Shima Sadaghiyani
BA ’19, Psychology
Culture is often considered in psychology as a monolithic construct, but that does not accurately represent the ways multicultural individuals experience their cultural identities. Multicultural individuals, as I define them for this project, include biracial individuals, migrants, and those holding hyphenated identities (i.e. Muslim-Americans). Beyond a simple measurement of the degree to which one identifies with each cultural group, we are interested in the relationship between these multiple identities. In this project, we seek to shed light on some factors that might contribute to an individual’s sense of Bicultural Identity Integration. Photovoice methodology (https://photovoice.org/) will allow us to achieve our research goals while putting power into the hands of the participants. After our participants have taken their photographs and created captions, we will have them engage in debriefing focus groups where they will have a chance to discuss their photographs. The photographs, captions, and the focus group discussions will be coded to identify common themes that may arise for participants, answering our research questions. These photos will be displayed in the form of an exhibit to help educate the public, and based on the findings and the directives of the community group, we will write a report for policy makers, university officials, or some other institution of power, informing them of our results and encouraging social change in a way that our participants suggest.
Library Mentor: Rebecca Price