theses

Because most people consider the average American to be White, bicultural people such as Asian Americans are often excluded from the American cultural group through ambiguous identity questioning (e.g., “Where are you really from?”). This questioning could imply they are not seen as American or could be driven by genuine curiosity, leading to variations in bicultural Asian Americans’ tendency to view identity questioning as discrimination. Yet, no work to date has examined factors that influence discrimination attributions made by targets or perceivers of identity questioning. Part 1 of this dissertation examined discrimination attributions for identity questioning from Asian Americans’ target perspective. Study 1 provided correlational evidence that greater discussion of and perceived support for anti-immigration policy were associated with lower perceived positive curiosity intent and greater perceived exclusion intent for identity questioning, which were ultimately associated with greater discrimination attributions and anticipated identity questioning experiences. Studies 2a and 2b demonstrate that increased salience of anti-immigration policies alone did not experimentally influence discrimination attributions, while Study 2c suggests perceived support for anti-immigration policies is necessary to alter discrimination attributions. Bicultural Latinx Americans who interacted with a purported anti-immigration supporter believed that an identity questioning experience would be driven by greater exclusion intent compared to participants who interacted with a purported pro-immigration supporter. In turn, lower perceived positive curiosity intent and greater exclusion intent were associated with greater discrimination attributions and perceived harm for identity questioning.
Part 2 examined discrimination attributions for identity questioning from the perceiver perspective (namely, bicultural Asian Americans and monocultural White Americans). When participants observed questioning perpetrated by Asian Americans compared to White Americans or Latinx Americans, they perceived greater positive curiosity intent (Study 5), lower exclusionary intent (Studies 3 & 5), and made lower discrimination attributions (Studies 3 & 5). Moreover, compared to White participants, Asian participants perceived lower positive curiosity intentions (Study 4), greater exclusion intentions (Study 5), and greater harm (Study 5) for identity questioning. There were no interactions between participant race and perpetrator race.
Given that numerous theories suggest attributions determine stigmatized people’s responses to discrimination and their subsequent well-being, the present dissertation advanced current understanding of bicultural Americans’ experiences by examining the contextual and personal characteristics that influence discrimination attributions of experienced and observed identity questioning. As such, the present studies are poised to make a valuable contribution to current understanding of identity questioning experiences.

Ph.D

Includes bibliographical references.

Text

doi:10.7282/t3-ygz5-dn28

The author owns the copyright to this work.