Oberg Theory Of Culture Shock

A sudden change in one’s surroundings can result in culture shock. Culture shock refers to the anxiety and surprise a person feels when he or she is discontented with an unfamiliar setting. The majority of practices or customs are different from what a person is used to. One may experience withdrawal, homesickness, or a desire for old friends. For example, when a person goes to live in a different place with unfamiliar surroundings, they may experience culture shock. Sometimes it is the result of losing their identity. In the article “The Phases of Culture Shock”, Pamela J. Brink and Judith Saunders describe four phases of culture shock. They are: Honeymoon Phase, Disenchantment Phase, Beginning Resolution Phase, and Effective

Cultural shock is a common feeling a person experiences when transitioning into a completely different environment and living situation. Throughout the world, immigrants experience many difficulties when assimilating into a new culture.

The chapter continued to discuss how people experience other cultures when they are removed from their area to a different place. This occurs in the form of culture shock people experience new traditions that are unfamiliar to them when the come to a place that is home to another culture. Human development may also include joining the ideas of various cultures and forming it into a new concept. It puts heavy emphasis on learning other cultures in an unbiased form in order to compare and make observations. This chapter also studies of culture have been able to advance over time and how change is an essential aspect of

As an immigrant child that was brought here to the United States when I was a child, I definetly had culture shocks from both sides. Growing up, Ive had seen people telling Mexican immigrants “Go back go Mexico, where you belong”. As a child that was born in Mexico but that grew up in the United States, I felt like I did not know where I belong. At the moment, I experienced three cultures; Mexican, American, and Japanase Culture. When I was about fifeteen years old I had encounterd culture shocks from my mexican and american cultures. It allowed me to change my way of thinking, that has benefited me since. Also, the affects of culture shock has lead to a positive change in my culture attitude.

Culture shock is the feelings of alienation, hostility, heightened ethnocentrism, sense of loss, depression and/or self doubt that may result from immersion in a new culture.

Culture plays a significant role in defining our identity and worldview. For newcomers, culture is the primary frame that shapes their interaction with other newcomers and with established residents in their new community. This interaction can occur anywhere and

Eckermann (2010), defines culture shock as segregation of two communities, creating conflict, inequality of rights, and inhuman treatment. Due to the divide, and Aboriginals being the minor group, they lost their identities and experienced tremendous stress and anxiety due to culture shock.

After fifteen months of living in Canada we found that we were suffering from culture shock and moved back to England in 2009. Culture shock was studied closely by a man named Kalervo Oberg. Trying to give a better understanding of this phenomenon he stated that, “culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse” (). It is known that when suffering from culture shock you can feel “disorientation, alienation, depression, and loneliness” (textbook). For my family and I, we found that we were not fitting in the way we expected to, my father could not find employment, my mother did not have a work permit so she also could not get a job, we were running out of money, and felt like we did not have any other choice but to move back home. Our decision to move back to England seems to be very common choice as Oberg also stated, “all the difficulties and problems are

Pederson (7) explains that there are stages of culture shock, which he identifies as the honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and adaptation. In the honeymoon phase, a person is likely to get excited about being in a new place, meeting new people, tasting new foods, and acquiring new habits. However, as time passes by, they get into a phase of negotiation, where the differences between the culture one is used to and the one they find themselves in start to become apparent. Feelings of anxiety, anger, and frustrations start to take shape as unfavorable events perceived as strange come in the way of the person 's life, especially if a person does not feel accepted in the new culture (Mukherjee 273). Loneliness may set in, and the urge to go back to the familiar culture strongly comes into play. However, as time goes by, adjustment sets in, usually within six to twelve months, and one gets accustomed to the culture and also comes up with a routine. By this phase, one knows what is expected of them, and life once again becomes ‘normal.’

culture in order to fully become part of a different society (“Assimilate”, 2015). This type of

An attitude are the long lasting beliefs, feelings, and behavioral responses towards social objects such as other people or issues (Attitudes and Behavior, n.d.). Attitudes can either be positive or negative.

In December 1991, I traveled on a Royal Caribbean Cruise with my husband for our honeymoon. We visited many ports but the one that struck me the most with culture shock was Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

In 2010, as my sisters-in-law and their families prepared to immigrate to the United States (U.S.), my husband and I did all we can to advise and assist them in getting ready for their long journey from Nigeria to the U.S. To our surprise, contrary to every advice we gave them, in preparation for life in the US, they started out with trying American fast foods of different kinds. Culture shock is expected for anyone who immigrates to the US, regardless of where they come from. The type(s) of help the person(s) gets on how to overcome it and their adherence, most often, determines the future outcome of life in their new country of residence.

Culture-bound syndromes as therefore comprised as several different illnesses and afflictions. LaVeist and Thomas (2005) thoroughly expresses the dynamic nature of culture-bound syndromes when they state:

"Worldwide, non-Western cultures faced fundamental challenges to their cultural identities not so much a recentering of culture but a decentering of culture" (Sayre, 2010, p.419). 3