CULTURE SHOCK VERSUS LONELINESS : THE EFFECTS OF SELECTED VARIABLES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT OF SOJOURNERS

Abstract

The problems of sojourners are well-documented, and diverse explanations for the phenomenon of “culture shock” have been offered. Stage theories, curves of adjustment, personality and attitudinal variables, as well as various demographic variables have been used to explain sojourner adjustment. Most attempts have garnered little empirical support, and efforts to interrelate findings of the sojourn research have met with little success. This study had several goals. One was to explore the relationship between the many variables presumed to foster culture shock" and psychological adjustment in a foreign milieu. Another was to explore the relationship between loneliness and the psychological adjustment of the sojourner. Clarifying the sojourn experience by defining and operationalizing concepts, particularly the confusing misnomer "culture shock,” was also accomplished. The sample in this study consisted of 195 American women residing in Singapore. These women, some having lived in Singapore for as few as 3 weeks and others over 19 years, completed a questionnaire which included personality and attitude scales measuring authoritarianism, rigidity, extroversion, and social distance. A cultural incompetence scale and the revised UCLA Loneliness Scale were also completed, as well as questions examining role Ioss and role change in the foreign milieu and social interaction with Singaporeans and other expatriates. Personal and demographic information was also investigated. These variables were examined in relationship to the Profile of Mood States to determine which ones affect psychological adjustment in a foreign milieu. Results indicated that loneliness more than any other variable examined, was responsible for the poor psychological adjustment of the expatriate woman. Other variables related to psychological adjustment were the quality of the woman's relationship with her husband, and the quality of her superficial encounters with Singaporeans. Only two other variables were found to have even a small relationship to the psychological adjustment of expatriate women: the number of hours employed and the degree of cultural incompetence in Singapore. Precipitating events and predisposing/maintaining factors to loneliness in expatriate women are discussed. These include changes in actual social relations as well as changes in social needs in the foreign milieu. Personal characteristics including inadequate social skills and and lower self-esteem, and situational characteristics such as the problem, of promoting social matches, the artificiality of social encounters and the transitory nature of the overseas assignment are also discussed. Cultural incompetence and the relative importance of acquiring cultural skills for expatriate women discussed, as well as the in-group/out-group distinction as it affects interactions between expatriates and hosts. The nature of expatriate marriages and the effects of employment on psychological adjustment are also considered. Culture shock models are critiqued, with regard to definitional problems and the variety of adjustment indices used in the sojourn research.