Edited by: Igor Grossmann, University of Waterloo, Canada
Reviewed by: Richard Slatcher, Wayne State University, United States; Chia-huei Wu, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom; Chi-Ying Cheng, Singapore Management University, Singapore
*Correspondence: Gloriana Rodríguez-Arauz
This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
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Research has demonstrated that bilingual individuals experience a “double personality,” which allows them to shift their self-schemas when they are primed with different language modes. In this study, we examine whether self-schemas change in Mexican-American (
Would the reader say that these two phrases describe the same person?
The answer is yes. The two phrases belong to a personality description given by a female bilingual Mexican-American student, when responding to the request: “
In the past few decades, research has shown that bilingual individuals shift their personality when language is used as a prime; and that they change their personality in accordance to the personality differences associated to the culture of that language (Ross et al.,
Ramírez-Esparza et al. study (
Besides the discrepancies noted above between self-reports and behavior with Mexicans, self-reports have broader limitations that are worth discussing. First, the usage of these instruments usually follows the “imposed etic” approach. This strategy operates by administering measures that were developed under a particular cultural worldview that is then implicitly superimposed on members of different cultural groups. While this facilitates the comparison of a construct across cultures, it might also leave out other important constructs that are specific to the cultural group being examined (Benet-Martínez and Waller,
In light of these important challenges, it is worth asking what Mexican-American bilinguals have to say, about themselves, using their own words in each language. By using this approach, we can capture language specific domains of self-definition and bypass the methodological cultural biases that result from using self-reports. Ramírez-Esparza et al. (
Ross et al. (
Although, Ross et al.'s study (
In this study, we address these gaps by analyzing the open-ended self-descriptions of a sample of Mexican-American bilinguals in two different languages at two different moments in time, to tap into intra-individual variability. The data is analyzed using an innovative text analytic strategy called the Meaning Extraction Method (MEM; e.g., Chung and Pennebaker,
More explicitly, Ramírez-Esparza et al. (
In this study we explore Mexican-American's self-schemas when describing their personality to an open-ended question in English vs. in Spanish. In order to achieve this goal, first we use the MEM, and then we rely on both previous studies (i.e., Chung and Pennebaker,
A secondary goal of this investigation is to observe if the resulted self-schemas in English are comparable to the self-schemas in Spanish. In order to achieve this goal we use a quantitative approach following guidelines found in Ramírez-Esparza et al. (
Bilinguals in the English mode are expected to show a more independent self-construal characterized by themes related to being sociable, and achievement-oriented (Markus and Kitayama,
In contrast, bilinguals in the Spanish mode will reflect themes related to an interdependent self-construal, characterized by an emphasis on relationships and significant others (Markus and Kitayama,
We expect that bilinguals will show different patterns of emotional expression in their descriptions depending on the language mode. In the English mode, bilinguals will either use negative emotion words or positive emotions words, while in the Spanish language mode, bilinguals will show both positive and negative emotions within a single self-schema. This hypothesis would be consistent with the idea that individuals from interdependent cultures tend to display increased emotional complexity (i.e., co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions), compared to individuals of independent cultures (Spencer-Rodgers et al.,
We expect that the Simpatía schema will be salient only in the Spanish mode (Triandis et al.,
Other self-schemas that were found in Ramírez-Esparza et al. (
Finally, we expect to find dimensions that will emerge both in the English and Spanish mode. This will be consistent with the idea that bilinguals are affected by norms, environment, and institutions of the context they are immersed (e.g., Rentfrow et al.,
The initial sample consisted of 310 bilingual participants, which self-identified as bilingual and Mexican-American. Out of these initial sample, 236 completed participation in all phases of the study. Out of these participants, 74 were not included in the study because they completed either the essay in English only (
Seventy-four percent (
Participants resided in various parts of the United States and were recruited to participate via online postings in different outlets, such as Latino and/or Chicano studies centers, flyers, and by sending emails to a wide audience that self-identified as Latino within a university located in southwestern U.S. Participants were offered $20 in gift cards from a popular online store in exchange for participation. Prospective participants were sent a link to an online bilingualism assessment and a demographic questionnaire. This was done as a first step, to ensure participant's eligibility in terms of language proficiency. Participants were included in the study if their self-identity matched inclusion criteria and if they indicated at least 75% confidence in reading, hearing and speaking in both languages. As a second step, eligible participants were sent a link to either one of the two parallel online questionnaires that were created in both English or Spanish to establish the language modes. This was done in a counterbalanced way (e.g., participant 1 was sent the survey in English, while participant 2 was sent the survey in Spanish).
