Abstract
The 21st century and internet technology has brought about many changes that includes exposure to new cultures. This creates opportunities for new identities to develop. In this study, the researcher examines identity integration through discussions on engagement in a globalized interest in connection with postmodernism. Twelve college students who were interested in a culture not connected to their own ethnic background were interviewed. The majority of the participants were interested in Japanese anime and Korean pop music while not being ethnically Japanese or Korean. Using Erikson’s theorizing of three levels of identity and Hidi and Renninger’s four phases of interest development, the researcher discusses the integration of participants’ interest into their ego identity, personal identity, and social identity as well as the utilization of the internet for interest development. The researcher ends with suggestions for future identity research that includes considerations around how identity integration might be considered (i.e., identity synthesis) and further investigations around internet content.
Investigations of identity in the 21st century is likely more challenging than during any other time in human history. Unlike in the past, one’s geographic location does not limit one’s exposure to ideas, values, religions, and cultures to only those one is born into or grows up with (Arnett, 2015). Exposure to different cultures and its artifacts can capture the interest of an individual, leading to its incorporation into one’s identity. In other words, there are greater opportunities and options for an individual to develop diverse identity content. There is little understanding of this in the U.S. because there has been much more research on the identity development process than identity content (Galliher et al., 2017). It is important to investigate content as well as the process to comprehensively understand identity (Galliher et al., 2017).
Technology has become a significant medium providing individuals with access to new information and content. The focus of this paper is on identity formation related to interests not rooted in one’s sociocultural background, namely, the experiences of individuals who are not ethnically Japanese and interested in Japanese anime or individuals who are not ethnically Korean and interested in K-pop or K-dramas. This is unlike academic interests which can have significant impacts on one’s success in school and later profession/career. An example of this type of interest is interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Societal valuing of STEM interest can be seen in the great amount of research dollars invested in increasing STEM interest. Additionally, interest in anime or K-pop is not connected to trait identities with one is born, such as gender and race-ethnicity. One cannot easily hide or change personal traits such as these and individuals receive messages on how to be one’s gender and race-ethnicity. In contrast, having interests in anime or K-pop can be transient and can be taken up and/or dropped with little interference to other aspects of the individual’s life, unlike no longer being interested in pursuing medical school and changing college majors, or with feedback from others, such as parents being disappointed that an individual is no longer interested in pursuing a career as a medical doctor. Therefore, investigation of this kind of low-stakes interest allows the researcher to examine the individual’s efforts in exerting agency in the development of an identity with little external pressures beyond others' interests.
Investigations of interest in Japanese anime is not new but has remained focused on the superficial; often focused on what participants outwardly gained from participating in the fandom, such as developing artmaking skills and gaining a community of like-minded fans (e.g., Manifold, 2009). In her interview study of young adults who participate in anime, comic, and games fan events, Yamato (2016) considered these events as places where psychological needs can be met for general development in life. When identity-related topics have been investigated, identity is often treated as a static individual characteristic such as an online gamer identity (e.g., Eklund & Roman, 2017) or otaku identity (e.g., Ho et al., 2019). Participation in the community/activity have been assumed to be indicative of the existence of the relevant identity without close examination of how the interest has been incorporated into an identity of the individual.
Recently there has been an increase in research examining interest in Korean pop music (e.g., Baek, 2015) and other aspects of Korean pop culture (e.g., makeup, Abelman, 2019; dramas, Ting, 2020) around the world. Internet video-sharing platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok have made it easier for non-Korean youth to become exposed to Korean pop culture and develop an interest in it. In 2012, a Korean pop-song “Gangnam style” was the first video in YouTube history to hit 1 billion views (McClellan, 2019), and in 2021, the award for Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards went to K-pop music band, BTS (CBS News, 2021). These accomplishments reflect the high levels of interest K-pop has garnered, and in turn K-pop has potential to inform new identity development. This is in significant part due to technology affording K-pop the opportunity to reach many viewers and listeners beyond South Korea. Easy exposure to other cultures in the 21st century like this has created opportunities to shift away from ethnic or national identities and towards pan-national or transnational identities. Interests such as these adopted by those who do not have Korean heritage provide a unique window into understanding how new interests develop into an identity and interact with existing identities.
