Re-thinking Psychological Acculturation: From Explicit to Implicit Cultural Affiliations

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 peoples ways of being, thinking and drivers for action signal cultural affiliations implicitly.

From there, PsychAcc elucidates the complex interplay between acculturative changes in explicit and implicit cultural affiliations and identifies people with distinct acculturative profiles, which are then used to predict well-being and educational outcomes.

Finally, PsychAcc opens the black box of acculturation by showing that these changes are driven by specific micro-processes in majority-minority interactions, like establishing common ground.

It builds its evidence through four studies a cross-cultural, a 2-year representative longitudinal, an experimental and an observational one all focusing on ethnic minority and majority youth (14-18y) in Belgium.

Together, the envisioned results re-think psychological acculturation: no longer as minorities willingness vis--vis cultures, but as a multi-faceted process of change that emerges from meaningful intercultural interactions.

In sum, PsychAcc offers a novel theory, a beyond-state-of-the-art methodological toolbox and pivotal evidence to trigger a paradigm shift in acculturation research.

It also inspires entirely new research lines in other social sciences and policy makers to look beyond outer signs of integration.