Prof. Benet-Martinez's research broadly examines the interplay of culture, identity, and personality, and her talk is entitled  "(MULTI) CULTURAL MINDS AND SELVES: Socio-Cognitive, Cultural, and Personality Processes" (see abstract below).

Migration, globalization, media exposure, and the speed and ease of international travel and communication have made intercultural contact and multicultural experiences an everyday phenomenon; it has also led to unprecedented numbers of individuals who identify with more than one culture. What are the psychological consequences of these acculturative and identity processes? Using a framework that integrates socio-cognitive, cultural, personality psychological approaches, and relies on laboratory experiments, survey and social network methodologies, this presentation will review a program of research conducted to examine the following questions pertaining to the multicultural mind (i.e., cognition) and the multicultural self (identity): how do multicultural individuals respond to differing cultural situational cues and demands? can different --and sometimes conflictual-- cultural identities can be integrated into a cohesive sense of self? how do multicultural individuals maintain competing loyalties between different cultural groups? and are there unique social, cognitive and adjustment outcomes linked to having multicultural experiences and identities? This research, which is conducted with multicultural samples varying in culture/ethnicity, age, and generational status and enclave, reveals that: (1) Multicultural individuals navigate their different cultural worlds by engaging in a process called cultural frame-switching (CFS), and CFS effects exist for a wide range of behaviors (e.g., attributions, personality, ethnic identity, emotion, self-construals, values, among others); (2) multicultural individuals vary in their perceptions of how well their cultural identities and belongings can be harmonized and blended (i.e., degree of Bicultural Identity Integration); (3) differences in BII are linked to specific personality, social, cognitive, and adjustment variables and to different types of social networks; and (4) biculturalism (relative to other acculturation strategies) is positively linked to psychological and socio-cultural adjustment.