ABSTRACT
This chapter describes racial and cultural aspects of individuals' ethnic identities. As Leslie and Young observed, individuals within interethnic marriage tend not to define themselves or their partners solely, or even primarily, in terms of race. Although Singelmann did not mention interracial marriage, Singelmann's advocacy of a merger between George Herbert Mead's social behaviorism and Thibaut and Kelley's interdependence theory is fully consistent with the bidirectional model of interethnic marriage. Furthermore, Singelmann specifically recommended Mead's social behaviorism especially the symbolic interactionist component as a logical complement that can help explain links between actors' self-concept and corresponding interactions with each other. Influenced by Erving Goffman's interactionist role theory and Thibaut and Kelley's interdependence theory, among other sources, Gaines and colleagues proposed an heuristic for the study of intercultural relationships. Due the lack of empirical data on identities, interdependence processes, and societal norms as reflected in interethnic marriage, the interdependence analysis necessarily will be speculative.
