HP8004 Coping With Cultural Transition

Lessons:
3 hr lecture

Assessment:
Mid-term 30%
Finals 70%

Exam Format:
Midterms - MCQs
Finals - Fill-in-the-blanks + Essays

Description:

This module covers aspects of culture shock, intercultural training and puts focus on various context such as business, international students, media, etc. It is a Liberal Studies/Liberal Arts GER-PE under Psychology.

Readings consist of only the lecture slides and handouts for every chapter. There is no assigned textbook.

Lectures are supposed to be 3-hr each, but most of the time it ended within 2.5 hours. Some content in the lecture slides are not covered in the handout so it is good to attend the lecture, otherwise it may be hard to understand the points written in the lecture slides.

For mid-terms, there are only MCQs, so not much memorising needed. Be sure to know which are the main points (e.g phases of culture shock) and definitions. Bell-curve can be quite steep for MCQs so it is important to study for it.

For finals, there are fill-in-the-blanks which most test how well you remembered the main points. The questions usually serve as good cues to remember your answer if you studied well enough. For essays, the questions can range from 5 to 20 marks. You may be required to draw out diagrams given in the lecture slides, and much memorising is needed for the essays. There are also a few application questions which test your knowledge for the specific contexts of acculturation.

Since this is a cultural transition module, you do need to know about the differences between cultures (e.g. individualism VS collectivism) and this can form a framework to understand the topics that focus on specific contexts of acculturation.