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Acculturation, Ethnic Identity, And Coping, Ute Schönpflug

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Ethnic identity is understood as a dynamic state, that is determined by three components: (1) by the degree of inclusion in the group of one's cultural origin; (2) the tendency to assimilate to the ethnic group of origin; and (3) the complementary tendency to differentiate from one's own ethnic group. In the same degree as the inclusion intensifies, the tendency to assimilate decreases and the tendency to differentiate increases and vice versa. A state of balance of the two complementary tendencies to assimilate and to differentiate is assumed to exist at an intermediate degree of inclusion (Brewer, 1992). The model …