Literature Review
Identity Development in Postmodern times
The identity development process is an ongoing process, as childhood identifications get altered and synthesized into a coherent whole (Erikson, 1968). Identity can be seen as an internal process where “I” am the actor who works towards defining the “self” (Waterman, 2015). Since the theorizing of identity by Erikson over 50 years ago, research on identity has grown with scholars having operationalized it (i.e., Marcia, 1966) and applied it (e.g., ethnic identity: Phinney, 1992). In response to the questions and criticism of whether the theory is still relevant in current times, Schachter (2005) provided two ways for thinking about postmodernism and the application of Erikson’s theory: postmodernity as a context and postmodernity as a theory. The first way, postmodernity as a context, refers to “postmodernity as a social and cultural context of development” (p. 139). By taking this position one recognizes the context of living in the US in the 21st century as affording easy access to information about other cultures and people different from oneself through technology. This position also responds to the call for psychological identity research to consider context more, as sociological identity research has done (Côté & Levine, 2002) as well as work from European scholars such as Mead (1934), Wundt (Vӧlkerpsychologie, see Diriwächter, 2004), and Vygotsky (see Penuel & Wertsch, 1995).
The internet, as a context, has been growing in importance for identity development (see Wängqvist & Frisén, 2016 for a review of identity development online). The internet provides a space for “I/me” to explore initial topics of interest, develop commitment to content areas, and subsequently construct a “self”. In research with LGBT youth, the youth tried coming out to their online community and friends before coming out to their parents offline, essentially using the online space as a place to practice a sexual minority identity (McInroy & Craig, 2020). The internet also provides a space for young adults to be more than their offline selves. Chinese young adults who were introverted offline were able to be extroverted online (Qin & Lowe, 2021). In addition to the internet being a space where identity work happens, in this study, I examine how not just interacting with others online but internet content can be a source of information for new identities.
One end of the identity development process is considered to be achieving a coherent self and this self being consistent over time, referred to as identity integration (Erikson, 1968). This may seem to conflict with Schachter’s second way to consider postmodernism. Schachter referred to it as postmodernism as a theory, and for postmodern theorists, the self is saturated with feedback from many societal demands and sources of information, all of which leads to a fragmented self (Waterman, 2015) that is “constantly fluctuating and ever changing” (p. 4. Layder, 2007). The aim of postmodern theorists is to “deconstruct the concept of identity and to understand why it was constructed in such a way and what the implications of this construction are.” (p.146, Schachter, 2005). In this paper I propose adopting Crocetti et al.’s (2018) idea of identity synthesis, where the task of the individual is to “combine and integrate significant earlier identifications in a unique and personal way” (p. 300), to conceptualize a coherent identity during postmodern times. With this definition I empirically examine the existence of a coherent and consistent self (that is in contrast with a fragmented self) while acknowledging that the self in the present includes “earlier identifications” that can invite investigations of “why it was constructed in such a way”.
Interest and Identity Content
As previously mentioned, one area of identity research that is underdeveloped is around identity content (McLean & Syed, 2015). Research on identity content is likely challenging because every person will have unique identity content (McLean et al., 2016). Identities that are central to the person over the lifespan as well as the identities are that salient in a particular moment will vary by individual. Therefore, investigating identity content can have little generalizable value when examined without clear domains for investigation. Examples of successfully parameterized identity content work can be found in cross-cultural psychology, such as racial identity research that applies the multidimensional model of racial identity (i.e., Sellers et al., 1997), and from education, such as science identity research that applies or expands on Carlone and Johnson’s (2007) model and includes interest as a component of identity (Hazari et al., 2010). In this study, I utilize this guidance by focusing on one (interest) domain to examine how “I” incorporate an interest to become part of the “self”.
