The social construction of race: biracial identity and vulnerability to stereotypes

Multiracial individuals are more likely to have a heightened awareness of race as a social construct than monoracial individuals. This article examines the impact that a heightened awareness of race as a social construct has on the relationship between racial stereotypes and performance. Study 1 finds that multiracial individuals reported subscribing less to the notion that race biologically determines ability. Study 2 finds that monoracial individuals show stereotype activation, whereas multiracial individuals show stereotype inhibition in reaction to race salience. Study 3 draws on the work on stereotypes and performance to test the susceptibility of multiracial individuals to racial stereotypes about ability. The authors find that Asian/White and Black/White multiracial individuals were less susceptible to racial stereotypes than monoracial individuals. Whereas monoracial participants showed significant performance changes in reaction to race salience, multiracial individuals did not. Study 4 finds that emphasizing the social construction of race buffers individuals from stereotype threat effects.     

Racial/Ethnic Identities and Related Attributed Experiences of Multiracial Japanese European Americans

Surveys from 50 multiracial Japanese European Americans supported the endorsement of multiple simultaneous racial/ethnic identities and a differentiated multiracial identity. Experiences associated with being multiracial included feeling different, sensitivity to cultural cues, appreciation of different viewpoints, acceptance of difference, and disliking exclusion. Implications for research and therapy are discussed. Los estudios de 50 Americanos Japoneses Europeos multiraciales sostuvieron la aprobación de múltiples identidades racial/étnicos simultáneas y una identidad multiracial diferenciada. Las experiencias relacionadas con ser multiracial, sentirse diferente, la sensibilidad de indicaciones culturales, reconocimiento de puntos de vista diferentes, aceptación de diferencia, y la aversión de exclusión. Las implicaciones para la investigación y terapia se discuten.     

Affinity, Identity, and Transcendence: The Experience of Religious Racial Integration in Diverse Congregations

How do members of disparate ethnic and racial heritages come to identify and achieve stable affiliation with multiracial congregations? This article specifies an approach to understanding member experiences of corporate belonging in diverse congregations using ethnic identity theory. Synthesizing ethnographic data drawn from two extensive case studies, the article provides a heuristic model for understanding the process by which members of disparate ethnic and racial heritages come to identify and achieve stable affiliation with multiethnic/multiracial congregations. Three “moments” (affinity with the congregation, identity reorientation, and ethnic transcendence) represent key phases in the lived religious experience of members as they co‐construct common bonds of spiritual kinship. Cautions and suggestions are provided for future research.     

An integrative review of impression formation processes for multiracial individuals

In approximately 30 years, up to one in five Americans will be mixed race. How monoracial people perceive multiracials will become a critical aspect of race relations in the United States. This demographic shift highlights the need to broaden social psychological theories and investigations to understand multiracial person perception. This article reviews existing research on how people perceive, and remember mixed‐race people, with attention to how these findings contribute to our understanding of racial categorization, impression formation, and intergroup relations. People categorize multiracial people according to the principles of hypodescent (Black + White = Black), the minority bias (Black + White = not White), and by adopting a novel category (Black + White = Multiracial). The particular categorization of a multiracial target depends on several factors, including availability of target information (ancestry, facial appearance), the accessibility of different racial categories, perceiver motives, and the broader cultural context. Downstream implications of these categorization processes are discussed, and future directions are highlighted. Researchers are encouraged to think about race as a multifaceted concept that includes many components (appearance, identity, ancestry, and perceived) that are not necessarily one‐to‐one, especially for mixed‐race individuals.     