Thirdly, participants that completed the first survey waited for approximately a week until they received the second survey. The language of the second survey depended on the language of the first administration.
After reading a description of the study and giving their consent, participants were asked to describe their personality for 15 min. The instructions for the English personality description were as follows:
“
Both online questions had the same physical appearance, the only difference was the language in which they were presented. A 15-min timer was presented on the writing web page, which included a large blank text field for typing. Each of the self-descriptions was formatted as a single plain text file. A spell-check was performed for each text file. The mean word count was 186.30 (
To determine self-schemas in either English or Spanish, the MEM was conducted on the writing samples. As a first step, the most frequently used content words were identified. Frequency counts were taken of all words in the self-descriptions, excluding closed-class words (e.g., articles, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, pronouns) and words that had to be converted to their root form due to tense or plurals (e.g.,
The most frequently used content words that appeared in at least 3.5% of all text files were selected. A total of 233 and 144 content words from English and Spanish text files, respectively, were kept for further analyses. The Spanish essays had less content words given that the amount of closed-class words and conversions that had to be used in this language was higher (for example, the infinitive verb learn (
The MEH provides a binary output (i.e., “one-hot” encoded) file for each essay, in which particular words are coded for presence (coded as 1) or absence (coded as 0). The final data summary, then, can be thought of as a (Number of Self-Descriptions x Number of Words) matrix, with each entry referring to the presence or absence of each term within each essay. A total of two matrices were set up to accomplish the main goal of this study: 193 (Participants' Self-Descriptions in English) × 233 (English Content Words) matrix, and a 193 (Participants' Self-Descriptions in Spanish) × 144 (Spanish Content Words) matrix. As a final step, a principal components analysis with varimax rotation was conducted with these binary files.
The main goals of this study were to define self-schemas in bilinguals according to the language mode and to explore cross-language and language-specific self-schemas using a qualitative approach. A secondary goal was to use a quantitative approach to observe the degree that self-schemas in one language are comparable to self-schemas in the other language. Next, the most frequent words used in both languages are provided. Then, self-schemas derived using the MEM are defined for both languages.
Table
Most frequently used words in English and Spanish text files.
1 | Time | 54.92 | VIVIR/Live | 42.49 |
2 | Love | 46.63 | AMIGOS/Friends | 47.67 |
3 | Family | 39.90 | TIEMPO/Time | 40.93 |
4 | Work | 36.79 | FAMILIA/Family | 47.15 |
5 | Life | 40.93 | TRABAJO/Work | 34.20 |
6 | Enjoy | 33.68 | AYUDA/Help | 34.72 |
7 | Friend | 35.23 | SENTIR/Feel | 26.94 |
8 | Learn | 26.94 | HABLAR/Talk | 24.87 |
9 | Hard | 25.91 | MÉXICO/Mexico | 18.65 |
10 | School | 19.69 | APRENDER/Learn | 23.32 |
11 | Care | 24.35 | BUENO/Good | 26.42 |