Interest development has been a topic investigated for many decades. One widely applied theory of interest development is the four phases of interest development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006). The theory differentiates how an individual may be introduced to something (externally supported) and become interested momentarily: phase 1, triggered situational interest. This interest can be supported externally and encouraged to be maintained for longer episodes: phase 2, maintained situational interest. Once individuals are interested in the topic on their own, demonstrating behaviors such as seeking out opportunities to reengage and develop their own curiosities related to the interest they are considered to be in the emerging individual interest phase. The last phase is when an individual has well-developed individual interest, and in this phase individuals opt to pursue their interest when given a choice, are resourceful in solving problems related to their interest, and have more positive feelings and stored knowledge than the previous phases (Hidi & Renninger, 2006).
Well-developed interest is aligned closely with the self-representation aspect of identity development. However, the two are distinct in that interest is an individual’s tendency and desire to repeatedly engage with content and the feelings that come with it (Renninger, 2009). Identity refers to self-representation and by identifying as someone who pursues specific content deeply, individuals are distinguishing themselves from others based on specific interests (Renninger, 2009). Given this understanding, the aim of this study is to conduct an examination of how individuals incorporate new interests into a coherent sense of self and to answer the research questions: when might a new interest be part of one’s identity? and what might a coherent “I” look like in a postmodern world? I was guided by the four phases of interest development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006) and Erikson’s theorizing of three levels of identity that make up the individual (McLean & Syed, 2015). Ego identity “is found when one is able to integrate one’s most important, basic, and private beliefs about the self to create a sense of personal sameness across time” (McLean & Syed, 2015, p. 3). Personal identity refers to the behaviors and characteristics that makes one unique, namely, one’s beliefs and goals (Côté & Levine, 2002). Lastly, social identity refers to the role one has in relation to a larger group (Côté & Levine, 2002; McLean & Syed, 2015). Theorizing identity in this way allowed for the examination of interest integration into numerous “self” domains.
Method
Participants
Participant information.
(−) Information missing.
Data
Setting and Collection
Data were collected at a racially ethnically diverse (Hispanic serving institution and 20% Asian American and Pacific Islander), 4-year university on the west coast of the United States. A noteworthy characteristic of the campus is that a large portion of the student body live at home with their families while attending college. After approval from the Institutional Review Board of the author’s institution, invitations to participate were sent to various student-interest organizations. The anime club replied to the participation invitation. Additionally, information about the study was posted on a research participant pool website. Interested students were asked to contact the research team and semi-structured interviews were scheduled. Students were given informed consent forms and once signed, participants were asked to fill out a basic information sheet that asked age, major of study, and top three identities the participant considered important.
In order to answer the research questions, semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted. Questions started with directly inquiring about their interests, such as, “How did you get interested in it?” to gain information regarding how the individual came to choose their interest and get understanding of how the interest may relate to their ego identity. The protocol also included questions regarding the kinds of feedback they received about their interest, such as, “What do the people around you think about your [interest – using their language]?” These questions were in order to learn about the how the interest affects their relationships with the people around them and how the interest informs their identified social identities. Lastly, questions such as “How does this other culture compare with your ethnic-heritage culture?” and “How do you feel about being a member of your ethnic community?” were asked in order to understand how their interest informed a social identity with one was born as well as to gain insight into how another “self” has had to become integrated into a congruent identity.
The interviews ranged from 8 minutes to 57 minutes, with the average being 22 minutes. After the interview, participants were compensated with $8 Target gift cards. The interviews were conducted from Spring 2018 to Fall 2019. Interview audio files were transcribed, and transcription files were imported into NVivo for coding.
Analysis
Codebook with three levels.
Note. Definitions are from the research literature.
Additionally, because the codebook was developed prior to the first cycle of coding coded segments were closely examined to determine whether they aligned with the original code or whether smaller codes were necessary to gain deeper insight than what was afforded with the original code. This process added a third level of subcodes to the codebook that initially started with two levels. For instance, references to how an individual was introverted in the past, is currently introverted, and therefore did not post on anime discussion boards was coded as personality informing interest, a subcode of ego identity. Social identity included subcodes specific to the interest community as well as friends and family since those are two larger communities the participants were part of and asked about.
