As a general term, culture involves the behaviors and belief characteristics of a particular social, ethnic, or age group.
An example of a cultural effect would be how an individual's personality is strongly influenced by the biological and social norms he is exposed to.
In regards to bicultural identity, an individual may face conflict assimilating into both cultures or finding a balance between both.
Similarly, an individual may face difficulty balancing their identity within themselves due to the influence of both of their cultures.
[1][2] Bicultural identity also may have positive effects on the individual, in terms of the additional knowledge they acquire from belonging to more than one culture.
Furthermore, with the growing number of racial minorities in American society, individuals that identify with more than one culture may have more linguistic ability.
BII can be increased by asking bicultural individuals to recall positive cross-cultural exchanges or like in another study, make high-level construals.
This is because the language itself primes the individual's cultural values,[7] cognitive style,[8] attitudes and memory,[9] which in turn affect behavior.
For example, researchers randomly assigned participants in India to complete a work task in English or Hindi.
The extra pay was more motivating in English than in Hindi, which mirrors results from when the researchers tested people in the US and UK.
Within the African American culture, race or physical differences led to mass murder, and violence against racial groups.
[11] Individuals having origins within the Far East, Southeast Asia or the Indian subcontinent are referred to as Asian under the U.S. Census Bureau.
[citation needed] Hispanics and Latinos have origins in the countries of Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula consisting of Spain and Portugal.
Immigrants encounter a major upheaval by moving far away from home and sometimes may never find themselves connected to either culture.
Immigrants and children of these individuals may be more at risk for victimization, poverty, and the need for assistance from the government.
With immigrants, language barriers may also bring hardship in terms of communication with natives of their less dominant culture.
Acculturation is the process in which a bicultural individual or immigrant adopts the social norms of the mainstream society.
Children of immigrant parents may enjoy more mainstream culture, but may also want to stick to their families’ roots in order to please their caregivers.
Native customs such as holidays and religious affiliations may also support the family unit and promote unity all around.
For example, African-American parents must socialize their children in such a manner where they will be prepared to face discrimination in society, but they also must preserve their culture in such a way that makes them feel prideful.
[16] Some individuals can develop a more multicultural outlook and feel confident being around many kinds of people, whereas others may have an issue with this and may stick to their own cultural group.
Academics within individuals with bicultural identity may also be aversely affected in terms of stereotype threat.
Attitudes may change within academics if a student feels as though he cannot do well due to societal constraints on his particular culture.
This system has been applied to intelligence and ability examinations in order to combat the concern of disadvantaged minorities doing poorly due to their incapacity to do as well as their counterparts.