Unveiling the Socioculturally Constructed Multivoiced Self: Themes of Self Construction and Self Integration in the Narratives of Second-Generation Korean American Adults (review)

In Unveiling the Socioculturally Constructed Multivoiced Self, S. Steve Kang attempts to provide a glimpse into the experiences of second-generation Korean Americans. Kang's book is among a growing number of explorations into the lives of second-generation Asian Americans. What makes this book unique is Kang's focus on Christianity and the church's impact on identity formation.

Using a sample of Korean Americans from the Chicago and Midwest area, Kang set out to research two questions that frame the book. First, Kang wanted to examine the internalized voices, authorities, and values among young adults, and to consider how these voices manifested in their lives. Second, he wanted to understand the role of the church for this sample. Overall, Kang found family, autonomy, relationships, community, and ethnicity and assimilation, to be salient themes and internalized values for those he interviewed. Furthermore, the Korean American church and Korean American culture were highly valued. And finally, Kang was able to identify eleven "voices" that contributed to the construction of self—those of mutual support and acceptance, absence and enmeshment, television, comparison, mediocrity and inadequacy, assimilation, womanhood, American dreams, obligation and filial piety, companionship, and spiritual longing. Kang sensitively used participants' narratives to illustrate the impact of each voice and theme. Hearing each of these distinct voices was one of the strongest elements of the book, as they helped to bring alive the themes present in this sample's lives. In general, I found many points in Kang's text that were interesting to me as an Asian Americanist and psychologist. The interviewees' narratives supported many psychological conceptualizations of Asian American values and worldviews such as collectivism, filial piety, spirituality, and deference to authority. While perhaps of especial interest to me as a therapist whose clients have spoken of similar challenges and conflicts in growing up Korean American as those offered in this book, the book also attempts to make itself accessible to a wide audience. Woven into the first half of the book are brief glosses of Asian American history and discussions of salient issues such as the model minority image. Such overviews will provide adequate contextualization of concepts introduced later in the book for readers who unfamiliar with Asian American history or culture. Although strong in this way and others, a few critical issues make it nonetheless too often difficult to understand or be persuaded by Kang's findings.

First, there is a distinct and ultimately frustrating inconsistency in the use of psychological constructs in this volume. I have found that when non-psychologists use psychological concepts and constructs in Asian American studies, the theories and concepts used to frame findings are not consonant with the contemporary science of psychology, especially among psychologists focusing on multicultural constructs. This seems to be the case here. For instance, Kang critiques racial identity development models as inadequate and unuseful in explaining the experiences of Asian Americans. And thus, Kang opts for Kitano and Daniel's typology model that uses an axis of ethnic identity and an axis of assimilation to create four quadrants in which people are placed. But, the problem with privileging this typology is that (a) racial identity models are better able to explain intra-group experiences and variations than typologies can; (b) there is research evidence from twenty years of empirical, qualitative and quantitative research to support the reliability and validity of racial identity models; and, (c) no contemporary research on Asian Americans uses Kitano and Daniel's typology. Additionally, the psychological research Kang does cite to support aspects of his theory date to the 1970s and 1980s, with few current empirical studies noted.

I would also want to correct Kang's use of a psychological construct of enmeshment to describe the familial lives of Korean Americans. Enmeshment is a psychodynamic concept that privileges individuality, autonomy...