In one line: When people move between cultures, they have to work out how much to keep of the old and how much to take on of the new.
Acculturation is a sociocultural-approach term. Unlike enculturation (absorbing your own culture growing up), acculturation is about adjusting to a new one.
Models of acculturation describe the different strategies people use. This links to the concept of change: contact with a new culture changes behaviour, identity and values over time.
Memory hook: Old culture + new culture = a choice. Acculturation is how people blend or balance the two.
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Key idea: A well-known model sets it out as two questions: keep your own culture? and engage with the new one? The answers give four strategies.
Berry's four strategies
Integration
Keep your own culture AND engage with the new one — a balanced blend. Often linked to best wellbeing.
Assimilation
Give up your own culture and fully adopt the new one.
Separation
Keep your own culture and avoid the new one.
Marginalisation
Reject both — belonging to neither culture. Often linked to worst wellbeing.
Both · New only · Old only · Neither
Take someone who has moved abroad. Integration: they keep their home traditions and also make local friends. Assimilation: they drop old customs entirely. Separation: they stay only within their original community. Each is a different response to cultural change, with different effects on wellbeing.
Go further — higher-level insight: Acculturation can be stressful. Adjusting to a new culture can cause acculturative stress. How society treats newcomers strongly affects which strategy is even possible — integration needs an accepting host culture.
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Key idea: The four-strategy model is clear and useful, but real acculturation is messier than four neat boxes.
| Strengths and limitations | Strengths | Limitations |
|---|---|---|
| Clarity | A simple, testable framework for a complex process | Real experiences don't fit neatly into four boxes |
| Use | Links strategy to wellbeing; guides support services | The 'choice' isn't free — depends on the host society |
| Research | Generates cross-cultural predictions | Individuals vary across time and situations |
So models of acculturation are a valuable, clear framework linking adjustment to wellbeing, but a good evaluation notes real acculturation is more fluid than four categories, and the 'strategy' often depends on how welcoming the host culture is, not just personal choice.
Watch out: Strategy isn't fully a personal choice. Discrimination or exclusion can push people towards separation or marginalisation regardless of what they'd prefer — so blaming the individual misreads the model.