| The purpose of this study was to explore why some people with multiple cultures might turn into cultural chameleons to fit in or to adjust to a different culture. I explored my cultural experiences compared to the academic literature on disability, gender, and ethnicity. The study included qualitative analytic autoethnography inquiry, the Labovian life story interview, and photovoice, and the intersectionality, multiple cultural identities, and social categorization theories as combined framework. The study was an approach to illustrate my personal perspective and to provide a process to document my findings. The findings revealed 14 themes from the data and analysis of the Labovian life story, photovoice, complete-member researcher, and the commitment to theoretical analysis using NVivo10 software. Some of the findings revealed were burnout, doubt, trapped, vulnerable, boxed, betrayed, deceived, invisible, resist, and voiceless. The findings made significant contributions to the literature and revealed that mixing behaviors might develop based on the motives of contingency created by cognitive ambiguity across the powers of cultural difference. It also added to the growing literatures of cultural chameleon behavior, intersectionality, multicultural identities, disability, gender, ethnicity, and racial and ethnic minority as whole groups. I shared my cultural experiences, hoping readers could understand the reasons some people with multiple cultures might turn into cultural chameleons to fit in or to adjust to a different culture. |
