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Important life transitions - such as migration - have the potential to enrich one's sense of self, but they are also demanding and challenging. The current research investigates how cultural identities change and become configured over time among newly arrived international students and the social factors that predict these longitudinal changes. A four-wave longitudinal study was conducted during international students' first year in their new country (N = 278). Multivariate hierarchical linear modeling analyses allowed us to unpack both baseline (between-person) and intraindividual change (within-person) effects. Whereas increased psychological need satisfaction via both the new and one's heritage cultural group predicted increased identity integration, greater discrimination (i.e., both at baseline and an increase over time) predicted increased compartmentalization and the predominance (categorization) of one identity over the others. Results are discussed in light of novel theoretical developments in the acculturation and identity change literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the role of linguistic variables (fluency in both official languages, passing in both official languages and University affiliation) and identity variables (centrality and satisfaction towards the new cultural group) in the acquisition of a new cultural identity among international students in Canada. Two hundred and fifty four international students were recruited from universities in the Montréal region. Self-reported questionnaires were used to assess which new identity international students are in the process of taking on, their linguistic abilities, their university affiliation and in-group identification. The results demonstrate that international students who were fluent in French, could pass for a bilingual or a Francophone, and who attended a primarily French-speaking University mostly took on the Québécois identity as their new cultural identity. International students who were fluent in English, could pass for an Anglophone or neither pass for an Anglophone nor a Francophone, and attended a primarily English-speaking University took on either the Montréalais or the Canadian identity. International students who took on the Montréalais identity reported higher satisfaction towards their new cultural group compared to those who took on the Québécois or Canadian identities. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bringing together self-determination theory, intergroup theories based on the social identity approach, and normative approaches, three studies conducted among hockey fans tested if social norms and social identity predict greater self-determined motivation to engage in derogatory behaviours against an outgroup team and higher frequency of these behaviours. Higher self-determination was conceptualised as an indicator of internalisation. In Study 1, hockey fans who identified more strongly as fans of the Montreal Canadiens (N = 181) displayed a stronger positive association between the perceived norm in favour of outgroup derogation and self-determined motivation to engage in derogatory behaviours against fans of an outgroup team. This interaction also emerged on the frequency with which the derogatory behaviours were enacted. In Studies 2 and 3 (Ns = 105 and 116), this norm by social identity interaction was replicated on both the self-determination and the frequency outcomes for fans of a diversity of teams in the National Hockey League. In Study 3, these findings were observed over and above a manipulation that framed derogatory behaviours as being either harmful or beneficial. Results are discussed in light of motivational theories, normative approaches, and intergroup theories based on the social identity approach. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social identity is a key social psychological variable to understand intergroup behaviours. Over and above the different dimensions of social identity (e.g., quality or degree of identification), recent research has looked at different forms of social identity, such as the clarity of one's collective identity, the self-determined motivations underlying one's identification, and the contingencies attached to social identification. These forms of social identification reveal how and why group members are attached to their social group. The current research aims to directly test how these three forms of social identification regroup together and predict different individual and intergroup outcomes. Findings from three studies conducted in Québec ( Ns = 119, 91) and Australia ( N = 136) confirmed that the more comparative and competitive forms of social identification (i.e., non-self-determination to identify, collective self-esteem contingency) tend to predict nationalism and ingroup bias. In contrast, the forms of social identity that capture the inherent satisfaction of being part of the group and the cognitive clarity of this group membership (i.e., self-determined motivation to identity, clarity of collective identity) predict outcomes pertaining to patriotism, personal self-esteem, and positive emotions. Results are interpreted in light of social identity theory and social psychological models of the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews key elements of the model of multilingual communication (MMC) (Sachdev and Bourhis 2001, 2005) as they pertain to the case of the “two solitudes” in the province of Quebec: the Francophone majority and the Anglophone minority. The first part of the article provides an intergroup analysis of how language laws in Quebec succeeded in changing the respective ethnolinguistic vitality of the Francophone majority and the Anglophone minority in the province. Along with the MMC, communication accommodation theory is used to review the intergroup, normative, and social psychological determinants of bilingual switching behaviors, as well as specific social psychological studies of bilingual communication conducted in Quebec. The second part of the article describes empirical field studies of language accommodation in Montreal conducted in 1977, 1979, and 1991 (Bourhis 1984b; Moïse and Bourhis 1994). As a follow-up to our earlier studies, the goal of the 1997 experiment (N = 482) was to monitor the language strategies adopted by pedestrians who were randomly accosted by a white or black female confederate who voiced a plea for directions in either English or French. Results of the 1997 study showed that both Francophone and Anglophone pedestrians overwhelmingly converged to the linguistic needs of the white and black confederate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]