Assessment in Multicultural Groups: The Role of Acculturation

Abstract

On analyse le rôle de l'acculturation dans l'évaluation des groupes multiculturels. Des procédures standardisées doivent être développées pour prendre en compte la composition multiculturelle des sociétés contemporaines où les individus, relevants de références culturelles multiples, ne disposent pas de l'aisance culturelle et langagière que les procédures d'évaluation présupposent lors de la passation des tests psychologie et d'éducation. La première partie de l'article présente un bref survol des modèles d'acculturation et souligne la pertinence de l'acculturation dans le testing multiculturel. La seconde partie aborde des questions conceptuelles et méthodologiques dans l'évaluation de l'acculturation. S'ensuit une discussion sur la façon dont l'acculturation peut être prise en compte dans l'évaluation des groupes multiculturels, par exemple en établissant différentes normes pour des groupes culturels différents, en ajoutant une correction pour le statut d'acculturation, ou en évaluant l'acculturation et en utilisant ce score en covariation ou comme valeur seuil, ce qui décidera si oui ou non un résultat à un test peut être interprété valablement.The role of acculturation in assessment in multicultural groups is discussed. It is argued that standard procedures are to be developed to deal with the multicultural composition of today's societies, in which clients come from various cultural backgrounds and do not have the familiarity with the language and culture of the psychological and educational tests that is implicitly assumed in the assessment procedure. The first part presents a brief overview of acculturation models and points out the relevance of acculturation in multicultural testing. The second part of the paper discusses conceptual and methodological issues in the assessment of acculturation. This is followed by a discussion of ways in which acculturation can be taken into account in assessing multicultural groups, such as establishing different norms for different cultural groups,

Development and validation of the Acculturative Stress Scale for Chinese College Students in the United States (ASSCS).

“…Acculturation was first studied by sociologists and anthropologists, who were mainly interested in group-level changes following migration (van de Vijver & Phalet, 2004). One of the earliest as well as the most influential definitions of acculturation was proposed by three anthropologists -- Redfield, Linton, and Herskovits --in 1936: "Acculturation comprehends those phenomena, which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups" (p.149).…”

“…Usually, the integration strategy is considered the most successful adaptation strategy and marginalization is the least successful; whereas, assimilation and separation are intermediate (Berry, 1997 Many scholars have questioned the validity of the four modes in Berry's model, especially the validity of marginalization (Cabassa, 2003;Rudmin, 2003). Some people doubted the existence of marginalization as an avenue of acculturation, but some others argued that the second or third generation youths of immigrants may experience marginalization: they do not feel related to the parental culture and they do not want to or are not allowed to immerse into the host culture because of racial discrimination or some other reasons (van de Vijver & Phalet, 2004). Van de Vijver, Helms-Lorenz, and Feltzer (1999) used factor analysis to demonstrate that the four acculturation modes are actually in one dimension, with integration at one end and assimilation, separation and marginalization at the other end.…”

Converging identities: Dimensions of acculturation and personal identity status among immigrant college students.

“…Because the majority of contemporary immigrants to the United States and other primarily individualist Western nations come from collectivist-oriented countries or regions in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East (Steiner, 2009;van de Vijver & Phalet, 2004), the United States may provide a strong contrast against many immigrant-sending countries in terms of cultural values. Lastly, cultural identifications refer to the extent to which individuals feels a sense of belonging and attachment to the United States and to their cultures of origin.…”

The Importance of Cross-Cultural Capabilities for Chinese Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Australia

“…Simply speaking, these two forms of adaptation correspondingly cope with "feeling well" and "doing well" (Van De Vijver & Phalet, 2004). A core commonality is that both adaptive outcomes display different patterns of fluctuation over time (Ward & Kennedy, 1999).…”

“…As discussed in Section 2.4.5, in relation to the importance of psychological adaptation to immigrant entrepreneurs to cope with "feeling well" and sociocultural adaptation to cope with "doing well" (Van De Vijver & Phalet, 2004), this thesis proposes a framework of immigrant entrepreneurs' cross-cultural capabilities that includes the capability for psychological adaptation and sociocultural adaptation.…”