Strategies for Minimizing Cultural Shock: CW1 Inquiry Project

This report presents an inquiry project focused on the strategies for minimizing cultural shock within society. It begins with an introduction defining cultural shock and outlining the study's aims, objectives, and research questions. A comprehensive literature review explores the concept of cultural shock, the issues it causes (such as depression, stress, and loss of identity), and various mitigation strategies, including open-mindedness and stress-relieving techniques. The methodology section details the research philosophy (interpretivism), approach (inductive), strategy (systematic literature review), and data collection and analysis methods. The results and discussion section summarizes the impact of cultural shock, including feelings of confusion, anxiety, and demotivation. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of managing cultural shock and provides recommendations for further research. The project's structure includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion, and conclusion/recommendations.

CW1 Inquiry Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................5
What is the concept of cultural shock?.......................................................................................5
What are issues faced due to cultural shock within the society?................................................5
What are the strategies of minimizing cultural shock within the society?..................................5
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................6
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .....................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
RECOMMENDATION ..................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Background of the topic
Culture shock refers to the effect of moving from a familiar or known culture to one that
is unknown or familiar. It involves the shock of a new environment, understanding the ways of a
new place or meeting new people (AlSaleh and Moufakkir, 2019). It also highlights the shock of
being separated from the significant people in their life such as teachers, family, friends and
colleagues. In simpler words, it refers to the feelings of anxiety, confusion or uncertainty that an
individual may experience when moving to a new or unknown place or experiencing a new
surroundings or culture (Hale, 2021). This is known as cultural adjustment and also considered
quite normal and is the outcome of being in an unknown or unfamiliar environment. Thus, the
current study focuses over carrying out detailed information about the cultural shock within the
society and various strategies adopted by people to minimise cultural shock within the society.
Aim of the study
"To investigate the strategies of minimizing cultural shock within the society"
Objectives of the study
 To understand the concept of cultural shock
 To examine the issues faced due to cultural shock within the society To analyse the strategies of minimizing cultural shock within the society
Questions of the study
 Explain the concept of cultural shock?
 What are the issues faced due to cultural shock within the society? What are the strategies of minimizing cultural shock within the society?
Importance of topic
The current chosen topic which is cultural shock needs to be highlighted because this
creates negative impact over an individual's life. It is being determined that timing of adjustment
procedure of an individual is different (Pasztor and Bak, 2020). There are particular stages or
phases that an individual go through making adjustments to the new or unfamiliar environment.
It is one of the shocks that create stress among people and can lead to frustration and anxiety.
Generally, culture shock is occurred when individuals move to new country or city, travel
abroad, study abroad for school or go on vacation (Yang, Zhang and Sheldon, 2018). Thus, this

is selected as the topic so that ways could be generated or people generally use to decrease their
adjustment level and minimise cultural shock.
Contribution and main findings
The main contribution of this study is that it covers detailed data about strategies through
which culture shock can be minimised from the mind of an individual (Ward, Bochner and
Furnham, 2020). The main findings of the current study is that the best ways to minimise culture
shocks are: being open-minded, being honest in a judicious manner, not indulging in thoughts of
home, sharing cultural background and many more. Thus, it shows that culture shock can be
controlled and minimised if people support each other.
Structure of the report
Introduction: This section includes the research objectives and questions along with the
background to the topic.
Literature review: It is the section that includes second-hand information about the whole
investigation's topic.
Methodology: This gives detailed data about the methods used for collecting and
analysing information.
Results/discussion: This chapter focuses over discussing data in detail and showing link
with literature review.
Conclusion & Recommendations: It provides summary of each chapter in a brief manner
along with recommendations for challenges addressed in the study.

