adapted from Ward et al, The Psychology of Culture Shock (for instructor)

1. SOJOURNERS:
International
Students

2. Sojourn
• Temporary and voluntary stay in a new
place, voluntarily and relatively short period
of time
• Student and business sojourners are
usually more committed than tourists to
new location, but less involved than
immigrants and refugees
• Must adapt quickly

3. Process & Predictors of Adaptation
• Systematic research only in past 50 years (some
on diplomats/volunteers, but most invlove
students and business people)
• Focuses on ABCs of transition and tries to
establish factors that predict adjustment (social,
individual, etc)
• Best research is longitudinal w/good sample of
host nationals (expensive & difficult)

4. Literature on International Students
• Problems of sojourners
• Psychological reactions of sojourners to
encountering a new cultural environment
• Influence of social interaction and
communication on sojourner adaptation
• Culture learning process of the cross-
cultural sojourn

5. Historical Perspectives
• Foreign policy tool to expand the influence
of the states that established centers of
intellectual excellence
• Moral or missionary purpose to spread the
values of the dominant culture
• Later, more secular goals such as the
spread of democratic values or educational
practices
• The promotion of international harmony

6. International programs
• Assist in the reconstruction and economic
development of countries that had been
adversely affected by the war or whose
educational infrastructure was
rudimentary
• Train scientists, technologists, teachers,
etc. for employment in home countries

7. International programs (cont.)
• Create receptive markets for the
industrialized sponsor countries and
expand their sociopolitical influence
abroad
• Establish positive attitudes toward host
country after returning home to work in
positions of responsibility or government

8. International students and business
people
• Both groups are relatively well-
educated and motivated, yet overseas
students generally originate from less
developed countries and sojourn in the
industrialized world while the opposite
is true of business people.

9. Brain Drain
Demographic and social trends suggested
that the economic-development goals of
international programs were infrequently
realized: A sizeable portion of students
either did not return home, or if they did,
emigrated at the first opportunity, which had
a positive impact on the economies where
graduates settled but failed to raise the
technical expertise of developing countries

10. Problems faced by returning students
• When graduates did return to their homelands,
the sociopolitical systems and under-resourced
developing countries did not support the
technological innovations learned overseas.
• Returning students often tried to introduce
changes that were not sensitive to local customs
and traditions or required a level of infrastructure
that was not readily available.

11. Researchers & overseas students
Researchers began using overseas student
populations for testing theories dealing with the
nature, determinants and outcomes of culture
contact such as culture-distance; acculturation
and/or culture learning process; U-curve, W-curve
and learning-curve adjustment debates; changes
in the self-construal; nature and determinants of
stress & coping responses; determinants of
prejudice and ethnocentrism; remedial action to
reduce group friction.

12. Part of the export industry
• Part of export industry of the countries that used
to pay the students‟ bills (no longer participating
in economic aid or technical reconstruction, nor
targets of political influence)
• Fierce competition among Britain, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand
• Students have become clients/no turning back as
many institutions are dependent on this income

13. Current Research
• Focuses on how to reduce stress and
enhance positive aspects of the sojourn
experience
• How to increase market penetration via
word-of-mouth accounts by satisfied study-
abroad students
• Reflect increasing sophistication of
research strategies and theories,
longitudinal studies

14. Longitudinal Studies
• Try to predict cross-cultural and educational
adaptation by pre-departure variables
• Monitor changes in the levels of
psychological and sociocultural adaptation
over time, generally designed to test the U-
curve hypothesis but have failed to produce
supportive evidence

15. Empirical Research
• Interpersonal and intergroup interactions
• Difficulties faced by international students
• Academic issues in the intercultural
classroom
• Variations in psychological, sociocultural
and academic adaptation
• Re-entry experience

16. Influential Perspectives
• Bochner‟s functional model of friendship
networks (from culture learning theory in
the 70s)
• Stress & Coping focuses on quality and
quantity of interpersonal encounters and
social support
• Social identification concentrates on
intergroup perceptions of foreign students
and their hosts and perceived
discrimination

17. Customer Service & Satisfaction
• Feedback about student problems are
important considerations as abroad
students have become major source of
revenue (ensures adequate services and
assumes a central role in broader cross-
cultural transition and adaptation literature)
• Culture learning addresses the description,
explanation and prediction of difficulties
• Stress & Coping identifies stressors that
impair adaptation

18. Academic Performance
• Significant component of cross-cultural
adaptation, distinguish students from other
types of sojourners
• Research examines the antecedents and
correlates of academic performance
• Developing literature on the intercultural
classroom (definitions and perceptions of
intelligence, student/teacher expectations,
classroom communication

19. Longitudinal Investigations
• Prediction of successful adaptation by
pre-departure variables
• Changing patterns of adaptation over
time

20. Bochner‟s Model of Friendship Networks
• Bonds with fellow compatriots to rehearse,
express and affirm culture-of-origin values
• Links with host-nationals to facilitate the
academic and professional aims of the students
(other students, teachers, counselors, university
bureaucrats and government officials—
relationships more formal than personal)
• Friendships with other non-compatriot foreign
students, largely recreational and supportive
• Reflects culture-learning perspective

