Concept of Culture Shock

The meaning and terminology to identify “culture shock” was first presented by Oberg, who argued that “culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse” (Oberg, 1960, p. 142). This was referenced by Oberg to people who experienced culture shock when suddenly transferred abroad. It was suggested that such culture shock could be seen as a sudden realisation or mental block, with its specific indicators and that once the cause was identified, it could then be tackled or more easily dealt with. Agreeing with Oberg, David (1971) argued that culture shock was a regularly found phenomenonal experience for students who have come to a different country for study, and he further noted that in actual fact there was a clear decline in socio-personal adaptation; in addition, when a person is undergoing any kind of stressful event, there may be issues with behaviour Similarly, Adler (1975, p. 57) noticed that “culture shock is primarily a set of emotional reactions to the loss of perceptual reinforcements from one’s own culture, to new cultural stimuli which have little or no meaning, and to the misunderstanding of new and diverse experiences”.

Degree of Adjustment 7.0 - - 6.5 - - 6.0 - Honeymoon - 5.5 - Mastery - 5.0 - - 4.5 - Adjustment - 4.0 - - 3.5 - - 3.0 - - 2.5 - - 2.0 - - 1.5 - - 1.0 - Culture Shock - ( 0 – 2 ) (3 – 4 ) (4 – 6) (6 – 9) (10 – 12) (13 – 24) (25 – 46) (46 – 49) +49 Time in Month

Figure 3.1 Adapted from Oberg’s framework of the Degree of Adjustment

Oberg (1960) suggested that culture shock has different four stages in the process of experienced by sojourners (see Figure 3.1), desxcribed here.

1. Honeymoon stage: This stage is when the person first arrives and is caught up in the fascination of the new country, so is quite optimistic about expectations. Depending on the situation and the experiences of the individual, the duration will be unknown, and could possibly occur within days or expand to multiple months ahead. This may be related to how soon they are expected to settle down to an everyday routine, and they are no longer viewing the visit as a short stay. During this step, the person travelling to a new country is in most cases involved present signs of being involved with their newly exposed culture around them, however, not to the extent that they encounter any real problems. This stage is likely to include those who are on short courses or even as tourists, where they do not need to interact much with the new culture. It is only when they realise that this is an extended visit that they begin to realise the inevitability of facing and dealing with real their everyday life challenges; these are in areas for example communication, accommodation, transport, plus food and clothes shopping.

2. Grief stage: Within this stage, the sojourner starts to feel frustrated, anxious and angry which may be characterized by him or her having negative, perhaps even hostile feelings towards the host country; they therefore begin to have an increased association with fellow sojourners. It is within this stage that they find they have to deal with a number of issues in transitioning, and that it is not as easy as in their own country; this may be because of language issues or lack of support. If the sojourner cannot pull him or herself out of this stage, then it can lead to problems such as depression or a feeling of lack of control over events.

3. Recovery stage: This stage is a process of where the individual begins to accept the situation and tries to find a way to deal with it by starting to learn more about the new culture. It will be seen that the sojourner makes attempts at increasing his or her language skills and starts to get out and about in the new environment. There is also the recognition that the individual can use their sense of humour and laugh about things. This is a stage where many sojourners remain, although it does not have a negative impact on their experience in the new country. However, from here it is now that the sojourner can step forward to the final stage of being fully recovered.

4. Full-recovery stage (Mastery): This means adjustment is about as complete as possible, anxiety is largely gone, and new conventions are accepted and enjoyed. The sojourner is reflecting at their leisure on the experience and adapting well in their newly exposed culture.

Many other authors who are researching and applying these stages follow them in the same order, but they adopted different terms or name. One such author has a four-stage theory: Richardson (1974) labelled them as going through depression, experiencing elation, making efforts to recover and becoming acculturated; while Adler (1975) added a further stage to the process and actually identified that five different steps include making contact with others, possibly isolating oneself and not integrating with others in the new cultural surroundings, investing in new efforts of reintegration, and becoming autonomous and independent. Basically, they all chart the emotions experienced by a newcomer in coping with their newly exposed soundings; for some the process is relatively quick, but for others it becomes a prolonged process that can lead to psychological issues (Chen, 2009; Hener, Weller, & Shor, 1997). The psychological changes in individuals, according to this acculturation process, have been shown in Zhang’s (2012) study of Chinese students at US universities. However,

study. The feelings that international students may experience in coming to the UK to study may be modified by certain coping strategies and it is therefore important to include the concept of culture shock in the framework for this study. It has been suggested that everyone moving environments will suffer from culture shock to a certain extent, therefore the impact of this cannot be discounted.