Psychological Monographs

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Excerpt from Psychological Monographs: General and Applied Crime, suicide, and mental disease are examples of abnormal behavior which commonly arc correlated with foreign nativity and ethnic background. Recent neurotic behavior and psychosomatic conditions (29, 30, 31) have been found to be in part expressions of maladjustment due to culture change. In the present paper an attempt is made to study the dynamics of culture change from ethnic to American in relation to illness. The investigation is concerned primarily with three questions: 1. What aspects of culture change are sources of stress and strain? 2. What types of diseases and injuries are particularly related to problems of acculturation? 3.What therapeutic and preventive procedures are helpful? Adjustment in General: Any change in a persons relationship to the environment requires adjustment. The greater the change the more difficult is the adjustment. Changes requiring readjustment following events such as death, birth, and marriage, or changes in economic status, prestige, or health are known to everybody (29). These common events may tax the adaptability of the individual to the utmost. There are, however, in any given culture prescribed ways of behaving and meeting emergencies, relatives, friends, ministers, and doctors can be asked for help, advice, and reassurance. The individual is usually aware of his difficulties and has available learned responses to meet the situation. Acculturation or Adjustment to Culture Change: A more fundamental type of change involving the whole orientation of the individual occurs when a person moves from one culture to another (32). The meaning of symbols has to be relearned in part or in whole, behavior has to be readjusted to the new system of values and simultaneously the old customs and beliefs have to be relinquished. This process of changing values and rearranging behavior is called acculturation. When an individual finds himself in a phase of transition from one culture to the other he lacks appropriate responses to master daily life and to meet emergencies. He has not yet learned the new ways of living and does not dare any more to respond in his old and accustomed manner. Living on the fringes of two cultures is a source of many frustrations and the cause of great insecurity. The migrant may or may not be aware of his difficulties, and in his distress there are few people, if any, to whom he can turn for help. Unless he wishes to lead a life of complete isolation he will, therefore, attempt to acculturate. Factors in Culture Change: The ease of adaptation depends largely upon the sameness of the two cultures. Similarity in the use of objects, in the techniques of mastery, and in the system of values, determines the closeness of the two cultures. While the relearning of the meaning of external symbols, customs, and habits is relatively easy, the difficulties increase when the value systems have to be revised. Things, activities, and attitudes are classified in any one culture on a scale which runs from good to evil, from desirable to undesirable, from proper to improper, and from acceptable to unacceptable. To follow and to do the good and proper thing is rewarded. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com