Towards a post-critical praxis: Intentional states and recommendations for change in acculturation psychology

I offer a way of conceptualizing and researching acculturation psychology and thereby hope to offer a tentative course to take us beyond the critiques addressed in this issue. First, I propose an alternative characterization of acculturation psychology by addressing what changes in acculturation. This proposal is anchored in [Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of Meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press] notion of intentional states (e.g. psychological experiences described by terms like ‘identity,’ ‘anger,’ ‘faithfulness,’ and so on) that illustrates how culture and psychology are deeply interdependent. In the dynamic cultural changes that occur in instances of acculturation, intentional states themselves change. Second, I address why such changes ‘matter’ to people by exploring the embodied experience pertaining to intentional states—thereby extending the notion beyond Bruner's use of it. This extension is made by drawing on the phenomenology of M. Bakhtin who proposes how culture shapes our own personally embodied experience of intentional states. Change in the sociocultural context thereby involves changes on a personal experiential plane and, as such, experientially ‘matters’ to people. Over the course of this proposal, I provide six recommendations for the praxis of acculturation psychology. Because the general praxis in acculturation psychology, as it currently stands, makes it difficult to implement these recommendations, I highlight an example of a research study that follows the recommendations contained herein.