Biculturalism

Biculturalism refers to an individual's ability to interact competently in two different or disparate cultural systems. Cultural systems are based on ideas, values, beliefs, and knowledge learned and shared by individuals within the same culture and can include those based on national origin and ethnic background. The meaning derived from cultural systems represents shared perspectives and expectations that serve as interpretative frames to influence individuals' affects, cognitions, and behaviors. Research on biculturalism seeks to understand the processes and outcomes associated with individuals who have membership in two distinct cultures and engage in interactions in both cultures. To a lesser extent, the research also considers monocultural individuals participating in cross-cultural exchanges.

Research has determined that besides having other characteristics, culturally competent individuals (a) possess strong self-identities, (b) are knowledgeable of and have facility with the beliefs and values of their cultures, (c) display sensitivity to the affective processes of their cultures, (d) communicate effectively in the language of the target cultural group, (e) perform culturally and socially sanctioned behavior, (f) maintain active social relationships within the cultural group, and (g) effectively negotiate the institutional structures of the target culture. Cultural competence is not a categorical construct such that one is either completely or not at all competent. Indeed, the literature on biculturalism has found significant variance in the manner in which individuals experience and manage multiple cultural systems. However, it is generally suggested that the more levels in which an individual is competent within two cultures, the fewer problems he or she will encounter in operating effectively within those cultures.

Biculturalism scholars assert that individuals who live within and move between two cultural systems can possess dual cultural identities and engage in real-time cultural frame switching, whereby they move between different cultural perspectives in response to environmental cues. For example, research has shown that when primed with either Western or Asian cultural cues, Hong Kong and Chinese American bicultural people exhibit behavior characteristic of Western or East Asian people, respectively. In other words, bicultural people can access and switch between multiple cultural meaning systems and appropriate sets of behavior depending on the context. Recent research has determined that while some bicultural individuals perceive their cultural identities as compatible and perhaps even complementary, others perceive these identities as being in conflict with one another. The extent to which bicultural identities are integrated within an individual's self-concept is referred to as bicultural identity integration, and the degree of this integration has been linked to cognition, attributions, and behavior.

Biculturalism research has emerged from the theorizing of scholars such as W. E. B. DuBois and the consideration of double consciousness, based on the experience of secondary cultural immersion experienced by various immigrant groups in the United States (e.g., African slaves, Chinese laborers). As of the writing of this entry, research on the impact of biculturalism on career and organizational outcomes is at an early stage and draws on research examining effects associated with biculturalism in the disciplines of anthropology, education, clinical and social psychology, and sociology. Research across these disciplines has tended to find positive associations between biculturalism and psychological well-being, and educational and professional motivation and achievement. Recent research has established that bicultural experiences can exert significant influence on career identity development among Black and White women in the United States, with implications for these women's expectations and management of majority colleagues and their own career progression. Other career development research among bicultural women has found that Black professional women have complex life structures and that some include a high degree of compartmentalization to manage bicultural demands. In other words, to manage the stress of disparate expectations between their professional or mainstream cultures and their initial cultures, some [Page 35]women maintain clear barriers between their professional identities and interactions and their personal lives and nonprofessional identities.

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