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Richard Y. Bourhis

Richard Y. Bourhis

My research program integrates the following three themes.

(1) The Interactive Acculturation Model proposes that integration policies adopted by governments at the national and local levels can both reflect and influence the acculturation orientations adopted by host majority and immigrant communities in multiethnic societies. Relational outcomes can be harmonious, problematic or conflictual depending on the concordant/discordant acculturation orientations endorsed by dominant host majority members and immigrant communities. Welcoming host majority acculturation orientations towards immigrants are integrationism, integration-transformation and individualistim, while less welcoming ones are assimilationism, segregationism and exclusionism. Immigrant acculturation orientations are integration,individualism, assimilation, separation and marginalisation. Studies using the host and immigrant acculturation scales in Canada, U.S. and Europe show that acculturation orientations endorsed by host majorities and immigrant minorities have distinct psychological profiles, contrasting political affiliations and individual networks of ethnic contacts.

(2) Using the minimal group paradigm we explore the parity and discriminatory behaviors of group members whose sociostructural position varies as dominant/subordinate, high/low status and rich/poor groups within illegitimate/unstable intergroup structures. Social identity theory, equity theory, interdependence and self-interest are examined as competing/complementary explanations of the minimal group discrimination effects. Recent studies show that the parity and discriminatory behaviors of rich and poor group members depend on experimental wealth stratification based on group chance vs group merit vs individual merit legitimizations ideologies.

(3) Research dealing with cross-cultural communication is guided mainly by Communication Accommodation Theory. Studies explore the role of ingroup identification, subjective vitality perceptions, personal goals to improve group vitality and linguicism as factors related to language attitudes, bilingual language use and acculturation orientations in multilingual settings. Recent studies explored the impact of state language policies and type of single vs dual linguistic/cultural identification on the bilingual language use of minority/majority language groups in Canada and Spain.

I am a fellow of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, the Canadian Psychological Association, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. I received the Robert C. Gardner Award for outstanding Research in bilingualism from the International Association of Language and Social Psychology, and was finalist for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation award of excellence in anti-racism in Canada. I also served as director of the Concordia-UQAM Chair in Ethnic Studies from 1996 to 2006 and was director of the Centre des etudes ethniques des universites montrealaises (CEETUM) at the Universite de Montreal from 2006 to 2009. In 2010 I was awarded a doctorate "honoris causa" at Université de Lorraine in France, and in 2012 I was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Primary Interests:

  • Communication, Language
  • Culture and Ethnicity
  • Group Processes
  • Intergroup Relations
  • Prejudice and Stereotyping
  • Self and Identity

Research Group or Laboratory:

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Books:

Journal Articles:

Other Publications:

  • Bourhis, R. Y., Dayan, J., & Sioufi, R. (2013). Political identification and acculturation orientations towards valued and devalued minorities in Israel. In: E. Tartakovsky (Ed.). Immigration: policies, challenges and impacts. Hauppauge, NewYork: Nova Science Publishers. (pp 115-140).
  • Bourhis, R. Y., El-Geledi, S., & Sachdev, I. (2007). Language, ethnicity and intergroup relations. In A. Weatherall, B. Watson & C. Galois (Eds.), Language, discourse and social psychology (pp. 15-50). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bourhis, R. Y., & Harvey, S. P. (2010). Intergroup allocation bias. In J. M. Levine & M. A. Hogg (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations (Vol. 1, pp. 445-448). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Bourhis, R. Y. & Montreuil, A. (2017). Acculturation, Vitality, and Bilingual Healthcare. In S.J. Schwartz and J. Unger (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Acculturation and Health. (in press).
  • Bourhis, R. Y., Sioufi, R., & Sachdev, I. (2012). Ethnolinguistic interaction and multilingual communication. In H. Giles (Ed.), The Handbook of Intergroup Communication (pp 100-115). New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis.

Courses Taught:

  • Contemporary Problems in Social Psychology
  • Psychology of Intergroup Relations
  • Psychology, Culture and Ethnicity

Richard Y. Bourhis
Department of Psychology
UQAM, C.P. 8888, Succ.Centre-ville
Universite du Quebec a Montreal
Montréal, Quebec H3C 3P8
Canada

  • Work: (514) 987-3000, ext. 4852
  • Home: (514) 931-8475
  • Fax: (514) 987-7953

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