Sociocultural Approach: Cultural Norms (Enculturation and Acculturation)

Cultural norms

Unique set of attitudes, beliefs and behaviors specific to a particular culture

Culture

Unique information system, shared by a group and transmitted across- generations (cultural transmission i.e. teaching)

Socialization (i.e. learning)

Process in which social norms are incorporated by individuals
-Learning as a universal process

Enculturation (i.e. learning)

Immersion in your OWN culture and acquisition of the cultural norms
Process of learning a culture as it takes place in a specific culture

Acculturation

Acquiring the cultural norms of a different culture

• Internalizing the norms of the dominant culture where you have migrated
  Example: when a person moves to a different country

Globalization

increasing interconnectedness among all cultures

• acculturation to a global culture

Theory behind Chiu, 1972

Socialization practices and cultural norms influence the cognitive style of students in China and the US

Participants in Chiu, 1972

221 Chinese, 316 US; comparable SES and rural communities
Grades 4 and 5

Key questions raised about the bidirectional relationship of culture

Is enculturation a passive or active process?
How does enculturation influence cognition?
Do enculturation and acculturation interact?

Bidirectional Relationship of cultural norms

Cultural norms influence the individual behavior and Cultural norms grow out of individual behavior

What is the result of acculturation?

changes in both cultures

Who are usually the participants in acculturation research?

migrants

Who proposed the Four strategies of cultural change?

Berry, 1997

What are the Four strategies of cultural change?

• Bicultural/Integration
• Assimilation
• Separation
• Marginalization

Bicultural/Integration

Strong ties to ethnicity and large culture
"I am proud of both my ethnicity, but I identify just as much with my country

Assimilation

Weak feelings of ethnicity, but a strong sense of acculturation
"I'm an American, period."

Separation

Strong ethnicity but weak feelings of acculturation
"My ethnicity comes first; if I join the mainstream, I'm betraying my origins"

Marginalization

Connected to neither their ethnicity nor their dominant culture
'I'm an individual and don't identify with any group" or "I don't belong anywhere'

What did Berry conclude about acculturation and encutluration?

Enculturation and Acculturation are not necessarily opposite

Results of Breakwell, 1978

Those who did not go to games were the most vehement about their loyalty and showed most in-group bias
Why? presumably as they had a greater need to prove themselves as fans

Theory behind Trainor et al., 2012

enculturation is the result of active learning
Music is integral to all cultures but may be perceived differently; timbre may be considered pleasant or aversive.

Aim of Trainor et al., 2012

to test the idea that musical enculturation occurs through active learning

Two conditions of Trainor et al., 2012

6 months of active participatory music class
6 months experience music passively while playing with toys

Two dependent variables of Trainor et al., 2012

Sensitivity to western tonality: (tonal and atonal) measured by pairing toy with music (longer they played with toy, more music, greater preference)
Social development: active classes would have more socialization (measured by parent questionnaire)

conclusion of Trainor et al., 2012

Active music involvement promotes musical enculturation in infants
Seen in cultural tonality and social development

Who contradicted Trainor et al., 2012 theory that encurlturation was an active process?

Odden and Rochat, 2004

Conclusion of Odden and Rochat, 2004

Different cultures may emphasize different mechanisms of enculturation.
-They found that the Samoan culture utilized observational learning more than participatory learning

Aim of Kim and Omizo, 2006

examine the relationship between Asian American college students' enculturation and acculturation in relation to the development of identity

How did Kim and Omizo, 2006 measure enculturation and acculturation?

Psychometric questionnaires
-Enculturation: involvement in Asian American cultural behaviors
-Acculturation: involvement in European American cultural behaviors

Conclusion of Kim and Omizo, 2006

Enculturation and acculturation both independent but contribute to the development of identity

How has the definition of acculturation evolved?

Acculturation is the process of psychological and cultural change as a result of contact and interaction between cultures
-Both cultures experience change

Why dies acculturation research have limitations?

-Reliance on self-report data
-Correlational design
-Acculturation design is biased in one direction: poorer/more traditionalist societies to rich/more liberal countries

Negative acculturation effect

Healthy migrant effect diminishes over time
Acculturation contributes to unhealthy eating because migrants tend to move into cultures that promote unhealthy eating

Aim and method of Shah et al., 2015

Aim: study the association between acculturation and obesity
Method: Correlation

Conclusion of Shah et al., 2015

Acculturation may contribute to unhealthy eating behaviors, resulting in obesity

Which too researches are considered follow-up research to Shah et al., 2015

Ishizawa and Jones, 2016 (Asian migrants in the US)

Da Costa, Dias and Martins, 2017 (migrants in Portugal)

According to Ishizawa and Jones, 2016, what protective factors exist for Asian migrants?

-Lived in neighborhood with high migrant density
-Household retained original language

According to Ishizawa and Jones, 2016, where were protective factors most likely to exist

poor areas

Implications of Da Costa, Dias and Martins, 2017

Acculturation causes gradual changes in diet and/or lifestyle
More similar to native Portuguese

Who were the participants in Da Costa, Dias and Martins, 2017?

migrants in Portugal

Who were the participants in Ishizawa and Jones, 2016?

Asian migrants

criticisms of research into the effects of acculturation on health

• most research is uni-dimensional
• unclear what actually causes health changes
• Is it the process of acculturation or the culture one is acculturating into?