A review of multiracial malleability: Identity,categorization, and shifting racial attitudes

The majority of social perception research to date has focused on perceptually obvious and prototypical representations of social categories. However, not all people belong to social categories that are easily discernable. Within the past decade, there has been an upsurge of research demonstrating that multifaceted identities (both one's own and perceptions of others' identities) influence people to think about social categories in a more flexible manner. Here, we specifically review research on multiracial identity and perceptions of multiracial individuals as 2 domains where researchers have documented evidence of the flexible nature of social identities and social categorization. Integrating frameworks that argue race is a dynamic and interactive process, we provide evidence that studying multiracial perceivers and targets helps reveal that race changes across situations, time, and depending on a number of top‐down factors (e.g., expectations, stereotypes, and cultural norms). From the perspective of multiracial individuals as perceivers, we review research showing that flexible identity in multiracial individuals influences the process of social perception driven by a reduced belief in the essential nature of racial categories. From the perspective of multiracial individuals as targets, we review research that top‐down cues influence the racial categorization process. We further discuss emerging work that reveals that exposure to multiracial individuals influences beliefs surrounding the categorical (or noncategorical) nature of race, itself. Needed directions for future work are discussed.     

Fluid Ethnicity and Ethnic Transcendence in Multiracial Churches

Assumptions of racial essentialism lead to inadequate analysis of multiracial churches. Instead, acknowledging ethnic identity as a negotiated phenomenon encourages a richer investigation of how congregational participation stimulates and redefines a person's racial and ethnic identity. The malleability of ethnic identity is such that it is often obscured in favor of other aspects of self. Ethnographic analysis of two multiracial churches, Mosaic and Oasis, indicates that particularistic ethnic affiliations recede when otherworldly, value-rational interests are emphasized. Ethnic transcendence occurs when members adopt a shared identity based on a uniquely congregational understanding of what it means to be a properly religious person (a proper "Christian,""Jew,""Muslim,""Buddhist," etc.). In short, the distinctive accomplishment of multiracial congregations is the cultivation of an inclusive religious identity that overrides divisive aspects of ethnic identity. Moreover, recognizing the varying salience of racial and ethnic identity evokes greater caution regarding what can be assumed when researchers apply the label "multiracial" to congregations.     

Shifting Winds: Using Ancestry DNA to Explore Multiracial Individuals’ Patterns of Articulating Racial Identity

This study explored how genotype information affects identification narratives of multiracial individuals. Twenty-one multiracial individuals completed individual interviews before and after receiving a DNA analysis to clarify their genetically based racial ancestry. Based on results, this article proposes patterns of articulating racial identity by multiracial individuals. Four patterns extend evolving research in multiracial identification, namely (1) the individual articulates a monoracial identity; (2) the individual articulates one identity, but this can shift in response to various conditions; (3) the individual articulates an extraracial identity, opting out of traditional categories applied to race; and (4) the person distinguishes traditional categories of race from culture and owns the two identities in different ways. Implications of these findings are discussed. First, adding new ancestry DNA information further muddles the neat categories of race, consistent with the view of race as socially constructed. Second, results emphasize the fluidity of identification for multiracial individuals. Third, DNA information challenges the neat percentages people tend to associate with their backgrounds. Particularly for younger multiracial individuals, there was less of a sense that race was a real thing and more that culture played a big part in how they saw themselves.     

Perspectives and research on the positive and negative implications of having multiple racial identities

Much attention has been directed toward understanding the impact having a multiracial background has on psychological well-being and adjustment. Past psychological research has focused on the challenges multiracial individuals confront in defining a racial identity. The implication is that these challenges lead to outcomes that are psychologically detrimental. However, evidence to support this assertion is mixed. The authors review qualitative and quantitative empirical research examining multiracial individuals' identity development, depression, problem behaviors, peer relationships, school performance, and self-esteem, finding support for detrimental outcomes only in studies sampling clinical populations. Studies on nonclinical samples find that multiracial individuals tend to be just as well-adjusted as their monoracial peers on most psychological outcomes. Earlier assertions of maladjustment may have been due to reliance on qualitative research that sampled clinical populations. Other implications and future research are discussed.     

