Acculturation and Cultural Identity

Psychological acculturation research deals with intra-individual change processes resulting from ongoing intercultural contact. In this chapter, we examine three central criticisms of the traditional acculturation research, shaped by cross-cultural psychology (regarding context reference, concept of culture, and underlying psychological processes), in more detail and show possible solutions from a cultural psychological perspective. We focus on cultural identity, the identification with various cultural groups, as a central and much-researched aspect that changes in the course of acculturation, but also illustrates the limits of traditional acculturation research.