To examine the relationships among the codes and identify themes in the data theoretical coding (Saldaña, 2016) was used in the second cycle of coding. In theoretical coding, broader umbrella codes are developed to seek relationships among the codes. As the goal of the study was to gain insight into how individuals were similarly and differently integrating interest into their three levels of identity, I looked for how the codes related to each other to inform identity development and integration.
Researcher Biases and Research Assistant Training
I am an Asian American woman who was primarily educated in the United States. As a researcher and a faculty member in an institution of higher education I value education and encourage putting efforts into education. During the interview although I have some knowledge of popular Japanese anime, I attempted to convey limited knowledge to encourage elaboration and the participant sharing their knowledge. I conducted four interviews and also had four research assistants who assisted in the research process. One research assistant conducted four interviews, another conducted two, and the remaining two research assistants each conducted one interview. Research assistants also reviewed the transcribed interviews for accuracy.
Research assistants were two female and two male students. Three of the four were Mexican American and the fourth was Black and Asian American. All grew up in the US and spoke English comfortably. All research assistants had two training sessions each where they were introduced to foundational interviewing skills and practiced mock interviewing using the interview protocol. All research assistants had limited familiarity of Japanese anime and K-pop, as they had similar experiences of watching Saturday morning cartoons as the participants and had access to internet platforms and social media accounts that perpetuate “viral” K-pop content.
Results
Below, I present three themes identified from the interviews in order to answer the two research questions, when is a new interest part of one’s identity? And what might a coherent “I” look like in a postmodern world? With regards to when an interest becomes an identity, the findings suggest an interest is an identity when it is connected with other identities. In this study, participants indicated that their interest had developed into a “self” and had integrated with their ego identity the most explicitly. Additionally, this self at times informed their personal identities and was connected to and supported by the participants’ life contexts, speaking to the social identities that participants also had. With regards to what a coherent identity looks like, participants had negotiated a congruent self that reflected decisions on in which self to center. This suggests a coherent identity is one where the individual has found a balance in their identities and are satisfied with their overall self. In this section, when presenting the transcript segments in the findings, minimal edits were made to remove some of the “um”, “yeah,” and “right” utterances by the speakers for better readability.
Integration of Interest With Ego Identity
Firstly, the anime/K-pop interest had integrated with participants’ ego identities. Ego identity focuses on continuity; beliefs about the self and how what connects the “me” of yesterday to the “me” of today and will connect to the “me” of tomorrow (Erikson, 1968 as cited in McLean & Syed, 2015) and is a significant cornerstone of Erikson’s theory (Côté & Levine, 2002). Participants were able to articulate clearly how their interest was either a consistent part or connected to a consistent part of themselves, clearly suggesting that the integration of the interest with one’s ego identity as being an indication of the interest becoming a self. Scout described how, I went through a lot of different phases in my life. I was super into like Dr. Who, Supernatural, and stuff like that. But anime and like Japanese culture has always been part of my life no matter what kind of phase I’m in, I guess, in my life, you know.
Here Scout recalled how her interest in Japanese anime stayed with her over time (phase 4). Additionally, Kilo, Anthony, and Dan saw how their interests were directly connected to their introverted personalities. Personality as a stable disposition has been the dominant conceptualization in literature (Lilgendahl, 2015). In other words, personality can be defined as behaviors that have enough consistency to be considered as an individual tendency (Uher, 2017). Kilo, who described herself as introverted, knew of websites she liked to frequent but never published any of her posts reviewing anime episodes. She found a way to engage in her interest that aligned with her personality. This consistency in her offline-self and online-self echoes research that finds adolescents with a more coherent sense of self are more likely to put forth their real selves online (Michikyan et al., 2015). Additionally, this was not considered an indicator of a less integrated or less developed identity, just as greater disclosure of intimate material on Facebook does not indicate greater identity exploration online (Jordán-Conde et al., 2014). For Anthony and Dan, they could overcome their introverted personalities thanks to their interest in anime and gaming. Their interest supplied a way to connect with others offline. For these participants the aspect of self that remained consistent over time was their personalities.
