Culture Shock Ashley Pyfferoen Culture is understood as shared attitudes, values, beliefs and customs by a specific group of people.

1 From this perspective, culture is also defined as a network valued by individuals that often take the culture for granted. It is important to recognize that from every culture, there is a different perception of the world, a reality that is not always consciously understood until they emigrate to a new culture. Even with preparation, the transition to a new culture is exceptionally difficult because the community-shared culture is no longer a structure of support. This phenomenon is described as culture shock. Culture shock is a set of emotional reactions to the loss of perceptual reinforcements from ones own culture to new cultural stimuli. 2 The new culture is foreign and intimidating to individuals and they typically have no appropriate coping mechanisms to understand the new experiences.

The concept of cultural shock is a complex process. However, most scholars agree that individuals entering a new culture will progress through a series of stages. While each stage has altered slightly since their introduction in 1954, the current culture shock model proposes the four stages as the honeymoon phase, the negotiation stage, the adjustment phase and the mastery phase. During the honeymoon phase, the individual embraces the new culture, enjoying the new experiences they are encountering. As this period subsides, the negotiation stage approaches. This stage encounters the individual with anxiety and frustration. Individuals typically experience several obstacles everyday including language barriers, stark differences in public hygiene, traffic safety, food accessibility and a simple disconnect from life. 3 In addition to insomnia from a change in circadian rhythm, the most frustrating and prevalent culture change is communication. Not only is there a language barrier, but most individuals have failed to develop a meaning relationship and lack social support. After approximately six months, the adjustment phase begins where the individual develops a level of comfort in a routine. The mastery stage soon follows and individual has successfully integrated into the new culture. It is important to identify however that it is unlikely an individual will completely integrate. The well being of the individual progress through a U-shape distribution during each of the four continuing stages. The negotiation stage represents the lowest state of well being for the individual but progresses to the state of well being prior to culture shock in the process of approximately one year. References http://wwwkrcmar.informatik.tumuenchen.de/lehre%5Clv_materialien.nsf/intern01/632C3F776761A11BC1257871005959C6/$F ILE/Paper%2021.pdf