Strategies for Negotiating Race in Diverse Contexts

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

Influences on Music Preference Formation

Music preference is a multifaceted topic that addresses questions which continuously elude musicologists, music researchers and social psychologists. How does something so pervasive in our lives, such as music, remain a mystery to us? Music preference has been studied on many levels and the factors that influence the types of music we prefer are numerous, including genres, exposure, personality, and musical characteristics. However, our understanding of how and why music preferences are formed is still fragmented. We can narrow down music preferences into two broad categories: intrinsic and extrinsic qualities. In attempt to explore these characteristics, three commonly emerging theories concerning musical preference formation will serve as the foundation: repeated exposure, social learning, and inherent musical qualities. The current paper aims to draw on these theories in relation to the development and reasoning behind our musical preferences

Aggressive confrontation shapes perceptions and attitudes toward racist content online

With more people using social media on a daily basis and the prevalence of racial discrimination online, it becomes imperative to understand what factors impact minority individuals’ perceptions of these transgressions in an online context. Confrontation to discrimination in the form of comments on social media may meaningfully shape perceptions of racism online. Across three studies, we examine how confrontation type (aggressive vs. passive) and confronter group membership (ingroup vs. outgroup) influence Asian Americans’ perceptions of online prejudice and attitudes towards the confronters. In Study 1, we find that aggressive confrontations alter perceptions of a racist online post to be more offensive as compared to passive confrontations. In Study 2, these findings extend to participants’ likelihood to report the content as offensive. Lastly, in Study 3, we find that aggressive confronters are evaluated more positively than passive confronters. These findings have important implications for understanding racial discrimination in an online context by demonstrating the impact of confrontation type on minority individuals’ perceptions and behaviors

Multiracial Identity in Hawaii: How Social Context Influences Well-Being and Interpersonal Relations

M.A. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2015.Includes bibliographical references.As our society’s multiracial population grows researchers seek to understand how multiracial individuals conceptualize their identity and how their conceptualization may differ from that of monoracial individuals. While there are many theories describing racial identity development for those with multiple racial backgrounds, there is inconsistency in the factors associated with a positive identity for these individuals, perhaps due to the fluidity inherent in multiracial identity. Much of the literature on multiracial identity development attempts to fit these individuals into our current models of racial identity, which typically only include monoracial identities as identity possibilities. Reframing identity conceptualization as including a “multiracial” category versus attempting to fit multiracials into multiple racial categories may broaden our understanding of how multiracial individuals develop their identity. Investigating multiracial identity in Hawaii, a location where those who identify with more than one race are in the numerical majority, may provide some insight into potential benefits multiracial individuals garner from an environment where a “multiracial” category is salient. The present studies aim to explore how multiracial individuals in Hawaii conceptualize their identity, how this relates to their psychological well-being, and how making “multiracial” a salient category, through self-identification contexts, impacts well-being and sense of belonging. I found that environment (Hawaii vs. New Jersey) and racial composition played an important role in how multiracials navigated their identity, experienced discrimination, and their well-being. Additionally, I found that being forced to choose a monoracial identity led to greater depressive symptoms for multiracial individuals. Implications for how various contexts influence multiracial identity and their inter/intra-group outcomes will be discussed