Interculturality is a new field in Romania, but it is well developed in the USA or Canada, and in the last years in Europe too. Intercultural psychology studies the influence of cultural factors on behavior through the prism of psychological implications.
Studies show that moving to another country can lead to various psychological manifestations, from anxiety to depression, but it can also have beneficial effects, such as accelerating the maturation process.
My interest for interculturality began in 2003, when I prepared a comparative study on “Personality Factors in Romanian and Hungarian Teenagers”.
I later continued with my master’s dissertation “Psychological and Sociocultural Integration of Romanian Immigrants in France”. After that I had another study, “Transformation and Individuation in an Intercultural Context”.
I have personally experienced what it means to relocate from one country to another, and professionally I have worked with people who have had such changes in their lives.
Seeing from all three perspectives, my studies, personal and professional experience, I know that this is not easy from a psychological viewpoint, because changing cultural environments involves psychological changes.
In the end, living in a foreign country represents a challenge and the factors that help or that hinder the adaptation process are related to the respective country’s culture and its people. We learn to adjust and at the same time to avoid losing our identity. We learn to love the new culture without forgetting our original one.
This is why I invite you to discover together the challenges you are facing in a new country and the solutions for better adaptation.