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Commentary: The Role of Feeling in Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Ethnic Identities

University of Cambridge, UK, hwm21{at}cam.ac.uk

The flexibility and shifting nature of ethnic identities that we witness in everyday life does not necessarily mean that identity is eternally fluid and contextual. Ethnic identity is better characterized by pragmatic flexibility that obscures an underlying self-identification that may or may not be consistent with this surface multiplicity. Studies such as Malhi, Boon, and Rogers' (2009) compel us to acknowledge that the shifting and hybridity we could witness interpersonally is not necessarily synonymous with what the individual may feel intrapersonally. Instead, there appears to be a deeper level of identification that cannot always be freely manifested due to various internal and external constraints. What mediates the process of internalization of ethnic identities and their altered externalization in the interpersonal world is feeling.

Key Words: ethnic identity • externalization • feeling • identity • internalization • interpersonal • intrapersonal • multiplicity

Culture & Psychology, Vol. 15, No. 2, 284-292 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1354067X09102895


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