Deculturation: A Secret of Birth

1. Introduction: Berry Model and Its ProblemsCurrently, many attempts have been made to apply the Berry model as a model of acculturation 1 used to explain various phenomena. The Berry model is a bidimensional model of acculturation proposed by John Widdup Berry. As shown in Table 1, the model has an extraordinarily concise structure with a 2 ' 2 matrix of two yes-no questions: the first query concerns whether one should retain one's own cultural identity and customs, whereas the second query pertains to whether one should seek contact with the larger society.Using the two axes of cultural identity retention and larger society contact, the Berry model was developed with research focusing on traditional minorities impacted by western culture. This explains the use of the term "larger society" in one of the questions. The Berry model is characteristic in its simple categorization of individual attitudes toward contact with new cultures. This model was later applied to various psychology-related studies conducted by other researchers. Examples include analyses of the model's application to immigration (e.g., Kosic, 2002) and of psychological development among youth (e.g., Handelsman, Gottlieb, & Knapp, 2005). The Berry model has also been used in business administration. In the 1980s, focus was placed on mergers and acquisitions (MA Elsass & Veiga, 1994; Larsson & Lubatkin, 2001). The Berry model can certainly be easily and intuitively understood. Thus, other fields have found it easier to apply the Berry model. Even in business administration, it is easy to imagine more expanded applications of the model. For example, according to the model outline that shows the relevance of individual inclinations to acculturation, the model can be applied to analyze a specific individual's influence within an organization on changes in cultural identity of that organization (Sato, 2014). On the other hand, focusing on the details of the model, if one assumes that these two questions show the relationship between the cultural identity of an individual and the organization to which that individual belongs, it is also possible to easily show the relevance of these two questions to such studies as those on lukewarm feelings in Japanese firms (Takahashi, 2013; Takahashi, Ohkawa, & Inamizu, 2014) or on the effect of inpatriates on Japanese firms (Kim, 2013). Simultaneously, a number of studies have asserted that the Berry model has definite flaws (e.g., Demes & Geeraert, 2014; Rudmin, 2003; Rudmin & Ahmadzadeh, 2001). For example, Schwartz and Zamboanga (2008) raise three concerns. The first pertains to the validity of "deculturation" ("marginalization" in their model). 2 Specifically, how immigrants develop cultural identities having rejected both inherited cultures and new cultures alike can be considered as ambiguous. Furthermore, both questions being answered in the affirmative indicates biculturalism; however, several types of this pattern exist and some feel that integration is only one of those types. Finally, there also exist doubts regarding the mutual independence of the four types of cells within the Berry model. In other words, the four cells depend only on a single factor. In sum, the criticism of this model is directed at the consistency between the responses to the two questions and the categorized cells.The existence of a cell labeled "deculturation" (or "marginalization"), which is the first item noted by Schwartz and Zamboanga (2008), is unique, and attracts attention. …