A Study Of Culture Shock: A Sociological And Sociopsychological Perspective

The anthropologist Kalvero Oberg (1958) first introduced the term culture shock to describe the signs of anxiety that can occur when people bump into a new culture that presents very few familiar symbols or behaviors. In order to uncover the causes and characteristics of culture shock and find out effective methods to overcome the negative effects of this omnipresent social phenomenon, many scholars have probed the issue. Because of the complexity of the issue, researchers have proposed a variety of theories from different perspectives. The researches, however, remain unsystematic. To further the study of culture shock, the dissertation has two objectives: first, it furthers the discussion of causes and characteristics of culture shock, integrating and systemizing previous studies; second, it sums up the methods coping with culture shock.The 1970s and 1980s saw a rapid and systematic development of sociology and sociopsychology. This development offers new insights into the issue of culture shock and the studies on culture shock prosper. To further the discussion of causes and characteristics of culture shock and systemize them, the dissertation applies the principles of sociology as summarized by Gordon J. DiRenzo (1990) to the study, and quotes the related statements on sociopsychology as further theoretical supports. The reason is that culture shock is fundamentally a social and psychological phenomenon, and should be studied on the frameworks of sociology and sociopsychology. By so doing, the findings in the studies on culture shock are integrated into the frameworks of sociology and sociopsychology, offering a bird's-eye view of the causes and characteristics of culture shock. The principles of sociology and sociopsychology serve as the basis for thedefinition of culture, functions of culture, characteristics of culture, contents of culture, and the process of socialization as culturation. The theories on culture shock cited here include the disease model, the growth model and the stage theory of culture shock.To sum up the previous theories on the remedies for culture shock, the dissertation refers to the works by Furnham, Bochner and many other reasearchers. The approach of Social Skills Training (SST for short) is highly evaluated and recommended. Based on the theories of sociology and sociopsychology, the dissertation proposes that acculturation is a natural process that can lead to alleviated culture shock.This dissertation consists of six chapters.Chapter One serves as an introduction, which is concerned with the objectives and the organization of the dissertation.Chapter Two surveys the studies on culture shock. It first gives a brief review of the previous studies, categorizing them into four approaches. Then it elaborates on three established theories on culture shock. The three established theories are the disease model, the earliest description of culture shock; the growth model, represented by Berry, Furnham, Bochner, Juffer and others; and the stage theory of culture shock, first introduced by Lysgaard in 1955.Chapter Three integrates the previous studies on culture shock into the principles of sociology and social psychology, and thereby deduces seven rules of culture shock on the frameworks of sociology and sociopsychology. These rules cover the causes and characteristics of culture shock, and can offer implications for possible treatments of culture shock. The core of these rules is that the ultimate reason of culture shock is the thwarting of the needs of the culture travelers, and socialization as culturation exerts indispensable influences upon needs.Chapter Four mainly reviews the previous treatments of culture shock. These include pseudo-medical model, culture learning model, information giving, cultural sensitization, isomorphic attributions, learning by doing, and SST. The SST is highly evaluated and recommended. Based on the principles of sociology and sociopsychology, this chapter argues that acculturation is a natural way that can alleviate culture shock,...