Article Summary Table - Racial Identity

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Journal of Counseling Psychology 1985, Vol. 32, No. 3,43H40

Relation of Racial Identity Attitudes to Self-Actualization and Affective States of Black Students

Thomas A. Parham Southern Illinois University—Carbondale

Janet E. Helms University of Maryland

The relation between racial identity attitudes derived from Cross's (1971) model of psychological nigrescence, or black self-actualization, and various af- fective states hypothesized to be relevant to the racial identification process were investigated through multiple regression analysis. Subjects were 166 black university students. Both prowhite-antiblack (preencounter) and problack-antiwhite (immersion) attitudes were associated with greater per- sonal distress as indicated by negative relations between these attitudes and mentally healthy self-actualizing tendencies and by positive relations to feel- ings of inferiority, anxiety, and hostility. Awakening black identity (encoun- ter attitudes) was positively related to self-actualization tendencies and nega- tively related to feelings of inferiority and anxiety. The possibility that cogni- tive and affective components of racial identity attitudes may evolve via dif- ferent models is explored. Implications for future research and recommenda- tions for delivery of psychological services to black populations are discussed.

Studies of how black people are affected by the counseling process have generally focused on counselor characteristics or per- ceptions of the counselor and the counseling relationship (see Atkinson, 1983, and Sattler, 1977, for detailed reviews of such studies). Missing has been sufficient consideration to culture-specific diagnostic issues such as how the condition of being black in a predomi- nantly white environment influences the personality development and psychological adjustment of black persons. In fact, most previous attempts to identify personality characteristics and symptoms of black clients either have been based on theories of white adjustment or have merely compared black people's scores with whites' scores on some standard personality inventories that have included few, if any, blacks in the standardization samples (Gynther, 1972; Snowden & Todman, 1982). The end result of such procedures, as Gardner (1971) and Smith (1977) have pointed out, is that blacks

This research was part of the doctoral dissertation of the first author, supervised hy the second author. Appreciation is extended to Michael T. Brown, Rod McDavis, and Amen Rahh for their help in conducting this research and to Josephine Shaffer for her help in preparing the manuscript.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Thomas A. Parham, who is now at the Career Planning and Place- ment Center, University of California, Irvine, California 92717.

have been negatively stereotyped in a man- ner that cannot be of much use for adminis- tering effective counseling interventions.

Cross (1971) has proposed a model of ra- cial identity that appears to be more relevant to the psychological life experiences of black people than more traditional theories and that might prove to be a useful system on which to base counseling interventions. In his model, a description of how a person converts from Negro to black (the "Negro- to-Black conversion experience"), he pro- posed the existence of five distinct psycho- logical stages. Each of the proposed stages is characterized by different racial identity attitudes, each of which is allegedly charac- terized by distinctive cognitive, conative, and affective elements.

The five stages, as proposed by Cross (1971), are preencounter, encounter, im- mersion-emersion, internalization, and in- ternalization-commitment.1 In the preen- counter stage, a person is programmed to

1 Although Cross (1978) conceptualized the inter- nalization-commitment stage as a separate stage, he concedes that it is difficult to figure out where it fits in the general model, because ostensibly similar behavioral styles may accompany the immersion-emersion stage as well. In our own work, we have chosen not to oper- ationalize the fifth stage because it seems to confound general styles (e.g., assertiveness or gregariousness) with racial identity in a way that we have been unable to separate.

431

432 THOMAS A. PARHAM AND JANET E. HELMS

view and think of the world from a Euro- American frame of reference as he or she thinks, acts, and behaves in ways that de- value blackness and idealize whiteness. In the second stage, encounter, the person be- gins to abandon his or her old world view as a consequence of a startling personal or so- cial event. In the third stage, immersion- emersion, the person idealizes blackness, although the degree of internalization of positive attitudes about one's own blackness is minimal. The person immerses himself or herself in black experiences (e.g., joins political groups or attends seminars that focus on blacks). In addition to the general orientation that everything of value must be black or relevant to blackness, the immer- sion-emersion stage is also characterized by a tendency to denigrate whites. In the fourth stage, internalization, the person achieves a feeling of inner security with his or her blackness because the person has in- corporated aspects of the immersion-emer- sion experience into his or her self-concept. Ideological flexibility and a general decline in strong antiwhite feelings also typify the internalization stage. The fifth stage, in- ternalization-commitment, is characterized as one in which the person continues to ex- press her or his black identity by means of continued political involvement for the sake of the group.

