The Relationship of Culture Value Orientation Change and Rorschach Indices of Psychological Development

Abstract

The relation of culture change to psychological stress was investigated in a sample of second generation Greek-Americans undergoing the acculturation process. The sample was subdivided into four sub-groups on the basis of sex and social class (lower class-middle class) and positioned on a continuum of progressive stages of acculturation. The relation of culture change to psychological stress was then examined in each group separately. An objective measure of culture change based on a theory of variations in value orientations and an objective measure of psychological stress based on genetic theory were employed. It was found that the position of a sub-group on the acculturation continuum alone was not related to the degree of stress evidenced in the psychological measure. It was rather the degree to which American value orientations were internalized by members of each sub-group that was related to stress. Intra-group correlations between the measure of culture change and the measure of psychological stress increased in magnitude along the sub-group continuum of progressive stages of acculturation.