Merrill- Concept Application Blog Post

 I feel that the social support system that consists of family, friends, and peers play a vital role in the coping mechanisms the Latin-American community uses in mediating psychological health overtime. The social support system that is established can aid in avoiding feelings of helplessness and inadequacy that can potentially arise during cultural adaptation. The support system is made up of males and females, young and old, from both the Latin-American cultures as well as the home culture; in this case, the home culture belongs to the community of Lincoln, NE where my research is being conducted. Establishing social support in one’s culture as well as the dominant culture group in a community are important characteristics in adaptation and interpersonal communication. The Latin-American community of Lincoln, NE has strong ties to their culture through family and friends that belong to same culture as them. Through these relationships, the effects of culture shock are decreased, and the rate at which they adapt to the home culture successfully is increased. Along with their home cultures, Latin Americans with a flourishing social support system also include groups of people from the dominant culture as well. By communicating with others in the culture in which you live and may not be familiar with, the culture shock experience will be less impactful. I have spoken with various organizations and students on campus of the Latin-American community and they agreed to assist me on my research of their cultural adaptations on campus through interviews and providing me with key incites. The first and foremost thing I have learned from speaking with the groups is that the term Hispanic-American is not a term that they are comfortable identifying with due to the fact that is a term coined by the white-American culture to the Latin-American community. With this in mind, I would like to learn more about what other terms, ideas and concepts, and cultural stereotypes are place in the Latin-American community by the dominant American culture. I plan on finding this information out from the interviews I will be conducting in the coming weeks. I have chosen to focus on the Latin-American students at this college that have both strong ties to their cultures as well as involved on campus through various groups because they qualify as those who have established social support systems in their lives.