The Dominant Cause of Cultural Shock and its Effect on the Students who are Studying at Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado-Indonesia
People entering a new environment could experience a cultural shock. It can also happen tostudents who study at a place where the culture is different from their home culture as they mayfeel unsettled and anxious. Previous studies uncovered the sources of cultural shock, such asbeing a different culture, having different expectations, facing different customs, speaking adifferent dialect. Kalvero Oberg (1960) mentioned six negative feelings caused by culture shock, which were: (1) strain resulting from the effort of psychological adaption; (2) a sense of loss ordeprivation referring to the removal of former friends, status, role, and possessions; (3)rejection by or rejection of the new culture; (4) confusion in the role definition, roleexpectations, feelings, and self-identity; (5) unexpected anxiety, disgust, or indignationregarding cultural differences between the old and new ways; and (6) feelings of helplessness asa result of not coping well in the new environment.Other adverse effects of a cultural shock were discouragement, lethargy, depression, suspicion,boredom, homesickness, anger, extreme sensitivity, irritability, loneliness and loss of familiarity.For students studying in a different cultural setting, this cultural shock may have a negativeimpact on them.This research aims to reveal the dominant cause of cultural shock and its effect on the studentswho are studying at Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado-Indonesia.This study used the Analytical Hierarchy Process for data gathering and analysis. Therespondents were students of Universitas Katolik De La Salle Manado who came from differentprovinces of the country. This study benefited the management of the University to improve theprogram that handled this cultural shock being experienced by the students to enhance theirstudies at the University