Culture and Personality Processes: Conceptual and Methodological Issues

1. Culture and Personality Processes:Conceptual and Methodological Issues Veronica Benet-Martinez University of California at Riverside, USA Universitat Rovira i Virgili March 23-25, 2010

2. DAY 3 Biculturalism: Dynamic Interplay of Cultural Identity, Language, and Personality *Required Readings: Nguyen, A.M, & Benet-Martínez, V. (2007). Biculturalism unpacked: Components, individual differences, measurement, and outcomes. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1, 101-114. Benet-Martínez, V., & Haritatos, J. (2005). Bicultural Identity Integration (BII): Components and socio-personality antecedents. Journal of Personality, 73, 1015-1049.

3. Biculturalism:The Dynamic Interplay of Cultural Identity, Language, and Personality

4. WHO IS BICULTURAL/MULTICULTURAL: • Any individual who has been exposed to and internalized two or more sets of cultural systems (e.g., beliefs, values, behaviors, languages) • Immigrants • Ethnic minorities • Refugees • Sojourners • Indigenous/colonized people • People in cross-cultural relationships • People multi(lingual/cultural) nations

5. OUR INCLUSION CRITERIA: Individual who: • Self-identifies as ‘bicultural’ • Has lived 5 or more years in each culture (for non-US born) • Has moderate-high identification with each culture • Has moderate-high linguistic proficiency in each language

6. http://biculturalism.ucr.edu/

7. Why study biculturalism? 2002 U.S. Census: 56 million immigrants and their children (20% population)  Globalization: Culture no longer bound to geopolitical boundaries Biculturals: Perfect quasi-experimental design to manipulate culture and observe its effects on behavior

8. BICULTURALISM surrounds us … in popular media and the arts

9. BICULTURALISM … in both popular and academic (i.e., cultural studies) literatures

10. BICULTURALISM … in leadership

11. Why are bicultural individuals excluded in most traditional cross-cultural work?Field’s emphasis on documenting cultural differences (vs. processes) by comparing mono-cultural samplesTraditional (static, trait-like) definitions of culture and acculturation (culture as a chronic, uniform and domain-general worldview) vs. dynamic constructivist approach (culture as an organized set of schemas; Hong et al., 2000).

12. SOCIO-COGNITIVE APPROACH TO CULTUREàCulture as shared meaning-systems: sets of ideas, values, beliefs, emotions organized in associative networks, schemas, and implicit theories àdomain-specificity of schemas: Culture as a “toolkit” àIndividuals can posses more than one cultural meaning-systemàCulture guides behavior only when the relevant meaning systems are cognitively available, accessible, and applicable. (Higgins, 1996)

13. EXAMPLE: BICULTURAL CHINESE-AMERICAN Chinese-American bicultural individuals have both Chinese and American cultural schemas available. The Chinese (American) cultural cues will heighten the accessibility of the Chinese (American) cultural schema. Subsequently, these individuals will apply the more accessible cultural schema if the the schema is applicable to the task at hand.

14. OUR MAIN QUESTIONS : • How do individuals who have internalized more than one culture navigate between their different and (often opposing) cultural orientations? [dynamics] • How are biculturals’ two identities organized? [structure + indiv. differences] • Consequences of biculturalism? [impact]

15. 1. BICULTURALISM:DYNAMICS

16. Cultural Frame-Switching (CFS) in Biculturals Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martinez (2000). American Psychologist Biculturals have two sets of cultural schemas Biculturals navigate through their cultural worlds by switching between different cultural interpretive frames (e.g., cognitive, affective and motivational schemas) in response to cultural cues 1. BICULTURALISM: DYNAMICS

17. Cultural Frame-Switching (CFS)  Biculturals navigate through their cultural worlds by switching between different cultural interpretive frames or meaning systems (e.g., cognitive, affective and motivational schemas) in response to cultural cues Hong, Morris, Chiu & Benet-Martinez (2000). Multicultural Minds. American Psychologist Hong, Benet-Martinez, Chiu & Morris ( 2003). Boundaries of Cultural Influence. JCCP

19. Cultural Frame-Switching in Biculturals: Evidence[Hong, Chiu, Morris, & Benet-Martinez, 2000; Hong, Benet-Martinez, Chiu & Morris, 2003] 4 studies, Chinese-American bicultural samples from Hong-Kong and USManipulation: Activation of US or Chinese cultural meaning system by primingDep. Variable: Strength of external-internal attributions (explanations given to an ambiguous social event)US/ANGLO PRIMESBEHAVIOR:CHINESE PRIMES STRONGER INTERNAL ATTRIBUTIONS (American-consistent behavior) WEAKER INTERNAL ATTRIBUTIONS (Chinese-consistent behavior)

