CHAPTER 8 Understanding Intercultural Transitions
CHAPTER 8
UNDERSTANDING INTERCULTURAL TRANSITIONS
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. What type of migrants are people who leave their countries to come to the United States
permanently because they want to be close to relatives who have already come?
a. sojourners
b. domestic refugees
c. immigrants
d. long-term refugees
2. Which of the following represents a group of domestic refugees?
a. international students who have come to attend U.S. universities
b. Vietnamese who relocated to Australia after the Vietnam conflict
c. a family from Iran who comes to the United States because they want their children to have
Western education
d. German Jews who were sent to prison camps in Germany during World War II
3. What two primary characteristics distinguish different migrant groups?
a. language and status differences
b. length of migration and motivation for migration
c. gender and status differences
d. goals for sojourn and ability to adapt
4. The W-curve theory suggests that:
a. cultural adjustment is a long-term process of ups and downs.
b. people may experience cultural adjustment upon returning home.
c. sojourners experience excitement, shock, and then adaptation to “host” cultures.
d. cultural adjustment is a growth process.
5. Which of the following statements is true of culture shock?
a. Every sojourner will experience culture shock.
b. There are no benefits of experiencing culture shock.
c. Culture shock can result in identity crisis.
d. Older people may experience less severe culture shock than younger people.
6. What two types of uncertainty do migrants experience when they begin interacting with the
“host” culture?
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a. voluntary and forced uncertainty
b. long-term and short-term uncertainty
c. predictive and explanatory uncertainty
d. psychological and functional uncertainty
7. Which model has traditionally been the most commonly used to describe cultural adaptation?
a. anxiety/uncertainty management model
b. transition model
c. communication-system model
d. U-curve model
8. People who move into new cultural contexts for a limited period of time and for a specific
purpose are known as:
a. short-term refugees.
b. sojourners.
c. mid-term refugees.
d. long-term refugees.
9. People who are forced to relocate permanently because of war, famine, and oppression are
known as:
a. short-term refugees.
b. sojourners.
c. mid-term refugees.
d. long-term refugees.
10. What are two fundamental differences between the U-curve and the W-curve of adaptation?
a. predictive and explanatory uncertainty
b. personal change and expectations
c. functional fitness and psychological health
d. assimilation and separation
11. According to the transitional model, _____.
a. individuals experience excitement, culture shock, and adaptation
b. adaptation is mainly a process of cognitive adjustment
c. adaptation occurs through uncertainty reduction
d. adaptation involves loss and change
12. A type of cultural adaptation in which an individual gives up his or her heritage and adopts
the mainstream cultural identity is called _____.
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a. assimilation
b. integration
c. separation
d. segregation
13. A multicultural identity can be defined as:
a. an identity built on the sense of in-betweenness that develops as a result of frequent or
multiple cultural border crossings.
b. an identity that is grounded in the Western tradition of scientific and political beliefs and
assumptions.
c. an identity based on experience of traveling to two or more cultures.
d. an identity that has a number of competing dialects that are the result of different cultural
influences.
14. Which of the following is true of reentry adaptation?
a. One of the best things about returning home is that the primary changes are political and
cultural, not personal.
b. One of the challenges of reentry adaptation is that people do not expect to have difficulties.
c. The reentry adaptation process is completely different from the cultural adaptation process.
d. It is easier to go through reentry adaptation because people are already familiar with the norms
and attitudes of their home cultures.
15. Transnationalism refers to:
a. the process of adapting to multiple cultural influences simultaneously.
b. a lack of loyalty to any nation-state.
c. the attitude that one’s national culture has an interdependent relationship with other national
cultures.
d. the activity of migrating across the borders of one or more nation-states.
16. The approach to cultural adaptation that emphasizes the importance of history, political, and
societal structures in migrant adaptation and identity is called the:
a. social science approach
b. interpretive approach.
c. critical approach.
d. None of the answers is correct.
17. The H-1B visa in the United States, given to workers in certain occupations, is an example of
a(n):
a. non-immigrant status.
b. involuntary migrant status.
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c. permanent citizenship status.
d. short-term refugee status.
18. Which of the following statements best defines the term internally displaced people (IDPs)?
a. They are people who are refugees within their own countries due to conflicts, war, famine, or
natural disasters.
b. They are people who play a significant part in mediating psychological health over time.
c. They are people who give up their own cultural heritage and adopt the mainstream cultural
identity.
d. They are people who voluntarily come to a new country, region, or environment to settle
permanently.
