Universities in Western countries host a substantial number of international students. These students bring a range of benefits to the host country and in return the students gain higher education. However, the choice to study overseas in Western countries may present many challenges for the international student including the experience of acculturative stress and difficulties with adjustment to the environment of the host country. The present paper provides a review of current acculturation models as applied to international students. Given that these models have typically been empirically tested on migrant and refugee populations only, the review aims to determine the extent to which these models characterise the acculturation experience of international students. Literature pertaining to salient variables from acculturation models was explored including acculturative stressors encountered frequently by international students (e.g., language barriers, educational difficulties, loneliness, discrimination, and practical problems associated with changing environments). Further discussed was the subsequent impact of social support and coping strategies on acculturative stress experienced by international students, and the psychological and sociocultural adaptation of this student group. This review found that the international student literature provides support for some aspects of the acculturation models discussed, however, further investigation of these models is needed to determine their accuracy in describing the acculturation of international students. Additionally, prominent acculturation models portray the host society as an important factor influencing international students’ acculturation, which suggests the need for future intervention.

A review of the acculturation experiences of international students

Recent work on culture and psychopathology is beginning to unpack the cognitive, developmental and interactional processes through which social contexts shape illness onset, experience, course and outcome. New conceptual models, tools, and technologies, along with better data, lend support to an ecosocial view of mental disorders that emphasizes the way that cultural contexts influence developmental processes and exposure to social adversity to increase risk for specific types of psychopathology. This contextual view has implications for research design and clinical practice. Recognizing the importance of culture, DSM-5 now includes a discussion of cultural concepts of mental disorders as well as a Cultural Formulation Interview to help clinicians explore the context of mental health symptoms and disorders.

Culture and psychopathology.

Culture and shyness in childhood and adolescence

The New Japan – Debunking Seven Cultural Stereotypes

In case you were wondering (and in case you weren’t), the title of this article possesses a double meaning: It refers to both the Association for Psychological Science (APS) journal Clinical Psychological Science (CPS), of which I am the new Editor, and to the field of clinical psychological science at large. In this editorial, I examine where our journal has been and where it is headed over the next several years, using past and ongoing developments in our field as context. Along the way, I will share my, at times, heterodox views of the field and explain where I see CPS fitting into the broader domain of clinical psychological science. In particular, I highlight CPS’s long-standing emphases as well as a few novel ones.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2167702616673363

Clinical Psychological Science: Then and Now

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Cultural identity dynamics: Capturing changes in cultural identities over time and their intraindividual organization

Given considerable evidence that culture profoundly shapes both normative social behaviors and psychopathology, we argue that social anxiety disorder cannot be properly understood in the absence of cultural context. In particular, there is evidence that Chinese cultural contexts foster concern for whether one is making other people uncomfortable. We examined these concerns in 175 Han Chinese depressed psychiatric outpatients in Changsha, China and 104 Euro-Canadian depressed psychiatric outpatients in Toronto, Canada. As anticipated, anxiety about causing discomfort to others was related to but distinct from social interaction anxiety, with a stronger relation in the Han Chinese sample. Also as anticipated, anxiety about causing discomfort to others was higher in the Han Chinese sample compared to the Euro-Canadian sample, especially in outpatients who acknowledged anxiety in social situations. These findings can be understood in light of research demonstrating that Chinese cultural contexts foster partic...

The Cultural Shaping of Social Anxiety: Concerns About Causing Distress to Others in Han Chinese and Euro-Canadian Outpatients

This paper presents two studies that aim to unpack cultural variations in general social anxiety and the offensive-type of \emph{Taijin Kyofusho} (OTKS) -- a type of social anxiety characterized by the extreme fear of offending others. Cultural variations in the expression and manifestation of social anxiety are well established; however, the mechanisms underpinning this relation are unclear. The present studies use the Parallel Multiple Mediation Model to study how social anxiety and OTKS are jointly shaped by self-construal and intolerance of uncertainty. Study 1 compared Euro-Canadians and Chinese migrants in Canada. Results showed a mean group difference in OTKS, but not social anxiety, with the difference mediated by intolerance of uncertainty (IU). Study 2 tested this pattern of multiple mediations in Japanese, Chinese and Euro-Canadian cultural contexts. Results showed significant differences among these three cultural groups on both social anxiety and OTKS via multiple mediators (e.g., independent vs. interdependent self-construals and IU). Findings in both studies revealed that OTKS seems to be a psychopathology that is not specific to Japanese participants. The underlying mechanisms and processes of OTKS are also significantly different from social anxiety. Significant cultural variations in social anxiety and OTKS between Chinese vs. Japanese cultural contexts were observed in Study 2. These studies demonstrate the conceptual and empirical advantages of using more complex models to unpack the psychological mechanisms shaping cultural variations in social anxiety and OTKS.

/pdf/unpacking-cultural-variations-in-social-anxiety-and-the-4w5bn9yoxb.pdf

Unpacking Cultural Variations in Social Anxiety and the Offensive-Type of Taijin Kyofusho Through the Indirect Effects of Intolerance of Uncertainty and Self-Construals

As an essential part of close relationships, social support is a dynamic interactive process This paper aims to simultaneously investigate social support-seeking and provision behaviours using the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) Ninety-two friendship dyads participated in this study Supportive versus negative friendship qualities were used to predict different support-seeking and support-provision behaviours during an experimental task Cultural and gender variations were also examined Results showed that self-reported friendship qualities influence support-seeking and provision behaviours intrapersonally and interpersonally Female participants were more likely to provide emotion-focused support than were male participants After accounting for friendship qualities in the dyads, there was no evidence of cultural group differences on support-seeking or provision behaviours among same-sex friends These results demonstrate the conceptual and empirical advantages of using APIM to unpack cultural and gender variations in social support processes

/pdf/ask-and-you-might-receive-the-actor-partner-interdependence-4vo24wg3qh.pdf

Ask and you might receive: The actor–partner interdependence model approach to estimating cultural and gender variations in social support

Ce document contient la traduction en francais de 6 echelles de mesure relatives a l'anxiete sociale et Taijin Kyofusho. Ces echelles traduites sont: Self Construal Scale (30 items), Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (12 items), Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (20 items), Social Anxiety - Causing Discomfort to Others (26 items), Taijin Kyofusho Scale (31 items), Modified version of Taijin Kyofusho Questionnaire (40 items).

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01138044/document

Biru Zhou

Papers

Cultural identity dynamics: Capturing changes in cultural identities over time and their intraindividual organization

The Cultural Shaping of Social Anxiety: Concerns About Causing Distress to Others in Han Chinese and Euro-Canadian Outpatients

Unpacking Cultural Variations in Social Anxiety and the Offensive-Type of Taijin Kyofusho Through the Indirect Effects of Intolerance of Uncertainty and Self-Construals

Ask and you might receive: The actor–partner interdependence model approach to estimating cultural and gender variations in social support

Échelles traduites en français : anxiété sociale et Taijin Kyofusho