Table of Contents
Definition of Culture Shock
(noun) A feeling of anxiety and disorientation that occurs when an individual encounters an unfamiliar culture or way of life.
Example of Culture Shock
- When a student starts a semester abroad or an individual immigrates to a new country and both experience unfamiliar norms in custom, dress, food, and mores.
Culture Shock Pronunciation
Syllabification: cul·ture shock
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /kUHl-chuhr shAHk/
- British English – /kUHl-chuh shOk/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈkʌlʧər ʃɑk/
- British English – /ˈkʌlʧə ʃɒk/
Usage Notes
- Plural: culture shocks
- Cultural shock experienced while doing fieldwork is called dysadaptation syndrome as used by Ronald Wintrob in “An Inward Focus: A Consideration of Psychological Stress in Fieldwork” in Stress and Response in Fieldwork (1969).
Related Quotation
- “Cultures do not generally remain static. There are many forces working toward change and diversity. Some societies and individuals adapt to this change whereas others suffer culture shock and succumb to ethnocentrism” (Kendall 2006:57).
Related Online Discussion
Additional Information
- Word origin of “culture” and “shock” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Barcan, Ruth. 2004. Nudity: A Cultural Anatomy. New York: Berg.
- Benedict, Ruth. 1934. Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Bock, Philip K. 1983. Culture Shock: A Reader in Modern Cultural Anthropology. Washington, DC: University Press of America.
- Chagnon, Napoleón Alphonseau, and Edward O. Wilson. 1992. Yanomamö: The Last Days of Eden: The Celebrated Anthropologist’s Pioneer Work Among a Now-imperiled Amazon Tribe. New York: Jovanovich.
- Delaney, Carol Lowery, and Deborah D. Kaspin. 2011. Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology. Chichester, West Sussex, England: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Denzin, Norman K., and Yvonna S. Lincoln, eds. 2002. The Qualitative Inquiry Reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
- Furnham, Adrian, and Stephen Bochner. 1986. Culture Shock: Psychological Reactions to Unfamiliar Environments. London: Methuen.
- Golde, Peggy. 1970. Women in the Field: Anthropological Experiences. Chicago: Aldine.
- Rabe, Monica. 2009. Culture Shock: Living and Working Abroad. Eugene, OR: Resource.
- Stocking, George W. 1986. Observers Observed: Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
- Ward, Colleen, Stephen Bochner, and Adrian Furnham. 2003. The Psychology of Culture Shock. London: Routledge.
Related Terms
Reference
Kendall, Diana. 2006. Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials. 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Works Consulted
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Cite the Definition of Culture Shock
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “culture shock.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved November 8, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/culture-shock/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
culture shock. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/culture-shock/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “culture shock.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed November 8, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/culture-shock/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“culture shock.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 8 Nov. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/culture-shock/>.