Culture Shock
- 1. THE FIVE STAGES OF CULTURE SHOCK By Paul Pedersen Professor Emeritus Syracuse University, Visiting Professor, Department of Psychology University of Hawaii
- 2. WHAT IS CULTURAL SHOCK? ⢠First, familiar cues about how the person is supposed to behave are missing. ⢠Second, values the person considered desirable may no longer be honored. ⢠Third, the disorientation of culture shock creates an emotional state of anxiety. ⢠Fourth, there is a dissatisfaction with the new ways and an idealization of the way things were back home. ⢠Fifth, recovery skills that used to work before do not seem to work any more. ⢠Sixth, there is a sense that this is a permanent condition that will never go away.
- 3. THE FIRST STAGE The initial contact, or the honeymoon stage, is when the newly arrived individuals experience the curiosity and excitement of a tourist without any corresponding sense of responsibility for their own behavior.
- 4. THE SECOND STAGE The second stage involves disintegration of familiar cues and overwhelms the individual with requirements of the new culture. The individual typically experiences self-blame and a sense of personal inadequacy for difficulties encountered.
- 5. THE THIRD STAGE The third stage reintegrates new cues with an increased ability to function in the new culture. However, the emotions associated with this third stage are typically anger, blame, and resentment toward the new culture for having caused difficulties unnecessarily.
- 6. THE FOURTH STAGE The fourth stage continues the process of reintegration toward gradual autonomy and increased ability to see both bad and good elements of the old and new culture.
- 7. The fifth stage is when the individual has achieved a bicultural identity and is able to function in both the old and the new cultures. THE FIFTH STAGE
- 8. COPING WITH CULTURE SHOCK ⢠Change is almost always uncomfortable ⢠Being adjusted âback homeâ is not helpful in a strange place ⢠Protect your personal integrity ⢠Allow time ⢠Recognize patterns ⢠Label symptoms ⢠Prepare yourself for culture shock
- 9. CONCLUSION ⢠Culture shock occurs whenever we face a crisis. ⢠You can learn things through culture shock. ⢠When things start to get better there is more danger.
- 10. CONCLUSION ⢠Culture shock occurs whenever we face a crisis. ⢠You can learn things through culture shock. ⢠When things start to get better there is more danger.