Theoretical models of culture shock and adaptation in international students in higher education

Social identification theories
Social identification theories focus on the cognitive components of the adaptation process.
During cross-cultural contact, people perceive themselves in a much broader context – ‘little fish
in bigger ponds’. This can lead to anxiety-provoking change in perceptions of self and identity,
especially where identity was previously constructed largely from local social interaction.
Perceptions of and relations with in-groups and out-groups can change radically (Deaux 1996).
Two major conceptual approaches are used in social identification. The first is ‘acculturation’,
and the second is ‘social identity theory’ (Phinney 1990).
Acculturation and identity
Early approaches to identity and acculturation came mainly from ethnic and cross-cultural
psychology, where most of the studies were concerned with defining and measuring acculturation
(e.g. Cuéllar, Harris, and Jasso 1980), and regarded acculturation as a state rather than a process.
There are three models of acculturation: uni-dimensional, bi-dimensional and categorical.
The uni-dimensional conceptualisation of acculturation implied assimilation – immigrants grad-
ually give up identification with the culture of origin and move towards identification with the
culture of contact (Olmeda 1979). This model sees home and host cultures as opposing rather than
counterbalancing. By contrast, the bi-dimensional approach is a balanced model of acculturation
and identity – immigrants and sojourner and refugee groups develop bicultural identity (e.g.
Ramirez 1984). ‘Cultural mediation’ (Bochner 1982) is the process through which some sojourn-
ers can synthesise both cultures and acquire bicultural or multicultural personalities. This is not
the same as ‘marginality’ (Park 1928), in which they vacillate between the two cultures.
Berry’s (1994, 1997) more complex categorical model specifies four acculturation disposi-
tions or strategies of how people conceptualise home and host identities – integration, separation,
assimilation and marginalisation. Integration means that sojourners perceive themselves as high
in both host and home culture identifications; separation implies that they perceive themselves as
high in home culture identification but low in host culture identification; assimilation means that
they see themselves as high in host culture identification but low in home culture identification;
and marginalisation suggests that they perceive themselves as low in both home and host culture
identifications. Identity is affected by a wide range of factors, such as individual characteristics
(e.g. age, gender and education), group characteristics (e.g. permanence of cross-cultural
relocation, motivation for migration) and the broad social context (e.g. cultural pluralism,
prejudice and discrimination). These variables are correlates of acculturation and identity
changes, but causation is neither linear nor simple, and some factors may have recursive effects.
Social identity theory
The second conceptual framework – ‘social identity theory’ (Tajfel 1981) – emerged from social
psychology. It considers how group membership affects individual identity and highlights two
aspects. One is the role of social categorisation and social comparison in relation to self-esteem,
coupled with in-group favouritism and out-group derogation (Tajfel and Turner 1986). The other
is the varied effects of specific cross-cultural diversity (e.g. individualism-collectivism) on group
membership, perceptions and interactions (cf. Brown et al. 1992).
Associated research includes work on uncertainty avoidance or reduction (Gudykunst and
Hammer 1988), which requires the ability to predict and explain one’s own behaviour and that of
others during interactions. This highlights the role of knowledge of the host culture (Gudykunst
and Kim 1984), attitudes toward hosts and host attitudes toward sojourners (Gudykunst 1983a),
and degree of cultural similarity (Gudykunst 1983b). Strategies that cross-cultural travellers may

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use to enhance self-esteem and overcome barriers to inter-group harmony include raising
awareness of the potentially negative aspects of the process, emphasising inter-group similarities
rather than differences, and getting people to imagine themselves in the role or identity of other
persons – ‘walk a mile in their shoes’.
Overall, the cognitive (C) perspective of the social identification theories complements the
behavioural (B) analysis provided by the culture learning approach and the affective (A) aspect
in the stress and coping framework. These three perspectives together offer a foundation for a
comprehensive model of cultural adaptation.