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468 Journal of Career Development 37(1) changes in attitudes, values, beliefs, and norms, when individuals from one culture comes into contact with another culture with some scholars proposing that the changes are birectional (i.e., the individual and the host culture changes as a result of contact). Many of a client’s other cultural identities (sexual orientation, religion, social class) may be understood within this larger context of acculturation. For example, attitudes and values about sexual orientation may be tied to traditional Asian values about gender roles and the importance of family as traditionally defined. Indeed, research shows that more highly acculturated Asian Americans tend to have less conservative sexual attitudes (including attitudes toward homosexuality) than less acculturated Asian Americans (Leiblum, Wiegel, & Brickle, 2003; Meston, Trapnell, & Gorzalka, 1998). In addition, some religious identifications may also be closely intertwined with one’s ethnic identity (e.g., being Hindu and Indian, Shinto and Japanese, etc.). Early Ethnic Identity Model Over the last several decades, scholars have proposed a few models for describing ethnic identity development among Asian Americans. One of the earliest was proposed by Sue and Sue (1973) in their threefold typology model, which includes three types of ethnic identity: the Traditionalist, Marginal Man, and the Asian American. Traditionalists are those individuals who adhere strongly to their Asian values, where self-worth and values are tied to family honor and obedience to parents’ expectations, and they are raised to believe that racist obstacles can be overcome through behaviors like hard work and dedication. Marginal Man, as the name suggests, is one who lives between two worlds, the traditional Asian one and the dominant White one, and thus lives in an identity crisis trying to acculturate from one’s original cultural values to the westernized one. The Asian American is an individual who tries to formulate a new identity by negotiating the realities of traditional Asian culture and the White culture. Attempts are made to acquire qualities from both the cultures, preserving the traditional yet forming a new identity that has some aspects of the dominant. To which group an individual belongs comes about as a result of efforts to assimilate into the dominant culture and is viewed in terms of a process that involves personal striving for respect. If individuals conform to the traditional parental/family values, they belong to the Traditionalist category; if they decide to simultaneously rebel against traditional values and adopt the western values, they belong to the Marginal Man group; and if they decide to rebel against the traditional values but develop a new Asian American identity that consists of a compromise between the two worlds, they belong to the Asian American category. Acculturation Models Leong (1995) highlights the importance of investigating acculturation as a culture-specific moderating variable in predicting vocational behavior, patterns, and 468 Downloaded from http://jcd.sagepub.com at MICHIGAN STATE UNIV LIBRARIES on May 19, 2010
Leong et al. 469 outcomes among Asian Americans. Leong and Chou (1994) argued that ethnic identity and acculturation are highly related constructs for Asian Americans’ career patterns, and they proposed an integrated framework for combining racial/ethnic identity models and acculturation models. Various empirical studies highlight the importance of acculturation in understanding the vocational behavior of Asian Americans. Leong and Chou (1994) have used Berry’s (1980) model as the foundation to viewing racial and ethnic identity as a two-dimensional problem; namely, how do racial or ethnic minority group individuals view their own culture and how do they view their dominant host culture? Based on these two questions, four categories of racial/ethnic identity can be identified. Similar to the Asian American of Sue and Sue (1973), the Integrationists attempt to have the best of both cultures, thus valuing their own culture and that of the White culture. Parallel to the Marginal Man of Sue and Sue (1973), Assimilationists (Berry, 1980) adhere positively to White cultural norms and negatively to their own traditional Asian culture. Those individuals who view the host culture negatively and their own culture positively are Separationists (Berry, 1980), and this is similar to the Traditionalist category of Sue and Sue (1973). Lastly, Berry (1980) identifies an acculturation process outcome that is not recognized by other models, Marginalized, in which individuals view neither the host nor the traditional culture favorably. Leong and Chou (1994) went on to hypothesize specific career outcomes for Asian Americans, given their differential ethnic identity statuses. Individuals belonging to the Separationist group were most likely to experience occupational barriers and problems such as segregation, occupational stereotyping, and occupational discrimination, and thus as a consequence have lower levels of job satisfaction, upward mobility, and higher levels of job stress. However, those belonging to the Integrationist or Assimilationist categories were likely to be less susceptible to the above-mentioned occupational barriers and problems, as they are more likely to identify with their Eurocentric job organizations and personnel. The level of acculturation of the client and how both the client and counselor conceptualize biculturality will have important implications for career intervention. Identifying Asian Americans’ acculturation level will help identify how counselors conceptualize the client and how they implement culturally sound career interventions to provide effective and successful career outcomes. Leong and Tata (1990) examined the relation between 177 Chinese American children’s level of acculturation (using the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation scale [SL-ASIA]) and their work values (using the Ohio Work Values Inventory [OWVI]) at a Los Angeles inner city elementary school. The results of this study demonstrated that the most important values for these children were money and task satisfaction and of lower importance were constructs such as object orientation and solitude. There were also differences in work values based on gender. For instance, the Chinese boys valued object orientation, self-realization, and ideas data more than the girls, whereas the girls valued altruism more than the boys. Downloaded from http://jcd.sagepub.com at MICHIGAN STATE UNIV LIBRARIES on May 19, 2010 469
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