A NEW LOOK AT AN OLD CONSTRUCT - CROSS-CULTURAL ADAPTATION

The dominant Picture of cross-cultural adaptation still, with some exceptions, features a reified process of recovering from culture shock or culture-related stress. The purpose of this article is to put cross-cultural adaptation back into perspective, reconnecting it with its roots in sociopsychological adjustment theory. Cross-cultural adaptation represents in essence a common process of environmental adaptation. Far from being culture specific, ''culture'' shock is simply a frustration reaction syndrome. A model of cross-cultural adaptation based on sociopsychological adjustment theory and applied to the findings of decades of cross-cultural investigations is presented. It holds that all adjustment is a cyclical and recursive process of overcoming obstacles and solving problems in present-environment transactions. It is the individual who chooses how to respond, and in so doing creates his or her own adjustment. Cultural adaptation is a continuum. Sojourners exhibit a broad range of degrees, modes, and levels of adaptation. Adaptation is also more than the sum of the subadjustments that compose it. Working one's way into a culture can produce fundamental changes in the sojourner commensurate with a process of resocialization. When, in the adaptation process, socialization is extensive or adjustments are particularly difficult, sojourners can be ''reborn'' by the experience.