Assimilation and Heritage Identity: Lessons from the Coptic Diaspora

Many first generation immigrants share a concern for retaining their heritage culture, though they still aspire to successfully assimilate into the country of residence society. Assimilation theories suggest facilitating factors for positive assimilation but differ in terms of whether the loss of heritage culture is inevitable. The Coptic diaspora illustrates that upward mobility can be achieved without loss of heritage identity. Religious structures can play an important role not only in sustaining heritage identity but also facilitating positive assimilation. A review of the Coptic Orthodox Church’s ministry in diaspora, along with findings of a Coptic diaspora survey may offer lessons for other immigrant groups. The study affirms some theoretical findings and raises questions for future research.     

Identity, the Identity Statuses, and Identity Status Development: A Contemporary Statement

The Utrecht Study of Adolescent Development (Meeus et al., this issue) provides new data pertinent to issues of identity formation addressed in earlier reviews of the literature, specifically, (a) the direction and timing of identity status development, (b) the relative stability of the identity statuses, and (c) gender differences in identity formation. Despite numerous differences from earlier studies in the samples studied, the instruments used, and the methodologies employed, the findings of the Utrecht study are generally quite consistent with theoretical expectations and previous research outcomes. Because of the size and scope of the Utrecht study, data on possible age differences in the frequency of specific patterns of intraindividual identity status change could be analyzed. This aspect of identity formation had not been previously investigated. Equivocal results were obtained. Possible explanations for the partial failure to confirm this aspect of developmental theory are discussed.     

African American cultural history and reflections on Jung in the African Diaspora

Racism is defined as a psychopathology and the ground in which the covenant of whiteness is rooted and mirrored in the system of apartheid structured by American Constitutional Jurisprudence between 1857 and 1954. This historical period overshadowed Carl Jung's visit to America between 1909 and 1937. The spirit of the times and practices of racism coloured Jung's views, attitudes, and theories about African Americans, just as colonialism coloured his attitudes toward Africa and Africans. Consequently Jung failed to see the African Diaspora and the extraordinary intellectual and artistic period of the Harlem Renaissance (1919‐1929). Its introduction here foregrounds the exceptionalism of African Americans and the cultural continuity of African ancestry. This exceptionalism was not seen by Jung and there have been no attempts to redress its omission from analytical psychology and other sub‐disciplines of Western psychology. Jung's theories of personality and psychoanalysis and his negative projections about primitivism among Africans and African American ‘Negroes’ would have been mediated by knowledge of a legislated American apartheid and the Harlem Renaissance which occurred within the barriers of apartheid. In this paper I posit that culture, kinship libido, and the African principle of Ubuntu are healing modalities that play a critical role in instinct and the relational ground of human psychology and biology, from which culture as an environmental expression constellates around common goals of the human species. Cultural equivalencies and expressions within the wisdom traditions and mythologies of the Africa Diaspora are considered. Specifically, the Bantu principle of Ubuntu or ‘humanity’ is identified as the relational ground in African cultures, while the Kemetic‐Egyptian deity Maat, as an archetypal anima figure and the religio‐mythology offer a transcendent position from which to critique the inequities and constitutional jurisprudence that structured American apartheid. Maat is the personification of truth, justice, balance and weighing of the heart in orderly judicial processes. In her we find the alignment of the spirit and matter in the law and judgement. The paper concludes with reflections on pathways toward healing the psychopathology of racism and recommendations to enhance clinical training and practice.     

试论古巴比伦女祭司在家庭中的地位

古巴比伦时期,社会上兴起了女祭司阶层。她们在家庭中具有极高的地位,被称为"特殊的妇女"。摆脱了"父权"、"夫权"和"子权"的控制,享有与男性平等的权利。她们不能被丈夫随意抛弃,享有财产继承权,可以自由处理家庭中的不动产。女祭司具有的宗教职能、高贵的出身及具有的丰厚嫁妆是其在家庭中享有极高地位的重要原因。     

Components and Symbols of Ethnic Identity: A Case Study in Informal Education and Identity Formation in Diaspora

