Lecture 18 - Cultural Internalization Flashcards
Internalization
-Understanding and accepting the value
Often face a challenge
Parents heritage values vs. the mainstream values
In multicultural context, more aware of different values
May even question
My big fat greek wedding
Ethnic identity
Being embarassed by non-mainstream parents
Cameroon Dad
Cameroon = very traditional society
Hard to raise teenage boys in Montreal
Prof’s stories
Prof’s Austrian family.
This cell. My parents immigrated in the 1950s. And this in picture of my mom with my sister on the kid with the stick of about six years old and then my brother and I was really excited when I found this. Because we look like we just came off a boat. God, was it left from somewhere in Eastern Europe and it arrived in Glendale, NY, and we just don’t look like the other kids, look like most American kids were not wearing suspenders like I was. Most American kids today that did not have these funny polyester pants. And you know, that’s not her style. This is called this Super Bowl haircut. We apparent. Just put the soup Bowl on your head and cuts around. And I was drunk. Look like. ADD This was the most popular show in the US when I was that age. It was called the Brady family was about a. You can tell. they dress
Prof and his brother
Just wanted to be all-american
Didn’t want to do anything that would identify them as European
Unlike Canada, not encouraged to maintain culture. Melting pot
German and Austrian immigrants were careful and reluctant to identify with origins (after WW2…)
4 years later, blending in
Wearing converse
Mom also wanted to become American, unlike dad
“Austrian” things I did not internalize:
going to German
school Sat.
mornings
eating wursts
wearing leder
hosen
accordian lessons
polka dancing
playing soccer
Cultural Internalization
process by which cultural beliefs and
practices are adopted by the individual
and then enacted in the absence of
immediate external contingencies or
constraints.
Rejecting heritage culture is problematic
Young adults especially, wrestling with heritage and mainstream culture
Ex: arranged marriage vs. love marriage
A lot of therapists:
Process ambivalence
Come out on the side of the mainstream culture (it’s your own choice, autonomy, talk to your parents…)
BUT
Heritage culture central part of your identity
Deci & Ryan’s Theory of Internalization
(1) Children are willing and even active participants in the process.
-Doesn’t have to be forced on them, children are naturally interested in caring about what their parents care about
But feeling forced = partial internalization, still ambivalence and resistance = introjection! (see meaning in slide)
They way we model for them affects how kids do the internalization
Only full internalization when parents and culture more democratic, some choice
(2) There are different processes by which internalization occurs:
(A) Introjection – taking in a value or regulatory process but not
accepting it as one’s own.
Ex: Putting a roof on the baby cradle=
Sneaking around responsibility to teach child to learn their own limits, to internalize
Baby feels forced instead so doesn’t internalize
(B) Identification and integration – fully assimilating a regulation
with one’s core sense of self.
(3) These different internalization processes result in qualitatively different
styles of self-
regulation.
(4) The social context influences which internalization process and
regulatory style occurs.
Downie et al. 2004:
The degree to which immigrants fully
internalize their host and heritage
cultures will importantly relate to
their adjustment.
Relative Autonomy of Cultural Internalization:
External – “my parents and relatives want
me to.”
Introjected – “I would feel ashamed, guilty,
or anxious if I did not – I feel I ought to do
this.”
Identified – “I really believe it is important
to do – I endorse it freely and value it wholeheartedly.”
Adjustment Measures:
Positive and Negative Affect
experienced in heritage and host
cultural contexts.
Global Well-Being
Note: Included both self and peer reports.
Key Results:
Specific links between internalization of
each culture and affect in those cultural
settings.
Significant association between bi-cultural
integration and global well-being.
Results confirmed by peer reports.
Internalization of heritage culture and host culture (bi-cultural)=
Higher positive affect, higher well-being, lower negative affect
Why are some immigrants better able to
internalize & integrate their multiple cultures?
Hypothesis: Parental autonomy support
around cultural issues will promote
autonomous internalization.