19. In the context of cultural adaptation, the social science approach focuses on:
a. how religious institutions play an important role in assisting immigrants.
b. the complex and continuous nature of cultural adaptation.
c. in-depth descriptions of the adaptation process.
d. individual characteristics and backgrounds of migrants.
20. The third phase of Sverre Lysgaard‘s theory of adaptation that posits that migrants go through
fairly predictable phases is:
a. adjustment.
b. disorientation.
c. anticipation.
d. identity crisis.
21. A research approach that seeks in-depth explanations of human experiences is known as the:
a. critical approach.
b. phenomenological approach.
c. statistical approach.
d. ethnographic approach.
22. A relatively short-term feeling of disorientation and discomfort due to the lack of familiar
cues in the environment is known as:
a. separation.
b. identity crisis.
c. culture shock.
d. liminality.
23. _____ is the experience of being between two or more cultural positions.
CHAPTER 8 Understanding Intercultural Transitions
a. Culture shock
b. Liminality
c. Transnationalism
d. Disorientation
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
For each approach to cultural identity listed below, select the letter that best describes/defines the
approach.
a. Migrants give up aspects of their own cultures to establish relationships with members of the
“host” culture.
b. Migrants show interest in maintaining their original culture and in daily interactions with
members of other cultures.
c. Migrants have interest in maintaining interactions with members of their own cultural
group but little interest in interactions with members of other cultural groups.
24. assimilation
25. separation
26. integration
For each cultural adaptation model listed below, select the letter that best explains the model.
a. Migrants first experience excitement, then shock and disorientation, and finally adjust to
the “host” culture.
b. The cultural adaptation process is similar to other adjustments in that one must find an
effective strategy to adapt to the losses and changes experienced (i.e. the flight approach).
c. To adapt, migrants must reduce ambiguity by seeking information that will help them predict
people’s behavior.
27. transition model
28. U–curve model
29. anxiety and uncertainty management model
CHAPTER 8 Understanding Intercultural Transitions
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
30. Reentry shock is usually less severe than culture shock because the sojourner knows what to
expect his or her home culture to be like.
31. The two types of uncertainty experienced by migrants are predictive and unexplained
uncertainties.
32. Migrants who observe more and communicate less will experience more culture shock than
those who communicate a lot.
33. Countries with an emphasis on heterogeneity may be more welcoming of people from
different cultures.
34. Most people prefer either a “fight” or a “flight” approach when dealing with new situations.
35. The sociopolitical context affects individual immigration.
36. A sojourner is a long-term involuntary migrant.
37. Countries generally restrict immigration during economic downturns.
38. People are more likely to experience culture shock when they avoid contact with members of
the new culture.
39. Long-term sojourners more actively resist adaptation than short-term sojourners.
40. When a migrant has an interest in maintaining his or her original culture and maintains daily
interactions with other cultural groups, that person is engaging in assimilation mode of migrant–
host relationship.
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41. One of the main difficulties in a multicultural life is the risk of not knowing how to develop
an appropriate sense of ethics.
42. Discrimination and class issues sometimes result in conflict between recent immigrants and
those from the same country who have been in the host country for a long time.
43. Voluntary migration has been influenced by restrictive immigration laws of various
countries.
44. A sense of uncertainty that stems from the inability to predict what someone will say or do is
referred to as explanatory uncertainty.
45. A dialectical relationship exists between assimilation and resistance to assimilation.
46. The extent to which migrants want to maintain their own identity, language, and way of life
influences how they develop multicultural identities.
ESSAY QUESTIONS
47. Suppose your friend is going on a study trip abroad to Taiwan. What would you tell this
friend about culture shock?
48. Describe what happens during the three stages of sojourner adaptation in the integrative
model.
49. Describe why you think some migrants have a more difficult time experiencing reentry shock
than others.
50. Describe some of the challenges faced by an individual who makes multiple sojourns and
“reentries” to his or her home culture.
51. Describe the double edge of communication in adaptation. What is the most effective
communicative strategy in new environments?
52. How might intercultural transitions affect one‘s sense of identity?
53. Describe the four types of contacts between migrants and the host society. What kinds of
intercultural interactions result from each type of contact?