The Cultural Internalization Scale: Assessing internal and external reasons for endorsing one’s cultural identity

The constructs of ‘culture’ and ‘cultural identity’ have long been recognized by researchers as important, but traditionally have been treated as static properties rather than in terms of their degree and quality of internalization. Adopting the more dynamic view of internalization proposed by Vygotsky and by self-determination theory (SDT), two studies tested the measurement properties of the Cultural Internalization Scale (CIS), which assesses internal versus external reasons for endorsing one’s ambient culture. In a U.S. sample, Study 1 (N = 149) provided evidence for the reliability, factor structure, and predictive validity of the scale. Study 2 replicated these results in a second U.S. sample (N = 205) and in a sample from China (N = 245). In addition, Study 2 demonstrated that greater internalization of one’s ambient culture was associated with satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Discussion focuses on the potential applications of the CIS in research on socialization, the cultural adjustment of immigrants and sojourners, and implications for students in higher education settings.