Downie,et al., 2007
Measuring Parental Autonomy
Support re Culture
“My mother, whenever possible, allows me to choose
how I will participate in my heritage culture”
“My father insists upon my doing things like a typical
member of my heritage culture” (Reverse-scored)
If I dated an individual who was not a
member of my heritage culture my mother
(father) would…
1- Forbid me to date them
2- Treat them coldly and firmly emphasize the
importance of dating someone form our own
culture
3- Express his/her disappointment while respecting my
choice
4- Be happy that I am happy
Most common response was “they would forbid me to date them”
Not a single one got the 4th response “be happy that I am happy”
Study 1: Immigrants to Montreal:
Autonomy-support was significantly associated
with autonomous internalization of heritage
culture. (Mother & father)
Internalization of heritage cultural values was
associated with better well-being.
Internalization of host cultural values was
significantly associated with better well being.
Note: Results confirmed by peer reports.
More the parent was democratic and autonomy supportive, more kids internalized heritage culture
But internalizing host culture also associated with better well-being
Excessive control backfires
-either mindlessly compliant….then depressed
-rejecting and rebelling
-keep dating relationships secret from parents
Study 2: Chinese Malaysian Sojourners to US,
Canada, UK, Australia:
How Chinese Malaysian sojourners (somewhere for a limited amount of time) internalized Chinese cultural values
Aut-support was significantly
associated with autonomous
internalization of heritage
culture.
Internalization of heritage
cultural values was significantly
associated with better
adjustment for all participants
Conclusion of Downie Studies:
Experiences of autonomy are critical
to the successful adaptation of
immigrants because they promote
successful cultural internalization and
integration.
Prof’s story
Visit by Austrian cousins
Regrets
Immigrant groups often freeze in time
Austrians who stayed in Austria had a cultural evolution
Ex: prof’s cousins were very westernized, unlike his immigrant dad
Regrets being embarrassed
Regrets not playing soccer
Cultural relativism
Are all cultural guidelines
equally easy or difficult
to internalize?
Cultural relativism:
The principle that an individual’s
beliefs and activities should be
understood by others in terms
of that individual’s own culture.
Ex: cultures vary in autonomy in marriage
Chrikov & Ryan (2004):
Four Dimensions of Culture
Individualistic vs Collectivistic:
priority given to individuals goals and preferences OR
priority given to needs, norms, & goals of group or collective
Egalitarian (Egalitarian means believing in the
principal that all people are equal and
deserve equal rights and opportunities.
) vs Hierarchical (a system in which
people are arranged in order of
their importance or rank.):
emphasis on equality and interchangeability among people OR
emphasis on hierarchical and subordinate social relations
Ex: US Individualistic & Horizontal;
Korea Collectivistic & Hierarchical
Equally easy to internalize individualistic and collectivistic cultural values
Egalitarian vs. hierarchical cultures
Hierarchical culture… most difficult to fully integrate
Stop thinking of individualistic vs. collectivistic… focus more on egalitarian vs. hierarchical
Hard to internalize:
Bride kidnapping
Kyrgyzstan
Its illegal
But seen as a tradition
Police don’t do much, don’t even realize it’s illegal
“It’s tradition”… yeah but the women don’t feel the same way
More than half of Kyrgyzstan’s married women were snatched from
the street by their husbands in a custom known as “ala kachuu,”
which translates roughly as “grab and run.”
The custom predates the arrival of Islam in the 12th century and
appears to have its roots in the region’s once-marauding tribes, which
periodically stole horses and women from rivals when supplies ran
low.
Once a woman has been taken to a man’s home, her future in-laws try
to calm her down and get a white wedding shawl onto her head. The
shawl, called a jooluk, is a symbol of her submission. Many women
fight fiercely, but about 80 percent of those kidnapped eventually
relent, often at the urging of their own parents.
Hard to internalize: Adult
circumcision
among
Kalenjin
Kenyan tribe
Initiation right
Kids younger start self-harming
Hierarchical (vertical) culture… less respect for autonomy of person
Other Key Results from Downie Studies:
The content of cultural values do
differ across heritage countries
Vertical practices were by far the
most difficult to fully integrate.
This is true for bi-cultural and monocultural individuals.
