Content introduction

CHAPTER 2. WAYS TO OVERCOME CULTURAL SHOCK
§2.1 Factors influencing the process of adaptation to a foreign cultural environment cultural shock adaptation phase
The degree of severity of cultural shock and the duration of intercultural adaptation are determined by many factors that can be divided into individual and group. The factors of the first type include:
1. Individual differences – demographic and personal.
Age has a strong influence on the adaptation process. Young children adapt quickly and successfully, but for schoolchildren this process often turns out to be painful, since in the classroom they must resemble their fellow students in everything – in appearance, manners, language, and even thoughts. Changing the cultural environment for the elderly is a very difficult test. Thus, according to psychotherapists and doctors, many elderly emigrants are completely unable to adapt to a foreign cultural environment, and they "do not necessarily need to master a foreign culture and language if they do not have an internal need for this.
The results of some studies indicate that women have more problems in the process of adaptation than men. However, the object of such studies most often turned out to be women from traditional cultures, whose adaptation was influenced by a lower level of education and professional experience than that of their male compatriots. On the contrary, as a rule, no sex differences are found in Americans. There is even evidence that American women adapt to a lifestyle in a different culture faster than men. In all likelihood, this is due to the fact that they are more focused on interpersonal relations with the local population and show more interest in the peculiarities of its culture.
Education also affects the success of adaptation: the higher it is, the less symptoms of culture shock appear. In general, it can be considered proven that young, highly intelligent and highly educated people adapt more successfully.
It has long been suggested that for work or study abroad it is necessary to select people with personal characteristics that contribute to intercultural adaptation. G. Triandis believes that at present the influence on the success of adaptation can be considered proven:
cognitive complexity – cognitively complex individuals usually establish a shorter social distance between themselves and representatives of other cultures, even very different from their own;
tendencies to use larger categories in categorization – individuals with this property adapt better to a new environment than those who categorize the surrounding world in fractions. This can be explained by the fact that individuals who enlarge categories combine the experience they have gained in a new culture with the experience they have acquired at home;
low scores on the authoritarianism test, as it is established that authoritarian, rigid, not tolerant to uncertainty individuals less effectively master new social norms, values and language.
Attempts to single out a "person for abroad" who faces the least difficulties when entering a foreign cultural environment have been made by many other authors. If we try to summarize the data obtained, we can conclude that a professionally competent, highly self-esteem, sociable individual of an extroverted type is best suited for living in a foreign culture; a person in whose value system universal values occupy a large place, open to a variety of views, interested in others, and choosing a strategy of cooperation in conflict resolution. However, it seems impossible to single out a universal set of personal characteristics that contribute to successful adaptation in any country and culture. Thus, the personal characteristics of a person should be in accordance with the new cultural norms. For example, extroversion doesn't necessarily make adaptation easier. Extroverts from Singapore and Malaysia have indeed adapted to New Zealand more successfully than introverts from these countries. But in Singapore, it was the British extroverts who experienced a deeper cultural shock, since an alien culture, in which the orientation of the individual to his own subjective world, and not to the world of external objects, was welcomed, was perceived by them as extremely alien.
2. The circumstances of the individual's life experience.
Of no small importance is the willingness of migrants to change. Visitors in most cases are susceptible to changes, as they have the motivation to adapt. Thus, the motives of foreign students staying abroad are quite clearly focused on the goal of obtaining a diploma that can provide them with a career and prestige at home. In order to achieve this goal, students are ready to overcome various difficulties and adapt to the environment. An even greater willingness to change is characteristic of voluntary migrants who seek to be included in someone else's group. At the same time, due to insufficient motivation, the process of adaptation of refugees and forced emigrants, as a rule, is less successful.
The "survival" of migrants is favorably affected by the presence of pre–contact experience - familiarity with the history, culture, living conditions in a certain country. The first step to successful adaptation is knowledge of the language, which not only reduces the feeling of helplessness and dependence, but also helps to earn the respect of the "owners". The previous stay in any other foreign cultural environment, acquaintance with the "exotic" – etiquette, food, smells - also has a beneficial effect on adaptation.
Among the group factors influencing adaptation, first of all, it is necessary to highlight the characteristics of interacting cultures: