The influence of race and power on self-construal in bicultural Asian Americans

This study examined the meaning of self-construal in Asian Americans with bicultural experiences. Thirteen Asian American young adults (ages 18-29) participated in qualitative interviews regarding their personal experiences of self-construal in different cultural contexts. Two qualitative approaches to data collection were used including inductive, open-ended interviewing and a more deductive approach in which participants were shown conceptual models of the self and then were asked to talk about their experiences in relation to the models. Participants' stories and meanings of self support previous theory, which conceptualizes self-construals as primarily cultural constructs. However, for these bicultural Asian Americans, self-construal was also described as a co-constructed process strongly influenced by racial dynamics in the United States. Implications for a shift in conceptualization of self are discussed.