The Role of Dialectical Self and Bicultural Identity Integration in Psychological Adjustment

Objective We applied the concept of naive dialecticism (Peng & Nisbett, ), which characterizes East Asians greater tendency to encompass contradictory, ever-changing, and interrelated features of an entity, to bicultural contexts and examined its effects on psychological well-being across various acculturating groups. Method We administered questionnaire measures of the dialectical self, bicultural identity integration (BII; Benet-Martinez & Haritatos, 2005), and well-being to Hong Kong Chinese (N=213) in Study 1 and Mainland Chinese (N=239) in Study 2. In Study 3, a 4-week longitudinal study was conducted among Hong Kong Chinese (N=173) to test the relationships of these variables over time. We then extended similar measures to new immigrants from Mainland China (N=67) in Study 4 and Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong (N=153) in Study 5. Results Five studies converged to show that psychological adjustment was positively related to BII, but negatively related to the dialectical self. In Studies 13, dialecticism mediated the effect of BII on psychological adjustment among Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese bicultural individuals. Conclusions Our findings reveal the deleterious effects of tolerance for contradiction on well-being and differentiate biculturalism patterns of immigration-based and globalization-based acculturation.