Ramaswami Mahalingam

Culture, Essentialism, Immigration and Representations of Gender

Our paper explores whether a combination of intersectionality and hybridity perspectives will be sufficient to develop a feminist gender psychology of immigrant women that escapes the pitfalls of gender essentialism. Analyses of interviews with Indian immigrant women and self-descriptions of Filipina mail-order brides (MOBs) suggest that intersections of identity can ironically contribute to the essentialization of ‘self’ as well the ‘other’. We argue that essentialist representations among these women mask the role of power between various social intersections of gender. The various modes and contingencies of essentialist idealized representations may be interpreted as psychological strategies employed by Asian immigrant women to locate displaced identity within a transnational and postcolonical history. Further, we argue that the cultural psychological study of gender should examine the costs and benefits of such idealized representations.

A multiple-group path analysis of the role of everyday discrimination on self-rated physical health among Latina/os in the USA.

BackgroundFew studies have examined the psychosocial mechanisms through which self-reported discrimination may influence the health status of Latinos.PurposeThis study examined the mediating role of subjective social status in the USA and psychological distress on the relation between everyday discrimination and self-rated physical health, and the moderating role of gender and ethnicity.MethodsA US population-based sample of Latinos (N = 2,554) was drawn from the National Latino and Asian American Study. Respondents completed measures of everyday discrimination, subjective social status, psychological distress, and self-rated physical health.ResultsPath analysis revealed that among the total sample, subjective social status and psychological distress sequentially mediated the effect of everyday discrimination on self-rated physical health. Psychological distress was a more consistent mediator across Latino subgroups. Gender and ethnicity moderated the mediation model.ConclusionsThis study provides a systematic examination of how psychosocial mechanisms may operate differently or similarly across Latino subgroups.

Perceived congruence between expectations and outcomes: implications for mental health among Caribbean immigrants.

Previous research on the psychological adjustment of immigrants has cited the perceived congruence between premigratory expectations and postmigratory realities as a primary determinant of psychological well-being. Using a sample of 137 first-generation Caribbean immigrants, a measure of the perceived congruence between expectations and outcomes was developed to examine the relationship between perceived congruence in various life domains, and indexes of psychological well being, such as anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction. Overall, perceived congruence was positively associated with life satisfaction and negatively associated with depression. Factor analyses revealed the presence of two reliable domains (social and professional) in the congruence measure. Perceived congruence in both domains was positively associated with life satisfaction, and perceived congruence in the professional domain was negatively associated with depression symptoms. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Cultural Psychology of Gender and Immigration.

Assimilation or Transnationalism? Conceptual Models of the Immigrant Experience in America is part of the 2005 Annual Proceedings of The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy.

Marginality, aspiration and accessibility in ICTD

We present narratives around the use of Access Technology (AT) by 176 people with vision impairments in Peru, Jordan, and India. Respondents note changes in their economic and social aspirations following access to AT, but experience multiple forms of exclusion from the public sphere due to persistent negative social attitudes disability. We argue that building theoretical frames that examine the nature of marginality is an important direction for ICTD to better understand ways in which individuals appropriate technologies, and use them to change their social environment they exist in.

Essentialism and the Cultural Psychology of Gender in Extreme Son Preference Communities in India

Using a cultural ecological framework, the authors examined key psychological antecedents of a pressing public health problem in Tamilnadu, India: the persistence of extreme forms of female neglect including female infanticide and feticide. Community-based respondents (N = 798) were recruited from Tamilnadu, a south Indian state, from villages with highly male biased sex ratios. Study 1 examined beliefs about behavioral gender transgressions in the villages that are identified as having extremely male-biased sex ratios. Study 2 examined the same participants several weeks later, investigating beliefs about biological gender essentialism and attitudes toward violence. Although behavioral and biological aspects of gender were essentialized differently, a regression analysis controlling for SES and marital status found that the more men essentialized female identity, the more they endorsed violence against women and the less anxiety they felt. The authors conclude by discussing the cultural psychological implications of this asymmetry in the essentialist beliefs about gender.