Some participants discussed how their values were related to their interest as well. The valuing of connections with close others, namely, family, was named by the participants as a collectivistic value and what drew them closer to their interest. Both Max and Chimmy mentioned feeling connected to the collectivistic elements of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. Max talked about, I come from a very collectivist culture. Because we're focused more like, what you can do for the community, what you can do for your family. And as I read more about it, like, we're pretty similar in that aspect. And family and valuing family and valuing your country and that's pretty similar... I know there's more because I remember like researching. But like that's the main one that defines more than anything else.
Chimmy identified, like with BTS, I know that despite that they're like really high status right now. They're still remaining humble. Like, I feel like it’s part of like, their culture, they want to remain humble, because it's a collectivist culture. So it's like if someone messes up, then it kind of affects everyone. So yeah, that's what I think it's really interesting.
These participants connected this theme of collectivism to their own cultural and ethnic heritage. Chimmy later on added, Well, I feel like to an extent it's kind of similar because at least in Latino culture, what I've known is that it is kind of collectivist, it is more like family matters a lot. So, I feel like Korean culture, family's important too, because it's collectivist as well. So like, at least in the Latino culture, it's not uncommon to have like a big family.
These aspects of the interest connected them to this seemingly foreign culture, while keeping them true to themselves. The participants picked out isolated elements of being close to family or being humble as representing collectivism (see Takano & Sogon, 2008 for an analysis on levels of conformity comparing those in Japan and the US). Notably participants did not connect their own valuing of family or humble personality as Americans as indications that people in the US hold these values as well. In an ethnographic study in US schools, Omi (2012) identified characteristically different collectivism found in the US versus Japan. This highlights how the US can also be collectivistic, but it a different way. Individualism and collectivism are found on a national or regional level (Hofstede, 2011), and are not an individualizable phenomenon. Unpacking this surface level understanding of collectivism goes beyond the scope of this study, but it brings attention to the potential contributions that misinformation/misunderstanding of a culture can have on identity.
Social Context Supports Coherence
With regards to social context, participants were commonly exposed to their interest through television and family members, indicating the importance of external influence and access in one’s social context. Most participants specifically mentioned the cartoon, Pokémon as their first introduction to Japanese cartoons. According to Google and various websites (e.g., Toonami), Pokémon aired in the U.S. in 1998–2006, making it available for the participants when they were children.
Later while growing up, internet and technology usage made engagement in their interest possible. Kilo admitted, “when I got old enough to use the internet, that’s how I found most things.” Bob and Max liked their anime series enough to look up episodes released in other countries and in other languages when they were unavailable in the U.S. nor in English. Streaming services like Netflix made it easy to access Korean dramas. Websites (i.e., Crunchyroll, Myanimelist) also offered streaming of anime episodes and were mentioned by several participants as their preferred outlet to consume Japanese anime. Wes paid for a subscription to Crunchyroll so he could have instant access when episodes were released, displaying monetary investment in his interest. Participants gained access to content through the internet and took advantage of the content being independent of time and physical distance (Wängqvist & Frisén, 2016). This was one of the ways that participants were resourceful in satisfying their interest pursuits, a condition of phase 4 of interest development.
As young adults living within the boundaries of college culture and expectations, participants integrated their interest into their current personal identity, their future goals. Anthony, Cece, Wes and Dan were studying Japanese in college as a major or minor. When asked how Anthony considered his interest, Aww man I think at this point it's not much of a hobby I would honestly consider this my life. It's such a huge passion for me it's my, I’m majoring in Japanese over here right now. (Okay. How much is this a part of who you are?) It’s huge its, it is such a big part of my identity.
Anthony used being a Japanese major as evidence to emphasize how important his interest was to his sense of self. Kilo, an art major, talked about how she could not think of what she would have been studying in college if her interest in Japanese anime had not encouraged her to create art. Leon hoped to use his computer science major to help spread his Vietnamese culture through developing anime with Vietnamese cultural content. In addition to studies, Cece reported she was currently applying to jobs in Japan. Chimmy, who identified as a member of ARMY (the fanclub name for K-pop music group, BTS) wanted to learn Korean and travel to Korea someday. In these ways, their interests was negotiated within their context as a college student (or as someone who was leaving that college student role, in Cece’s case) and shaped their personal goals. These participants’ interest shaped the personal goals they created for themselves, and thus their personal identities.
