Bicultural identities: Determinants, processes, and effects.

Although all individuals are members of multiple social groups (e.g., one is simultaneously a woman, a professor, an Asian American, and a Christian), the majority of social identity and intergroup research have focused on single-group memberships. How multiple social identities are integrated within individuals is not well understood. This dissertation seeks to examine the determinants, processes, and effects of multiple identity integration. Focusing on Asian American biculturals, I examine (a) the way individuals identify with and integrate two cultural identities, and (b) how identity integration influences individual behavior and well-being. Specifically, I show that the positivity and negativity of acculturation experiences affect how individuals manage their cultural identities as well as the way they respond to cultural cues. Recent research indicates that biculturals engage in cultural frame switching (CFS), where people who have two interpretive cultural frames bring one to the foreground. This mechanism is affected by whether individuals perceive their cultural identities to be compatible (high bicultural identity integration, high BII) or conflicted (low BII). Based on past research which shows that high BIIs have more positive acculturation experiences than low BIIs, I hypothesize that high BIIs exhibit cultural-congruent behaviors while low BIIs exhibit cultural-incongruent behaviors when they are exposed to positive cultural cues. However, the opposite trend is true when high and low BIIs are exposed to negative cultural cues. We have conducted three studies to examine this proposition. Study 1 shows that, as predicted, high BIIs exhibit cultural-congruent attribution styles while low BIIs exhibit cultural-incongruent attribution styles when they are exposed to positive cultural cues. The opposite trend is true when they are exposed to negative cultural cues. Study 2 replicates this pattern in ingroup favoritism: High BIIs identify with the primed cultural group while low BIIs identify with the unprimed cultural group when exposed to positive cultural cues, but the opposite trend is true when they are exposed to negative cultural cues. Study 3 shows that when bicuturals recall more positive experiences about being a bicultural, they perceive themselves as having higher degree of BII than those who recall less positive experiences. These findings contribute to the understanding of BII and have implications for designing adaptive environments for both types of biculturals. This research on biculturals will be a valid tool for evaluating other types of multiple identity integration, not only cultural and ethnic identity integration.Ph.D.Clinical psychologyManagementPsychologySocial SciencesSocial psychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/124756/2/3163769.pd