12 | Give | 22.28 | PADRES/Parents | 22.28 |
13 | See | 16.58 | PROBLEMAS/Problems | 19.17 |
14 | Happy | 20.73 | CULTURA/Culture | 17.10 |
15 | Parent | 16.58 | IMPORTANTE/Important | 21.76 |
16 | Shy | 21.76 | FELIZ/Happy | 18.65 |
17 | Goal | 20.21 | TÍMIDA/Shy | 19.17 |
18 | Positive | 16.06 | SOCIABLE/Sociable | 16.58 |
19 | Attitude | 18.13 | ESCUELA/School | 14.51 |
20 | Talk | 17.62 | MUJER/Woman | 14.51 |
21 | Social | 16.58 | MUNDO/World | 13.99 |
22 | Important | 15.03 | AMABLE/Kind | 16.06 |
23 | Strong | 14.51 | TRABAJAR/To Work | 13.47 |
24 | Speak | 15.54 | LEER/Read | 16.06 |
25 | Quiet | 15.03 | META/Goal | 15.54 |
26 | Change | 13.99 | FÁCIL/Easy | 14.51 |
27 | Culture | 12.44 | ESPAÑOL/Spanish | 9.33 |
28 | Meet | 13.99 | ESTUDIAR/Study | 13.47 |
29 | Friendly | 13.99 | EDUCACIÓN/Education | 10.88 |
30 | Outgoing | 17.10 | RESPONSIBLE/Responsible | 13.99 |
31 | Honest | 15.03 | SOLA/Alone | 11.92 |
32 | Living | 12.95 | DIFÍCIL/Difficult | 11.40 |
33 | Laugh | 10.36 | UNIVERSIDAD/University | 11.92 |
34 | Open | 13.99 | ESPECIAL/Special | 11.92 |
35 | Grow | 11.40 | INTELIGENTE/Intelligent | 12.44 |
36 | Place | 10.36 | ACTITUD/Attitude | 10.36 |
37 | Mexican | 9.84 | ESTUDIO/To study | 10.88 |
38 | Responsible | 12.95 | HONESTA/Honest | 11.92 |
39 | Funny | 11.40 | VIAJAR/Travel | 10.88 |
40 | Respectful | 10.88 | FUERTE/Strong | 10.88 |
A principal components extraction with varimax rotation was performed independently on the words from the English self-descriptions and on the words from the Spanish self-descriptions. Factors were extracted, based on a scree of Eigenvalues for the principal components (Cattell,
The first 6 factors accounted for 14.5% of the total variance. As can be seen in Table
Self-schemas from self-descriptions in English: a varimax-rotated principal components analysis.
University | 0.61 | Support | 0.62 | Born | 0.65 | Member | 0.48 | Quality | 0.40 | Introvert | 0.44 |
Finish | 0.55 | Connect | 0.55 | Mexican | 0.55 | Role | 0.48 | Realize | 0.40 | Critical | 0.39 |
Mother | 0.54 | Belief | 0.50 | American | 0.55 | Joke | 0.44 | Patient | 0.37 | Focus | 0.39 |
Health | 0.48 | Confident | 0.40 | Culture | 0.54 | Sister | 0.43 | Afraid | 0.37 | Gathering | 0.39 |
Job | 0.47 | Money | 0.39 | Graduate | 0.44 | Important | 0.41 | Organize | 0.37 | Quiet | 0.38 |
School | 0.46 | Country | 0.38 | Dance | 0.43 | Strong | 0.38 | Appreciate | 0.34 | Idea | 0.36 |
Father | 0.46 | Woman | 0.37 | Mexico | 0.38 | Future | 0.35 | Decision | 0.34 | Social | 0.36 |
College | 0.43 | Relate | 0.37 | Student | 0.38 | Outspoken | 0.35 | Perfectionist | 0.33 | Ability | 0.33 |
Degree | 0.40 | Goal | 0.35 | Education | 0.36 | Hardwork | 0.34 | Time | 0.32 | Dedicate | 0.32 |
Movie | 0.39 | Experience | 0.35 | Living | 0.35 | Responsible | 0.33 | Pretty | 0.31 | Group | 0.32 |
Texas | 0.38 | Challenge | 0.34 | Grow | 0.34 | Listener | 0.29 | Give | 0.30 | Anxious | 0.28 |
Choose | 0.35 | Food | 0.34 | Share | 0.33 | Public | 0.29 | Power | 0.30 | Reflect | 0.28 |
Attention | 0.34 | Failure | 0.33 | Reliable | 0.32 | Dream | 0.29 | Walk | 0.29 | Curious | 0.27 |
Work | 0.31 | Change | 0.32 | Busy | 0.32 | Smart | 0.29 | Stop | 0.28 | Environment | 0.26 |
Extreme | 0.31 | Volunteer | 0.32 | Bring | 0.31 | Passionate | 0.28 | Hate | 0.28 | Comfortable | 0.26 |
Girl | 0.31 | Pride | 0.32 | Child | 0.31 | Understand | 0.27 | Strive | 0.27 | Activity | 0.26 |
