Date of Award

1994

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

First Advisor

Pamela Nickels

Second Advisor

Jesse Harris

Third Advisor

Lara L. Deveraux

Abstract

Psychological stress is commonly experience.cl by any individual traveling in foreign countries. This is particularly true in areas where customs, social structures, and languages are unfamiliar. Culture shock is characterized by any notable change in thinking, or behavior which can be attributed to exposure to an unfamiliar environment and/or separation from a familiar one. Visiting another culture during the process of adopting children from other countries is, most of the time, a requirement for those parents who decided to adopt internationally instead of completing a domestic adoption.

The purpose of this research is to determine if gender had an impact on the experience of culture shock of a sample of 32 Americans who were a sample of convenience. The Culture Shock Inventory (CSI) was administered to the subjects (15 males and 17 females) who participated in an International Adoption Program. The CSI measured and compared the 8 scales of cultural adjustment of the sample by gender. A nonparametric test or distribution free test, the Wilcoxon Rank-Sum Test, which does not rely on parameter estimation and/or distribution assumption, was used for statistical analysis. The only scale that showed significant Gender differences was the Behavioral Flex Scale, which had a Ws of 193.5 in relation to the critical value which was 195.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Download

Share

COinS