The Cultural Internalization Scale: Assessing internal and external reasons for endorsing one’s cultural identity

Abstract

The constructs of 'culture' and 'cultural identity' have long been recognized by researchers as important, but traditionally have been treated as static properties rather than in terms of their degree and quality of internalization. Adopting the more dynamic view of internalization proposed by Vygotsky and by self-determination theory (SDT), two studies tested the measurement properties of the Cultural Internalization Scale (CIS), which assesses internal versus external reasons for endorsing one's ambient culture. In a U.S. sample, Study 1 (N = 149) provided evidence for the reliability, factor structure, and predictive validity of the scale. Study 2 replicated these results in a second U.S. sample (N = 205) and in a sample from China (N = 245). In addition, Study 2 demonstrated that greater internalization of one's ambient culture was associated with satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Discussion focuses on the potential applications of the CIS in research on socialization, the cultural adjustment of immigrants and sojourners, and implications for students in higher education settings.

Building a science of motivated persons: Self-determination theory’s empirical approach to human experience and the regulation of behavior.

“…Such experimental work on motivational regulations continues today, with experimental work shedding light on the differential role of punishments and logical consequences (e.g., Robichaud & Mageau, 2020), the fostering of identified regulation through meaningful rationales (e.g., Jang, 2008), and the use of guilt induction to prompt introjected regulation (Chen et al, 2016). Motive states are also being identified in brain studies as these states engage different neural networks (e.g., Fang et al, 2020;Lee & Reeve, 2017, 2020Miura et al, 2017;Ryan & Di Domenico, 2016).…”

“…The claim is that across development and cultures, satisfaction of these needs enhances, and frustration interferes with, wellness. As Lynch (2020) recently showed, the degree to which one can internalize one’s own cultural norms is important everywhere (see also Chirkov et al, 2005; Craven et al, 2016). Yet SDT simultaneously recognizes emic differences in how these basic needs are valued, voiced, and expressed in different cultural contexts (Reeve et al, 2018).…”