The Role of Dialectical Self and Bicultural Identity Integration in Psychological Adjustment

Abstract

We applied the concept of naïve dialecticism (Peng & Nisbett, ), which characterizes East Asians' greater tendency to encompass contradictory, ever-changing, and interrelated features of an entity, to bicultural contexts and examined its effects on psychological well-being across various acculturating groups. We administered questionnaire measures of the dialectical self, bicultural identity integration (BII; Benet-Martínez & Haritatos, 2005), and well-being to Hong Kong Chinese (N = 213) in Study 1 and Mainland Chinese (N = 239) in Study 2. In Study 3, a 4-week longitudinal study was conducted among Hong Kong Chinese (N = 173) to test the relationships of these variables over time. We then extended similar measures to new immigrants from Mainland China (N = 67) in Study 4 and Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong (N = 153) in Study 5. Five studies converged to show that psychological adjustment was positively related to BII, but negatively related to the dialectical self. In Studies 1-3, dialecticism mediated the effect of BII on psychological adjustment among Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese bicultural individuals. Our findings reveal the deleterious effects of tolerance for contradiction on well-being and differentiate biculturalism patterns of immigration-based and globalization-based acculturation.