Psychology of Immigration

Catalog description

We grow up within communities of culture. As we develop across our lifespans, we integrate the customs, language, and interpersonal routines of our surroundings. Immigration disrupts this developmental enculturation and results in the more complex process of acculturation. This course will review developmental psychology theory and discuss psychological disruptions experienced by immigrants in relation to their individual development, ethnicity and the cultural strictures of their receiving societies. The course will then discuss the psychological vulnerabilities as well as resiliencies that result from the process of immigrant decisions during acculturation. Throughout the course we will seek to discern preventive measures that could lessen negative outcomes and promote positive outcomes through effective decision-making in response to the developmental disruptions of immigration.