Culture Shock
How we can use our environment as a tool to mitigate culture shock.
Reference Dump
The Paradox of Non-Places: A Cure for Culture Shock
Limbo gets a bad rap for being eerily liminal. To most who are just passing through, it’s a non-place. But for me it was home.
Non-places are the limbo-like locations we pass through in life.
They are the airports, the hospitals, and the malls where we would feel lonely and creeped out if we weren’t surrounded by other people. They are the places where we blend into the background in anonymity and would feel overly exposed if isolated.
Now that I’m stuck here in the land of the living, I find comfort in immersing myself in places that remind me of home.
And I’m not alone.
The paradox of non-places is that they’re so universal that when we feel homesick while travelling, they’re also the places where we can most feel at home.
15 Questions on My Mind about the Psychology of Culture Shock
- Which personality traits make a person more or less likely to experience culture shock? Self-consciousness, openness to experience…
- Which types of environments would most / least likely lead to culture shock? Too many or too few people, sensory over-abundance, unknown language…
- How can culture shock be location independent? I wonder if it’s possible to feel culture shock at home. I’d assume that culture doesn’t exist without people. So immersion in a new group of people at home might still have a high chance at leading to culture shock.
- What psychological strategies do people use to combat culture shock, after the fact? Perhaps indulging in escapist mindsets, like nostalgia or daydreaming.
- What environmental strategies do people use to combat culture shock, after the fact? Perhaps immersion in non-places or nature.
- What strategies do people use to preemptively combat culture shock? What’s the correlation between culture shock and expectation? What’s the correlation between culture shock and goal/intention?
- What decides whether a person experiences culture shock vs wonder? Both excite our sense of novelty, so what causes our coin to land on heads or tails?
- What’s the correlation between culture shock and comfort? Is it possible to experience culture shock when your surroundings are completely cozy?
- How do other people influence culture shock? I wonder if there are variations to how people experience culture shock. I’m not used to hanging around a bunch of people, so maybe I’m overly emphasizing the social component to culture shock.
- How could you go about purposefully making someone experience culture shock? I wonder if by strategizing how an evil genius would go about manufacturing culture shock, we could better understand how to avoid falling into its trap.
- How does distance from an end date influence culture shock? I wonder how time flexibility (time wealth) can influence culture shock. If I know that I’m going back home in 2 days, then culture shock might be less likely.
- How might routines and habits influence culture shock? I’d imagine that a component of culture shock is feeling disconnected from our normal. So could performing our routines and habits in a new environment help to mitigate the effect of culture shock?
- How can laughter/humour be used to combat culture shock?
- What’s the opposite of culture shock?
- How does alone time influence culture shock? If I’m not bias and people truly are a core feature of the cause of culture shock, then I wonder if self-prescribing alone time could help. But I could also see it bolstering the feeling of disconnectedness. Maybe we each have our own sweet spot?
Table of Contents
- Culture Shock
- 15 Questions on My Mind about the Psychology of Culture Shock
- Defining Culture Shock
- Personality
- Environment Design
- Location
- Familiarity
- Psychology
- Preemptive Combat
- Side Effects
- Adaptation
- Past Experiences
- Wonder
- Comfort
- Expectations
- Time
- Sound
- Technology
- People
- Temperature
- Aesthetics
Defining Culture Shock
Definition
What’s the definition of culture shock?
Related Experiences
What’s the opposite of culture shock?
Opposite Experiences
What are related experiences to culture shock?
Personality
Susceptibility
Which personality traits make a person more likely to experience it?
Resilience
Which personality traits make a person more resilient to experiencing it?
Environment Design
Designing Against Culture Shock
What environmental strategies do people use to combat culture shock, after the fact?
How could environment design be used to influence culture shock?
Designing For Culture Shock
How could you go about purposefully making someone experience culture shock?
What’s the correlation between accommodation styling and culture shock?
Location
Location
Which types of environments would most likely lead to culture shock?
Which types of environments would least likely lead to culture shock?
How can culture shock be location independent?
How much of culture shock is location based?
Interior vs Exterior
How does being in an interior vs exterior space influence culture shock?
Familiarity
Familiarity
How much do environmental differences/familiarity contribute to culture shock, compared to location?
How much does familiarity contribute to culture shock?
Nostalgia
How can nostalgia be used to combat culture shock?
Novelty
What’s the correlation between novelty and culture shock?
Language
What’s the correlation between culture shock and language?
Routines
How might routines and habits influence culture shock?
Psychology
Strategies
What psychological strategies do people use to combat culture shock, after the fact?
Self-Consciousness
What’s the correlation between self-consciousness and culture shock?
Preemptive Combat
Prevention
What strategies do people use to preemptively combat culture shock?
Side Effects
Behaviour
What are signs that someone is experiencing culture shock?
Neurology
What neurological effects does culture shock have?
Psychology
What psychological effects does culture shock have?
Adaptation
Time
How long does it take people to adapt to culture shock?
Adaptability
What’s the correlation between susceptibility to culture shock and adaptability?
Resilience
What’s the correlation between susceptibility to culture shock and resilience?
Past Experiences
Past Experience
How do past experiences contribute to culture shock?
Wonder
Wonder
What decides whether a person experiences culture shock vs wonder?
What’s the correlation between culture shock and wonder?
How can awe influence culture shock?
Comfort
Comfort
What’s the correlation between culture shock and comfort?
Laughter
How can laughter/humour be used to combat culture shock?
Food
How can food be used to combat culture shock?
Expectations
Expectation
What’s the correlation between culture shock and expectation?
Goals
What’s the correlation between culture shock and goal/intention?
Time
Time Wealth
How does time flexibility (time wealth) influence culture shock?
Alone Time
How does alone time influence culture shock?
End Dates
How does distance from an end date influence culture shock?
Lead Up
How quickly do people tend to experience culture shock?
Sound
Music
How could music be used to influence culture shock?
Sound
How do environmental sounds influence culture shock?
Technology
Virtual Reality
How could virtual reality be used to influence culture shock?
Technology
How can technology be used to combat culture shock?
Photography
How can photography be used to combat culture shock?
People
People
How do other people influence culture shock?
Temperature
Temperature
How could temperature influence culture shock?
Aesthetics
Aesthetics
How could aesthetics influence culture shock?