People and Country: A Psychological and Contextual Perspective in Perceived Norms and Cultural Transmission

Tam (2015) argues that perceived norms—what is normatively important—predict how parents transmit cultural values and beliefs to their children. Central to this argument is the idea that parents may not necessarily transmit their own, subjective beliefs about cultural norms, and that successful intergenerational transmission can also lead to cultural change. Multicultural individuals, or individuals who identify with more than one cultural group, provide an especially interesting sample for examining how perceived cultural norms relate to intergenerational cultural transmission and cultural change. Because multicultural individuals—such as immigrants, expatriates, or sojourners—are familiar with the cultural norms of their home country and their host country, they not only have to consider whether to transmit their own subjective perceptions of cultural norms to their children but also have to make choices about which cultural norms to transmit to their children. For example, some immigrant parents may choose to transmit perceived cultural norms of the host country so that their children can succeed in their new country of residence. Other immigrants may focus on transmitting the perceived cultural norms of the home country to ensure that their children do not forget their roots (Phinney, 1990). Still other immigrant parents may choose to transmit perceived cultural norms of both countries.

When multicultural individuals belong to cultural groups that are perceived to have divergent or even conflicting norms, choices about cultural transmission can be especially difficult. For example, Asian American multiculturals may perceive individualism and autonomy as normative in Western cultures, but collectivism and cooperation as normative in Eastern cultures. As parents, transmitting one set of cultural norms can be seen as rejecting the other set of cultural norms. In this commentary, we suggest that these decisions multicultural parents confront about cultural transmission may be influenced by both psychological factors and contextual factors.

Psychologically, recent research suggests that multicultural individuals not only have subjective perceptions about normatively important cultural values and beliefs but also have perceived norms about how disparate cultural values and beliefs should be managed. In particular, multicultural individuals have been shown to differ in Bicultural Identity Integration (or BII), an individual difference measure that captures multicultural individuals’ perceptions of compatibility between the cultural groups to which they belong (Cheng, Lee, Benet-Martínez, & Hyunh, 2014). BII is composed of two components—perceptions of distance and perceptions of conflict. Those with high BII view the different norms associated with their cultural groups as overlapping and in harmony with one another, whereas those with low BII view the same norms as dissociated and in conflict with one another.

Individual differences in BII may be reflected in perceived norms about how multiple cultures should be negotiated. For example, multicultural individuals with low BII may perceive separating different cultures as a normative strategy for managing their multicultural status. To illustrate, Asian Americans who view their Asian and American identities as dissociated may believe that it is normative to adopt Western values of individualism in work contexts, but adopt the opposite, Eastern values of collectivism in family contexts. These norms about how multiple cultures should be negotiated can also be transmitted intergenerationally. Importantly, as Tam (2015) argued, parents do not necessarily strive to replicate these norms in their children. For example, switching cultural norms across settings can be experienced as cognitively and affectively taxing (Benet-Martínez, Leu, Lee, & Morris, 2002; Brannen & Lee, 2014). As such, multicultural parents with low BII may strive to transmit different normative strategies for managing disparate cultures to their children.

Beyond psychological factors, contextual factors can also influence multicultural parents’ transmission of subjective perceptions of cultural norms. First, cultural norms associated with more economically prosperous countries are more likely to be transmitted. This is consistent with Tam’s (2015) suggestion that aspirational goals play an important role in intergenerational transmissions of cultural values. For instance, immigrants who move to a host country with a higher level of economic prosperity than their home country often have the goal of improving the economic status for themselves and their children (Massey et al., 1993). As such, they are motivated to transmit the cultural norms of the host country to their children, which may be norms that do not necessarily mirror their own.

Second, a country’s cultural heterogeneity can also affect cultural transmission among multicultural parents. A culturally heterogeneous context exposes its inhabitants to diverse cultural norms, facilitating perceptions that opposing beliefs and values can be normative at the same time (Crisp & Turner, 2011; Woodward, Skrbis, & Bean, 2008). For example, in a culturally heterogeneous society, multicultural individuals habitually observe harmonious and compatible relationships between different cultural groups within their country of residence. In these contexts, they are more likely to transmit cultural norms associated with their home and host country to their children, even if those norms are personally perceived as conflicting or dissociated. Indeed, individuals may have representations of the “collective” compatibility between cultures that differ from their own, personal beliefs (Wan, 2015).

A related contextual variable is a society’s political climate regarding multiple cultures. Chiu, Gries, Torelli, and Cheng (2011) found that some countries have exclusionary climates that are characterized by a need to protect the heritage culture, rejection of outsiders, and fear of cultural contamination and erosion. Multicultural parents who live in such countries may be more likely to push their children to assimilate to the host country, and cultural transmission may focus on the norms associated with the host rather than home country. Alternatively, multicultural parents who live in countries that are more open to and accepting of other cultures are more likely to transmit the norms of their home country.

Interactionist approaches that take into account both psychological factors, such as BII, and contextual factors, such as economic, cultural, and political factors, are needed to examine the transmission of intersubjective cultural norms. This may be especially true for multicultural individuals who may be outsiders in a dominant culture, who live in a culture but do not fully identify with or participate in that culture, or who identify with multiple cultures that endorse different norms (Hanek, Lee, & Brannen, 2014). Indeed, multicultural individuals constitute a large and fast-growing demographic group worldwide, and how intersubjective cultural norms evolve and change as this demographic grows is a critical area of future research.