21. Despite benefits, host national contact is
least salient of three networks:
• Peer pairing programs are highly effective (students more
likely to prefer local companions)
• Pre-departure contact increases likelihood of sojourner-
host friendships and spending leisure time together
• Culture-learning advantages are great: fewer academic
and social difficulties, increased satisfaction with host
national contact, improved communication competency
and general adaptation to life overseas
• Emotional benefits include greater sojourn satisfaction,
lower levels of stress, fewer psychological adjustment
problem, more positive mood

22. Social Support Hypothesis
• Derives mainly from Stress & Coping literature
• Emphasizes the quality and quantity of support
rather than the actual support network
• Both host and co-nationals can contribute to
satisfaction and the enhancement of
psychological well-being
• Greater support alleviates homesickness and
buffers the relationship between stress &
depression
• Poor social support accounts for a large
proportion of the variance of depressive
symptoms

23. Intergroup perceptions & relations
• Positive results seen in equal status,
voluntary and cooperative interactions (see
Bond‟s 1986 study of auto-, hetero- and
reflected stereotypes in local Chinese and
American students in Hong Kong--pg. 151,
Ward)
“These groups co-exist happily in the same
geographical space… Clearly, it is possible to
have intergroup harmony despite the presence of
broad and clear stereotypes about one‟s ingroup
and relevant out-group:” Bond

24. Intergroup relations (cont.)
• Not all contact studies have produced
positive results (see Sodowsky and Plake‟s
1992 study of foregin students in an
American university—pg 152, Ward).
• In Stroebe et al‟s 1988 study of American
undergraduates in France, student
exchanges led to the sharpening of
negative stereotypes.

25. Negative Perceptions
Perceptions of prejudice and discrimination
are not uncommon and are stronger in
sojourns than immigrants.
• Increase when culture distance is greater
• Produce negative outcomes such as
increased stress, identity conflict and
adjustment problems

26. Problems of International Students
• Insufficient linguistic and cultural skills,
prejudice/discrimination,
homesickness/loneliness
• Pressures associated with the role of „foreign
ambassador‟ in their interactions with hosts
• Conflicts related to personal development in early
adulthood
• Stressors associated with transition to a new
school or university

27. Problems reported by American
undergraduates in Europe:
• Housing
• Money
• Coursework
• Language
Ten most commonly experienced problems of
living and learning abroad as reported by 439
students from the U.S., U.K., France, Germany
and Sweden (see Table 7.2, pg 155, Ward)

28. The Intercultural Classroom
Apart from language deficiency, which is perceived
as the most significant source of academic
problems, other factors that may affect academic
success and satisfaction include:
• Individual differences in learning styles and
academic achievement
• Cultural variable factors such as importance of
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
• Level of field dependence and independence
• Learning styles (cooperative or competitive)
• Perceptions of intelligence

29. Classroom communication/interaction
• I-C: Individualist students are more likely to want to stand
out in class, ask questions, give answers and engage in
debate (often seen as competitive, rude), whereas
collectivist students are more strongly motivated to fit in
and are less verbal and unwilling to draw attention to
themselves (may be seen as withdrawn/uninterested)
• PD: Collectivism is strongly related to power distance, and
students from high PD cultures are less likely to question
and/or debate, which is seen as an inappropriate
challenge to the teacher (loss of face), more strongly
motivated to show respect and maintain formal
relationships.

30. American vs. Chinese perspective
• Americans regard teachers as facilitators who promote
learner autonomy. The educational system is adaptive
and accommodates the learner who is the center of the
educational process.
• Chinese see the teacher as a transmitter of knowledge, a
role model and the focus of educational practice. If
students are unsuccessful academically, it is largely
perceived as a matter of motivation, effort and ability, not
the fault of the teacher. Emphasis on learning without
questioning, which is often seen as disruptive and
disrespectful.
• (see Pratt‟s 1991 study, pg 158, Ward)

31. Re-entry
• Asian students report being more concerned
about peer & professional contacts than family
relations
• American returnees reported positive changes in
parental relations, but mixed outcomes with
friends (both positive and negative attributed to
overseas experience)
• Returnees present more psychological symptoms
than peers who remained at home
• American returnees report being generally less
satisfied with lives at home than abroad

32. Common re-entry problems
• Communicating with friends
• Dealing with stereotypes
• Uncertainty over cultural identity
• Social withdrawal
• Decreased relationship satisfaction
• Psychological problems associated with re-entry
include physical distress, anxiety, apathy,
loneliness and feelings of loss (Uehara, 1986)
(see pg 164, Ward, Problems of student returnees adapted
from Gaw, 2000)

33. Additional factors affecting re-entry
• Demographic: age may play a role in predicting
successful re-adaptation, especially during critical years
of identity development (9-15 years of age)
• Gender: differences have been reported with women
expressing more life satisfaction after returning than men
• Cultural factors: re-entry into a „tight‟ society has been
reported as more difficult than returning to „loose‟
countries
-returning Japanese students are noticed for looking
physically different, having different interpersonal styles
and behaving with different manners, which may not fit the
requirements for being a „proper Japanese.‟