culture change and psychosocial adjustment

• Published in: American Ethnologist
• Main Author: Barger, W. K.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1977
• Subjects: Anthropology; Cree indians; eskimo*; inuit
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ae.1977.4.3.02a00050; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1525%2Fae.1977.4.3.02a00050; https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ae.1977.4.3.02a00050

Three positions identified in the literature on the relationship between culture change and psychosocial adjustment are tested in a comparative study of Inuit (Eskimos) and Cree Indians in a northern Canadian settlement. Both descriptive and statistical evidence indicate that no universal association between change and adjustment obtains and that any relationship existing between them is case‐specific and is due to the situational and cultural contexts of change. Implications of these findings for theory and research are also suggested.