Self, identity, and biculturalism

Question 1

The self

Answer 1

Cognitive representation of one’s own self, idea, or images one has about oneself and how and why one behaves
–> a conscious idea about who you are. What your reputation is in the eyes of others, but also what you think about yourself and why you do certain things

Question 2

Origin of the self

Answer 2

Practices and worldviews
–> cultural change and transmission, parenting in ecocultural context

Question 3

Development of the self

Answer 3

Cutlural change and transmission, parenting in ecocultural context
- we are not the same person in each domain (personal, family, moral) or in each context (with family, with friends or with strangers)

Question 4

Independence and interdependence of the self

Answer 4

“In Japan, the word for self, ‘jibun’, refers to “one’s share of the shared life space” (Hamaguchi, 1985). The self, Kimura (cited in Hamaguchi, 1985) claimed, is “neither a substance nor an attribute having a constant oneness” (p. 302).
According to Hamaguchi (1985), for the Japanese, “a sense of identification with others (sometimes including conflict) pre-exists and selfness is confirmed only through interpersonal relationships . . . .
Selfness is not a constant like the ego but denotes a fluid concept which changes through time and situations according to interpersonal relationships” (p. 302).” (Markus & Kitayama, 1991, p. 228).

Question 5

IOS: inclusion of others in self-scale

Answer 5

Scale with cirkels of self and other who overlap on different levels, you have cirkel the cirkel that represents you the most

Question 6

The twenty statements test: 20x I am…

Answer 6

Make 20 statements about yourself starting I am…
- research shows that American students describe themselves a lot more dispostional than Japanese students and Japanese students describe themselves a lot more dispositional in a contextual format

Question 7

Self-esteem

Answer 7

Cognitive and affective evaluations one makes about himself/herself
–> higher in individualistic cultures than collectivistic cultures

Question 8

Self-enhancement

Answer 8

Collection of psychological processes by which one bolsters his/her self-esteem

Question 9

Self-effacement

Answer 9

Tendency to downplay one’s virtues
–> tendency of collectivistic individuals along with critizing themselves

Question 10

Better than average effect

Answer 10

Tendency of individuals to underestimate the commonality of desirable traits and to overestimate their consequences

Question 11

Mutual self-enhancement

Answer 11

Achieved through the giving and receiving of compliments between partners in close relationships

Question 12

Different aspects of identity

Answer 12

• personal
• collective
• relational
• cultural
• ethnic
• racial

Question 13

Social identity

Answer 13

that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership in a social group together with the value or emotional significance attached to that membership

Question 14

Ethnicity

Answer 14

Indicates cultural heritage, the experience shared by people who have a belief in a common ancestral origin, language, traditions, and often religion and geographic territory

Question 15

Ethnic identity

Answer 15

Combination of ethnicity and social identity

Question 16

Ethnic identity formation

Answer 16

• ascribed/self-ascribed identity: ethnic category= by others / ethnic group= self-categorization
• terms are not neutral (ethnic minorities and struggles about names)
• identity formation always concerns power

Question 17

Partial identities

Answer 17

• everyone belongs to multiple categories
• depending on a specific context, one of these partial identities may come to the foreground
• number of identities/ roles depends on the stage of life and the social network
• cultural differences is the nuber of partial identities: higher in non-traditional, lower in traditional cultural contexts

Question 18

Indentity is fluid

Answer 18

• identity changes in different contexts and cultures
• depends on whom one is talking to and where the person is located
• identity denial/ misrecognition effect

Question 19

Identity denial/ misrecognition effect

Answer 19

One is not recognized as a member of the group to which he or she identifies

Question 20

Biculturalism: early positions

Answer 20

• PARK: living in two cultures in undesirable: managing the complexity of dual reference points generates ambiguity, identity confusion,a nd normlessness
• GOLDBERG, GREEN: only if conflict is internalized having norms of the subculture is a buffer
  –> it may depend on how much conflict there is and how much of this conflict is internalized

Question 21

Biculturalism/alteration

Answer 21

Models of 2nd culture acquisitions –> alteration
- individuals may exhibit higher cognitive functioning, and self-esteem
- similar to evidence from studies on bilingualism

Question 22

Alteration

Answer 22

Wide range of differences: problem solving skills, relational patterns etc.

Question 23

Key to wellbeing

Answer 23

• knowledge of cultural beliefs and values
• positive attitudes towards both groups
• bicultural efficacy
• communication ability
• role repertoire
• groundedness

Question 24

How can you define someone that is bicultural?

Answer 24

• in a deographic sense
• uni-/bidimensional
• if we can’t just look at the demographic features, we need to look at the dynamic feature: domain specificity and dynamic constructivistic approach

Question 25

Multiple cultural references

Answer 25

Static –> demographic and uni-/bidimensional
Dynamic –> domain specificity, dynamic constructivist approach (CFS, cultural frameswitching) and culture as situated cognition (CSC)

Question 26

Dynamic constructivism

Answer 26

• internalized culture as a network of discrete, specific constructs that guide cognition only when the come to the fore in an individual’s mind
• culture = doamin-specific knowledge
• an individual’s knowledge varies in accessibility
• priming - spreading activation

Question 27

Parts of the dynamic constructivistic approach

Answer 27

• cultural frame switching
• interpretation of behavior - individual vs group actors
• cultural priming
• culture as situated cognition

Question 28

Cultural frame switching

Answer 28

• cognitive perspective
• when we are looking at cultural differences, are we looking at individual differences?
• we should look at culture as a structure, as a knowledge network
• they think of culture as a network of discrete, specific constructs that guide cognition only when they get triggered
• culture = domain specific knowledge
• an individual’s knowledge varies in accessibility
• they looked at things that would trigger their networks or one of their cultures/contexts

Question 29

CSC: culture as situated cognition

Answer 29

Cultural orientations and behaviors interact with situational factors
Cultural/country differences:
- american > chinese in recall of abstract and central
- japanes > americans with proportions between elements

Question 30

Differences cultural frame switching and culture as situated cognition

Answer 30

CFS: top-down, where a central part of the mindset is to be activated
CSC: bottom-up, tou can slo assess monocultural people
- what is common to both approaches is that you don’t have a culture. What we’re looking at is a culture as something that is accessible in certain contexts
- many people look at ‘between individual differences or between national differenves, while the variability between individuals is often neglected’

Question 31

Implications for our understanding of culture

Answer 31

• not having a culture - accessibility
• variance across groups = variance in accessibility
• importance of language as a cultural marker
• focus on the cognitive process - not one single outcome

Question 32

Mediators an moderators

Answer 32

Compatible vs. oppositional cultural
- perceptions of distance and
- perceptions of conflict
Predictors of BII
- acculturation orientations
- acculturation stressors
- personality

Question 33

Predictors of bicultural identity integration (BII)

Answer 33

• accultuarion orientations: how do you want to resolve the conflict
• acculturation stressors (discrimination for example) -> how much are you discriminated being a member of these two groups?
• personality: neuroticism for example