MISIDENTIFICATION, MISEMBODIMENT AND THE PARADOX OF BEING A MODEL MINORITY

Discrimination of Asian immigrants has a long history in the USA. After 9/11, violence against Asian immigrants, particularly Sikhs, has increased dramatically. Asian Americans are viewed as the ‘model minority in the United States’. Yet Sikh immigrants, one of the most successful Asian immigrants in the United States, experience discrimination that ranges from verbal taunts to physical attacks. The violent racist attack and the tragic killings of Sikh immigrants at the Milwaukee Gurdwara is an example of this trend. Often media portrays misidentification of Sikhs for ‘Middle Eastern Muslim’ terrorists as the reason for such mindless violence against Sikh immigrants. In this paper, I argue that misembodiment accompanies misidentification. Psychological research on immigrants needs to explore the phenomenological aspects of embodying a mistaken identity. Furthermore, in this paper I discuss the paradox of being a model minority who experience the most discrimination among Asian immigrants and its implications for developing culturally appropriate therapeutic interventions that could empower Sikh immigrant communities.

Are we losing the war on missing girls

Systematic gender-based neglect and violence has been a chronic social problem encompassing the entire lifespan for women in India. Ram and colleagues (October issue) reiterate this point in their Article indicating higher mortality in girls than in boys younger than 5 years in almost all districts of India, even in high-literacy states. Evidently, decades of policy changes, improved literacy, economic development, and social opportunities for women have not had a major eff ect. Crime, sexual assaults, and the general climate of violence against women continue to rise in areas where there are skewed sex ratios. Greater societal controls are imposed, especially on women (eg, early marriage and pregnancy, poor maternal nutrition, low literacy, and denial of opportunities for economic mobility). Thus, son preference, and ensuing missing girls, presents an escalating burden in other areas of gender-imbalanced health and safety. Furthermore, son preference also prevails as a cultural problem in some land-owning groups, legitimised by centuries of patriarchal resource control. The psychological notion of masculinity and valuation of female chastity might also be a reason for why women are married early and have lower access to education and nutritional resources. Even though disentanglement of ecological, cultural, and psychological factors is crucial to reduce day-today perpetration of gender-based neglect within families, there is no theoretical, evidence-based policy, and targeted implementation framework to do so. Cultural psychological research findings in the communities with male-biased sex ratios suggest that even women prefer sons who have more boys than they do sons who have more girls. Women who internalise patriarchal values might continue to practise preferential treatment of sons despite their educational and economic empowerment. At an individual level, internalisation of patriarchal gender beliefs might reduce incentives for academic achievement among girls in these communities. Clearly, literacy and economic development in themselves, and if only directed at girls or women, are insufficient to address the problem of missing girls. There is a great need for evidence-based multimodal approaches to combat son preference and gender-based neglect. Community education programmes that raise awareness about the eff ect of gender disparities across the lifespan and improve the safety and wellbeing of communities should be developed. Additionally, curricula, such as around dialogue between boys and girls about gender, directed at masculinity attitudes, need to be introduced at an early stage for both boys and girls. Mobile technology could be of substantial use in this process.

We're not speaking any more: A cross-cultural study of intergenerational cut-offs

This study of individuals in the U.S. and Tamil Nadu, India, examines the reasons given for voluntary limitations on contact between adult children and their parents (“cut-offs”). We examine the possibly that these breeches occur as a solution to the problem of negative social relationships by looking at the different cultural contexts of the U.S. and India. We challenge Bowens (1978) assertion that intergenerational cut-offs always occur in the vain attempt to promote differentiation and propose a system for categorizing the reasons given for cut-offs, and explore the research and practice implications of the findings. Although based on a limited sample, this paper provides an important contribution to this understudied aspect of interpersonal relationships.

“Good Asian Moms”: Engendering the Model Minority Myth among Indian Immigrant Working Women

Asian Americans have been popularly recognized as one of the most successful groups of immigrants in the United States (Abraham, 2006; Mahalingam, 2006; Pedraza, 2006; Seth, 1995; Zhou, 2002). As a consequence of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, foreign-born Asian migrants have occupied several newly created professional and managerial jobs that also constitute the highest-paying jobs in the American hierarchy (Kanjanapan, 1995; Seth, 1995). Among Asian Indians, who make up the third-largest immigrant group in the United States, more than 77 percent of the foreign-born population is likely to be employed in white-collar jobs; only 58 percent of the white population maintains employment in these types of jobs (Seth, 1995). The relatively poor economic conditions and opportunities for career mobility in their countries of origin have provided further impetus for skilled Asians to migrate to the United States.