The Antecedents and Consequences of Biculturalism

Objective

One of the major challenges confronting new entrants to a country is how to manage their cultural identity as they are exposed to the competing values, norms, and behavioral expectations that exist between their culture of origin and the new local culture. Whether they arrive as sojourners or long-term immigrants, entrants are faced with a fundamental dilemma of whether and to what degree they should maintain their original cultural identity and in what part they should adopt the new host culture. Although many have touted the benefits of second-culture exposure, researchers have failed to consider how the differential patterns of cultural identification that individuals adopt may provide important traction in predicting performance advantages. Moreover, the process by which individuals absorb a cultural identity, the role played by second-culture exposure in shaping socio-cognitive skills, and the resulting implications for performance have also received little theoretical and empirical attention.

By drawing on a diverse set of research methodologies and by working at multiple levels of analyses, the comprehensive research agenda outlined in this proposal is aimed at addressing these knowledge gaps in 3 ways. First, I will investigate the potential benefits of biculturalism, relative to other acculturation strategies, for social tolerance, creativity, decision-making, and negotiation outcomes. Second, I will explore the role of integrative complexity as the underlying mediating mechanism linking biculturalism and performance-related success. Finally, I will examine the antecedents of biculturalism and test the boundary conditions of biculturals’ advantage.

The proposed research will afford psychologists with a greater understanding of the bicultural experience, its antecedents, and its consequences as well as present organizational scholars, practitioners, and policy makers with a comprehensive framework for how to successfully manage cultural diversity.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

• social sciences sociology demography human migrations

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

• Acculturation
• biculturalism
• cognitive style
• frame-switching
• integrative complexity
• living and performing abroad
• multicultural experience
• priming

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• PEOPLE-2007-4-3.IRG - Marie Curie Action: "International Reintegration Grants"

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-PEOPLE-IRG-2008
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MC-IRG - International Re-integration Grants (IRG)

Coordinator