Fernandez, Ana (4/12) The multicultural self: Bilingual Latinos' self-construal in English and Spanish (Lisa Samstag, Ph.D.;Nicholas Papouchis, Ph.D.; Howard Mcguire, Ph.D.)
This dissertation sought to examine the effect of language (English vs. Spanish) as a cultural cue on bilingual Latinos' implicit and explicit self-construal: independence and interdependence. The participants were 32 balanced bilingual Latino-American adults, who migrated to the US between the ages of 5 and 15. A repeated measures design was used in which participants were administered the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), the Self-Construal Scale (SCS) and the Bicultural Identity Integration Scale (BIIS) in English and Spanish. TAT responses were coded using the Psychocultural Scoring System (PSS). Participant scores on the PSS showed a significant interaction between the language of test administration, self-construal orientation and BITS Harmony scores ( p = .005, ES= .27), and an interaction between self-construal orientation, theme outcome, and BIIS Blend scores (p = .04, ES = .15). In addition, participants' gender had a significant effect on PSS scores (p = .001, ES = .36). Participant scores on the SCS were significantly impacted by the language of administration (p = .04, ES = .14), but the relationship between their independence and interdependence was not. These results demonstrate that the implicit and explicit self-construals of biculturally competent Latino immigrants are differentially impacted by linguistic cultural cues. Cultural frame switching was a function of bicultural identity integration, gender and the age when individuals migrated. Psychologists involved in clinical assessment and treatment of biculturally competent Latino immigrants should be aware of the complex relationship between cultural cues and patients' experience of cultural identity.