L’identité des membres de groupes ethniques qui vivent dans de nombreux pays est influencée par la culture environnante. Ce travail développe un outil qui peit aider les chercheurs à comprendre la façon dont les individus vivent leur identité ethnique. On analyse les composantes et les symboles qui fixent l’dentification ethnique. L’application de techniques d’analyse multidimentionnelle à un ensemble de données empiriques révéla une structure identitaire sur deux axes (cognitif–affectif; particulier–universel). Cette structure permet de faire des comparaisons entre des sous‐populations nationales selon leurs perceptions et accentuations diversifiées de l’identité ethnique. On examine ici les cas de membres de l’enseignement relevant de l’éducation juive informelle. 2119 de ces personnes provenant de sept pays ont fourni des définitions d’elles‐mêmes et des symboles qui exprimaient leur lien avec l’héritage ethnique et religieux. Cette typologie de base pourrait être utilisée dans des études portant sur d’autres groupes ethniques dont les membres ont émigré dans divers pays d’acceuil. The ethnic identity of members of ethnic groups who live in a number of different countries is influenced by the surrounding cultures. This study develops a tool which can help researchers understand the ways in which individuals perceive their own ethnic identity. The components and symbols that determine ethnic identification are analysed. By applying multidimensional analysis techniques to a set of empirical data, we were able to uncover a structure of identity along two axes: the cognitive/affective and the specific/universal. This structure enables us to make comparisons between national sub‐populations in terms of their various emphases and perceptions of ethnic identity. We examine here the case of staff members in Jewish informal educational settings: 2,119 staff members from seven countries were surveyed on the self‐definitions and symbols that express their relationship with their ethnic and religious heritage. This basic typology could be used in studies of other ethnic groups whose members have emigrated to a number of host countries.     

同一性与青年期同一性地位的研究 --同一性地位的构成及其自我测定

本文就自我同一性的诸问题进行了探讨,主要涉及自我同一性概念、同一性扩散、心理的延缓期几个方面;并介绍了中外有关自我同一性地位的研究的几项成果,包括马西亚(J.E Marcia,1964,1965)的研究、加藤厚(1993,1997)的研究和张日昇(1993,1994)对中国青年自我同一性地位的实证研究;此外,还介绍了自我同一性形成度的自我测定量表及测定方法.     

Three Paths to Legal Legitimacy: African Diaspora Religions and the State

What are the routes by which African diaspora religious groups gain legal legitimacy in modern nation-states of the Americas? African diaspora religions, once prohibited under slave laws, remain predisposed to conflict with the ‘culture of legality’ that is constitutive of the contemporary modern world-system. In negotiating this conflict, different legitimating tactics are called upon in different nation-states, depending on the type of national mythology and level of legal-rational development present. Two legitimating tactics exercised by African diaspora religions are described here: ‘simulation’ in the United States, and ‘sedition’ in Honduras. A third path toward legitimacy, which I call the strategy of ‘seduction’, occurs when states appropriate African diaspora religions as a form of symbolic capital communicating depth and authenticity. Examples of this path are drawn from Brazil and Haiti.     

Racial Identity,African Self-Consciousness,and Career Decision Making in African American College Women

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among racial Identity, African self-consciousness, and career decidedness in 212 African American women classified as first year or senior at an historically Black university and a predominantly White university. It was hypothesized that senior women at both institutions would have higher levels of racial identity and African self-consciousness and would be more career decided than first year women. The findings provided partial support for the hypothesis.     

大学生自我同一性状态与同一性风格、亲子沟通的关系

采用问卷法对594名大学生进行调查,结果发现,大学生自我同一性状态的人数分布中,延缓状态占67.5%,其余三种同一性状态各占10%左右;大学生在四种同一性状态的人数分布上不存在年级差异和性别差异;与其他同一性状态相比,获得状态的大学生在信息风格上得分最高,早闭状态的大学生在规范风格上得分最高,扩散状态的大学生在扩散风格上得分最高;亲子沟通中的开放性和问题既对同一性状态有直接预测作用,又以三种同一性风格为中介间接影响同一性状态。     

Indigenous Epistemology Explored through Yoruba Orisha Traditions in the African Diaspora

