Chapter 4: What are the Keys to Understanding Cultural and Ethnic Identities?

Are your Identities a Superpower or and Obstacle?

Identities

  • Assigned Sex

  • Race

  • Ethnicity

  • Generation

  • Gender-Identity

  • Religion

  • Socio-Economic Class

  • Spoken Language

  • Abilities and Talents

  • Geographic Location

  • Wit/Humor

  • Style

  • Nationality/Heritage

  • Family Name

  • Family Size

  • Marital Status

  • Social Affiliations

  • Physical Stature

  • Appearance

Interaction with our cultural group helps us acquire meanings, values, norms, and community styles supporting the development of our identities

We struggle with our identities

  • Intricate, complicated, amorphous

Identities are complex and intersected

  • What does it mean to be…

Culture shapes our view of ourselves, but we also develop our own set of ethics, values, norms, ways-of-behaving

  • Which aspects of your overall identity are most or least important to you?

  • which aspects of your overall identity do you question?

  • Are your identities consistent regardless of context or do you negotiate them?

Family and Gender Socialization

Identity - self-conception derived form gender, family, cultural, ethnic, and individual socialization processes that influence our behaviors, interactions, and how we see ourselves, behavior, and interactions

  • Social Identities - Cultural or ethnic membership gender and sexual orientation, social class, religion, generation/age, physical and mental abilities or profession

  • Personal Identities - Any unique attributes we associate with our individual self in comparison with those of others

    • Loyal, Eager, Fun, Independent

Family Socialization - Provides initial blueprint of roles, gender, relational identities, and boundaries.

  • Space, Time, and Power/ Status dynamics

  • Family Types

    • Traditional

    • Extended

    • Blended

    • Single-Parent

  • Family-Types in decision-making

    • Personal - negotiable roles: democratic decision-making: parents as friends to children —— Individualistic and small power distance

    • Positional - ascribed roles; hierarchal power structure; authoritarian parents; obedient children —— collectivistic and large power distance

Gender - Meanings we hold concerning our self-images and excepted other images of femaleness and maleness (Masculinity and Femininity)

  • Children learned gender toles via rewards and punishments form in performing proper and improper gender related behaviors

    • (U.S.) Fem. - interdependence , cooperation, verbal relatedness, empathy

      • Girls games, house, relational communities

    • (U.S.) Masc. - Independence, competition, verbal assertiveness

      • Boys’ games, Sports, competitive communities

Group Membership: Intercultural boundary crossing Factors — Journey of Immigrants

Enculturation - primary socialization processes of internalizing ones primary cultural values

  • Can be bi-cultural if relate to both cultures

Acculturation - Degree of identity change occurring when individual moves from familiar environment to an unfamiliar one.

  • Immigrants (voluntary/involuntary [refugees] - aim is permanent stay in an adopted country

  • Long term process integrating new values, norms, and symbols and Developing new skills.

Factors Influencing Immigrants’ ACCULTURATION Experience

Systems-Level - elements in host environment influence newcomers’ adaptation.

  • Economically Strong - tolerant; Economically harsh; immigrants scapegoated

  • Attitudes on assimilation or pluralism; influence policies

  • Local institutions - Media, social service, schools: Facilitate or hamper adaptation

Individual Level - cultural knowledge, fluency, age, push/pull, education, resilience

Mass Media Level - ethnic media eases stress of adaptation and loneliness

Interpersonal F-to-F and Network Level

Preexisting Ethnic Enclaves - support initial stages

Participation Creates - Social media/Apps help

Ethnic-Racial Identity Change Process

Berry’s Cultural-Ethnic Identity Typological Model (Immigrants)

How ethnic individuals see themselves in relation to both their ethnic and cultural identity

Strong Ethnic and Weak Cultural - Ethnic Oriented Identity: Avoid interaction with dominant group and retain ethnic values; stress interacting

Weak Ethnic and Strong Cultural - Assimilated Identity: See themselves as part of larger culture

Strong Ethnic and Strong Cultural - Bicultural Identity: Comfort as part of both groups

  • High - Compatible/Hyphenated

  • Low - “Living in between“

Weak ethnic and Weak Cultural - Marginal Identity: Feel alienated, disconnected and invisible

Helms and Parham’s Racial-Ethnic Identity Development Model

Pre-Encounter - Ethnic minority group members self-concepts influences by the values and norms of the larger culture; Naive/unaware of being ethnic group member

Encounter - A new racial-ethnic realization is awaked because of a racially shattering event and minority group member realizes they are not fully accepted by the larger culture

Immersion-Emersion — Individual withdraws to safe confines of own racial-ethnic groups and becomes ethnically conscious

Internalization-Commitment — Individuals develop a secure racial-ethnic identity that is internally defined at same time are able to establish genuine interpersonal contacts with members of dominant and other multiracial groups

Brewer’s Social Identity Complexity Theory (Social Identity Formation)

Compartmentalized - One social identity as primary in a setting and shifts to another in a different context

Merged - The more social identities individual has the more inclusive the “In-group“ becomes where no sharp in-group out-group distinctions made

Intersected - Compound identity in which 2 or more social membership categories crossed to form a singular social identity; feel connected with others sharing this compound identity experience

Dominant - Individual adopts one major social identity and other social categorization subordinated to the dominant role identity