Additionally, participants’ interests and their roles and relationships within various social groups reflected how their interests informed their social identities. One social group was friends and family, as participants interacted with them regularly. Anthony, Cece, and Dan received feedback from friends and family that was shaped by how they integrated their interest into their lives. As students studying Japanese, Dan’s family saw his engagement with anime as part of studying. Anthony had been recognized for Japanese excellence in community college and experienced positive feedback from his friends and family who were impressed he spoke another language. Participants also found others to share in their interest through student organizations on campus. Anthony took on a board member position, and Koji and Max were members in student organizations on campus where they felt connected to others who shared their interest. These changing context participants found themselves in or sought out contributed to their interest becoming part of their identity. Their engagement in their interests was met with feedback from those around them.
There were no clear discernable patterns with regards to how the interest integrated with the three levels of identity as a whole. Unexpectedly, the experiences participants shared suggested differences in the stability and temporality of the three identity levels. Integration of the interest with their ego identities suggested ego identity to be the most stable, as participants could pinpoint aspects of themselves that have been consistent over time. This is consistent with personality research that has found personality stability over 50 years (Damian et al., 2019). This was in contrast with their behaviors, values, and goals that make up their personal identities. As young adults, in a relatively short period of time participants had experienced changes in behavioral expectations (e.g., how to behave as a college student, as a member of a student organization, etc.) and in the goals they could set for themselves (e.g., applying for jobs in Japan). With these life context and status changes, participant social identities changed as well (e.g., being part of a university community, an academic department, a student organization), reflecting how temporal some of their social identities could be.
Interest That is Unintegrated Into Identity
There was one participant I present here as a counterexample of an individual who has a well-developed or phase 4 interest yet he did not demonstrate identity synthesis because the interest was not integrated with his identities. Bob showed a well-developed interest. He described positive feelings towards his interest and talked about finding episodes in other languages or those not released in the United States, indicating resourcefulness and opting to engage in the interest which are both conditions of phase 4. However, unlike other participants, his interest was isolated to the two anime series he liked: Pokémon and Yu-gi-oh. The interest had not encouraged additional interest into other areas of Japanese culture nor had it expanded to other areas of Bob’s identities. As his interest stayed limited to those particular anime and only part of his past, his interest was not part of any of his identities. Throughout the interview he could not articulate why he liked the anime series, and he could not articulate how his interest connected to his identities. Therefore, based on the conceptualization of identity synthesis adopted in this research, Bob was an example of an interest that is unintegrated with one’s identities and therefore not an identity.
Integration With Other Identities
Lastly, since participants were interested in other cultures not racially ethnically their own, this created an opportunity to examine how a chosen interest and now “self” related to an ascribed other “self” within the individual. Specifically, participants were asked about their relationship with their ethnic community and feelings around their ethnic identity. Some, like Dan and Anthony, were not bothered by their weak connections to their ethnic heritage. Dan expressed, I personally don't mind the fact that I'm [an] ignorant Filipino. I still do love my Filipino culture and customs is that I just I don't, I just choose not to focus too much time on it. Because for me, I will want to focus more time my school and my studies and since my studies is Japanese as a minor, it's something that I look more into. And plus, it's a little more on my side, or I guess just me, but I do want to spend more time on my hobbies over learning my Filipino culture.
When asked about how he felt being a member of his Latino community, Anthony shared, Indifferent. I don't feel too close to it anymore. Right now like I just said I feel much more comfortable, I mean of course I feel comfortable with the Hispanic side because I grew up that way. It’s something I won't feel like kind of awkward about. I’m used to it. But of course, I feel much closer to like Asian, East Asian culture. I feel like I’m more at home, I mean I feel like I’m at home on both sides. But I feel like East Asian Culture also feels like a home to me.
Both participants were comfortable with the level of knowledge and connections they had with their ethnic communities and overall ethnic identities. It was enough for them.
