Observing the Effects of Cultural Priming on Meaning for Bicultural Individuals

Bicultural individuals are those who have been exposed to and internalized two cultures (Grosjean, 2015). Being bicultural enables people to switch between cultural schemas, norms, and behaviours (Gosjean, 2015). Cross-cultural psychology researchers have endeavoured to conduct studies on cultural frame-switching which involves a person with more than one cultural identity accessing one of their cultural knowledge systems in response to certain contextual cues (Chao & Hong, 2007). The opportunities to explore the effects of culture on different aspects of the self such as personality and orientations towards collectivism have been well-documented in the literature (Ramirez-Esparza et al., 2006; Trafimow et al., 1997; Lechuga, 2008). The present study expands this paradigm by investigating cultural impact on one`s sense of meaning in life.

Empirical data has demonstrated that meaning is often positively associated with greater well-being while a lack of meaning has been correlated with negative well-being and pathologic states (as cited in Schnell, 2009). The researchers of the present study aim to observe how cultural frame-switching might facilitate differences in meaning making amongst Filipino bicultural participants. Participants fluent in both English and Tagalog will report their bicultural identity integration rating. Using a language manipulation cultural priming task, the Filipino bicultural participants will be randomly assigned to complete a series of measures including the Multidimensional Existential Meaning Scale (MEMS) and subscales from the Sources of Meaning scale, amongst others. A sample size of approximately 426 participants is expected (214 subjects per condition). Results will be analyzed to compare scores on the MEMS for the group primed to answer in English and those who answer in Tagalog. Analyses for additional measures are anticipated to yield differences in the following domains: sources of meaning, religiosity, orientations to happiness, and collectivism. Participants’ bicultural identity integration scores will also be analyzed.