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Journals name baner

No. 1(22) (2025)

Artykuły

Cultural identity and the process of forming a bicultural identity. Studies on immigrants and the case of bature in Nigeria

Published: 2025-06-30

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the author’s theory of cultural identity, its bicultural extension, and its research applications in the field of acculturation psychology.

Numerous identity concepts are organized into a three-tiered taxonomy in the introductory section. It starts with the classic bifurcation between individual and collective, of which the latter is further divided into social and cultural, as two distinct versions. Cultural identity can finally take a single, bi, or multicultural shape.

Attempts to incorporate social identity theory into acculturation research have been criticized as inadequate. Cultural identity is based on three content layers that comprise the content of objective and subjective culture: symbolism, language, and axiology. They characterize first or secondary culture acquisition equally, but the levels of achieved competencies and affective cathexes are rarely balanced.

Cultural identity in each of the three layers is a relational concept, meaning it is a product of competence and cathexis. The theoretical and measurement frameworks are precisely presented and illustrated by the results of recent studies, which suggest the partiality of bicultural identity, broken down into components related to the country of settlement and origin.

Using the conceptual framework outlined earlier, the final part of the paper is a showcase of the author’s acculturation experience in Nigeria. It is cast against two triads of cultural dimensions, largely differentiating West Africa and Poland within the European Union: traditionalism and task orientation. Cultural distance on both hinders and even prevents the formation of a balanced bicultural identity.

For a person of a European descent, even a longer stay in Africa remains a challenge, an exotic experience, and a mission, where the civilizational gap impedes the acceptance of life principles that contradict European heritage and modernity.

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