Cognition and Acculturation - Thinking About How We Adapt

Immigrants face numerous difficulties in adjusting to a given host culture. The failure to acculturate comes at a high cost to both the individual and society, and there have been few studies that link major psychological paradigms to a comprehensive theory of acculturation. This book looks at cognitive features believed to be central to acculturation and thus brings together these two disparate fields. This book takes the perspective that acculturation is grounded in the processes of comprehension and formation of novel concepts. It is critical that we look at those cognitive regularities in thinking that organize and direct perception into coherent cultural units. This study investigates the relationship between the cognitive abilities of gestalt formation and concept mapping, and two culture-related adjustment indicators. Armed with such data, clinicians, educators, and social policy-makers can develop practices that maximize immigrants' chances of achieving a smoother cultural adjustment.