Difficult Changes in Cultural Adaptation
Complex Messages
- Throughout this section of the paper, I was able to bring to light certain arguments, and difficult situations that are brought about within Cultural Adaptation.
- Communication Studies Course talked about in this section was Intercultural Communication.
- Another course that is briefly talked about in this section is Interpersonal Communication.
- The point of this section was to point out flaw from the complex message that Cultural Adaptation gives in society.
The Main Idea of the Complex Message
- The first message of this section was pointing out how the UA study abroad department does not emphasis on how cultural adaptation affects an individual in their return home, and to normal life after their program.
- In Sojourner's Reentry: A Grounded Elaboration of the Integrative Theory of Communication and Cross-Cultural Adaptation, Margaret Pitts examines the process of how someone, such as a sojourner, reenters into their original culture and how it can be difficult in several ways. The process Pitts explains is that it is due to or "in part to fundamental changes in the sojourners' value structure while abroad and seems to be particularly challenging for students who do not want to return and for students who achieved a higher level of integration in their home country" (Pitts, 2016, 420).
- The second message of this section is that the UA study abroad department does a good job at emphasizing preparedness for life abroad, as well as helping to maintain communication with people back home, and building relationships while being abroad.
- In the article, A Test of Relationships between Host and Home National Involvements and the Preferences for Intercultural Conflict Management Styles, Deepa Oommen explains "immigrants and sojourners learn to function in the new environment by engaging in interpersonal communication with members of the host country by consuming host and ethnic mass media" and goes on by saying "the highly engaged and personalized nature of interpersonal communication... helps people to learn about the host culture through direct experience" (Oommen, 2017, 314-315).
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References
Pitts, M. J. (2016). Sojourner reentry: a grounded elaboration of the integrative theory of communication and cross-cultural adaptation. Communication Monographs, 83(4), 419–445. https://doi-org.libdata.lib.ua.edu/10.1080/03637751.2015.1128557
Oommen, D. (2017). A Test of the Relationships between Host and Home National Involvements and the Preferences for Intercultural Conflict Management Styles. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 46(4), 314. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=124896748&site=eds-live&scope=site