Masters Degrees (Psychology)

Permanent URI for this collection

https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/665

Browse

Browsing Masters Degrees (Psychology) by Subject "Acculturation"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    An Empirical Exploration of the Psychological Acculturation Process Amongst First-Year Economics Students at Stellenbosch University
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Blake, Lee; Swart, Hermann; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: South Africa’s higher education landscape has become highly diverse. However, many instances of inequity and discrimination are still present within and between institutions and institution types, especially along racial lines (Essop, 2020). Scholars (Heleta, 2016), students (Open Stellenbosch Collective in press, 2015), and even the Department of Higher Education (DHET, 2008) have levelled the complaint that institutions lack the will to transform. For example, while Stellenbosch University (SU) policy promotes diversity and equality (multiculturalism), black (African) and coloured South African students experience the climate as othering and uncomfortable (Biscombe et al., 2017). In ideal acculturation conditions, students would navigate SU according to a preference for a particular acculturation strategy that would mediate the relationship between intercultural contact and acculturation adaptations such as wellbeing, intergroup relations, and academic performance (Berry, 1997). Four acculturation strategies (integration, assimilation, segregation, and marginalisation) are produced at the intersection of the two acculturation dimensions of ethnic identity and intergroup contact willingness. Research has reliably demonstrated that an integration strategy preference (in the right conditions) can result in both higher levels of wellbeing (e.g., Berry, 1990; Berry et al, 1989; Van Oudenhoven et al.,1998) and successful psychological adjustment amongst ethnic group members (Berry & Sam, 1998). Research on the process of acculturation in the developing world and in the South African context more specifically is lacking in comparison to that of the developed world. Within this context, then, several gaps are evident including limited research on acculturation in Sub-Saharan Africa, an absence of research into acculturation in the mainstream groups, limited research comparing acculturation for mainstream and ethnic groups, and relatively little attention has been afforded to individual and psychological antecedents and to domain-specific sociocultural outcomes such as academic performance. The following secondary data analysis aimed to determine the state of acculturation strategy preferences amongst both ethnic and mainstream first-year Economics students studying at SU in 2019. Moreover, the study explored whether the respective acculturation preferences and expectations of these groups are predicted by individual or psychological variables including (a) background demographics factors such as school quintile, socioeconomic status, home language, gender, and age; (b) pre-university experiences of intercultural contact, (c) norms towards intercultural contact, (d) perceived intergroup similarity, (e) perceived discrimination, and (f) frequencies of negative and positive home community intergroup contact experiences. The present research then sought to determine the associations between acculturation strategy preferences and acculturation outcomes such as (a) intergroup attitudes, (b) frequency of positive and negative intergroup contact experiences at SU, (c) general wellbeing, (d) and academic performance. The integration acculturation strategy was the most popular amongst both the mainstream and ethnic group. Adaptation difficulties for ethnic group members were evidenced by significantly lower wellbeing and academic performance amongst this group. The results further suggest that one driver behind these outcomes could be the experience of high rates of negative intergroup contact. Higher rates of outgroup attitudes could be promoted amongst ambivalent and unwelcoming mainstream groups to reduce negative contact, through interventions targeting intergroup similarity.