ABSTRACT
The aim of this book has been to review the current state of knowledge about the determinants, effects and correlates of culture contact, the expression we have used to refer to interpersonal interactions between people from different cultural or ethnic backgrounds. The term ‘culture shock’ appears in the title of the book to draw attention to the fact that such interactions can be, and usually are, difficult, awkward and stressful. However, we have gone well beyond the original meaning of the term that was introduced by Oberg in 1960. First, unlike his early formulation that regarded ‘culture shock’ as a negative, passive reaction to a set of noxious circumstances, we have treated people’s responses to unfamiliar cultural environments as an active process of dealing with change. Second, we have introduced a model of ‘culture shock’ that explicitly distinguishes three components of this process: Affect, Behaviour and Cognitions, that is, how people feel, behave, think and perceive when exposed to second-culture influences. In turn, we have linked each of these elements to particular theoretical frameworks that provide a foundation for the empirical research exploring these issues. Finally, we have used the principle of cultural distance to account for the differences in the extent to which people experience and cope with ‘culture shock’.
