ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several significant concepts related to identity models. It discusses overarching paradigms that frame identity models followed by an exploration of context, agency, and salience. The structure and assumptions of the psychological, developmental stage paradigm carried over to some of the earliest models of Multiracial identity, particularly the biracial identity development model and the developmental process of asserting a biracial, bicultural identity. Multiracial models were instrumental in advancing an alternate ecological paradigm for racial identity models, one that situated individual development 'within the social context and attends to mutual influences of self and context'. The effects of context figure significantly in discussions of Multiracial identity. The models of Poston and Kich indicate that contextual elements influence how individuals might progress through or experience the stages of their respective models. Jones and Abes defined salience as “the prominence or importance attached to a particular experience, idea, feeling, or social identity”.