20. AMERICAN & CHINESE CULTURAL ICONS (cover story 1: How people describe cultures)

21. CHINESE CONDITION

24. AMERICAN CONDITION

27. NEUTRAL CONDITION geometric figures or landscapes

28. AFTER PICTURES:“WRITE AN ESSAY ABOUT CHINESE (AMERICAN) CULTURE”  to ensure activation of their Chinese or American cultural meaning system (i.e., facilitate accessibility of cultural implicit theories)

29. Attributional Task (ambiguous social event)

31. INTERNAL---------------------------------------------------------------------------------EXTERNALINTERNAL---------------------------------------------------------------------------------EXTERNAL ATTRIBUTIONS

32. RESULTS

33. CFS --SUMMARY:  biculturals have multiple cultural meaning systems and can move between them in response to cultural cues 1. BICULTURALISM: DYNAMICS CFS boundary conditions: Hong, Benet-Martinez, Chiu & Morris (2003)

35. 2. BICULTURAL IDENTITY: STRUCTURE & INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

36. “What does being bicultural mean to you?” “Being ‘bicultural’ makes me feel special and confused. Special because it adds to my identity: I enjoy my Mexican culture, I feel that it is rich in tradition, morality, and beauty; Confused because I have been in many situations where I feel being both cultures isn’t an option. My cultures have very different views on things like dating and marriage. I feel like you have to choose one or the other.” -- 19 year old 2nd generation Mexican-American “I feel extremely special and proud to be part of another culture…my life is enriched by both cultures and I’d probably be less of a person today if I were not Indian… I am an Indian-American, if I could be born again, I’d choose to be bicultural.” -- 21 year old 1st generation Indian-American EMERGING THEMES: pride, uniqueness, rich sense of community and history AND identity confusion, dual expectations, and value clashes.

37. “Compatible” Cultural Identities Unconflicted identities Co-exist “I am both” “I am Mexican-American” Fluid view of culture (similarities, change, complementarity) Biculturalism as an asset(“it gives you a wider repertoire of behaviors”) “Oppositional” Cultural Identities Conflicting identities Dissociation “I am just a Chinese in America” “maybe neither ?…” Essentialist view of culture (differences, static, polarization) Biculturalism as a challenge (“you have to choose?” “have to be hyper-vigilant as to how to behave”) BICULTURAL IDENTITY INTEGRATION (BII)JCCP: Benet-Martinez et al., 2002; JRP: Haritatos & Benet-Martinez, 2002; JP: Benet-Martinez & Haritatos, 2005Degree of compatibility and fluidity (vs. conflict and dissociation) perceived between the ethnic and mainstream cultures HIGH BII ------------------------------------------LOW BII

38. BIIS-P: Oppositional vs. Compatible How well does the statement below describe your own experiences as a bicultural? “I am a bicultural who keeps American and Chinese cultures separate and feels conflicted about these two cultures. I am simply a Chinese who lives in America (vs. a Chinese-American), and I feel as someone who is caught between two cultures.” 1 (definitely not true) to 8 (definitely true)

41. 2 COMPONENTS: Cultural Blendedness (overlap vs. compartmentalization) CulturalHarmony (compatibility vs. clash) BICULTURAL IDENTITY INTEGRATION (BII)Degree of compatibility and overlap (vs. conflict and dissociation) perceived between one’s ethnic and mainstream cultural orientations Benet-Martinez & Haritatos (2005). Journal of Personality. Haritatos & Benet-Martinez (2002). Journal of Research in Personality

42. BIIS-2 N = 1,052 biculturals (UC Riverside) 337 Latinos 511 Asian-American 78 African-American 105 European-American 18 Native-American 160 other *365 first generation, 587 second generation, 42 third generation, 45 fourth generation or beyond

44. BIIS-2: Two-Factor Model Parcel 1 Parcel 4 Parcel 2 Parcel 3 Parcel 5 Parcel 6 Parcel 7 .46 Harmony vs. Conflict Blendedness vs. Compart. 1 1 .64 .77 .81 .80 .81 .83 .75 .37 .60 .42 .35 .34 .31 .44

45. Measurement Invariance of BIIS-2 across Ethnic Groups Note. Asian American: N = 493. Latino: N = 280.

46. Measurement Invariance of BIIS-2 across Generation Groups Note. First generation: N = 361. Second generation: N = 583.

47. LOW BII:Predictors:External  Acculturation Stressors(+linguistic, +interpersonal, +discrimination, +cultural isolation)Internal  Personality traits(+Neuroticism, -Openness)Outcomes:* Anxiety & depression symptoms (+) Benet-Martinez & Haritatos (2005). Journal of Personality. Haritatos & Benet-Martinez (2002). Journal of Research in Personality Cheng, Benet-Martinez & Bond (in press). Journal of Personality

49. CFI = .99, RMSEA = .07

50. N=94 2nd generation multi-ethnic biculturals CFI = .98, RMSEA = .049