Age | 0.31 | Life | 0.30 | Family | 0.29 | Serious | 0.27 | Timid | 0.26 | Shy | 0.25 |
Class | 0.30 | Independent | 0.30 | Interest | 0.28 | Talk | 0.26 | Action | 0.25 | Stubborn | 0.24 |
Hurt | 0.30 | Humble | 0.30 | Love | 0.27 | Kid | 0.25 | Hard | 0.24 | Friendly | 0.22 |
Cry | 0.29 | Procrastinate | 0.30 | Language | 0.27 | Long | 0.25 | Fight | 0.22 | Impulsive | 0.22 |
Reason | 0.27 | Stranger | 0.29 | Eat | 0.24 | Friend | 0.25 | Stress | 0.22 | Develop | 0.21 |
Sensitive | 0.27 | Plan | 0.29 | Guess | 0.23 | Funny | 0.25 | Affect | 0.20 | Life | −0.28 |
Start | 0.25 | Conversation | 0.27 | Parent | 0.22 | Career | 0.23 | Music | −0.29 | Active | −0.22 |
Play | 0.22 | Great | 0.27 | Approach | 0.21 | Leader | 0.23 | Hope | −0.26 | Fault | −0.22 |
Competitive | 0.21 | Struggle | 0.27 | Enjoy | 0.21 | Close | 0.22 | Watch | −0.25 | Unique | −0.21 |
Seek | 0.26 | Opportunity | 0.21 | Trust | 0.21 | Positive | −0.22 | ||||
Place | 0.26 | Spontaneous | 0.21 | Personal | −0.21 | ||||||
Problem | 0.26 | Book | 0.21 | ||||||||
Learn | 0.25 | Study | 0.20 | ||||||||
Task | 0.25 | Sure | 0.20 | ||||||||
See | 0.24 | Young | 0.20 | ||||||||
Difficult | 0.21 | Emotion | −0.23 | ||||||||
Knowledge | 0.21 | Motivate | −0.21 | ||||||||
Behavior | 0.20 |
Two factors were unique to the bilinguals and were not comparable to the U.S. American monolinguals from Ramírez-Esparza et al. (
The first 5 factors accounted for 14% of the total variance. As shown in Table
Self-schemas from self-descriptions in Spanish: a varimax-rotated principal components analysis.
PAPÁ/Father | 0.51 | AMERICANA/American | 0.72 | LUGARES/Places | 0.58 | HONESTA/Honest | 0.52 | MÚSICA/Music | 0.55 |
ORGULLOSA/Proud | 0.47 | CULTURA/Culture | 0.67 | NUEVOS/New | 0.57 | CARIÑOSA/Affectionate | 0.44 | TEXAS/Texas | 0.50 |
IDIOMA/Language | 0.43 | ESPAÑOL/Spanish | 0.67 | DIFÍCIL/Difficult | 0.40 | DIVERSIÓN/Fun | 0.44 | PELÍCULAS/Movies | 0.46 |
APRECIO/Esteem | 0.39 | INGLÉS/English | 0.65 | MEJORAR/Improve | 0.39 | ORGANIZADA/Organized | 0.43 | VIAJAR/Travel | 0.41 |
PEQUEÑA/Little | 0.39 | MÉXICO/Mexico | 0.57 | CAMBIAR/Change | 0.38 | RESPONSABLE/Responsible | 0.42 | DISFRUTO/Enjoy | 0.40 |
HIJA/Daughter | 0.39 | HABLAR/Talk | 0.44 | PENA/Sorrow | 0.37 | TÍMIDA/Timid | 0.40 | LEER/Read | 0.40 |
CASA/Home | 0.38 | PENSAR/Think | 0.42 | ABIERTA/Open | 0.37 | AMIGABLE/Friendly | 0.38 | ESCUCHAR/Listen | 0.36 |
TRABAJAR/Work | 0.38 | SENTIR/Feel | 0.41 | BUENO/Good | 0.35 | CREATIVA/Creative | 0.31 | ESTUDIO/Studies | 0.32 |
UNIVERSIDAD/University | 0.38 | VIVIR/Live | 0.35 | FÁCIL/Easy | 0.33 | ALEGRE/Cheerful | 0.28 | BAILAR/Dance | 0.31 |
HERMANOS/Siblings | 0.38 | IDENTIFICO/Identify | 0.33 | ATENCIÓN/Attention | 0.32 | INTELIGENTE/Intelligent | 0.27 | IMPORTANTE/Important | 0.28 |
PASIÓN/Passion | 0.36 | MENTE/Mind | 0.32 | ENTENDER/Understand | 0.31 | SINCERA/Sincere | 0.27 | JUGAR/Play | 0.28 |
MADRE/Mother | 0.36 | PAÍSES/Countries | 0.28 | ESPECIAL/Special | 0.31 | LÍDER/Leader | 0.27 | ACTIVIDADES/Activities | 0.24 |
PADRES/Parents | 0.36 | RAÍCES/Roots | 0.26 | AMIGOS/Friends | 0.28 | CONFIABLE/Reliable | 0.27 | MUJER/Woman | 0.24 |
CORAZÓN/Heart | 0.35 | RESPETO/Respect | 0.24 | PLATICAR/Chat | 0.27 | TRABAJO/Work | 0.24 | LIBROS/Books | 0.23 |
CUMPLIR/Fulfill | 0.35 | AMOR/Love | −0.25 | LEAL/Loyal | 0.26 | SOCIABLE/Sociable | 0.24 | FAMILIA/Family | 0.22 |