Other participants were able to articulate more directly the negative experiences and feelings about their ethnic heritage they had worked through. Cece was proud to be Khmer American now but was not in the past. When asked about her experiences growing up, she answered, Living in Long Beach, there's like the second largest popula- Cambodian population outside of Cambodia. So I feel like I've always been surrounded by Cambodian Americans, like, my mom's family friends and stuff like that. But then, usually statistics show that like Cambodian Americans are more affiliated with gangs, so I never really hung out with them. So I never really identified with the majority of Cambodian Americans living in Long Beach. So it was kind of tough growing up... But then after being college and high school, I found a set of people who are like similar interests as me as well as the same ethnic background.
Cece did not identify with the how she saw the majority of her ethnic group and sought to distance herself. Another participant Kilo shared that although she does not “hate being Chinese” now, she had a difficult childhood, Besides my interests I was also kinda like the only like Asian kid. So I kinda felt isolated. And sometimes my classmates were kinda like little brats and stuff so they’d pick on me and stuff like that. So, being Chinese ‘oh man is something wrong with me because like I’m Chinese and they keep picking on me’. So that’s why I didn’t want to do it and stuff and then that might’ve been some fuel on why I didn’t wanna learn Cantonese and so I kinda regret it. ah screw people I should’ve learned it. But then like growing up… especially like since people were being like… like jokes about being… like racism and stuff like that. But then, as it got worse, it was like oh I’m Chinese there is nothing I can do about it. And then like as I grew up, I kinda wish [I] was okay with it while I was younger because who cares.
Kilo also sought distance, because as “the only Asian kid” she felt others in her peer group saw her Chinese identity negatively. These negative feelings were not unique to the Asian American participants. Chimmy, a Salvadoran-American participant, also experienced briefly negative feelings towards her ethnic heritage, I didn't reject it at all really. Except there was… I feel like there was this period of time when I was like maybe like eight or eight or nine, where I kind of wanted to reject like the music in Spanish. I don't know what got to me. I don't know, but it was really brief. So that's a good thing.
Participants were aware of their past negative feelings related to their ethnic heritage. It was as they got older and met others who shared in their interests that they felt confident enough to claim their version of a “self.” Some scholars have recognized that identity development can take on the processes of identification, ascription, or choice (Waterman, 2015). Within an individual, some identities develop through identification with those around us. Most commonly, friends and family teach individuals how to be. Ascription refers to identity work done in connection with identities tied to categories individuals are assigned to. Choice, as an identity formation process, is the most active of the three processes with the individual making identity-related choices for one’s well-being (Waterman, 2015). Here, participants expressed how one ascribed identity, that is their ethnic identity, and a chosen identity, their Japanese/Korean-interest informed identity, existed together. The interest-informed self was presented in comparison with their ethnic self and not in conflict. Participants achieved feelings of clarity in self-concept regarding their ethnicity, referred to as identity commitment (Phinney, 1992). Furthermore, participants chose to not give their ethnic identity a central position in their overall sense of self. Some youth have been found to choose not to have race-ethnicity as a central part of their lives (Charmaraman & Grossman, 2010; Kiang et al., 2008). This suggests participants found a way to achieve identity coherence in this personal way.
Discussion
In this study, the integration of an interest into an identity was examined through three levels of identity (ego, personal, and social identities). Based on interviews with young adults who are interested in cultures connected with ethnic cultures not their own, the study findings suggest that a well-developed interest can be considered an identity when it is integrated with several areas of one’s identities. Valsiner (1998) maintained that the person develops by being influenced by the world one inhabits and through the choices of the individual. In this study, I presented individuals exposed to new interests through the world they inhabited and being agentic in incorporating that interest to become part of the self. The synthesized identity participants presented suggests that individuals in the postmodern world do not struggle with a fluctuating, changing, fragmented self. Rather, a synthesized individual can be achieved.
