1. Understanding Intercultural
Communication Second Edition
Chapter 5
What is Culture Shock?
Stella Ting-Toomey & Leeva C. Chung
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
PowerPoint Slides Designed by Alex Flecky and Noorie Baig

2. TODAY’S MENU
I. Unpacking Culture Shock
II. Intercultural Adjustment:
Developmental Patterns
III. Reentry Culture Shock
IV. Intercultural Reality Check:
Do-Ables

3. I. Unpacking Culture Shock
Considering Culture Shock …
• Have you ever experienced culture shock?
Share a story…
• What were you experiencing emotionally?
• What caused your anxious feelings?
• How did you handle the culture shock
situation?
• In retrospect, would you like to have handled
the situation differently?
• What does culture shock mean to YOU???

4. I. Unpacking Culture Shock
A. Characteristics of Culture Shock
Culture Shock: a stressful transitional period
when individuals move from a familiar
cultural environment to an unfamiliar one.
Watch a group of Sudanese men as they experience
culture shock, arriving in the United States for the
first time. Click here.

5. I. Unpacking Culture Shock
ABCs of culture shock:
• Affectively,
sojourners often feel
anxiety, bewilderment,
confusion, disorientation, and intense
desire to be elsewhere.
• Behaviorally,
they are confused as to norms and rules
that guide communication
appropriateness and effectiveness.
• Cognitively,
they lack competence to interpret or

6. I. Unpacking Culture Shock
B. Pros and Cons of Culture Shock
C. Approaching Culture Shock: Underlying
Factors
• Motivation Orientation
• Personal Expectations
• Cultural Distance
• Psychological Adjustment
• Sociocultural Adjustment
• Communication Competence
• Personality Attributes

7. A Mini-Experiential
Exercise
“Writing with My Non-Dominant Hand…”
2 Writing Rules:
1) Write with your non-dominant hand.
2) Write from right to left.
Reflection:
• What did you experience? What did you feel?
• What did you learn?

8. I. Unpacking Culture Shock
D. Initial Tips to Manage Culture Shock
1. Increase motivation to learn about the new
culture.
2. Keep expectations realistic and increase
familiarity with diverse facets of new
culture.
3. Increase linguistic fluency and
appropriateness and understand core
values linked to specific behaviors.
4. Work on tolerating ambiguity and other
flexibility attributes.
5. Develop close friends and acquaintanceships
to manage identity stress and loneliness.
6. Be mindful of suspending ethnocentric

9. II. Intercultural Adjustment:
Developmental Patterns
A. The U-Curve Adjustment Model
1. Initial adjustment:
optimistic or elation phase.
2. Crisis:
stressful phase when sojourners are
overwhelmed by own incompetence.
3. Regained adjustment:
settling-in phase, involving effective
coping.

10. II. Intercultural Adjustment:
Developmental Patterns
B. The Revised W-Shape Adjustment Model
10

11. II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental
Patterns
The Revised W-Shape Adjustment Model
STAGES:
A. Honeymoon
“Everything is Beautiful”
B. Hostility
“Everything is Ugly”
Three types of reaction: Early Returnees, Time
Servers, or Participators
C. Humorous
“Everything is Quite Funny”
Rebounding stage
D. In-Sync
“Everything is OK”

12. II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental
Patterns
The Revised W-Shape Adjustment Model
E. Ambivalence
“Everything is Sweet & Sour”
Departure stage
F. Re-Entry Culture Shock
“Everything is Off Center”
G. Re-Socialization
“Everything is Home Again… Maybe?!”
Resocializers, Alienators, Transformers

13. II. Intercultural Adjustment: Developmental
Patterns
The Revised W-Shape Adjustment Model
Media Activity: The Namesake film clip
Discussion Questions:
• What is your reaction to this clip?
• Where is Ashima in the W- shape model? Can
you describe her feelings?
• How do you think her husband, Ashok, could
better prepare his wife for the American cultural
experience?
• What can Ashima do (how might she reach out to
seek help) to reach the in-sync stage?

14. III. Re-entry Culture Shock
If you have experienced re-entry culture
shock:
 Did you experience any re-entry
culture shock stress? How so?
 Any tips to make the re-entry culture
shock less stressful?

15. IV. Intercultural Reality Check: Do-Ables
• Realize that culture shock is inevitable.
• Maintain an ethnorelative attitude.
• Acknowledge your roller-coaster emotions.
• Reach out and seek help when needed.
• There are many caring individuals and
resources out there awaiting to help you.
• Take care of your physical & mental health
daily.
• Do something creative every day – write
your travel blogs, express yourself in a
journal, snap fun photos.
• Stay in touch with supportive others.

16. Parting Thoughts…
When you leave one home for another,
there’ll always lessons to be learned.
~ Kofi Annan