America, the land of "Golden Opportunities," is the world's melting pot for a growing mass of people. Along with this flowering population, comes an extraordinary sense of diversity and cultural value. Immigrants who come to America bring with them their traditional customs, values and beliefs. Thus many people today have grown up or live in a society of "two worlds." Because of this, one sees many cultures on "display" on the bus, in the grocery store or while walking down the street. However, as often happens, as more and more immigrant families assimilate into American society, culture and traditions are lost. This process, generally described as acculturation, lends the questions of why. Why are the practices of traditional ethnic customs and beliefs lost? Why are so many children compelled or have such a powerful need to become "Americanized." Is it because people find it hard to live with the demands of two societies or for the reason that there is just no need for ethnic traditions and in the American society? Whatever the reason, acculturation has a major impact on the American society as well as the individuals or group of individuals being acculturated. Because America is made up of so many diverse cultures, the need to understand how and why acculturation occurs is very important.
             Let us, first then, begin with a look at acculturation in a general sense. Once can define acculturation in several ways depending on viewpoint. According to Doob (1960), acculturation is when people "concern themselves with at least some of 'those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups.'"(p.3) In other words, acculturation is a process where individuals or groups of individuals take on the customs of the gr...