Sociocultural Approach - Cultural Influences

Acculturation

Acculturation is a process of psychological and cultural change as a result of interaction between cultures. Involves language, customs, values, beliefs, and behaviors. It can result in both positive and negative outcomes, depending on the circumstances and the degree of adaptation. Can lead to challenges such as identity conflicts, discrimination, and loss of traditional cultural practices.

4 acculturation strategies:

Assimilation is when individuals are open to change and are unconcerned about the loss of their original culture. Individuals seek interaction with cultures other than their own and are willing to adjust their behavior, attitudes and beliefs. 

Integration is when individuals wish to interact with the dominant culture and be an integral part of this culture, while maintaining their own identity as well. Integrated individuals are bicultural. This can only be pursued if the dominant culture is open and welcoming and does not impose marginalization or assimilation.

Separation is when individuals value their original culture and are averse to losing touch with the values and traditions of their past. These individuals actively seek to avoid contact with other cultures.
Marginalization is when individuals have little interest in maintaining their original culture but at the same time little interest in opening relations with other cultures.

Enculturation

The process by which individuals learn and internalize the values, beliefs, practices, and cultural norms from gatekeepers in order to successfully function and respond to environmental demands.

Cultural norms are shared sets of values, attitudes and behaviors of a cultural group.  These help us to act in a way that is appropriate within our cultural environment.

Gatekeepers are those people in society who decide what information is shared to groups and other individuals.

Examples of gatekeepers are parents, politicians, religious or spiritual leaders, news editors, and teachers. Through a filtering process, these individuals decide what information is unwanted, controversial, corrupting or otherwise harmful to society and remove that information from circulation. The gatekeeper role normally starts in the home with parents controlling which messages their children need and which should be avoided.

Directly related to Social Cognitive Theory

Individualism / Collectivism

The degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. It has to do with whether people's self-image is defined in terms of "I" or "We". 

In individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only.  Self image is defined as “I” rather than “We”.  

In collectivist societies people belong to 'in groups' that take care of them in exchange for loyalty.

Loyalty in a collectivist culture is paramount and overrides most other societal rules and regulations. The society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group. In collectivist societies, offense leads to shame and loss of face, employer/employee relationships are perceived in moral terms (like a family link), hiring and promotion decisions take account of the employee’s in-group, and management is the management of groups.

Lyons-Padilla et al (2015) - Acculturation

A) Investigate how marginalization, especially when combined with discrimination, can lead to feelings of significance loss and how this may increase sympathy for radical interpretations of Islam or support for fundamentalist groups among Muslim immigrants in the U.S.

M) Nearly 200 Muslim-Americans (1st and 2nd generation) were surveyed. The researchers measured participants’ adopted acculturation strategy, experiences of discrimination (using an 8 item scale), level of “significance loss” (lack of self-worth), and support for radical interpretations of Islam / support for a fictional fundamentalist group.

R) Marginalization was significantly associated with feelings of significance loss, especially when discrimination was high.

Significance loss was positively correlated with:

Greater support for radical Islamic beliefs.

More sympathy toward a hypothetical fundamentalist group.

Integration was linked to lower significance loss, serving as a protective factor.

Discrimination intensified the negative effects of marginalization.

The study supports the idea that marginalization and significance loss are risk factors for radicalization. Promoting cultural integration and reducing discrimination may help prevent susceptibility to extremist ideologies by fulfilling individuals’ need for identity and belonging.

Lalonde et al. (2004) - Enculturation

A) Investigate the process by which culture (via your family) influences preferred mate characteristics.

M) Study made up of 97 2nd generation South Asian Canadians and 89 Euro-Canadians. All parents of South Asian Canadians had arranged marriages.

Using rating scales, measured family connectedness and preferred mate attributes.

R) Found that rates of collectivism was higher in South Asian Canadians compared to the Euro-Canadians. Also found positive correlation between the degree of family connectedness and preference for traditional mate attributes.

The stronger the family tie/connectedness, the stronger the cultural influence on mate preference.

Levine et al. (1995)

A) Cross-cultural study on college students from eleven different cultures that compared the importance people from different cultures placed on love when deciding whom to marry.

M) “If love disappeared, is the best thing to do have a clean break?”
“Is disappearance of love a reason for divorce”

“If a person had all the qualities you desired, would you marry them if you weren’t in love with them?”

The participants answered “Yes”, “No” or “Neutral” and the data were analyzed.

R) Participants from India, Pakistan and Thailand were the most likely to answer “Yes”, they would marry someone they didn’t love if they had all the right qualities. They also found a very strong correlation for love being a pre-requisite for marriage in individualistic countries like the USA, the UK and Australia. That is to say, participants from these countries were more likely to require being in love with someone in order to marry them. These results suggest that there is a correlation between the culture someone comes from and the value they place on love when getting married.