Acculturation Process and Life Domains: Different Perceptions of Native and Immigrant Adults in Italy

Abstract

Social psychology has framed the relationship between immigrant and native communities within the concept of acculturation. Acculturation literature has investigated the ways in which members of minority groups enter into relationships with other groups and the host society. Members of ethnic minority groups not only belong to their own ethnic group, but they also have to deal daily with the majority group of the society in which they live. In a cross-cultural psychology approach, researchers analyse the cultural changes that occur when different cultural groups come into contact [1]. Acculturation is defined as individual changes that result from direct contact with members of a different ethno-cultural group [2, 3]. Some social psychologists in the 20th century [4, 5] ela-