Ethnic Ambiguity vs. Racial Ambiguity: The Chameleon Experience of Multiethnic Individuals

Ethnic Ambiguity vs. Racial Ambiguity: The Chameleon Experience of Multiethnic Individuals Poster Presentation by Jennifer Wu, M.A. at the Annual Ph.D. Poster Session at California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, San Francisco May 8, 2017 For a PDF version of my poster presentation, please click on the following link to download the file:

Participants’ Definitions of Racial Ambiguity

“I think it means that when someone looks at you, they can’t automatically…tell what you are by your physical appearance…?” “I think racial ambiguity is when you don’t fit neatly into the categories that people grew up like internalizing because race is a construct, it’s not real, but we’ve made up these categories. And when

Participants’ Definitions of Ethnic Ambiguity

“Similar I guess to racial ambiguity but with race, it’s more clear that there’s only a handful of races versus ethnicities, you can be lots of different things.” “It’s a little bit special to the U.S. I don’t think a lot of other countries would have the same immigrant culture. I’ve seen a tradition of

Researcher’s Definitions of Ethnic Ambiguity and Racial Ambiguity

Ethnic Ambiguity: Uncertainty or inexactness of one’s ethnicity/ethnicities or ethnic background/identity Based more on cultural factors Racial Ambiguity: Uncertainty or inexactness of one’s race/races or racial background/identity Based more on physical appearance and phenotype

Results: Answers about Ethnic Ambiguity from Background Questionnaire

Have you ever been asked, “What are you?” 100% Have you ever been asked, “What race/ethnicity are you?” or “What is your racial/ethnic background?”  100% Have you ever been asked, “Where are you from?” 100% Have you ever been asked, “No, where are you really from?” 87.5% Have you ever been asked, “Where are your

Results: Participant Ethnic Identities

Participant Ethnic Identities *Participant Ethnic Identity Races Ethnicities/Ethnic Background Mina Biethnic Arab/Middle Eastern/Middle Eastern American; European/European American/Caucasian/White Persian/Iranian-American Gabriella Biethnic Latino/Hispanic/Latino or Hispanic American Mexican and Colombian Chris   Biracial European/European American/Caucasian/White; Latino/Hispanic/Latino or Hispanic American; Native American/American Indian Mexican and White Jessica Biracial Asian/Asian American; European/European American/Caucasian/White East Indian and American of German Descent

Results: Participant Demographics

Participant Demographics *Participant Gender Sexual Orientation Age  Education Mina Female Straight/Heterosexual 26 Master’s Degree Gabriella Female Bisexual 21 Bachelor’s Degree Chris Male Straight/Heterosexual 34 Master’s Degree Jessica Female Straight/Heterosexual 42 Bachelor’s Degree Alejandro Male Gay 28 Bachelor’s Degree Enrique Male Gay 29 Master’s Degree Alexis Female Straight/Heterosexual 27 Master’s Degree Bethany Female Straight/Heterosexual 28 Bachelor’s

Update: Completion of First Ethnic Ambiguity Research Study – Thank You!

Thank You A special thank you to the participants who volunteered their time and shared their personal experiences and perceptions of ethnic ambiguity related to their multiethnic identities with me – this research would not have been possible without them! Also, a special thank you to my former research advisor Dr. Natalie Porter for assisting