Acculturation Among Three Racial/Ethnic Groups of Host and Immigrant Adolescents

This study compares Latino host, Latino immigrant, Asian-American host, Asian-American immigrant and European-American host groups of adolescents with respect to four acculturation-related variables: ethnic identity exploration, ethnic identity affirmation/belonging, outgroup orientation, and American identity. Using the five ethno-generational categories as a grouping variable, we conducted analyses of 313 survey responses to the acculturation items at two time periods, 9 weeks apart. Results showed that differences among the three host racial/ethnic groups can best be explained by a group dominance perspective, whereby the two racial/ethnic minority groups are more similar to each other than they are to the European-American group. Furthermore, the relationship between American identity and ethnic identity components is stronger among the three host groups, as compared to the immigrant groups. Implications for future research with adolescent members of the host group whose heritage culture is non-European are drawn.     

Multiple racial identities as sources of psychological resilience

Much of the research on multiracial individuals has focused on the impact of a multiracial background on psychological well‐being. This work, often using clinical samples, identified a higher prevalence of negative psychological outcomes among multiracial individuals, such as low self‐esteem, poor grades, or self‐hatred, and has emphasized that these negative outcomes stem from the unique challenges associated with navigating multiple racial identities. However, research on nonclinical samples finds that multiracial individuals fare as well as monoracial individuals on these, and other, outcomes. We put forth a synthesizing theory aimed at understanding how multiracial individuals develop adaptive coping strategies, which help them learn to navigate multiple identities and maintain positive psychological outcomes. In the current contribution, we build on existing research to theorize that multiracial individuals can engage in two psychological strategies that increase resilience: (a) switching between multiple racial identities and (b) reduced essentializing of race. Evidence and consequences of these two strategies are discussed. Taken together, in contrast to traditional depletion models of coping, this work highlights the unique experience of multiracial individuals and the potential psychological benefits of belonging to multiple racial groups in a racialized world.     

FAMILY, SELF, AND SOCIOCULTURAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO BODY-IMAGE ATTITUDES OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN

This study examined factors that influenced body-image attitudes of 90 African-American college women. Participants completed two instruments assessing body image attitudes and measures of social self-esteem, racial identity attitudes, and family and personal characteristics. Data analyses indicated that self and sociocultural variables were associated with evaluations of physical appearance, fitness, and investment in health. Dissatisfaction with the total body was predicted with family variables, whereas family and self variables were related to satisfaction with body areas. Fathers' education; body mass and fathers' education; body mass and social self-esteem; internalization of racial attitudes; and social self-esteem best predicted body areas satisfaction, appearance evaluation, fitness evaluation, and health orientation, respectively. Implications for the divergence/convergence of subjective measures of body image are discussed and suggestions offered for future studies.     

“Know Whence you Came”: Psychoanalytic Theory,Queer Theory,and the Mixed-Race Experience

Deeply rooted U.S. cultural practices and legislative processes have facilitated the dissociation, erasure, and evasion of engagement with mixed-race subjectivities. As multiracial clinicians, we attempt to reexamine the discourse around race in psychoanalytic literature, questioning the process by which dominant monoracial norms have been constructed, reproduced, and codified as normal and acceptable. We propose that the absence of multiracial subjectivities from the psychoanalytic literature reflects a broader social discomfort with and cultural dissociation of the mixed-race experience. We further suggest that it is necessary to engage both analytically and queer-ly with the subjective experience of racial multiplicity—positing that multiracial subjectivities might best be understood as subjectivities that are “racially queer.”     

Gender identity and adjustment in black, Hispanic, and white preadolescents

The generality of S. K. Egan and D. G. Perry's (2001) model of gender identity and adjustment was evaluated by examining associations between gender identity (felt gender typicality, felt gender contentedness, and felt pressure for gender conformity) and social adjustment in 863 White, Black, and Hispanic 5th graders (mean age = 11.1 years). Relations between gender identity and adjustment varied across ethnic/racial groups, indicating that S. K. Egan and D. G. Perry's model requires amendment. It is suggested that the implications of gender identity for adjustment depend on the particular meanings that a child attaches to gender (e.g., the specific attributes the child regards as desirable for each sex); these meanings may vary across and within ethnic/racial groups. Cross-ethnic/racial investigation can aid theory building by pointing to constructs that are neglected in research with a single ethnic/racial group but that are crucial components of basic developmental processes.     

