Aurelia Mok

Asian-Americans' Creative Styles in Asian and American Situations: Assimilative and Contrastive Responses as a Function of Bicultural Identity Integration

Bicultural individuals vary in the degree to which their two cultural identities are integrated. Among Asian-Americans, for instance, some experience their Asian and American sides as compatible whereas others experience them as conflicting. Past research on judgments finds this individual difference affects the way bicultural individuals respond to situations that cue their cultures. Asian-Americans with high bicultural identity integration (BII) assimilate to norms of the cued culture (e.g., they exhibit typically American judgments when in situations that cue American culture), whereas Asian-Americans with low BII do the opposite, contrasting against the cue (e.g., they exhibit typically Asian judgments when in American situations). We investigated whether this dynamic similarly affects creative performance, which differs cross-culturally in that novelty is encouraged more by American than East Asian norms. In two experiments, we found that cues to American (vs. Asian) culture increase the novelty of solutions in divergent thinking tasks for Asian-Americans with high BII (assimilative response) yet decrease it for Asian-Americans with low BII (contrastive response). We discuss theoretical implications for culture and creativity research and practical implications for firms seeking to foster creativity.

Managing Two Cultural Identities The Malleability of Bicultural Identity Integration as a Function of Induced Global or Local Processing

Increasingly, individuals identify with two or more cultures. Prior research has found the degree to which individuals chronically integrate these identities (bicultural identity integration; BII) moderates responses to cultural cues: High BII individuals assimilate (adopting biases that are congruent with norms of the cued culture), whereas low BII individuals contrast (adopting biases that are incongruent with these norms). The authors propose BII can also be a psychological state and modulated by shifts in processing styles. In four experiments, the authors induced a global or local processing style using physical posture (Experiment 1) and cognitive manipulations (Experiments 2–4) and found that BII is enhanced in contexts facilitating a more global processing style (i.e., smiling, high-level construal, and similarity focus). The authors also found that contrastive responses to cultural cues are diminished when BII is situationally enhanced. Implications for research on processing style, identity integration, and performance in culture-based situations are discussed.

Matching Versus Mismatching Cultural Norms in Performance Appraisal Effects of the Cultural Setting and Bicultural Identity Integration

The present study examined how biculturals (Asian-Americans) adjust to differing cultural settings in performance appraisal. Biculturals vary in the degree to which their two cultural identities are compatible or oppositional — Bicultural Identity Integration (BII). The authors found that individual differences in BII interacted with the manipulation of the cultural setting (American or Asian) in determining whether employee outcomes were evaluated as matching or mismatching cultural norms. Results showed that Asian-Americans with high BII gave less weight to employees’ situational conditions in the American setting (matching American cultural norms) and more weight in the Asian setting (matching Asian cultural norms), whereas those with low BII showed the opposite pattern, giving more weight to employees’ situational conditions in the American setting (mismatching American cultural norms) and less weight in the Asian setting (mismatching Asian cultural norms). We discuss the implications of understanding bicultural identity dynamics in managerial judgment and behavior. Assonance ou dissonance des normes culturelles lors de l’évaluation annuelle de performance : effets de l’environnement culturel et intégration de l’identité biculturelle (Aurelia Mok, Chi-Ying Cheng et Michael W. Morris) Cette étude examine comment les personnes biculturelles (ici, les Asio-américains) s’ajustent aux différents environnements culturels lors d’évaluations annuelles de performance. Ces derniers varient selon le degré de compatibilité ou d’opposition de leurs identités culturelles — intégration de l’identité culturelle (IIB). Les auteurs concluent que les différences individuelles en matière d’IIB interagissent avec la manipulation de l’environnement culturel (américain ou asiatique) pour déterminer si les résultats des employés sont évalués selon des normes culturelles assonantes ou dissonantes. Les conclusions de l’étude montrent que les Asio-américains avec une IIB élevée donnent moins de poids aux conditions situationnelles des employés dans l’environnement américain (assonance des normes culturelles américaines) et plus de poids à l’environnement asiatique (assonance des normes culturelles asiatiques) ; en revanche ceux dotés d’une faible IIB sont à l’opposé de ce schéma, donnant plus de poids aux conditions situationnelles des employés dans l’environnement américain (dissonance des normes culturelles américaines) et moins de poids à l’environnement asiatique (dissonance des normes culturelles asiatiques). Nous étudions enfin les implications de la dynamique d’identité biculturelle dans le jugement et le comportement managérial.

Attentional Focus and the Dynamics of Dual Identity Integration Evidence From Asian Americans and Female Lawyers

Do situational cues to individuals’ social identities shift the way they look at objects? Do such shifts hinge on the structure of individuals’ self-concept? We hypothesized individuals with integrated identities would exhibit attentional biases congruent with identity cues (assimilative response), whereas those with nonintegrated identities would exhibit attentional biases incongruent with identity cues (contrastive response). Dual identity participants (Asian Americans, Study 1; female lawyers, Study 2) were exposed to identity primes and then asked to focus on central, focal objects in a stimulus display. Among participants with high identity integration, American (Study 1) or lawyer priming (Study 2) shifted attention toward focal objects (assimilative response). Among participants with low identity integration, Asian (Study 1) or female priming (Study 2) shifted attention toward focal objects (contrastive response). Dual identity integration moderates responses to identity cues in attentional focus. Implications for identity structure, object perception, and task performance are discussed.