Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Psychology

Advisor

Charles Scherbaum

Committee Members

Yochi Cohen-Charash

Harold Goldstein

Wei Wang

Zhiqing Zhou

Subject Categories

Industrial and Organizational Psychology | Multicultural Psychology | Personality and Social Contexts

Keywords

Personality assessment, Frame switching, Bicultural identity integration, Cultural values, Asian immigrants

Abstract

A significant body of personality research has focused on cross-national comparison, but less attention has been devoted to within-country subcultural complexity – especially with regards to the growing population of bicultural immigrants who subscribe to multiple cultural-value systems. Bicultural individuals have been found to view situations under distinct frames of reference corresponding to their heritage and host cultures, and their attitudes and behavior can vary depending on which frame is activated at a given moment. This dissertation investigates whether such frame switching effects can be caused by elements within a formal personality assessment setting, and in turn affect bicultural respondents’ scores on the assessment. The moderating role of bicultural identity integration (BII) is also explored. A pilot study was first conducted to demonstrate that experimentally manipulating the cultural content of various assessment-related cues (preceding tasks, administrator messages, organizational info, and test instructions) can impact respondents’ cultural identification patterns. In the ensuing main study, East Asian immigrants in the United States were presented with cues which were either more Asian or more American in their content, and then completed a computerized inventory of the “Big Five” personality factors. Results showed that cultural framing and BII interacted to influence participants’ scores, particularly for Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Individuals with higher BII (i.e., more internal harmony between their two cultural identities) expressed personalities more aligned with the norms of their cued cultural frame, whereas lower-BII individuals exhibited contrast effects in the opposite direction. The findings highlight immigrants’ multifaceted cultural selves as a potential contributor to measurement error in personality assessment scenarios. Organizations which use personality scores for decision-making purposes are recommended to review their test administration processes for unintended cultural content, and to be generally more cognizant of bicultural individuals’ ability to activate different cultural points of view from context to context.

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