ESCRIBIR/Write | 0.35 | NIÑOS/Children | −0.21 | NECESITO/Need | 0.24 | AMABLE/Kind | 0.22 | ESTUDIAR/Study | 0.21 |
META/Goal | 0.35 | PSICOLOGÍA/Psychology | 0.22 | HUMILDE/Humble | 0.22 | EJERCICIO/Exercise | 0.21 | ||
LOGRAR/Achieve | 0.34 | APRENDER/Learn | 0.21 | ENERGÍA/Energy | −0.27 | NOTICIAS/News | 0.21 | ||
DIOS/God | 0.34 | EMOCIONES/Emotions | −0.22 | PROBAR/Try | 0.21 | ||||
CARRERA/Career | 0.33 | ENCANTAN/I love it | 0.21 | ||||||
GRANDE/Big | 0.33 | CARÁCTER/Character | −0.24 | ||||||
PERFECCIONISTA/Perfectionist | 0.32 | ACTITUD/Attitude | −0.23 | ||||||
EXPERIENCIA/Experience | 0.32 | POSITIVA/Positive | −0.22 | ||||||
HERMANA/Sister | 0.30 | ||||||||
ESCUELA/School | 0.30 | ||||||||
RELACIONES/Relationships | 0.30 | ||||||||
EDUCACIÓN/Education | 0.29 | ||||||||
PÚBLICO/Public | 0.29 | ||||||||
ESTUDIANTE/Student | 0.28 | ||||||||
AYUDA/Help | 0.25 | ||||||||
REALIDAD/Reality | 0.22 |
One factor was unique to the bilinguals and was not comparable to the Mexican monolinguals from Ramírez-Esparza et al. (
Even though this paper uses an inductive-qualitative approach to extract and name self-schemas within the essays by language, a secondary goal of this investigation was to use a quantitative approach. This approach was used to better understand the degree to which self-schemas are language-specific (i.e., they are only relevant in that language) or interdependent (i.e., they are relevant in both languages). In order to achieve this goal we used the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count software (LIWC2015; Pennebaker et al., LIWC2015 program was used to quantify the percentage of words that belong to each factor that appear in a given essay. In order to do this, a dictionary was created where each word that belonged to a factor comprised a single LIWC2015 category. For example, the dictionary would include a category called College Experience and each word within the category (e.g., university, finish, job, school) would become part of this dictionary “College Experience.” This step was done for each of the resultant schema themes in both languages. Using these dictionaries and LIWC2015, we assessed the percentage of words used in each file that comprised each dimension. Specifically, the English dictionary was run on the English text files and the percentage of words used for each English dimension was assessed for each participant. Likewise, the Spanish dictionary was run on the Spanish text files and the percentage of words used for each Spanish dimension was assessed for each participant. Dictionaries were translated into the other language (i.e., the English dictionary into Spanish, and the Spanish dictionary into English). Then, the translated English dictionary was run on the Spanish text files, and the translated Spanish dictionary was run on the English text files. The purpose of running the translated English dictionary on the Spanish text files was to obtain the percentage of words used by bilinguals in Spanish for each of the English dimensions. Likewise, the purpose of running the translated Spanish dictionary on the English text files was to obtain the percentage of words used by bilinguals in English for each of the Spanish dimensions. In the English essays, the English dimensions (i.e., the percentages obtained from running the English dictionary on the English essays) were correlated with dimensions found in the Spanish essays (i.e., the