Culture shock is a stressful and disorienting experience that occurs when a person moves from a familiar culture to an unfamiliar one. It produces an identity disorientation characterized by anxiety, bewilderment, confusion over social behaviors in the new culture, and an inability to interpret unfamiliar social experiences. Several factors underlie culture shock, including motivational orientation, personal expectations, the distance between the original and new cultures, and individual personality attributes that impact sociocultural and psychological adjustment. Models of culture shock describe stages from initial excitement to feeling at home to unexpected difficulties upon returning to one's original culture.

1. Culture shock

2. Understanding Culture ShockCulture Shock is an inevitably stressful and disorienting experience.Culture Shock is experienced whenever a person uproots him/herself from a familiar setting to move to an unfamiliar setting.Oberg (1960) believed culture shock produced an identity disorientation

3. Identity Disorientationa sense of identity loss and deprivationidentity strain from the psychological effort of adjustmentidentity rejection by members of the new cultureidentity confusionidentity powerlessness; a result of not being able to cope with the new environment

4. ABC’s of Culture ShockA = Affective; anxiety, bewilderment, disorientationB = Behavior; confused by the behaviors of the host cultureC = Cognitively; unable to interpret unknown social experiences, the “bizarre”

5. Underlying factorsMotivational OrientationPersonal expectationsCultural Distance the distance between the culture of origin & the host cultureSociocultural adjustmentPsychological adjustment Personality attributes

6. Sociocultural Adjustment v. Psychological Adjustment

7. W-Revised Adjustment Model

8. W-Revised Adjustment ModelHoneymoon = excitement Hostility = major emotional upheavalsHumorous = learning to laugh at selfIn-sync adjustment = feeling “at home”Ambivalence = grief, nostalgia & pride of homeReentry culture shock = unexpected joltResocialization = reassimilation into host culture