Immigration, acculturation, culture shock, implicit and explicit racism, and reducing prejudice through intergroup contact (QCE Psychology Unit 4)

What this dot point is asking

This page covers the last three dot points of Unit 4 Topic 4 (Cross-cultural psychology) in the 2025 syllabus, all examinable in the external assessment:

1. describe the psychological challenges of immigration and acculturation, including culture shock, assimilation and marginalisation;
2. explain how cultural diversity can be a source of conflict, with reference to prejudice expressed as implicit and explicit racism;
3. describe ways to reduce prejudice, with reference to intergroup contact that is sustained, with superordinate goals, mutual interdependence and equality of status.

The first half of the topic (sense of community, culture, individualism and collectivism, and multiculturalism versus pluralism) is on our culture, community and multiculturalism page. Social identity theory and the formation of prejudice (Topic 3) underpin this topic, so revise our social identity and prejudice page alongside this one. The syllabus asks teachers to follow its safety and ethics guidelines for wellbeing when teaching this sensitive topic.

The answer

Immigration and acculturation

Immigration means moving to live permanently in another country. Acculturation is the process of cultural and psychological change that happens when people from different cultures come into sustained contact, for example as a migrant adjusts to life in a new country. It affects attitudes, values, behaviour and identity, and it usually takes years.

A widely used way to describe acculturation (associated with John Berry) asks two questions: does the person keep their heritage culture, and do they take part in the host culture? The combinations give four outcomes:

The syllabus names two of these:

• Assimilation: the person gives up their heritage culture and adopts the host culture. It can ease day-to-day fitting in, but it can mean losing language, traditions, family connection and a source of identity.
• Marginalisation: the person loses connection with their heritage culture and is not part of the host culture. Without a secure cultural group, people are more likely to experience isolation and distress, so marginalisation is generally associated with the poorest wellbeing.

Integration, in which people keep their heritage culture while also taking part in the host society, is generally associated with the best adjustment, although what is possible depends partly on how accepting the host society is.

Culture shock

Culture shock is the disorientation, anxiety and stress people experience when they move into an unfamiliar culture and lose the familiar cues that tell them how to behave. It often follows an initial period of excitement, as everyday frustrations build up: not understanding unwritten rules, language difficulties, different food and routines, and missing family and friends. Signs include homesickness, irritability, confusion, withdrawal and trouble sleeping. Most people gradually adjust as they learn the new culture's norms and build new support.

Other psychological challenges

Migrants may face acculturative stress from managing two cultures, language barriers, loss of social support, discrimination, difficulty having overseas qualifications recognised, and intergenerational conflict when children acculturate faster than their parents. Refugees may also carry the effects of trauma.

Cultural diversity as a source of conflict

Cultural diversity enriches a society, but it can also be a source of conflict. Differences in behaviours, beliefs and values can be misunderstood; people readily categorise others into ingroups and outgroups; and competition for jobs, housing or status can heighten tension. When this produces prejudice (a negative attitude towards people because of their group membership) based on race or ethnicity, it is racism, which can be expressed in two ways:

• Explicit racism: conscious, deliberate and openly expressed racist beliefs and behaviour, such as racial abuse or openly refusing someone a job or a rental because of their ethnicity.
• Implicit racism: automatic and often unconscious negative associations or attitudes towards a racial or ethnic group. People may sincerely reject racism and still hold implicit biases, which can show up in quick judgements and subtle behaviour, such as sitting further away or rating an equally qualified applicant less favourably. Researchers often measure implicit attitudes with reaction-time tasks.

Explicit racism is easier to identify and challenge; implicit racism is harder to detect because the person may not be aware of it, but it can still produce discrimination.

Reducing prejudice through intergroup contact

Simply bringing groups together does not reliably reduce prejudice, and hostile or competitive contact can make it worse. Contact reduces prejudice when it meets certain conditions, the ones the syllabus names:

• Sustained: contact is repeated and long enough for people to get to know outgroup members as individuals, so stereotypes can be disconfirmed and friendships form.
• Superordinate goals: the groups work towards a shared goal that both want and that neither can achieve alone. In Sherif's classic Robbers Cave study (1954), hostility between two groups of boys at a summer camp, created through competition, was reduced when the groups had to cooperate on shared goals.
• Mutual interdependence: each group needs the other's contribution to succeed. Aronson's jigsaw classroom, in which each student holds one piece of the information the whole group needs, is a well-known application.
• Equality of status: within the contact situation, members of each group have equal standing, so one group is not placed in a subordinate role that would confirm stereotypes.

Increasing intercultural understanding, through education about other cultures and respectful contact, supports these conditions by reducing misunderstanding.