This process of moving towards a synthesized identity through feedback and agentic choices were seen in relation to being a college student. When an interest served a societally acceptable purpose, the social majority refrained from negative judgment and broadened the boundaries of acceptable cultural practice. For some, the interest from childhood developed into a reason for picking a particular course of study and career pursuits. Participants studying Japanese as a major/minor while interested in anime were not bothered by their family because family considered it “studying.” This is in line with societal and cultural valuing of education and putting in effort to be successful in education. This finding emphasizes the importance of cultural context and serves as encouragement to researchers to be mindful of cultural norms and master narratives of the society of their participants by collecting these elements as data and utilizing this data in analyses and dissemination. Schwartz et al. (2018) discussed situations where identity options can be constrained, and in light of these findings it will be useful to reevaluate whether the ideas of constraint still apply in the same ways when technology provides individuals exposure to many identity options.
Wängqvist and Frisén (2016) argue for the need to broaden investigations of identity development to include interactions online. Additionally, I propose including interactions with content online. Many participants talked about websites like Crunchyroll or Myanimelist, where people gather purely based on interest. The shared interest was the foundation of the interactions and time (including synchronicity with other users) was not a constraint because online content can exist for unknown varying lengths of time. Additionally, as identity is a negotiation of self, others, and environment, online content created by another person(s), even if those creators are not immediately obvious or visible, carries the creator’s values. The changing popularity and recognition of K-pop and anime carried with it its own reputation, and that reputation is recognized by the consumers of the content. Future research on young adults interacting with internet content will benefit from explicitly examining the reputation of online content as well.
One additional contribution of the study is suggesting a way to indirectly investigate identity content and formation, a mostly unconscious process (Hoare, 2013); that is, through discussions of interest as a contributor to identity. Through explanations of how an interest came to be part of oneself, we were afforded a glimpse into the active aspects of identity formation, specifically how individuals engaged in ways that were acceptable to themselves (e.g., introverted personality) or those around them (e.g., engaging with Japanese materials being seen as studying). By jointly examining this chosen identity with an ascribed identity (one’s ethnic identity), there was opportunity to examine how “I” perceive several identities for integration to reach identity synthesis.
Participants displayed centering different selves and therefore the study was unable to discern any pattern with which the three identity levels may have developed together. This may be one explanation for why there is little understanding of how the three levels identity interact with one another, as pointed out by McLean and Syed (2015). This research suggests considering self as a web of identities, rather than identities connected in a hierarchical way as the research language reflects (i.e., levels). Utilizing research with large samples will create opportunities to examine this idea. Another explanation for the lack of a pattern could be grounded in what Hammack (2008) attributes to differences in identity paradigms. Research in cultural psychology aims to examine the diversity in human development experiences (Hammack, 2008), and grounding this study in Erikson’s theory that seeks a universal framework for human development may have obscured the areas for variability in the participants. This is another area for further research.
There are a few additional limitations. It is difficult to know whether participants did not remember accurately or chose to report their experiences in ways that put them in a positive light. For instance, with regards to levels of online interest engagement, participants had a difficult time articulating specifically how much they engaged in the past and how much they engage in their interest currently (e.g., number of hours consumed, number of series watched). As college students their engagement was likely influenced by numerous factors, such as being expected to spend time studying. Future research can benefit from collecting data from other sources, such as family members, friends, or roommates, or asking participants to document their engagement a week prior to the interview. Another limitation is the age range of the participants. By only interviewing college students, participants recalled experiences and contexts that included significant life events, such as graduating high school and going to college. These life events create greater exposure to individuals, ideas, and cultures different from oneself than what could be expected by someone who did not go to college.
Conclusion
Individuals in the 21st century have a new challenge because they gain exposure to new ideas and new contexts. This includes online contexts where interactions are not limited by space or time. As opportunities for the development of new identities grow individuals will take advantage of those opportunities, and one can anticipate efforts to develop a healthy synthesized identity and the processes to achieve this will have to change in response. Identity scholars will need to reevaluate which aspects of identity development research will remain applicable.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
Thank you to the participants who shared their stories and research assistants, Amanda Martinez, Daniel Vega, Joel Alamo, Shanice Vigilant, who helped me collect them. Thank you to the anonymous reviewers.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Author Biography
Ann Y. Kim is currently an assistant professor in human development at California State University, Long Beach. With a background in educational and developmental psychology, her research interests include identity development in various contexts including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning environments. She has recently been working with biology and mathematics faculty to encourage the development of STEM identity through metacognitive strategies in undergraduate students.