Cultural Identity: "How Long is Our Vacation Here?"

Imagine being a five-year-old little girl moving to a new country but thinking you are there for vacation? My mom told me the story of a little five-year-old me at 3am after the first week of being in America – still jet lagged due to the 12 hour time difference – and asking my parents “how long is our vacation here?” As a first-generation immigrant child, it came with many struggles growing up. Having grown up in South Jersey, I was not exposed to many Filipinos, but rather grew up with a more White-dominant culture. Radical behaviorism, as explained by Burrhus Frederic Skinner, is external influences that play into one’s behavior. Thankfully, I spoke English in addition to speaking our Bisaya dialect, so language was never an issue, but cultural identity was something that I struggled with then and continue to struggle with today. My parents never forced my Filipino culture over American (or what we called westernized) culture and vice versa, but it created this internal battle of feeling like I do not fully belong in either culture. 

Radical behaviorism allowed me to be resilient in adapting to American culture especially since I have spent 16 years of my life in New Jersey. My behavior caters to American culture and socially, I feel accepted. Something that has helped is showing how proud I am to be Filipino and sharing my culture with those around me; luckily, people have accepted and embraced my culture. Having grown up with a positive environment and community in my town allows me to feel included and be able to participate in many of the same activities as my peers of other cultures while also being able to share my culture with them.

I believe that my experience helps give a different perspective of radical behaviorism of how my environmental influences (parents and community) helped me better adapt to American culture. Overall, I think my journey gives an insight that changing for a new culture does not mean I have to let go of my culture, but rather gives me a reminder to embrace it even more. Because of this, I am able to embrace being both Filipino and American. 

Chapter 1, pg. 30-32 (lecture 2) 

Powell, R. A., Honey, P. L., & Symbaluk, D. G. (2017). Introduction to Learning and Behavior (5th ed.). Cengage Learning.