PSYC 307- Funday Assignment #1 In today's multicultural world, there is constant effort to attempt to understand immigration's effect on the rate of adaptability to new cultural environments. In this study, Cheung et al. illustrates acculturation as the procedure of having to obtain the tendencies of a new host culture upon relocation. "Evidence for a sensitive period for acculturation: Younger immigrants report acculturating at a faster rate' by Cheung et al. investigates levels of acculturation in accordance to developmental states, theorising that relocation during prime developmental periods would result in higher acculturation rates. To test this theory, the authors used Hong Kong immigrants living in Vancouver between the ages of 18 to 60, and measured them using the Vancouver Index of Acculturation, which positions an individual's identity on a scale between their mainstream and host culture. The predominant findings showed that identification with culture and length of exposure had a direct relationship only specifically when this exposure occurred at a younger age. The researchers found that even a strong association between an individual and the culture of the host country does not dismiss the connection to their heritage culture. The VIA data showcased 3 main relationships: first, that Hong Kong immigrants between the ages of 1-15 reported an increase in identification to Canadian culture as exposure increased, showing a directly positive relationship. Those who had immigrated between the ages of 16-30 displayed evidence to indicate that years in Canada and identification with Canadian culture yielded a slight negative slope, while participants who immigrated between the ages of 31-50 generated a considerably larger negative slope. On average, each increasing year of immigration resulted in a 0.024 decrease in identification on the VIA. From these relationships, we can understand that long exposure to Canada as an older immigrant does not result in the strong identification with Canadian culture that is observed in younger immigrants. It is interesting to note that neither the number of years spent in Canada, nor the age of immigration affects the participants' connection to Chinese culture.Furthermore, the results demonstrated that identification with heritage and mainstream culture are independent of
PSYC 307- Funday Assignment #1 each other. Therefore, Cheung et al. were able to provide evidence to showcase that the rate of acculturation is modified according to an individual's developmental time period during the migration, as well as the number of years exposed to the culture. The results and claims generated from this study are enhanced by the use of the participant sample. An interesting point to note from this study is the conditions under which the topic was generated. Previous research in literature was examined, and by finding a knowledge gap, effective research was done in order to test the boundaries of this theory. Through this, the participation sample revolved outside of the norm of testing "W.E.I.R.D." people, strengthening the theory due to additional diverse research. W.E.I.R.D. people, is the demographic that consists of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic individuals. These individuals encompass 96% of all studies,