LITERATURE REVIEW
What is the concept of cultural shock?
As per the view of Pacheco (2020), culture shock can be defined as a sense of feeling that mainly
includes confusion, anxiety or uncertainty that people existing in the society might experience
when shifting to a new country or by experiencing a new surroundings or culture. Adjustment
according the culture of that particular place is considered to be normal and is the main result of
being living or surviving in an unfamiliar environment. The main reason behind experiencing
cultural shock is because of moving to a new place or country such as in case of getting
promoted by the company to work in abroad. It may also occurs when people go on business
trips, vacations, for studying abroad or travel for business or retirement and this results in
affecting the lifestyle of a person and adapting to culture of that place (Lai, Hu and Chen, 2020).
Culture shock can be divided into four main stages and they are defined as honeymoon, adaption,
frustration and acceptance of that particular stage.
What are issues faced due to cultural shock within the society?
As per the view of Brewis (2018), there are several types of issues that society faces because of
cultural shock as it affects the living structure of a person life. Depression is the main issue that
people face living in the society as with change in city, adoption to new culture and people is
quite difficult and this creates a sense of tension in their minds. Stress and anxiety is another
issue that society will face as moving to other city or country brings so many changes and these
changes are not always positive like not getting any support while working in the company from
the superiors. Differences among team members of the company working together because of
different culture background is also considered as a main issue as this results in increasing the
number of conflicts and not competing the given task on time (Bakhsh, 2020). Loss of personal
identity is also an issue that people might face while moving to another as they are familiar with
their culture or surroundings so that makes the situation of life quite tough.
What are the strategies of minimizing cultural shock within the society?
As per the view of Kostis, Kafka and Petrakis (2018), there are different types of strategies that
help the society in minimising the risk of cultural shock. Focusing on the positive outcome is
considered as the best strategy that helps the society in reducing the effect of cultural shock as it
helps in focusing on those things that are good for living a healthy life in another place. Finding

new ways to relieve stress is also a good strategy for reducing the impact of cultural shock and
this can be done by focusing on exercising so that mind can feel relaxed and cool at the time of
work (Ward, Bochner and Furnham, 2020). Keeping an open mind helps in appreciating the
efforts of different culture people and also results in learning about the differences about every
culture that exists in different place.
METHODOLOGY
Research methodology can be defined as a process of gathering and analysing data from various
different methods (Mohajan, 2018). The main purpose of research methodology is to help the
researcher in gaining accurate and valuable information about the chosen research topic. It is
mainly a technique that researcher use for indentifying, processing, analysing and interpreting
about the selected research topic in an effective manner.
Research philosophy – There are two different types of research philosophies such as
positivism philosophy and interpretevism philosophy (Ngozwana, 2018). In the present carried
on research, the researcher has selected interpretevism philosophy as it helps in gathering
detailed information about the given topic effectively. The reason for selecting this philosophy is
that it helps the researcher in getting information within the given time frame and is relevant.
Research approach – There is two parts of research approach and is primarily known as
inductive and deductive approach. In the current investigation, the investigator has selected
inductive approach as it is more suitable for gathering qualitative information about the research
topic (Daniel, 2018). The reason for selecting this approach is that it helps the researcher in
gathering the information an effective and efficient manner.
Research strategy – There are several types of research strategies which the researcher use for
gaining the knowledge about the given topic such as survey, interview, questionnaire, focus
group and many others (Valtakoski, 2020). In the present research, the researcher has chosen
systematic literature review for getting effective information about the research topic. The reason
for selecting this strategy is that it helps the researcher in gaining accurate and reliable
information for carrying out the research in a summarised manner.
Data collection – There are two types of data collection methods such as primary and secondary.
In the current conducted research, the researcher has selected secondary method for carrying out
the research in a smooth manner (Urcia, 2021). The reason for selecting this type of method is

that it helps the researcher in collecting the qualitative information about the topic more
deliberately and correctly.
Time horizon – There are two approaches involved in time horizon which are defined as cross-
sectional and longitudinal approach. In the present investigation, the investigator has selected
cross-sectional approach as it helps in completing the investigation in a timely manner
(Thambinathan and Kinsella, 2021). The reason for selecting this approach is that it is cost
effective and do not require much time for carrying out the research n the topic.
Data analysis – There are various types of techniques of data analysis but in this research it uses
two techniques such as frequency distribution and thematic approach (Tayebi Abolhasani, 2019).
In the present research, the researcher has selected thematic approach as it is more reliable in
gathering secondary information. The reason for selecting this type of approach is that it helps
the researcher in gaining knowledgeable information about the topic in an effective way.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
From the above analysis this can be concluded that cultural shock is defined as the effect
which is seen under individual when they move from one culture to another as this is totally
unfamiliar. This is associated with the new environment in which they are not able to understand
pattern of the new people and manner in which they are behaving. This also highlights the
manner in which people are separated on the basis of family, friends and any other characteristics
(Dardjito and Robiasih, 2020). This is the situation of confusion in which an individual found
themselves helpless at new place so that they can't get familiar within new surroundings. Often
people get shock when they are entered into new environment and this manner this makes them
demotivated. When people face cultural shock then this would lead them to be distracted from
the tasks which are assigned to them. On the other hand, different personality traits are also being
observed. This way individual may become irritable and sometimes they can harm their own
health physically or mentally. Cultural shock is the feeling of uncertainty and anxiety and can be
faced by people those move to some other country or face change of environment. The cultural
shock may impact the society as new people are entered and they are not able to cop up with new
environment. Individual may face depression or sadness due to cultural shock and this way
people may go into unstable mental condition.

