Effects of Acculturation and Worldview for White American, South American, South Asian, and Southeast Asian Students

Abstract

Perceptions of normal dissociation, including Western (e.g., daydreaming) and non-Western (e.g., trance behaviors) perspectives, were examined. Acculturation and frequency of abuse experiences in White American students predicted Western dissociation descriptions. For South American and South Asian students, acculturation predicted non-Western dissociation descriptions. Also, Acculturation and the normative worldview made significant contributions to both non-Western and Western descriptions of dissociation, but with different interaction patterns for the South American and South Asian groups. The between group differences (White American versus international students) and within group differences (among international groups) support the assumption that views of dissociation may be culturally based. Implications include the importance of counseling approaches that respond to such cultural variations, thus avoiding misattribution of behavior and ensuring culturally competent counseling assessment and intervention.