Culture and Stress: A Quantitative Analysis¹

Abstract

Although anthropologists often employ the concept of stress to account for behavior, they have seldom studied differences in the way stressful situations are appraised. Some situations may be stressors in every society, others may be culturally relative. A method for quantifying the perceived magnitudes of events leading to culture shock is described and the results from a study of three sample populations are analyzed. This method has other applications which may increase the rigor of comparative studies.