percentages obtained from running the translated Spanish dictionary on the English text files). Likewise, in the Spanish essays, the Spanish dimensions (i.e., the percentages obtained from running the Spanish dictionary on the Spanish essays) were correlated with English dimensions (i.e., the percentages obtained from running the translated English dictionary on the Spanish sample). These analyses determined the degree to which dimensions were related across cultures. For example, it was expected that the factor Values from the English dimensions, would correlate highly with the translated factor Values of the Spanish dimensions in the English text files.
Table
Correlations between self-schemas and translated dimensions for both the English and Spanish text files.
College Experience | 0.04 | −0.07 | 0.26 | 0.12 | ||
Values | 0.12 | −0.12 | 0.15 | −0.12 | 0.01 | |
Bicultural Identity | 0.08 | −0.07 | ||||
Existentialism | 0.02 | −0.09 | 0.25 | 0.26 | 0.14 | |
Daily Difficulties | −0.01 | −0.08 | 0.02 | 0.04 | 0.18 | |
Sociability | −0.21 | −0.17 | −0.08 | −0.01 | 0.03 | |
College Experience | −0.14 | 0.01 | 0.20 | 0.13 | ||
Values | 0.28 | 0.12 | 0.08 | 0.05 | 0.15 | |
Bicultural Identity | 0.22 | −0.03 | −0.05 | |||
Existentialism | −0.08 | 0.05 | 0.27 | 0.16 | ||
Daily Difficulties | −0.09 | −0.07 | 0.14 | 0.01 | 0.10 | |
Sociability | −0.20 | 0.03 | −0.07 | −0.08 | 0.08 |
We expected that the factors Bicultural Identity and Values would correlate highly across languages for both the English and Spanish text files. This hypothesis was only partially supported. The Bicultural Identity in the English language mode correlated strongly with the translated Spanish Bicultural Identity dimension in the English text files. Likewise, Bicultural Identity in the Spanish language mode correlated strongly with the translated English Bicultural Identity dimension in the Spanish text files. However, the expected correlations between English Values and Spanish Values across text files were not found.
Language-specific dimensions for the Spanish language mode such as Relationships, Simpatía and Hobbies, were expected to have low correlations with most of the English language mode dimensions in the English text files. Similarly, language-specific for the English language mode, such as College Experience Existentialism, Daily Difficulties, and Sociability, were expected to have low correlations with most of the Spanish language mode dimensions in the Spanish text files. This was largely supported for both the English and Spanish text files; however, a few interesting correlations in both the English and Spanish text files emerged. The factor Relationships correlated strongly with College Experience in both the English and Spanish text files. This indicates that when bilinguals talk about their college experience in the English language mode, they also talk about their relationships. Likewise, when bilinguals talk about their relationships in the Spanish language mode they also talk about their college experience. The same pattern was found for Hobbies and Bicultural Identity in both the English and Spanish text files. This indicates that when bilinguals talk about their bicultural identity in the English language mode they also talk about their hobbies. Likewise, when bilinguals talk about their hobbies in the Spanish language mode they also talk about their bicultural identity.
