The research on cross-cultural and socio-cultural changes, mental state and mental health has attracted more and more attention from various countries and nations. So it's reported all over the world. For example, Danish scholar Mirdar conducted a survey of female Turkish immigrants and found that most of these female immigrants have psychological and physiological reactions, most of which are nervous. Besides diseases, occupations, crowded housing and other factors, it is also related to the long-term separation of husband and wife, education level, religious beliefs, conflicts between values and lifestyle and local cultural and living environment, language barriers and other factors. At the same time, these immigrants have serious psychological anxiety, helplessness and depression.
Graves' survey in New Zealand shows that not all immigrants are accompanied by psychological problems. For example, Indonesians who immigrated to New Zealand have low educational level, little experience in city life, many people to support and few psychological problems. Through personality survey, it is found that most of these immigrants are less aggressive and gentle, which has played a role in buffering the pressure of social environment.
Gurney studied the mental health problems in the development of American nation from a macro perspective. The results show that people's achievement, aggression and psychological distress depend on competitiveness and interpersonal relationships; When there is a high level of social coordination, people's aggression and psychological troubles will be reduced, but the level of achievement will not be affected. In other words, people don't have to reduce social pressure at the expense of reducing their progress in achievement. In the process of modernization, escaping aggression and psychological distress is regarded as an inevitable side effect. However, this side effect can be weakened or even eliminated by promoting social cooperative behavior, such as a behavior pattern that is beneficial to both individuals and society.
China is a multi-ethnic country with a vast territory. The domestic regions, ethnic cultures and economic development are different and unbalanced, and there are great differences in culture and folk customs. At the same time, with the deepening of modern economic construction and opening up, the interaction with foreign cultures has become increasingly prominent, and the research in this area has gradually increased.
For example, after the Japanese invaders surrendered in World War II, the Japanese left about 3,000 children in northeast China. With the help of the people, many "Japanese orphans" returned to Japan to find their relatives. It is estimated that nearly 1,000 Japanese orphans in China and their families have moved to Japan so far, and many Japanese orphans and their families still live in China. These Japanese orphans grew up in the cultural environment of China and spent 30 or 40 years. Although I "returned" to Japan, I was faced with a brand-new and different social and living environment. Naturally, there were adaptation problems, and it would be more difficult to adapt in language, lifestyle, economy and other aspects. Japanese scholar Keisuke Eda investigated the psychological adaptation of 86 Japanese, 77 Japanese spouses and 203 children after living in Japan for three months. The results show that anxiety, compulsion, hostility and terror in the Japanese group have increased significantly; Anxiety and hostility among spouses have increased significantly, which is related to the intensity of migration motivation. The stronger the spouse, the more obvious the increase. It shows that the higher the motivation to live at first, the more psychological problems will be shown. Secondly, the ability to master a new language and adapt to a new cultural environment are also important factors.
Cultural shock is a temporary psychological state of social isolation, anxiety and depression caused by a person suddenly being in a new and different cultural life environment. The changes of people's anxiety and depression experience are obviously temporal and conditional. In addition, these emotions are also related to personality and their own values, especially those who pursue perfection excessively, are afraid of failure or seek recognition, and regard their happiness as coming from the outside world, which are most likely to cause psychological conflicts. Therefore, in order to prevent cultural shock, we need to improve our psychological quality besides increasing our adaptability to new and different cultural living environments.