that they become overwhelming
4.
Differences are narrowed down to a few and then are blown out of proportion. (For Americans, standards of
cleanliness, attitudes toward punctuality, and the value of human life loom large.)
Reactions to Cultural Confrontation Situations
Overall Symptoms
Withdrawal Symptoms
Aggressive Symptoms
Anxiety
Physical and/or psychological withdrawal
Compulsive eating
Homesickness
Spending excessive amounts of time reading
Compulsive drinking
Helplessness
Need for excessive amounts of sleep
Exaggerated cleanliness
Boredom
Only seeing other Americans or Westerners
Irritability
Depression
Avoiding contact with Spaniards
Family tensions
Fatigue
Short attention span
Excessive chauvinism
Confusion
Diminished productivity
Stereotyping
Self-doubt
Loss of ability to work or study effectively
Hostility toward Spaniards
Feelings of Inadequacy
Quitting and returning to US early
Verbal aggressiveness
Unexplained fits of weeping
Physical Aggressiveness
Paranoia
Deciding to stay put but permanently hating
the country and its people
Physical ailments and psychosomatic illnesses
Stages of Adjustment
1.
Cultural euphoria
2.
Cultural confrontation: Irritability and hostility
3.
Cultural adjustment (gradual)
4.
Adaptation or biculturalism
Cultural Adjustment cycle
Note that there are often two low points.
Responding to Culture Adjustment
1. Realize everyone experiences it.
2. Be ready to learn from it: there are different ways of doing things, not worse, not better.
3. Reread this info when you’re feeling down.
4. Pursue info gathering about Spain. Do research, ask people, read books.
5. Choose one or two areas and investigate them deeply: ie soccer, food
6. Begin looking for logical reasons behind everything that seems strange, confusing, difficult, threatening.
7. Trace “strange” behaviors to underlying values. (example of Egyptian)
8. Make a list of all the positive things you can identify about your present situation.
9. Avoid other students who are in a permanent state of complaining and culture shock.
10. Don’t succumb to the temptation to disparage Spain yourself. Resist making jokes and snide comments.
11. Work at maintaining a healthy sense of humor.
12. Find someone who has gone through culture shock and has a positive attitude now. Get perspective.
13. Make friends with Spaniards and try to develop one or two deeper relationships.
14. When asking for advice, focus on your feelings, not what you consider to be the causes of your problems.
15. Keep busy. Keep active. Keep your mind occupied. Don’t sit around and feel sorry for yourself.
16. Take a trip. When you come back, be open to having good “coming back home” feelings.
17. Become an unofficial ambassador of home, trying to correct misconceptions created by Hollywood.
18. Have faith that you will work through culture shock to brighter days ahead.
19. Be concerned about others in the program.
20. PRAY!!