Culture shock is the accumulated effects of
unfamiliar encounters that are experienced by migrants
in their host or receiving countries (Zhou,
2014). Shock as a term suggests that acculturation
is a stressful process that is characterized by
the following aspects: (a) Strain due to effort required
to make necessary psychological adaptation;
(b) A sense of loss and feelings of deprivation
in regard to friends, status, profession, and possession;
(c) Being rejected by and/or rejecting the
members of the new culture; (d) Confusion in role,
role expectations, values, feelings, and self-identity;
(e) Surprise, anxiety, disgust, and indignation
after becoming aware of cultural differences; and
(f) Feelings of impotence due to not being able to
cope with the new environment (Taft, 1977).
Over the years, the growing body of literature
on acculturation has seen the emergence of the term
“acculturative stress” as synonymous to culture
shock (Zhou, 2014). Closely linked to Lazarus and
Folkman’s (1984) psychological model of stress
as a response to environmental stressors,
acculturative stress is defined as a reaction to life
events (stressors) that are brought about by the
experience of acculturation (Berry, 1997).
Acculturative stress is anchored on the premise that
this kind of stress is likely to exist at low levels and
produce positive effects when acculturative stressors
are successfully dealt with. Studies on
acculturative stress have explored its effects of
various dimensions of adjustment of migrants. High
levels of acculturative stress have been shown to
have mild to moderate debilitating effects on the