Role of identity integration on the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and psychological adjustment of multiracial people

This study examined relations between perceived racial discrimination, multiracial identity integration (i.e., racial distance and racial conflict), and psychological adjustment (i.e., distress symptoms, positive affect, and negative affect) of 263 multiracial adults, using an online cross-sectional survey design. As hypothesized, higher levels of perceived racial discrimination was related to lower levels of psychological adjustment (i.e., higher distress symptoms and negative affect). Also, higher levels of multiracial identity integration with low racial conflict was related to higher levels of psychological adjustment (i.e., lower distress symptoms and negative affect), whereas higher levels of multiracial identity integration with low racial distance was related to higher levels of psychological adjustment (i.e., lower negative affect). Finally, multiracial identity integration (i.e., lower racial conflict) moderated the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and psychological adjustment (i.e., negative affect) with results suggesting multiracial identity integration related to low racial conflict buffers the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination on psychological adjustment. Findings from this study are discussed in terms of future research on the psychological well-being of multiracial individuals and implications for clinical practice with multiracial adults.     

Natural ambiguities: Racial categorization of multiracial individuals

Understanding the perception of multiracial persons is increasingly important in today's diverse society. The present research investigated the process of categorizing multiracial persons as “Multiracial.” We hypothesized that perceivers would make fewer Multiracial categorizations of multiracials and that these categorizations would take longer than monoracial categorizations. We found support for these hypotheses across six experiments. Experiment 1 demonstrated that perceivers did not categorize morphed Black–White faces as Multiracial with the same frequency with which they categorized Black and White faces as Black and White (respectively), and that categorizations of multiracials as Multiracial took longer than monoracial categorizations. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these effects to real Black–White faces. Experiment 3 showed that these findings generalized to Asian–White faces. We used pixel variance analysis to show that these effects were not due to increased variance among Multiracial faces. The image analysis showed that the Black–White morphs and real biracials were actually less varied than either the Black or White sets of faces. Experiments 4 and 5 demonstrated that cognitive load and time constraints detrimentally affected multiracial, but not monoracial, categorizations. Experiment 6 showed that imbuing monoracial categories with importance decreases the use of the Multiracial category. Implications of these findings for understanding perceptions of multiracial persons are discussed.     

Race,Belonging, and Participation in Religious Congregations

Significant effort has gone into understanding and promoting racial diversity in congregations. Still, uniting worshippers of different races remains a challenging endeavor. Even congregations that successfully attract worshippers of different races often have difficulty sustaining their multiracial composition. This study contributes to the discussion of race and religion by examining racial group differences in belonging and participation in congregations. Drawing on organizational ecology theory, we develop four hypotheses to test whether and how racial group size corresponds to congregational commitment. Results of multilevel modeling using 2001 U.S. Congregational Life Survey data reveal that those who are a part of a congregation's largest racial group possess a stronger sense of belonging and participate at a deeper level than congregants of other races. Moreover, differences in belonging and participation by racial group persist regardless of group size.     

Racial/Ethnic Identity and Subjective Physical and Mental Health of Latino Americans: An Asset Within?

Social Identity Theory indicates that ethnic identity could benefit minority members in a society because of its promotion of a sense of belonging, or of its buffering of the damage of discrimination. Despite growing investigation about Latinos’ overall health, few studies have simultaneously examined the influence of multiple cultural strength factors, especially racial/ethnic identity, social support, and religious attendance, on these outcomes. Using the National Latino and Asian American Study, we examine the potential predictive value of these cultural strength factors on Latinos’ Self-Rated Mental and Physical Health (SRMH and SRPH). Two separate two-step regression models revealed significant positive effects of racial/ethnic identity on both mental and physical health of Latinos, above and beyond the effect of known demographic and acculturation factors, such as discrimination. Religious attendance had a positive effect on SRMH but not on SRPH. The deteriorating roles of discrimination, in mental health only, and that of Length in the US in both outcomes, however, was primarily not altered by entry of these cultural strength factors. The independent direct effect of racial/ethnic identity among Latinos nationwide may suggest that this cultural strength is an internalized protective asset. Longitudinal data is needed to explore its underlying mechanism and long-term impact.     

