1 Department of Psychology, University of Essex.
2 Department of Psychology, University of Maryland.
Psychol Sci. 2019 Mar;30(3):333-342. doi: 10.1177/0956797618815488. Epub 2019 Jan 23.
How do you navigate the norms of your new culture when living abroad? Taking an interactionist perspective, we examined how contextual factors and personality traits jointly affect sojourners' adaptation to the host-country culture. We hypothesized that tightness (strong, rigidly imposed norms) of the host culture would be associated with lower levels of adaptation and that tightness of the home culture would be associated with higher levels of adaptation. Further, we proposed that the impact of tightness should be dependent on personality traits associated with navigating social norms (agreeableness, conscientiousness, and honesty-humility). We analyzed longitudinal data from intercultural exchange students ( N = 889) traveling from and to 23 different countries. Multilevel modeling showed that sojourners living in a tighter culture had poorer adaptation than those in a looser culture. In contrast, sojourners originating from a tighter culture showed better adaptation. The negative effect of cultural tightness was moderated by agreeableness and honesty-humility but not conscientiousness.
当你在国外生活时，你如何适应新文化的规范？从互动主义的角度出发，我们研究了情境因素和个性特征如何共同影响旅居者对东道国文化的适应。我们假设，东道国文化的紧密程度（强烈、严格的规范）与适应水平较低有关，而母国文化的紧密程度与适应水平较高有关。此外，我们还提出，紧密程度的影响应该取决于与社会规范相适应的个性特征（宜人性、尽责性和诚实谦逊）。我们分析了来自 23 个不同国家的跨文化交流学生（N=889）的纵向数据。多层次模型显示，生活在文化较紧的国家的旅居者比生活在文化较松的国家的旅居者适应能力较差。相比之下，来自文化较紧的国家的旅居者表现出更好的适应能力。文化紧密程度的负面影响受到宜人性和诚实谦逊的调节，但不受尽责性的调节。
