Towards a cultural psychological approach of acculturation: explorations in the domain of self-construal, cognition and motivation.

The topic of psychological acculturation – i.e., changes in psychological and behavioural patterns due to sustained contact with another culture – is both timely and relevant: 29 pct. of European citizens are ethnic minorities and ‘integration’ is omnipresent in debates on inequality and societal tension. Yet, our scientific understanding of this process is still poor. The current approach to acculturation narrowly focuses on ethnic minorities’ explicit willingness to (not) be part of a culture, as reflected in their cultural attitudes and identities. PsychAcc pushes boundaries by proving the existence of acculturation in self-construal, cognition, and motivation, building on the notion that people’s ways of being, thinking and drivers for action signal cultural affiliations implicitly. More specifically, we hypothesize that ethnic minority/majority members’ cultural engagement and quantity and quality of contact with majority/minority members (i.e. ethnicity of social contacts, valence of contacts, experienced discrimination) is positively linked to their psychological fit with the respective majority/minority culture in the domains of self, cognition and motivation. To study these acculturative processes, a 24-month Longitudinal Study (5 waves) will be conducted, including 3000 pupils, of which +/- 800 Turkish and Moroccan minorities in a nationally representative sample of 40 Flemish schools. Measures will include 9 scales/tasks (3 scales/tasks for each domain) which will be selected during a preparatory study, as well as scales on cultural attitudes, identities, intercultural contact, personal and contextual factors (e.g., need for closure, school diversity model), well-being and educational outcomes. Cross-lagged and latent growth curve models will test if intercultural contact predicts fit with culture over time and which personal/situational factors facilitate/hinder acculturation.