Culture Shock, Reverse Culture Shock and Quality Outcomes

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Culture Shock, Reverse Culture Shock and Quality
Outcomes

• Program presented by Dr. Dennis White
• RYE District 6220
• dkwhite_at_itol.com
• USCRYE Conference, Evanston, Ill.
• Saturday, March 3, 2001

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Culture Shock, Re-Entry Shockand Quality
Exchanges

• What outcomes indicate a quality exchange?
• What is the relationship between quality outcomes
  and the phenomena of Culture Shock and Re-entry
  Shock?

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Ion the early 1980s, The AFS Exchange Program
attempted to analyze exactly what changes, if
any, students experienced as a result of a
year-long exchange. The results were published
in an article entitles, International Exchange
Programs - Are the Educational Benefits Real?, by
Bettina Hansel and Neal Grove. Some of the
results are summarized here. The original
article may eventually be posted at
www.studentexchanges.org
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An American Field Service Study

• All students applying to AFS exchanges were given
  a self-rating survey. (Pre-test)
• Those who did not go abroad (for a variety of
  reasons) became the control group.
• Those who went on one year exchanges were the
  experimental group.
• Both groups were re-measured on the same traits
  four months after the year-long exchange.

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AFS StudyPersonal Growth From an International
Homestay

• Awareness Appreciation of Host Culture and
  Country
• Exchange Student 15.5 points
• Control Group 0.4 points

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Personal Growth From an International Homestay

• Foreign Language Appreciation and Ability
• Exchange Student 13.5 points
• Control Group - 1.7 points

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Personal Growth From an International Homestay

• Understanding Other Cultures
• Exchange Student 8.1 points
• Control Group 2.7 points

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Personal Growth From an International Homestay

• International Awareness
• Exchange Student 7.5 points
• Control Group - 0.5 points

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Changes Beyond International Issues
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Personal Growth From an International Homestay

• Adaptability
• Exchange Student 6.5 points
• Control Group 1.5 points

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Personal Growth From an International Homestay

• Short-Term Summer exchange students
• showed more adaptability than year-long
• students.
• Perhaps this is an example of the Short-term
  students being in a honeymoon phase. The
  initial high doesnt always wear off in a
  month. Real adaptability may be harder than we
  think.

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Personal Growth From an International Homestay

• Awareness of Opportunity
• Exchange Student 6.5 points
• Control Group 1.75 points

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Personal Growth From an International Homestay

• Critical Thinking
• Exchange Student 4.5 points
• Control Group - 0.5 points

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Personal Growth From an International Homestay

• Non-Materialism
• Exchange Student 3.5 points
• Control Group - 2.1 points

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Personal Growth From an International Homestay

• Independence and Responsibility for Self
• Exchange Student 3.1 points
• Control Group - 0.5 points

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Personal Growth From an International Homestay

• Awareness Appreciation of Home Country and
  Culture
• Exchange Student 3.0 points
• Control Group - 0.75 points

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Developing Intercultural Sensitivity
The Experience of Difference
Acceptance Adaptation Integration
Denial Defense Minimization
Ethnocentric Stages
Ethnorelative Stages
Model developed by Dr. Milton Bennett, Portland
State University
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Denial Defense Minimization
Ethnocentric Stages
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Denial
Denying the existence of differences or even the
existence of other cultures or practices.
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And you thought they wouldnt like Americans. Why
their faces just lit up when I told them we were
Virginians!
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Defensiveness
Recognizing a cultural practice as different by
labeling it wrong or inferior.
Or, by labeling ones own practice superior.
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Minimization
Recognizing differences, but labeling them
relatively superficial, implying that, deep
down, we are all the same.
(Usually that they are just like us - never that
we are just like them)
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Acceptance Adaptation Integration
Ethnorelative Stages
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Acceptance
Accepting that another cultural practice is valid
(for that culture) whether one agrees with it, or
is skilled at practicing it.
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Adaptation
Developing skill at a different cultural practice
in order to function effectively in that culture.
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Integration
Developing the skill and ability to change
cultural practices and points of view, as the
situation calls for it.
Sometimes being so adaptable as to not be able to
identify strongly with any one culture.
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Developing Intercultural Sensitivity
The Experience of Difference
Acceptance Adaptation Integration
Denial Defense Minimization
Ethnocentric Stages
Ethnorelative Stages
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Culture
An integrated system of learned behavior patterns
that are characteristic of any given society. It
refers to the total way of life, including how
people think, feel and behave.
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Culture Shock

• The profound sense of disorientation and
  discomfort that comes with extended travel or
  living in a foreign culture markedly different
  from ones own.

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Stages of Culture Shock

• Initial enthusiasm and euphoria
• Irritability and negativism
• Gradual adjustment and adaptation
• Integration and bi-culturalism

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Therefore, culture shock is not a one-time
phenomenon.

• Rather, it is a repetitive process of
  increasingly subtle immersion into a culture.
• It often involves taking two steps forward and
  one step back.

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Developing Intercultural Sensitivity
The Experience of Difference
Acceptance Adaptation Integration
Denial Defense Minimization
Ethnocentric Stages
Ethnorelative Stages
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Developing Intercultural Sensitivity
The Experience of Difference
Acceptance Adaptation Integration
Denial Defense Minimization
Ethnocentric Stages
Ethnorelative Stages
Successive cycles of awareness
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Culture Shock Cycle
Rotary Youth Exchange
Months
Pre-Departure
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 Return ...
Normal Level of Feelings
Adapted from a model by Robert Kohls
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Normal Distribution of Any Cultural Trait
A typical student
Frequency
Amount of Trait
Example Individualism vs. Group
Orientation
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Comparing Two Cultures (on any given trait)
In this example, there is some overlap, but the
two cultures are mostly different
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Comparing Two Cultures
Pre-Exchange
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After Adaptation
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Culture Shock
After Adaptation
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Returning To Home Culture
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Reverse Culture Shock
Returning To Home Culture
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Reverse Culture Shock(Re-entry Shock)

• The often unexpected and difficult period of
  disorientation and readjustment experienced after
  returning to ones own culture after an extended
  period of living abroad.

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Most people anticipate some degree of culture
shock. Very few people believe they will
experience reverse culture shock.
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The Stages of Reverse Culture Shock are almost
the same as those of Culture Shock

• Initial Euphoria (may be very brief or not happen
  at all)
• Irritability and Negativism ( may be very
  lengthy)
• Gradual Adaptation
• True Bi-Culturalism

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Culture Shock and Reverse Culture Shock are not
just unpleasant side effects of international
living.

• They are the necessary ingredients that bring
  about quality exchanges.

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We can prepare students and their families by

• Helping them anticipate CS and RCS.
• Normalizing these phenomena.
• Reminding them of the recycling effect when
  developing intercultural sensitivity.
• Reminding them that compost happens.
• Discouraging the phrase The best year of your
  life. And instead explaining

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For many exchange students the year abroad is

• The most exciting year of their lives.
• The most challenging year of their lives.
• The most growth-producing year of their lives.
• The most broadening year of their lives.
• The most memorable year of their lives.

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We can prepare by educating ourselves about these
concepts. Being dedicated is good, but not
enough. We need to understand these concepts to
prepare our students.

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There is nothing as practical as a good theory or
a good model.We need to understand them in order
to help us predict training needs, student
problems, and our own issues as we work in the
intercultural arena
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If we attend to quality exchanges, the quantity
will follow
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