Acculturation

Studies

Lueck and Wilson (2010) Terms to define

• Acculturation

• Acculturative stress

• Assimilation

• Marginalization

• Separation

• Integration

Lueck and Wilson (2010) Aim

To investigate the variables that may predict acculturative stress in a nationally representative sample of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans

Lueck and Wilson (2010) Procedure

• Sample of 2000+ Asian Americans (several cultures)

• Aprox half of them were first-gen immigrants, the other half were born in the US to first-gen immigrant parents

• Semi-structured interviews (online or face to face)

• The interviewers had cultural and linguistic backgrounds similar to the participants

• A randomly selected sample of participants was contacted to confirm the information taken from their interviews

• The interviews measure the participants’ levle of acculturative stress, impact of language proficiency, language preference, discrimination, social networks, family cohesion and socioeconomic status on acculturative stress

Lueck and Wilson (2010) Results

• 70% of the sample experienced acculturative stress

• Bilingual language preference helped reduce acculturative stress (building support networks both in and ouside their community)

• Stress increased when the participants werent able to discuss sensitive issues in their native language with family members

• Speaking only english was linked to higher acculturative stress

• Experiences of prejudice, xenophobia, harassment and threads raised acculturative stress

• Sharing similar values and belifes within the family lowered acculturate stress

• Those satisfied with their economic opportunities in the US showed lower acculturative stress

Lueck and Wilson (2010) Evaluation

Wang (2010) Terms to define

• Acculturation

• Acculturative stress

• Assimilation

• Marginalization

• Separation

• Integration

Wang (2010) Aim

To test the realtionship between three dimensions of acculturation and positive psychological functioning

Wang (2010) Procedure

• Aprox 120 Cuban-American students living in the US

• All of the participants had at leat one parent born in Cuba

• Most were female, and 23% had been born outside of the US

• Recruited from an introductory psychology course and asked to fill in an online survey (all questions were presented in Likert-scale format)

• The dimensions studied were: relationship with Cuban culture, relationship with US culture and ethnic identification

• Positive psychological functioning was measured by levels of depression, anxiety and self-esteem

Wang (2010) Results

• Biculturalism was linked with more favorable outcomes (e.x. higher self-esteem, lower depression and lower anxiety)

Wang (2010) Evaluation

• Due to the participants’ background of the psychology course, conformity, education, priming or observer bias can arise, and make the participants change their behavior or answers due to their previous knowledge about psychology

Acculturation and studies general evaluation

• The use of questionnairs may result in demand characteristics

• Studies are cross-sectional (they do not observe change over time)

• Difficult to operationalize and measure the level of four outcomes in Berry and Sam’s model