Acculturation: Living successfully in two cultures

In a recent review (Berry, 2004), I proposed that there are two distinct, but inter-related domains of psychological research that make up the field of group relations. When the groups involved are essentially cultural in nature, these two domains can be termed acculturation and ethnic relations. Fig. 1 portrays these two fields, as they are rooted in contextual factors (such as the historical, political and economic baggage that they bring to their relationships), and as they lead to outcomes that can range from conflict and stress to harmony and effectiveness.

Many of the concepts identified in the domain of ethnic relations are already well known to you, and will not be the focus of this paper, although some of the concepts will be referred to. The main interest here is in the domain of acculturation, to which I now turn.

Acculturation is the dual process of cultural and psychological change that takes place as a result of contact between two or more cultural groups and their individual members. At the group level, it involves changes in social structures and institutions and in cultural practices. At the individual level, it involves changes in a person's behavioral repertoire. These cultural and psychological changes come about through a long-term process, sometimes taking years, sometimes generations, and sometimes centuries. Acculturation is a process of cultural and psychological changes that involve various forms of mutual accommodation, leading to some longer-term psychological and sociocultural adaptations between both groups. Contact and change occur for a number of reasons, including colonization, military invasion, migration, and sojourning (such as tourism, international study, and overseas posting); it continues long after initial contact in culturally plural societies, where ethnocultural communities maintain features of their heritage cultures. While acculturation is a process that continues for as long as there are culturally different groups in contact, some longer-term adaptation to living in culture-contact settings takes various forms usually resulting in some form of longer-term accommodation among the groups in contact. This often entails, for example, learning each other's languages, sharing each other's food preferences, and adopting forms of dress and social interactions that are characteristic of each group. Sometimes these mutual adaptations take place rather easily (through processes of culture shedding and culture learning; see Berry, 1992), but they can also create culture conflict and acculturative stress during intercultural interactions. One key feature of all acculturation phenomena is the variability with which they take place: there are large group and individual differences in the ways in which people seek to go about their acculturation (termed acculturation strategies), and in the degree to which they achieve satisfactory adaptations. In addition to cultural group and individual variation, there are variations within families: among family members, acculturation often proceeds at different rates, and with different goals, sometimes leading to an increase in conflict and stress and to more difficult adaptations.

From the point of view of this conference, we need to address the basic question: does acculturation always involve conflict and result in negative outcomes for both groups involved? The goal of this paper is to outline the meaning and uses of the concept of acculturation as it is currently used in the fields of cross-cultural and intercultural psychology. Following this discussion of acculturation as a general concept, many of the concepts that have been identified in this introduction will be elaborated in later sections. In my view, acculturation and adaptation are now reasonably well understood; I believe that we are in a position to pursue the development of policies and programs to promote successful outcomes for all parties involved in the contact situation.