Cultural Hybridity: Self-Monitoring and Cultural Frame Switching in Third Culture Kids

Ingmar Gorman

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Callahan, Charlene

Keywords

Cross-Cultural Psychology, Third Culture Kids, Culture Frame Switching

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

The first study sought to examine differences between individuals who spent their youth traveling between multiple countries and those who have not had such experiences. Self-monitoring was explored in light of the reported tendency for such traveled individuals to adapt well to foreign cultures. A 62 item survey consisted of five sections. These were: quantitative assessments of international experiences, a Third Culture Kid (TCK) Questionnaire, a Self-Monitoring Scale, an Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale and a Social Desirability Scale. It was hypothesized that TCKs would score significantly higher than non-TCKs on the Self-Monitoring Scale. Despite no statistically significant differences being found between groups on the self-monitoring scores, several correlations were supportive of the predicted relationship between selfmonitoring and TCK traits. The primary purpose of the second study was to examine the cognitive trait of cultural frame switching in bicultural Third Culture Kids (TCKs). Cultural frame switching is the tendency for bicultural individuals to switch from one culturally relative way of thinking to another, depending on cultural priming. A secondary goal of the study was to explore various aspects of bicultural identity in both TCKs and non-TCKs. A 34 item survey consisted of seven sections: quantitative enquiries into international experiences, a TCK Questionnaire (TCKQ), the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM), the Bicultural Identity Integration Scale (BIIS), the Cultural Identity Shift Questionnaire, a cultural priming task, a fundamental attribution error task, and general questions regarding participants'conceptualization of their cultural identity. It was hypothesized that bicultural TCKs would display cognitive frame switching. In the second study, due to the lack of differences in responses to the fundamental attribution task, cognitive frame switching could not be assessed. However, the ethnic and cultural identity measures found important differences between participant types.

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