Research On Influencing Factors And Acculturation Model Of Acculturation Of Tu People

When people with different cultural backgrounds come into continuous and first-hand interaction,a process of acculturation begins,which leads to subsequent cultural and psychological changes in either or both groups(Berry,1997).The two groups in contact with each other will mutually influence and experience cultural changes in acculturation process.However,one group has an advantage over the other forming a “dominant group” and a “acculturating group” in real life.Tu people,as one of the six native groups in Qinghai Province,mainly live in Huzhu Tu Autonomous County,Qinghai Province.The cultural changes in the new era of multicultural context have had a tremendous impact on the psycho-social system that Tu people have formed throughout history,and they will inevitably experience further acculturation.Besides,it is a must to take the complexity and uniqueness of Tu people's culture into consideration,hence acculturation of Tu people and its influencing factors are explored,and an acculturation model suitable for Tu people is proposed,which is of great significance to promote harmonious development of the society and to provide better developing platforms and opportunities,and stronger competitiveness for Tu people.Taking Berry's Acculturation Theory and Acculturation Model as theoretical support,the research explores Tu people's unique cultural situation by qualitative and quantitative research methods and probes Tu people' acculturation and its influencing factors.In this research,Questionnaire,Case Interview and House-Tree-Person drawing test are applied as research methods.SPSS19.0 and Amos 24.0 are adopted as analytic tools.What's more,the effects of personality and social support and some demographic factors on the acculturation are also discussed.On the basis of the above research,the acculturation model of Tu people is formed through data analysis and discussion.The whole research follows several scientific steps.Firstly,this research explores the major types of acculturation of Tu people through structured questionnaire(255 subjects)and House-Tree-Person painting(35 subjects,among whom 15 are overlapped with subjects of questionnaire).Secondly,this research probes the influences of demographic differences and individual differences on acculturation with the help of questionnaire(255 participants)and case interviews(55 subjects,among whom 25 are overlapped with subjects of questionnaire).Finally,based on the above-mentioned results and relevant references,this research forms an acculturation model for Tu people,which is expected to be an innovative exploration in the social academic realm in Qinghai Province,and hopefully to facilitate national unity and development and better acculturation for Tu people.The research borrows Berry's Acculturation Model and divides the acculturation of Tu people into four types of integration,assimilation,separation and marginalization.The concrete results reveal that integration ranks number one,followed by assimilation,separation and marginalization.Results of the effects of demographic differences(age,education level and region)and individual differences(personality and social support)exerting on acculturation show that age is correlated with acculturation positively.That is,the older Tu people are,the more easily they will choose separation.However,education level,birth place and region of residence are correlated with acculturation negatively.In other words,Tu people who have received higher education will be more inclined to choose integration,and those who were born and now live in town or city tend to choose integration.According to Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised,Short Scale for Chinese(Qian Mingyi et all.,2000),Tu people's personality includes Extroversion-introversion,Neurotic-ism,Psychotic-ism and Lie.Among them,Extroversion-introversion and Lie are correlated with acculturation significantly.Extroversion-introversion is positively correlated with integration,but negatively correlated with separation and assimilation.Lie is positively correlated with marginalization,but negatively correlated with integration and assimilation.On the basis of Social Support Scale revised by Professor Wang Xiangdong and Wang Xilin(1999),social support contains objective support,subjective support and support utilization.Social support is positively correlated with integration and assimilation,but negatively correlated with separation and marginalization.In accordance with the results of this research,both Direct Acculturation Model and Indirect Acculturation Model for Tu people are established with the help of relevant references and path analysis of influencing factors.On the basis of these two models,an Acculturation Model for Tu people is finally formed,on which psychological influencing factors(personality and social support)and social-cultural influencing factors(age,education level and region)mutually affect each other and keep balanced in the end.In addition,the researcher discusses the mechanism of acculturation and influencing factors.At the same time,she discusses the feasibilityfor establishment of an effective social support system.The ultimate goal is servicing for Tu people's acculturation in the new era of multicultural context.All these findings of this research provide pragmatic significance for facilitating national unity,demonstrating the intelligence and wisdom of Tu people,promoting the positive cycle of acculturation of Tu people,building up platform of better development,enhancing self-confidence and competitiveness.