In each connection with new cultural contexts a new hybrid state of cultural adaptation is constructed enabling people to adjust to new conditions by creating innovative solutions for the self. This book aims to provide a brief presentation of innovative cultural psychological theory of proculturation reflecting and oriented on the understanding of semiotic and developmental dynamics of higher mental phenomena while engaging alien signs through intercultural communication. The exploration and theoretical understanding of developmental dynamics (such as self and identity construction) of people who live in immigration or multicultural, or even multi-ethnic societies, the research builds its new focus in contrasts with the acculturation theories currently present in social psychology.
The theory of proculturation has been built in opposition to cross-cultural psychological theories as well as mainstream theories of acculturation research dominated by bidimensional theoretical models. Instead, this theory is constructed based on theoretical explorations which are rooted in cultural semiotics and developmental psychological paradigm on human psychology.

Vladimer Lado Gamsakhurdia is a professor of cultural psychology and psychological anthropology at the psychology department of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and is interested in the cultural basis of human psychology. He explores the semiotic dynamics of proculturation, acculturation, selfhood, and identity-construction, humans' adaptation to immigration and multicultural societies. Previously he published the book: Semiotic Construction of the Self in Multicultural Societies: A Theory of Proculturation (2021).

Lado Gamsakhurdia is an editorial board member of the Sage journal, 'Culture & Psychology' and Springer's 'Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science'. He is an associate editor of Springer journal "Trends in psychology". He has been a visiting scholar at the universities of Uppsala, Aalborg, Chicago, Luxembourg, Jacobs (Bremen), Iasi, Fribourg, and the University of Basque country. He was awarded the Georgian national "Dimitri Uznadze Award in Social Sciences" in 2019 and the "special prize for significant contribution in social sciences" by Georgian Shota Rustaveli National science foundation in 2021.

1. Introduction: Towards a systemic understanding of the semiotic and relational dynamics of the psyche

Part I - Considering paradigmatic assumptions on human psychology and intercultural relations

1. The self and 'culture' in psychology - the overview of complicated relationship from a historical perspective

2.1  Towards a semiotic theory on the self-construction in relation to the heterogeneous plurality of social representations

The self 'on the move' how are the "effects" of intercultural relations understood and conceptually represented in psychology and anthropology?

 Part II - Theory of proculturation - Constructive 'Leben' in-between familiar and unfamiliar 'cultures'

Considering the meaning/power of temporality and imagination for understanding the dynamics of engagement with familiar/unfamiliar cultural elements - distinguishing individual and sociocultural levels of analysis
1. Considering the historicity and phenomenological aspects of intercultural engagement - emphasizing microgenetic look at the process
2. Considering particularities and regularities of semiosis of alien elements - revealing the spectre of various affective-semiotic strategies: from radicalization and conventionalization through concretization to post-conventionalization and relativization of human thinkings and feelings through hyper-generalized abstraction

Part III - Conclusions

Revealing universal regularities through the exploration of singular cases, art and fictional texts - towards methodological (re)innovations