Relationships between overt and covert acculturation in American Samoa

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1975
Authors
Baldauf, Richard B, 1943
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the number and nature of the relationships between overt and covert acculturation when each of these areas was defined by multiple criteria. A review of the literature on acculturation suggested five possible approaches to defining ways in which acculturation occurs and thus indicating the nature of the overt-covert relationship. These five approaches to acculturation are briefly described as follows: (1) ENCAPSULATION suggests only limited material change with no behavioral or covert change occurring; (2) the COMPARTMENTAL approach accepts aspects of material change, with change in behaviors and values directly related to those necessary for material change; (3) the DEVELOPMENTAL approach posits rapid overt acculturation accompanied by less rapid covert acculturation, which creates dissonance within the areas of behaviors and values and often leads to mental health problems; (4) the SITUATIONAL approach suggests that bicultural individuals are able to hold and appropriately use a variety of behaviors and values without psychological stress; and (5) the MODERN MAN approach assumes that rapid acculturation takes place nearly simultaneously at the overt and covert levels. Based on these approaches, variables were selected which theoretically related to either overt or covert acculturation. For overt change, variables were chosen which represented types of exposure and defined aspects of behavior. For covert acculturation variables were chosen which were related to values and attitudes. A distinction was made between conceptual and operational values in order to test the theory that conceptual values are more strongly related to overt acculturation than operational values. The subjects were a sample of 208 12th grade high school students from American Samoa. These students were selected because they represented one of the most intact cross-sectional groups in American Samoa with exposure to both the Samoan enculturation and the western acculturation processes. By selecting only one grade, age and number of years of education were controlled making it possible to examine other sources of variation without confounding. The existence of a relationship between overt and covert acculturation has failed to be confirmed in most previous studies. This failure may have been due to the lack of reliability for the measures used. With this in mind, initial attention was directed to the construction of psychometrically sound scales, and later to the selection of appropriate variables. A canonical variate analysis was performed on 19 overt and 10 covert acculturation variables, and three significant (p≤ .01) canonical relationships were found. To confirm the generalizability of these results, the data was randomly divided and cross-validated for the first four canonical components. The first overt component and all four covert components attained the necessary correlational levels to indicate cross-validation. An examination of the first four covert components loadings revealed that operational values on the average explained more of the variance than conceptual values did. These results, which were contrary to previous findings, were explained in terms of different types of measures used, differences in the samples, and differences in the type of contact situation. Finally, the nature of the canonical components was examined. Two of the four components were found to be related to the MODERN MAN and the ENCAPSULATION approaches as predicted. However, an examination of the component loadings suggested an alternative explanation, that being the amount and type of contact is directly related to the amount of acculturation which occurred. This finding may be due to the fact that the subjects were young people involved in the enculturation process. Another factor in the differences found may be that Samoan culture is adept at allowing change to occur within its overall framework.
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Typescript.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1975.
Bibliography: leaves 136-143.
x, 143 leaves ill
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Acculturation
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Theses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Educational Psychology; no. 802
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