Fiona Lee

Negotiating Biculturalism Cultural Frame Switching in Biculturals with Oppositional Versus Compatible Cultural Identities

The authors propose that cultural frame shifting—shifting between two culturally based interpretative lenses in response to cultural cues—is moderated by perceived compatibility (vs. opposition) between the two cultural orientations, or bicultural identity integration (BII). Three studies found that Chinese American biculturals who perceived their cultural identities as compatible (high BII) responded in culturally congruent ways to cultural cues: They made more external attributions (a characteristically Asian behavior) after being exposed to Chinese primes and more internal attributions (a characteristically Western behavior) after being exposed to American primes. However, Chinese American biculturals who perceived their cultural identities as oppositional (low BII) exhibited a reverse priming effect. This trend was not apparent for noncultural primes. The results show that individual differences in bicultural identity affect how cultural knowledge is used to interpret social events.

Explaining Real-Life Events: How Culture and Domain Shape Attributions

Several lines of experimental research have shown that attributional styles are affected by the attributors culture, inferential goals, and level of cognitive processing. Can these findings be replicated in natural settings? This study compared the attributions made in two domains (sports articles and editorials) of newspapers published in two culturally distinct countries (Hong Kong and the United States). Consistent with the cross-cultural research, attributions were less dispositional in the East than in the West. This cultural difference was weaker in editorials than in sports articles. The authors argue that the higher level of complexity, accountability, and uncertainty in editorials increased the cognitive effort expended to make attributions, which, in turn, attenuated their extremity. Implications for the mixed model of social inference are discussed.

Connecting the Dots Within Creative Performance and Identity Integration

In two studies drawing from social identity theory and the creative-cognition approach, we found that higher levels of identity integration—perceived compatibility between two social identities—predict higher levels of creative performance in tasks that draw on both identity-relevant knowledge domains. Study 1 showed that Asian Americans with higher identity integration were more creative in developing new dishes using a given set of ingredients, but only when both Asian and American ingredients were available. Study 2 showed that female engineers with higher identity integration were more creative in designing a product, but only when the product was targeted to female users. These findings suggest that the psychological management of multiple social identities may be related to accessibility of multiple knowledge domains, which in turn influences creativity.

The Mixed Effects of Inconsistency on Experimentation in Organizations

This paper examines how the inconsistency of organizational conditions affects peoples willingness to engage in experimentation, a behavior integral to innovation. Because failures are inevitable in the experimentation process, we argue that conditions giving rise to psychological safety reduce fear of failure and promote experimentation. Based on this reasoning, we suggest that inconsistent organizational conditions--when some support experimentation and others do not--inhibit experimentation behaviors. An exploratory study in the field, followed by a laboratory experiment, found that individuals under high evaluative pressure were less likely to experiment when normative values and instrumental rewards were inconsistent in supporting experimentation. In contrast, individuals under low evaluative pressure responded to inconsistent conditions with increased experimentation. Our results suggest that evaluative pressure fundamentally alters an individuals experience of and response to uncertainty and that understanding experimentation behavior requires examining effects of multiple organizational conditions in combination.

2. Is it lonely at the top?: The independence and interdependence of power holders

Abstract Although power is considered by many to be a fundamental way people organize social relationships, we know little about the psychological experience of being powerful, or the underlying mechanisms through which power affects individuals. In this paper, we review evidence suggesting that power creates a subjective sense of separation and distinctiveness from others, such that high power individuals have more independent self construals than low power individuals. We also review research demonstrating that power is related to the quantity of interconnections with others, such that high power individuals have more interdependent relational structures than low power individuals. We argue that independent self construals and interdependent relational structures occur simultaneously, and mutually reinforce one another. We review current research that acknowledges both dimensions of power, and propose specific mechanisms that underlie the relationship between independent self construal and interdependent relational structures.

Connecting the Dots Within

In two studies drawing from social identity theory and the creative-cognition approach, we found that higher levels of identity integration—perceived compatibility between two social identities—predict higher levels of creative performance in tasks that draw on both identity-relevant knowledge domains. Study 1 showed that Asian Americans with higher identity integration were more creative in developing new dishes using a given set of ingredients, but only when both Asian and American ingredients were available. Study 2 showed that female engineers with higher identity integration were more creative in designing a product, but only when the product was targeted to female users. These findings suggest that the psychological management of multiple social identities may be related to accessibility of multiple knowledge domains, which in turn influences creativity.

Assimilation and Contrast Effects in Cultural Frame Switching Bicultural Identity Integration and Valence of Cultural Cues

This study examines how the valence of cultural cues in the environment moderates the way biculturals shift between multiple cultural identities. The authors found that when exposed to positive cultural cues, biculturals who perceive their cultural identities as compatible (high bicultural identity integration, or high BII) respond in culturally congruent ways, whereas biculturals who perceive their cultural identities as conflicting (low BII) respond in culturally incongruent ways. The opposite was true for negative cultural cues. These results show that both high and low BIIs can exhibit culturally congruent or incongruent behaviors, and have implications for understanding situations where high and low BIIs might adapt differently.

The Social Costs of Seeking Help

Proactivelyseeking help from others involves “social costs” because the help seeker appears incompetent, dependent, and inferior to others. This article hypothesizes that these costs are especially threatening when the help seeker is male and in a male-oriented occupational role, when the helper is in a higher or lower status role than the help seeker, and when the task is novel and central to the organization’s core competence. A field study examined physician and nurse help seeking regarding a new computer system within a large hospital. The results showed that individuals reported less help seeking when theywere male, in male-oriented occupations, and when the task was central to the organization’s core competence. Perceived social costs mediated these effects.

Mea Culpa: Predicting Stock Prices From Organizational Attributions

People’s causal attributions for events in their lives have been shown to relate to individual and interpersonal outcomes. Groups and organizations also make causal attributions, and this article examines whether their publicly communicated attributions predict organizational-level outcomes. By content analyzing attributions contained in corporate annual reports from 14 companies during a 21-year period, the authors found that organizations that made “self disserving” attributions— internal and controllable attributions for negative events—had higher stock prices 1 year later. The authors argue that claiming personal responsibility for negative events made the organizations appear more in control, leading to more positive impressions.

Content analysis of archival data.

Content analysis can be a particularly suitable method for measuring cognitive variables from archived texts. Although content analysis has been underused by clinical psychologists, there are many benefits to this strategy. Longitudinal studies can be conducted retrospectively, the range of possible research participants can be expanded to include individuals otherwise unavailable (e.g., the famous or the dead), existing data sets can be used and reused to answer new questions, and studies across cultures and across levels of analysis (individual vs. group) can be facilitated. To illustrate the use and usefulness of content analysis to measure cognitive variables, the authors focus on the examples of causal attributions and integrative complexity, describing past research and sketching future applications to clinical research and practice.