Racial and ethnic identity (REI) measures are in danger of becoming conceptually meaningless because of evaluators' insistence that they conform to measurement models intended to assess unidimensional constructs, rather than the multidimensional constructs necessary to capture the complexity of internalized racial or cultural socialization. Some…

The strengths of Black youths lie in their abilities to resist the barriers that they encounter in the various environments in which they exist. Yet the media and social science literature have defined the youths in terms of the pathology of their environments rather than focusing on the assets that Black youths use in such environments. Thus,…

Explored the relationship between attitudes of racial identity and self-esteem with 166 Black college students. Subjects completed two measures, which showed that preencounter and immersion attitudes (as depicted in Cross' racial identity model, 1971) tend to be associated with low self-esteem. (Author/BH)

Examined which aspects of counseling process, in which process was defined as participants' covert responses to one another during verbal dyadic interactions, describe different racial identity relationship types. Findings from 66 mental health workers (simulated counselors and clients) supported Helm's assumption that specific dimensions might be…

The relation between identity attitudes, or Black self-ac4ualization, and various affective states were investigated in 166 Black university students. Both pro-White/anti-Black and pro-Black/anti-White attitudes were associated with greater personal distress. Awakening Black identity was positively related to self-actualization tendencies and…

Argues that attempts to assess racial identity via single variables trivialize the construct. Suggests that problems with the manner in which the Racial Identity Attitude Scale was used in the Pomales, Claiborn, and LaFromboise (1985) study contributed to possible problems in scale reliability and interpretation. (Author/ABB)

This investigation examined how racial identity profiles, using J. E. Helms's (1996) profile scoring procedure, were related to racist attitudes. One finding showed that participants with an undifferentiated or flat profile scored significantly higher in racist attitudes than participants with other racial identity profiles. Implications for…

Although racial identity theory has the potential to explain some aspects of career development, its value would be increased by conceptualizing race as a dependent variable in research and theory. Examples involving career salience, satisfaction, and satisfactoriness demonstrate the limitations of racial comparison studies. (SK)

The primary purpose of this article was to offer a methodological critique in support of arguments that racial categories should be replaced as explanatory constructs in psychological research and theory. To accomplish this goal, the authors (a) summarized arguments for why racial categories should be replaced; (b) used principles of the…

To determine whether racial identity attitudes could be predicted from socioeconomic variables, 174 Black college students were asked to respond to items on the Racial Identity Attitude Scale and to complete a personal data sheet. Results indicated that racial identity attitudes and socioeconomic status appear to represent separate constructs.…

Investigated content and structure of cultural values for 174 Black students attending a university or community college. Subjects completed the Racial Identity Attitude Scale, Intercultural Values Inventory, and the Personal Data Sheet. Found differences in sex, racial identity, and an Afro-Euro-American mixture of cultural values. (Author/NB)

Studied racial identity attitudes derived from Cross's racial identity model and respondents' racial self-designations used to predict Black college students' preferences for Black and White counselors. Racial attitudes accounted for a significant percentage of the variance involving preferences for counselor's race. (Author)

Argues that a study which assessed a white racial identity measure failed to account for other possible variables, such as failing to correct appropriately for artifacts in the data sets. Discusses tentative theory-relevant implications of the study for the construct validity of the racial identity measure. (RJM)

This article contends that Nigrescence or Black racial identity theory often interacts with counseling research designs such that readers may underestimate the worth of, or misunderstand, such research. Methodological dilemmas resulting from interactions among theoretical formulations, environmental influences, and research participants' racial…

Argues that little of what Michael L. Penn, Stanley O. Gaines, and Layli Phillips (1993) have to say in their article "On the Desirability of Own-Group Preference" about ethnic own-group preference is new and that it is distorted and naive interpretation of social history to carry on the tradition of blaming African Americans for the…