CONCLUSION
From the above report this can be concluded that cultural shock is the situation in which
people face situation of uncertainty due to shifting over new environment or nation. This is the
situation of confusion in which people experience such surrounding in which they are not able to
cop up with environment as not able to meet their needs. Cultural shock is one of the worst
situation which is related with not having proper behaviour within individual in order to manage
their environment of the nation. Cultural shock is needed to be managed within individual so that
they may acquire new edges within competitive market. Cultural shock is the natural reaction
which may occur when people enter into new cultural environment or country. There are certain
symbols which are mentioned for every country and these are needed to be understood so that to
develop differential insights.
RECOMMENDATION
For an individual this is significant that to manage such impacts of cultural shock so that
to cop up with new environment and country conditions. The individuals should focus on
positives aspects so that they can increase their learning and manage their livelihood. The
individual should understand academic position of that environment so that they can develop
their own insights. The mind set is the another aspect which is needed to be acquired by the
individual so that they can deal with cultural shock. Language is considered one of the major
barrier due to which cultural shock arise within individual so that a person who is planning to
shift into some other environment is needed to learn the language so that prominent barrier can
be mitigated.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
AlSaleh, D. and Moufakkir, O., 2019. An exploratory study of the experience of VFR tourists: a
culture shock perspective. Tourism Geographies.
Bakhsh, J., 2020. Second Language Learners Undergoing Culture Shock: Perceptions of English
Language Teaching Method (Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University).
Brewis, A., 2018. Culture shock as part of a cultural diversity training programme in the
Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO): a critical
analysis (Doctoral dissertation).
Daniel, B.K., 2018. Empirical verification of the “TACT” framework for teaching rigour in
qualitative research methodology. Qualitative Research Journal.
Dardjito, H. and Robiasih, H., 2020. Cultural Shock in Learning: Students’ Strategies in the
Beginning of Pandemic. In PROCEEDINGS: THE INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE ON TECHNOLOGY, EDUCATION, AND SCIENCE (Vol. 2, No. 1,
pp. 169-173).
Hale, B.G., 2021. COVID-19: Avoiding culture shock with the SARS-CoV-2 spike
protein. Elife, 10, p.e69496.
Kostis, P.C., Kafka, K.I. and Petrakis, P.E., 2018. Cultural change and innovation
performance. Journal of Business Research, 88, pp.306-313.
Lai, H.S., Hu, H.H. and Chen, Z.Y.J., 2020. The effects of culture shock on foreign employees in
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Mohajan, H.K., 2018. Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related
subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People, 7(1), pp.23-48.
Ngozwana, N., 2018. Ethical dilemmas in qualitative research methodology: Researcher’s
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Pacheco, E.M., 2020. Culture learning theory and globalization: Reconceptualizing culture shock
for modern cross-cultural sojourners. New Ideas in Psychology, 58, p.100801.
Pasztor, J. and Bak, G., 2020. The Urge of Share & Fear of Missing Out-Connection between
culture shock and social media activities during Erasmus internship. In FIKUSZ’19
Symposium for Young Researchers, Óbuda University, Budapest (pp. 176-191).
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Valtakoski, A., 2020. The evolution and impact of qualitative research in Journal of Services
Marketing. Journal of Services Marketing.
Ward, C., Bochner, S. and Furnham, A., 2020. The psychology of culture shock. Routledge.
Yang, Y., Zhang, Y. and Sheldon, K.M., 2018. Self-determined motivation for studying abroad
predicts lower culture shock and greater well-being among international students: The
mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction. International Journal of
Intercultural Relations, 63, pp.95-104.