Jean Phinney's Model of Ethnic Identity Development

Biography:

• Professor of psychology at California State University
• Focus: development, research, and ethnic issues
• Research Interest:
• ethnic minority development in adolescent and young adults
• identity formation
• Education:
• B.A., Foreign Languae (Wellesley College)
• Ph. D., Psychology (University of California)

Jean Phinney's Model

of

Ethnic Identity Development

Ethnic Identity:

• piece of ones over all identity
• varies importance across individuals

Internal Factors of Ethnic Identity:

• Three dimensions:
• Cognitive
• self-image, image of group one belongs to, knowledge of ethnic group (heratiage and values)
• Moral
• obligation to ethnic groups
• commitment to collectivist values
• Affective Dimensions
• individual's feeling/attachment to ethnic group

Simplified Identifications:

External Factors of Ethnic Identity

Recognition and preference is given to a multi-inclusive

construct of a definition that includes:

• commitment to ethnic group (s)
• degree/level of exploration of one's ethnic group (s)
• psychological connections towards one's own group(s)

• Panethnic Labels:
• Asian, Hispanic, Latino
• Ethnic Heritage Labels:
• Chinese, Mexican, African
• Bicultural Labeling:
• Asian-American, Mexican American

Ethnic Identity has been evaluated

and can be defined in a simplistic or complex and conceptualized definition....

Umaña-Taylor A.J. (2011)

Kiang, L., Perreira, K. M., & Fuligni, A. J. (2011).

• recognizable social and cultural behaviors
• language
• media
• traditions
• friendship with other ethnic groups
• involvement with ethnic group activities

Factors To Understand Ethnic Identity:

Internal & External

Ethnic Identity is the culture, religion, geography, language, and practice shared by individuals connected by loyalty and kinship

Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, & Renn, 2010, p 272

By: José Perez

COUN 2722

Thoughts and Future Direction

Didn't expect to have learned so many examples about myself through this. Here's how I applied the theory to myself

References:

• Evans, N. J., Forney, D. S., Guido, F., Patton, L.D., & Renn, K.A. (2010). Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice. (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Kiang, L., Perreira, K. M., & Fuligni, A. J. (2011). Ethnic Label Use in Adolescents from Traditional and Non-Traditional Immigrant Communities. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40(6), 719–729.
• Umaña-Taylor A.J. (2011) Ethnic Identity. In: Schwartz S., Luyckx K., Vignoles V. (eds) Handbook of Identity Theory and Research. Springer, New York, NY p791-801
• Yip, T. (2014). Ethnic Identity in Everyday Life: The Influence of Identity Development Status. Child Development, 85(1), 205–219.
• Patton, L. D., Renn, K. A., Guido-DiBrito, F., & Quaye, S. J. (2016). Student development in college: theory, research, and practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Brand.

Stage 2: High school/college

High School:

• Experience: playing tennis match and falling. Friend calls out "brown man down"
• Being asked "Do you have a green card"
• Feeling: shame of self, desire to be invisible
• Desire to fit into the dominant culture (look more like them)

College: Creating a Latino Student Alliance

• College celebrating Latino Culture
• Villamaria
• https://www.maryvillecollege.edu/about/community-education/villamar%C3%ADa/)

*explored ethnic identity - age 16-22

Continues to explore

Stage 3:

• Labeling myself as Mexican American
• Choosing to carry on certain traditions of my Mexican culture
• music
• art
• collectivist values
• langauge
• Acculturating to American systems
• lots of "code switching"

Stage 1:

• grew up in a Mexican home and up until high school didn't question my culture,race, skin tone
• Machismo (expectations of men)
• Spanish
• collective values
• Accepted that I was mexican and didn't think anything of it

Future Direction:

Helpful to explore and build on other variables:

• Gender Identity
• Influence of socio-economic status
• Lack of exploration on White ethnic identity: how students who don't have a clear lineage can affect them psychologically
• are the benefiting or not from a less focus on an ethnic exploration

Phinney's Model....

Stage Two:

Ethnic Identity Search/

Moratorium

Limitation to Phinney's Model

Stage Three:

Ethnic Identity Achievement

Stage 1:

Unexamined Ethnic Identity

• acceptance
• internalization
• acceptance of one's own ethnic group
• gains a wider view of other's cultures
• more confident/ accepting and open perspective

• Age range is focused to adolescent/young adults
• did not accommodate for other variable:
• Socio-economic status
• gender
• Model seems to lack indepth description of:
• self-reflection process
• specific transitional factors that moves an individual through stages
• very broad

• Has not explored identity
• initially accepts values/attitudes of major cultures (parents or dominant cultures)
• Marcia's diffusion stage
• Marcia's foreclosure stage

• period of exploration
• *Experiences a moment/situation that causes an interest in exploring their ethnic identity*
• can be any experience
• racism, stereotypes, cultural customs, cultural events/holidays
• makes the individual think deeper of their own identity and others
• Moratorium from Marcia's Model

Emotion: happier demeanor

Emotion: anger, embarrassment

guilt

Erikson's and Marcia's Work:

• Identity developed in adolescents to young adults
• Stages range from low to high levels of identity exploration and commitment
• Diffused:
• neither explored or committed to identity
• Foreclosed
• committing to an identity but not fully exploring it
• Moratorium
• explored fully an identity but committing to it
• Achieved Identity
• intensive exploration and committed to making identity important to oneself

Yip, T. (2014)

Building To Phinney's Theory of Ethnic Identity Development

Limitations of Erikson and Marcia

• Erikson: did not review culture or ethnicity
• Marcia: social identities were not reviewed