Acculturation In America

Definitions of health and well being has various concepts which can have great influence on whether or not an individual’s acculturation process is easy or not. In my opinion when it comes to health one of the biggest psychological walls a human can come across is others customs and traditions. Especially if someone is coming to America where a lot of the general population is very closed minded. American’s have their ways and beliefs, to them that is the only way and the correct way things are done. In America we stand by the biomedical model where we look at disease as resulting from a specific, identifiable cause such as a pathogen, genetic or developmental abnormality, or physical insult.(Kleinman et al.,2006, as cited in (Matsumoto & Juang,
When it comes to abnormality I think it just comes down to what that population defines as normal or not. If your behaviors are seen to be normal then you will be fine and accepted in this culture. However, if to others you are seen as different your acculturation process will be a lot harder. For example, in some cultures hearing voices, it is seen as admirable, like you are hearing the spirits or gods. In America if someone says they are hearing voices they are sent to the psych ward and told they have schizophrenia, then they are pumped with drugs so these voices go away. It is all dependent on what that culture finds abnormal or not. When looking at the how psychologists study what is abnormal they use the statistical approach. This defines abnormal as something that happens rare or infrequently. A problem arises with this idea though because that means running a four minute mile would be abnormal. Which it is, but not the abnormal we are talking about here.(Matsumoto & Juang, 2008, p.289) If a person moved to a new culture where their traditions were respected then the acculturation process might be a little easier. However, if this new group of people do not respect you sacrificing a chicken in the front yard to heal the soul, then psychologically one might have a hard time changing cultures. It is also
If anyone goes to a new country not knowing the main language they will have a difficult time. It is even harder if you come to the United States because very few people speak anything but english. Most countries in the world speak their native language with the addition of english and probably the countries around them. For example most people from Germany know: German, English, French, Russian, Turkish, and so on. However, if you come to America they know english and some know either french or spanish. When it came to the Lee’s a miscommunication might have cost them their daughters life. Being able to have a conversation in the same language is needed to talk with doctors about health, bosses and coworkers to be able to work, teachers to learn, clerks to buy things, and so much more. The Lee’s did not speak any english so when they came into the hospital they were not able to communicate the little girls symptoms. It took until they brought her in during a seizure for them to diagnose what was happening. When it came to giving her medicine they didn't know how to communicate how and when to administer it. People that speak both languages can try and translate between them but a lot of the time things are lost in translation. This can really hinder the acculturation process because