Plasticity of Culture

1
Plasticity of Culture

• delineate some aspects of an intra-psychic or
  psychological perspective on how acculturative
  processes work and how they come into play in the
  lives of Latino immigrants and their families.

2
Plasticity of Culture

• The mere fact of living in America begins to
  alter ones understanding of oneself and of
  others almost immediately upon ones arrival.

3

• Are they seeing who you think they are seeing?

4
Plasticity of Culture

• illustrating psychodynamic contributions to
  these processes should be viewed as complementary
  to the theorizing on acculturation and ethnic
  identity.

5
Plasticity of Culture

• psychodynamics of the immigrant experience and
  the factors that mediate them Each migration,
  together with its why and wherefore is
  inscribed in the history of the family and the
  individual. cont.

6
Plasticity of Culture

• They liken the immigration experience to a form
  of cummulative or tension trauma because of
  the character of the psychological stresses that
  are brought to bear. cont.

7
Plasticity of Culture

• However, ones personal psychological traits and
  capacities, in combination with circumstances
  surrounding the act of immigration (including
  ones reception by the host country) determine
  ones adjustment to those stresses.

8

• Beliefs and language are key to reality
  formations

9
Plasticity of Culture

• psychological impact of immigration typically
  stand on two propositions
• 1.) psychological resources available and
  quality of immigrants object relations, are
  viewed as cruciale.g. the meaning of
  developmentally defining emotional ties and how
  these exert a continuing influence on our
  capacity for engagement with others and with the
  cultural milieu.

10
Plasticity of Culture

• psychological impact of immigration typically
  stand on two propositions
• 2.) intensity of the stresses that are brought
  to bear upon the immigrant by reality during
  the course of the immigration experience are
  obviously a powerful factor in determining the
  character of the immigrants engagement.initialm
  ore enduringsubtle latent consequences

11
Plasticity of Culture

• Prominently featured among the stresses are
• 1.) encounter with new culture
• 2.) a new language
• 3.) threat to ones identity because of profound
  dislocation.
• An additional key variable is the loss of
  homeland and loved ones and the impact of being
  separated from them, ...engenders a process of
  mourning, which is universal to all immigrants

12

• A person that doesnt know oneself, can do
  nothing for others.

13
Plasticity of Culture

• The construct of acculturation is the primary
  explanatory tool that researchers use to
  understand changes in cultural attitudes, values,
  and behaviors that result from the immigration
  experience.

14
Plasticity of Culture

• researchers attempted to track trajectory of
  assimilation by assessing immigrants
  identification and involvement with the two
  culturesunder assumption that they would be in
  some assimilative continuum.

15
Plasticity of Culture

• also assumed that immigrants who remained
  caught between cultures,lacked support of their
  culture of origin and yet were not fully accepted
  by the host country,suffer higher levels of
  stress and alienation.

16
Plasticity of Culture

• they collectively fashion their own unique,
  familial cultural holding environment that is
  related to both American and Mexican cultural
  elements, but is simultaneously distinct from
  them.

17
Plasticity of Culture

• Dissatisfaction with the assumption that
  individuals must relinquish their cultural or
  ethnic identities in favor of mainstream cultural
  identification has fostered the development of
  models of acculturation that focus on the
  characteristics of acquiring a second culture.

18
Plasticity of Culture

• They models also attempt to factor in the
  marginalizing effects of racism and social
  devaluation and the way these potent forces
  problematize the constructs of acculturation and
  ethnic identity.

19

• Confinement occurs when your beliefs are not
  supported by your experiences

20
Plasticity of Culture

• bicultural and multicultural models are limited
  in at least one important way The lack a
  nuanced, ideographic understanding of the
  powerful ways in which individuals utilize
  cultural elements, psychologically, as part of
  their engagement with the world around them,
  including the people who are most important to
  them.

21
Plasticity of Culture

• Children do not begin to understand the
  construct of cultural experience until they are
  well into elementary school years, and not until
  adolescence do they establish a distinct sense of
  ethnic identity.

22
Plasticity of Culture

• We construct an understanding of cultural terms
  and what they mean or represent through the
  people around us. share a common cultural world
  with others in their community (such as language,
  social class, and aesthetic, culinary, and other
  cultural practices conventions)

23

• .A point of view or belief window is
  formed..and this reduces uncertainty of life

24
Plasticity of Culture

• Cultural terms are infinitely malleable, and
  they adhere readily to a variety of ideas,
  objects, and actions. In other words, we
  appropriate cultural terms and utilize them as
  psychological tools as we engage others around
  us.

25
Plasticity of Culture

• culture not only shapes and defines us, it also
  represents a social artifact to be appropriated,
  manipulated, and engaged in ways that tap the
  central elements of our psychological experience.

26
Plasticity of Culture

• There are nearly always subtle yet powerful
  undercurrents at work in our construction of
  cultural terms,cultural are ready-made tools,
  infused with personal meaning and readily pressed
  into service in our ongoing engagement with the
  world around us.

27

• How we treat others is really a reflection of
  how we think about ourselves.

28
Review Questions

• 1.) Does the acculturative process only apply to
  Latinos? Why, why not?
• 2.) What are cultural attitudes?
• 3.) In the context of Latino identity, what are
  cultural values and behaviors?
• 4.) Whats the difference between assimilation
  and acculturation?
• 5.) Are Latinos more prone to stress because of
  identity issues? Why, why not?
• 6.) Whats an example of appropriating a cultural
  term and using it psychologically?