B.A. (University of Ottawa, 1981)
M.A. (University of Western Ontario, 1982)
Ph.D. (University of Western Ontario, 1985)
My research falls at the intersection of culture and intergroup relations, with a particular focus on issues that are very pertinent to the Canadian mosaic.
My early research addressed the issues of second-language learning (e.g., Lalonde & Gardner, 1984) and ethnic stereotyping (e.g., Lalonde & Gardner, 1989), and then I started working in the area of discrimination, with a particular theoretical focus on the responses of victims of discrimination (see Lalonde & Cameron, 1994). Much of my research has focused on immigrant groups in the Canadian context, such as Indian and Haitian women in Montreal (Lalonde, Taylor, & Moghaddam, 1992) and Blacks and Indians in Toronto (Lalonde, Majumder, & Parris, 1995). I have also paid a considerable amount of attention to Canadians of Carribean heritage, a group that has been largely ignored in Canadian psychological research (e.g., Smith, Lalonde, & Johnson, 2004). Finally, it is worth noting that I have an appreciation for the elusive meaning of Canadian identity by focusing on the issue directly (Lalonde, 2003) and by studying hockey players (Lalonde, 1992) and fans (Lalonde, Moghaddam, & Taylor, 1987) involved in the national obsession.
Much of my current research focuses on bicultural identity (e.g., Lalonde, Hynie, Pannu, & Tatla, 2004). An individual’s social identity is contextually driven and only one culture of the bicultural individual is typically salient in a particular context (e.g., home vs. school). A conflict between the two sets of cultural norms of the bicultural individual, therefore, is more likely to be evidenced when these norms are in opposition and when both social identities are salient. The realm of close relationships is one area where there is the potential for cultural conflict in bicultural individuals, particularly when one culture is rooted in an Eastern tradition (i.e., with traditional values) and the other in a Western tradition (i.e., with modern-industrial values).
