| People who are bicultural engage in a process called cultural frame switching. They shift between their two cultural frames in response to cues in the social environment (Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martinez, 2000). The purpose of the experiment was to examine how frame switching affects the locus of control of Americans and Nigerians. There were 144 participants recruited from African Student Organizations and psychology classes at Lamar University and the University of Texas at San Antonio. Participants were given the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal External Control Scale (Nowicki & Duke, 1974b) and received a Nigerian, American, or Control prime. A 3(nationality: White American, Black American, or Nigerian) x 3 (cultural priming: American prime, Nigerian prime, or control) factorial analysis of variance was used to determine if frame switching affected the locus of control of Americans and Nigerians. A significant main effect of nationality and an interaction between cultural prime and nationality were found. Overall, Nigerians had higher (more external) locus of control scores than Black Americans or White Americans. Furthermore, Nigerian participants who received Nigerian prime had significantly higher (more external) locus of control scores than Nigerians who received the control or American prime. |