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes an Indigenous epistemology explored through Yoruba Orisha traditions in the African diaspora. It also emphasizes the discordance between Euro-American psychology and African American women’s feminism. In particular, it presents decolonial woman-centered spriritual practices and the possibilities inherent in cosmovivencia. As an example, it draws from a symposium hosted by Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) at City University of New York in February 2016, entitled Trade/itions: Trans-Atlantic Sacred Orisha Traditions. The article is intended to open dialogue about the epistemic centering of Indigneous philosophies, as well as the historical and current practices within African diaspora spiritual systems to support individual and community well-being and social activism. In addition, it addresses the preponderance of damage-centered research about African-descended and Indigenous peoples and women, in particular, in the academic psychology literature and recommends emergent methodological strategies for resistance to those approaches that reinforce colonial paradigms. Lastly, it supports the integral connection with and reliance on the natural world and all living species within Orisha traditions. These vital connections intrinsically place women practitioners at the forefront of efforts toward environmental justice.     

Social Identity Change During an Intergroup Merger: The Role of Status,Similarity, and Identity Threat

Conducted during the merger between two hospitals, this longitudinal study (N = 149) revealed that at both Time 1 (i.e., questionnaire completed 12 months prior to the merger) and Time 2 (completed 1 year after the merger had been implemented), employees from the low-status premerger organization generally reported lower adjustment to the merger. Whereas Time 2 identity threat predicted lower and decreased identification with the new merged organization and perceptions of a common in group identity, perceived similarities between the merging organizations at Time 2 predicted higher identification with the new merged organization and higher perceptions of a common in group identity.     

Exploring Normative Creativity: Testing the Relationship Between Cognitive Flexibility and Sexual Identity

Brown (1989) proposed that lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals possess greater “normative creativity” and flexibility than heterosexuals because they have fewer norms for living in heterosexually dominated society. In this article we explore one possible individual difference between heterosexuals and nonheterosexuals in the domain of normative creativity by examining the relationship between cognitive flexibility and sexual identity among 358 university students. Participants with sexual identities not directed toward one gender exclusively (e.g., bisexual, biaffectionate, or queer) scored significantly higher on a measure of cognitive flexibility than did heterosexual and gay/lesbian participants; the latter two groups did not differ from each other. These results suggest that it is having a nonexclusive sexual identity, rather than a lesbian or gay identity, that is related to greater cognitive flexibility.     

Racist Events and Ethnic Identity in Low Income, African Americans

This study was designed to determine the relation between racist events and ethnic identity in a group of 100 low-income African Americans. Findings indicated that the more racist events one experienced, the more ethnic behaviors they endorsed and the more they had explored the meaning of their ethnic background. In addition, racist events were also indicative of feeling less close to individuals of other ethnic groups. Results suggest that experiencing racist events may contribute to an increased identification with one's own ethnic background and less affiliation with those of other ethnic backgrounds, with the cumulative effect of racist events over one's lifetime contributing the most to this finding.     

Integration and Social Identity of Foreign African Professionals in South African Organisations

This study explored integration and social identity of foreign African nationals in the South African workplace. The study also explored the implications of the Employment Equity Act of 2006 as interpreted by foreign African nationals within the contexts of integration and social identity. The study interviewed eight men and two women working in South Africa. The average age of the participants was 37 years. Data on integration and social identity of African professionals working in South Africa were collected through interviews and the data were analysed qualitatively. The findings of the study were that the South African labour legislation on employment equity was perceived as discriminatory to foreign African nationals. The professional foreign African workers perceived less xenophobia and racism directed at them that could be experienced by others in nonprofessional positions.     

Ego Identity Status and Identity Processing Orientation: The Moderating Role of Commitment

This study was designed to investigate differences in the ways in which late adolescents with different identity statuses process self-relevant information and negotiate identity issues. Late adolescents with a foreclosed identity status were found to rely on a normative approach to personal problem solving and decision making, whereas identity diffusions were most apt to avoid dealing with identity issues and conflicts. Individuals in self-exploratory identity statuses were most likely to employ an informational orientation. However, as hypothesized, Status × Processing Orientation relationships were moderated by the strength of identity commitments. Results are discussed in terms of a process view of identity development.