One correlation emerged in the English text files that was not as strong in the Spanish text files. Specifically when bilinguals talked about their bicultural identity in the English language mode they also talked about their relationships. Additionally, one correlation emerged in the Spanish text files that was not as strong in the English text files. Specifically, Values in the Spanish language mode correlated significantly with Existentialism.
The quantitative approach allowed us quantify the degree that dimensions are independent (or language-specific) or interdependent (or relevant across languages). We can conclude that the factors are for the most part independent. This means that bilinguals self-defining process is influenced by the language mode. In other words, bilinguals change their self-schemas as they alternate between languages. We further discuss how bilinguals alternate their self-schemas to match the ones found in Mexicans and U.S. Americans in the discussion section. Finally, we expected that the dimension Values would be relevant in both languages; however, the quantitative analyses did not support this expectation. We discuss this finding further in the discussion section.
In this study we explored Mexican-American's self-schemas when describing their personality to an open-ended question in English vs. in Spanish. In order to accomplish this goal, we asked Mexican-American bilinguals to describe their personality in English and then in Spanish (counterbalanced). Then we relied on the Meaning Extraction Method (MEM) to extract the most salient and chronically activated self-schemas that comprise individuals' self-defining process. We expected that bilinguals will exhibit a “double personality” when describing their personality; language mode would prime individuals to shift their self-schemas to match the cultural values associated with that language (e.g., Ross et al.,
Our results demonstrated that in the English mode, the bilinguals' self-schemas were like the U.S. American monolinguals (i.e., College Experience, Values, Existentialism, Sociability) and in the Spanish mode their self-schemas were like the Mexican monolinguals (i.e., Relationships, Values, Simpatía, and Hobbies). Only two self-schemas in the English mode were not present in the U.S. American monolinguals (i.e., Daily Difficulties, and Bicultural Identity) and one self-schema in the Spanish mode was not present in the Mexican monolinguals (i.e., Bicultural Identity). Furthermore, the quantitative approach demonstrated that as expected, one factor was relevant across languages (Bicultural Identity), but one factor was unexpectedly not relevant across languages (Values). Furthermore, the quantitative approach demonstrated that other factors were language-specific for the English language mode (College Experience, Existentialism, Daily Difficulties, and Sociability) and language-specific for the Spanish language mode (Relationships, Simpatía and Hobbies).
We speculated that bilinguals in the English mode would show a more independent self-construal characterized by themes related to being sociable and achievement oriented (Markus and Kitayama,
Furthermore, the College Experience dimension presents a series of words that are overall oriented toward achievement (e.g.,
Finally, the Existentialism factor provides additional insights for an independent self. As Markus and Kitayama (
Conversely, we hypothesized that bilinguals in the Spanish mode would reflect a more interdependent self, by valuing social relationships and connection to others (Markus and Kitayama,
We expected that bilinguals would show differential patterns of emotional expression according to the language mode. Following Ramírez-Esparza et al. (
We expected that a Simpatía schema would emerge only when bilinguals describe their personality in the Spanish mode. Our MEM results confirmed this expectation. Importantly, the quantitative approach demonstrated that Simpatía was only relevant in the Spanish language, further supporting the idea that this dimension becomes only relevant when bilinguals are in the Spanish language mode.
The Simpatía dimension mirrored a well-established cultural-script of Mexicans and Latinos (Triandis et al.,
We also speculated in line with Ramírez-Esparza et al.'s (
Finally, we expected to find dimensions that will emerge both in the English and Spanish mode. This will be consistent with the idea that the bilinguals will be affected by norms, the environment, and institutions of the context they are immersed (Rentfrow et al.,
Although, bilinguals in the English and Spanish mode express their values as a salient dimension, there are some apparent differences depending on the language mode they were using. For example, in the English language mode, the factor Values seemed to reflect independence (in words such as
Example essay with high score in Values factor in English.
In contrast, the factor Values in the Spanish mode also seemed to reflect value for self-improvement (in words such as
Example essay with high score in Values factor in Spanish translated into English.
