American Studies Periodical

International Black Sea University Faculty of Humanities Direction of American Studies American Studies Periodical 4th Edition American Studies International Research Conference Materials Tbilisi 2011 Chief Editor: Prof. Dr. Tamar Shioshvili, The Dean of the Faculties of Humanities and Education International Black Sea University Computer and Editorial Assistance: Tea Chumburidze, B.A., Research Assistant of the Faculty of Humanities International Black Sea University © International Black Sea University, 2011 UDC: 908 (73) A-47 TABLE OF CONTENTS: SECTION I: Education and Social Issues TAMAR SHIOSHVILI Why does “Culture Shock” Occur? Cross-Cultural Adjustment Stress.......................................... 5 NINO GAMSAKHURDIA The Leadership Styles of African Americans in the First Decades of the 20th century ............... 12 IRINA BAKHTADZE Main Criteria for Measuring Excellence of College Teaching in the U.S. ................................... 24 TEA CHUMBURIDZE President Barack Obama Health Care Policy: Implementation and Results ................................ 33 LASHA KURDASHVILI The Methods and Role of Lobbing System in the U.S. ................................................................ 39 TAMAR MKALAVISHVILI Print Medium and Its Impact on Society (On the example of TIME magazine) .......................... 48 KETEVAN ROSTIASHVILI E-government in the U.S.A. & World Comparative Tendencies ................................................. 55 ANASTASIA ZAKARIADZE Current Tendencies in American Moral Philosophy .................................................................... 62 IRINA MILNIKOVA Methods of Unitary Scaling and Evaluation of Quality Standards in Education………………..68 JOACHIM FAUST Global Integral Humanities- the Experience of an Exchange Program between IBSU and Washington University in St. Louis……………………………………………………………..76 SECTION II: Literature and Women's Issues TAMAR CHEISHVILI Writing ‘Race’: Fences by August Wilson ................................................................................... 82 3 IRMA GRDZELIDZE & NINO PKHAKADZE The Significance of Discourse Analysis in Language Teaching and Learning ............................ 88 OMAR TSERETELI International Alliance of Women in the United States ................................................................. 96 GEORGE SHADURI What Jonathan Edwards Did Not Mention ................................................................................. 101 TAISIA MUZAFAROVA Private Life of Edgar Allan Poe and Its Influence on His Literary Works ................................. 109 ELENE MEDZMARIASHVILI Some Problems of Women's Political Activity in the United States, European Countries and Georgia (Comparative analysis) ................................................................................................. 120 BAIA KOGUASHVILI Main Tendencies of the Development of New American Drama (Plastic Theatre) ................... 128 SECTION III: History, Art, Economics DAVID APTSIAURI Brief Overview of the Economic Cooperation between Georgia and the United States of America (Main trends and recent developments) ...................................................................................... 135 LELA VANISHVILI Media, PR & Globalization......................................................................................................... 141 NINO DANELIA African-Americans in the Past and Present ................................................................................ 150 NICKOLAS MAKHARASHVILI Communicating Reforms: Some Aspects of Practical Public Relations Strategy for Local Government (USA-based Research)……………………………………………………...…….157 4 SECTION I: Education and Social Issues Why does “Culture Shock” Occur? Cross-Cultural Adjustment Stress TAMAR SHIOSHVILI Domestic and International issues increasingly mix together. It is difficult to separate the local from the global in today’s shrinking world. The community requires that we become more than simply “global citizens”- who are informed and involved in international affairs. We also need to become more adapt at interacting with those who are different. Cross-cultural communication barriers must be overcome in the world of the 21st century. One of the barriers of cross cultural communication is culture shock that is so very common among sojourners. We have decided to make some observations on some widespread factors, causing the culture shock. The phrase “culture shock” was first created by Cora Dubois in 1951 and was first used in the cross-cultural literature by anthropologist Kalvero Oberg to describe problems of acculturation and adjustment among Americans who were working in a health project in Brazil. He viewed it as “an occupational disease of people who have suddenly been transplanted abroad. Culture shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse”. (K. Oberg, 1960, 177-182) Oberg considered culture shock as a specific illness with its own symptoms and cures. However, in the past four decades the phrase has become the main part of the international traveler’s jargon and is now very often used to describe almost any physical or emotional discomfort experienced by those adjusting to a new environment. “Homesickness”, “nostalgia”, “adjustment difficulties” and many other terms are often used to describe the same phenomenon as culture shock, but as these labels are more euphemistic, culture shock is more frequently used, because of historical tradition and the attention-getting of the words. Manifestation of culture shock may range from mild emotional disorders and stress-related physiological ailments to psychosis. The types and intensity of reactions to a new cultural environment depend upon the nature and duration of the stressful condition and more importantly, the psychological makeup of an individual. Some people promptly develop useful adjustment strategies which allow them to Prof. Dr., Dean of the Faculties of Humanities and Education, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi, Georgia. 5 SECTION I: Education and Social Issues adapt easily, while at other times, some apply to the use of progressively more inappropriate and maladaptive neurotic defense mechanisms which may actually develop into such severe psychological disorders as psychosis, alcoholism, and even suicide. Most researches propose that such severe reactions represent less than 10 percent of all travelers, and it may also be that they were predisposed to an inability to cope with sudden traumatic stress before they traveled overseas. Great majority of travelers experience moderate reactions and successfully defeat culture shock. In fact, some may actually come through culture shock more psychologically unhurt than before they left their own culture. About two decades ago in the United States severe culture shock was measured in terms of so-called “dropout rate”, It was informally estimated, that the Peace Corps had a dropout rate of between 30 and 40 percent. These were volunteers who returned home before completing their term of service overseas. The inference is that these volunteers terminated their stays because of the stress of cross cultural adjustment or an inability to adapt overseas. Although, there may be many other factors to lead to such termination, including family difficulties, health problems unrelated to stress, or differences with management overseas. The intensity of culture shock is generally much greater when the adjustment involves a completely different culture, because there is a greater loss of familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse in a completely new environment. On the other hand, expectation of a stressful event affects the intensity of the reaction. Most evidently, if we do not anticipate a stressful event we are less capable of coping with it. This would explain why we still experience culture shock when entering a slightly different cultural environment or when returning home to our native culture. Scholars say most Americans do not expect stress when adapting to London and few anticipate the stress reentering their home culture. Subsequently the psychological makeup of the individual may be the most crucial factor. Some people can tolerate a great deal of stress caused by change, vagueness, and unpredictability while others demand an unchanging, unambiguous, predictable environment to feel psychologically secure. According to Richard W. Brislin (R. W. Brislin, 1981, 40-71) psychological traits, rather than cross-cultural adjustment skills or cultural awareness may be of primary importance in determining the success with which one adapts to another culture. 6 SECTION I: Education and Social Issues While Oberg considered culture shock to be a separate “sickness”, therefore suggesting a medical disease model to explain the phenomenon, some, for example Nancy J. Adler and Peter S. Adler, have come to consider it a normal and natural growth or transition process as we adapt to another culture. (N. J. Adler, 1985, & P. S. Adler, 1974, 23-71) With adaption there is disorientation, ambiguity, and pain, but we often come through this state more stable than ever before. The thing is not to eliminate or avoid culture shock but rather to make it less stressful and more positive experience. Culture shock is most evidently the result of a normal process of adaptation and may be no more harmful than the psychological reactions we experience when adapting to such new environmental situations

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