| Adjustment | Phase 1: Leaving Home – Pre-departure | Phase 2: Arriving in Host Country | Phase 3: Increasing Participation – Culture Stress | Phase 4: Culture Shock | Phase 5: Adjusting – Adaptation | Phase 6: Arrival Home – Re-entry |
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| General Attitude | anticipation, eagerness, nervousness | exhilaration, excitement | confusion, disenchantment, restlessness, impatience | impatience, irritation, aggression, hostility | adjustment | ambivalence and disorientation |
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| Events | planning, packing, processing, celebrating, attending orientation | on-site orientation, new living arrangements, new classes and teachers, exploration of sights and shops | classes, everyday life, responsibilities in living arrangements, unfamiliar food, language, customs | uneven work performance, confrontation with difference | work performance improves, able to interpret cultural clues, sense of humor returns | wanting to tell others about experience and finding others generally not very interested |
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| Emotional Response | excitement, enthusiasm, concern about leaving family and familiar environment, desire to escape problems | enthusiasm, sense of adventure | frustration, uncertainty, irritability, loss of enthusiasm, skepticism | discouragement, lethargy, boredom, homesickness, anger, sensitivity and irritability, loneliness, comparing everything to home | sense of comfort with surroundings, sense of belonging in culture | disconnected, disoriented, irritability, desire to return to host country, uncertainty about definition of “home” |
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| Behavioral Response | anticipation, loss of interest in current responsibilities | outward curiosity about country, avoiding negative stereotypes, enthusiasm for studies, and site, passive observer of culture | search for security in familiar activities (i.e. reading books in English), increased alcohol and/or food consumption, withdrawal | withdrawal, avoiding contact with host nationals, excessive sleep, crying, loss of concentration, tension/conflict with others | empathy, ability to see things from perspectives of host national | criticism of home, friends, and the United States; keen interest in foreign affairs and news; apathy |
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| Verbal Response | “I just can’t wait to…” | “Awesome! This place and these people are a lot like home!” | “Why do they have to do it like that? Why can’t they just…” | “This place is awful! I hate it here!” | “Home” is home stay/residence hall/apartment, “We” includes host nationals | “I never realized….” |
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