In summary, the Values factor in both languages talks about what is important for that particular person, but it is interesting that the expression of these values is driven by the nuances directed by either the independent or the interdependent self-construal. Furthermore, results can also be explained by both analytic and holistic thinking styles, which have been found to be related to independent and interdependent social orientations (Varnum et al.,
Finally, it is worth noting that both English and Spanish writing samples showed a factor related to one's show bicultural identity. However, biculturalism in English is more referred toward a student identity (e.g.,
Having a bicultural identity that is salient and integrated within one's experience has been operationalized as Bicultural Identity Integration construct (BII) (Benet-Martínez and Haritatos,
An important line of research that needs further exploration is the relationship of the themes explored here and other variables related to individual success such as psychological well-being, academic achievement and community engagement. As we outlined before, previous studies provide support for the idea that individuals that have incorporated their bicultural identity tend to feel better psychologically (e.g., Chen et al.,
Another line of research worth pursuing is to test if the noted differences in independent vs. interdependent self-construal can cause differences in thinking or cognitive styles. Previous evidence points out that social orientations (independent vs. interdependent) and cognitive styles (analytic vs. holistic) are distinct constructs that have a positive relationship (Grossmann and Na,
A final line of future research that is worth exploring has to do with complementing these findings with behavioral data. Our study shows that there are certainly differences regarding how bilinguals describe themselves according to language, but what about real life? How do bilinguals switch frames in real life situations? Previous studies have been applied successfully to gather behavioral data on Mexican and U.S. American participants; interesting comparisons have been made on how sociable members of this culture are, as opposed to how they behave in the real world (Ramírez-Esparza et al.,
Overall, these findings provide support for the claim that bilinguals do exhibit a “double personality”: distinct themes related to independence and interdependence can be found in bilingual Mexican-American individuals, which stem from equally salient self-schemas. When language primes occur, individuals shift to the cultural values more associated to the priming language. Using both a qualitative-inductive approach and a quantitative approach, this paper showed relevant self-schemas in English and in Spanish. The factors specific to English relate to college experience, daily difficulties and sociability, among others. Self-schemas specific to Spanish were relationships, hobbies and a desire to maintain harmony and be agreeable. Further exploration is needed to understand how these themes relate to well-being, academic achievement and behaviors happening in the real world. This study demonstrates the importance of asking bilinguals open-ended questions and using text analysis in the quest of understanding the bilingual experience more fully.
It is important to highlight that since in this investigation we collected data online, we were not able to control for the physical context where the bilinguals provided their self-descriptions. Therefore, we cannot tell if context influenced their thoughts and feelings. However, the fact that bilinguals switched their self-schemas to match the self-schemas of their two cultures (Mexico and the U.S.) indicates that language defeated the cultural context. Hence, language primed the emotions, beliefs, and values associated with that language. For example, it is likely that the bilinguals in the English mode thought about cultural contexts where this language is salient (perhaps at the university) as shown in the dimension College Experience. Likewise, bilinguals in the Spanish mode thought about cultural contexts where this language is salient (perhaps at their parent's home) as shown in the dimension Relationships. These findings suggest that culture and language are, in essence, inseparable (Chen et al.,
It is also worth mentioning that the self-construals referenced here might reflect the experience of being a member of the Hispanic minority group facing a mainstream U.S. American culture. In other words, these bilinguals define themselves also in relation to major macro-social divisions, which configure their world-view both toward independence and interdependence. Previous evidence supports this idea. Na et al. (
These findings can be extended into several new areas that would benefit not only bilingual individuals, but also the communities where they live in and a nation such as the United States, where Hispanics have driven around half of the population growth in recent years (Humes et al.,
Another major area of applicability is the clinical setting. As therapists and social workers understand how biculturalism induces a double personality experience, they can also feel more empathy toward the complexities of cognitions, emotions and behaviors that make up clients with two or more identities.
In essence, the findings outlined here provide another window to reach out to the experience of bilingual individuals, which in recent times have been the object of questioning and misunderstanding. This is crucial to counteract those voices that call upon building walls to separate, instead of bridges to communicate and bond.
This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of Institutional Review Boards from the University of Connecticut and Texas State University with written informed consent from all subjects. All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Boards from both universities.
GR and NR contributed with the research idea and data collection. NP contributed with data collection and RB contributed with data analysis.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.