Black identity in biracial black/white people: a comparison of Jacqueline who refuses to be exclusively black and Adolphus who wishes he were

Two biracial college freshmen, both of whom identify as Black, were chosen from a larger sample of participants in a qualitative study of biracial identity development to exemplify the differences in the paths that 2 biracial individuals could take to achieve racial identity resolution. Through the case study method, the authors describe the course and progression of racial identity development (RID) in these 2 individuals and discuss some key themes in their lives that have contributed to the development of their RID. The purposes are fourfold: to describe nonclinical subjective experiences of being biracial in the United States, to explore the differences in the paths that 2 biracial individuals can take to achieve what looks superficially like similar Black racial identity resolution, to demonstrate how identifying as Black can have different meanings and consequences for 2 biracial people, and to contribute to the differentiation of Black RID from biracial Black/White RID. The authors raise questions about the generalizability of monoracial Black and ethnic identity theories to biracial individuals.     

Intergroup consensus/disagreement in support of group-based hierarchy: an examination of socio-structural and psycho-cultural factors

A meta-analysis examined the extent to which socio-structural and psycho-cultural characteristics of societies correspond with how much gender and ethnic/racial groups differ on their support of group-based hierarchy. Robustly, women opposed group-based hierarchy more than men did, and members of lower power ethnic/racial groups opposed group-based hierarchy more than members of higher power ethnic/racial groups did. As predicted by social dominance theory, gender differences were larger, more stable, and less variable from sample to sample than differences between ethnic/racial groups. Subordinate gender and ethnic/racial group members disagreed more with dominants in their views of group-based hierarchy in societies that can be considered more liberal and modern (e.g., emphasizing individualism and change from traditions), as well as in societies that enjoyed greater gender equality. The relations between gender and ethnic/racial groups are discussed, and implications are developed for social dominance theory, social role theory, biosocial theory, social identity theory, system justification theory, realistic group conflict theory, and relative deprivation theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).     

Perceptions of ethnic discrimination by minority and majority early adolescents in the Netherlands

This research investigates perceptions of discrimination among ethnic majority and minority group early adolescents (aged between 10 and 12 years) living in the multi‐ethnic context of the Netherlands. In two studies (N = 679 and N = 2630), personal and group discrimination was examined in terms of name‐calling and social exclusion, and in relation to ethnic identity and family allocentrism. All early adolescents reported more group than personal discrimination. The personal‐group discrimination discrepancy (PGDD) was found independently of ethnic group, gender, allocentrism, and ethnic identity. Hence, the PGDD seems a more general phenomenon that already exists among early adolescents and across different domains. However, minority group participants perceived far more discrimination overall than majority group early adolescents, and the Turkish participants reported more discrimination than the Moroccan and Surinamese early adolescents. Furthermore, family allocentrism was positively related to perceived discrimination among all ethnic groups in Study 2 and among the Dutch in Study 1. In agreement with ethnic identity development models, strength of ethnic identity was not related to perceived discrimination. Ethnic identity was, however, positively related to allocentrism. In both studies, ethnic minority group participants had higher scores for allocentrism and for ethnic identity than majority group participants. In addition, boys had stronger ethnic identity than girls and ethnic identity was negatively associated with perceived discrimination for the boys but not for the girls. It is concluded that in order to understand early adolescents' perception of discrimination it is necessary to pay attention to basic (cognitive) tendencies that cross ethnic lines, to cultural and status differences between the majority group and ethnic minorities as a category and between ethnic minority groups, and to within‐group differences or individual level variables.