Cross (1971, 1978) advised that the con- version model should be considered a de- scription of the Afro-American process of self-actualization under conditions of op- pression. He further postulated that per- sons engaged in the nigrescence, or self- actualization, process were likely to experi- ence a wide range of affective states that would parallel their stage of development. Accordingly, self-actualization and feelings of self-acceptance were preceded by feelings of inferiority, shame, guilt, and rage, as well as feelings of black pride. In adapting the Cross model to pertain specifically to the dynamics of counseling clients, Butler (1975) concluded that clients in the preencounter stage would exhibit a poor self-concept and would be self-deprecating and perhaps ap- athetic and uninvolved. Encounter clients were hypothesized to have a positive self- image accompanied by feelings of guilt, confusion, and anxiety; immersion-emersion

clients were expected to experience guilt and rage; and clients in the internalization stage were assumed to have transcended emo- tional reactions to their racial identity except for generally positive self-regard and self- acceptance.

Although various authors (Butler, 1975; Jackson, 1977; Parham & Helms, 1981) have theorized that knowledge about a client's racial identity and corresponding affective states would improve the counselor's arma- mentarium of interventions, no study to date has demonstrated an empirical relation be- tween racial identity and particular affective states. Therefore, the general purpose of the present investigation was to study the relation between racial identity and affective states hypothesized by Cross (1971, 1978) and Butler (1975) to be indicative of the identification process.

In adapting the Cross (1971,1978) model to study counseling variables, Parham and Helms (1981) have pointed out that at- tempts to classify people into a single stage on the basis of their highest racial identity attitudes presume a model comprising dis- crete rather than continuous stages. How- ever, a discrete attitudinal model is likely to provide misleading information about racial identity attitudes because only the people who are at the peak of a particular stage can be classified under such a model, even though people with lower levels of measured attitudes actually might be further along the developmental continuum, if they have al- ready experienced the stage or are in the process of entering a new stage. Further- more, because, according to theory, certain of the racial identity attitudes (e.g., immer- sion and internalization) appear to be addi- tive to some extent, then placing people in single categories causes one to ignore vari- ance associated with the different types of attitudes that an individual might hold si- multaneously and that could be important for predictive purposes. Therefore, Parham and Helms recommended that a more effi- cient use of racial identity attitudes associ- ated with Cross's stages is to consider them to be types of attitudes that one might pos- sess, with the strength of each type of atti- tude possibly varying across individuals. Such a perspective implies that regression models in which each type of attitude is

BLACK STUDENTS' RACIAL IDENTITY 433

taken into account for each subject, might offer more sensitive strategies for investi- gating relations between racial identity at- titudes and other personality constructs than would qualitative methods in which people are classified into single stages.

Thus, in the present study, multiple re- gression analyses were used to investigate the relation between black students' racial identity attitudes, self-actualizing tenden- cies, and various affective states. With re- gard to self-actualizing tendencies (i.e., time competence and inner-directed support), it was hypothesized that (a) preencounter at- titudes would be negatively associated with these tendencies and (b) encounter, im- mersion, and internalization attitudes would be positively associated with such tenden- cies. In exploring the relation between ra- cial identity attitudes and affective states, it was hypothesized that (c) feelings of infe- riority (interpersonal sensitivity) would be positively associated with preencounter at- titudes, (d) feelings of anxiety or obsessive- ness would be positively associated with encounter attitudes, (e) feelings of anger would be positively associated with immer- sion-emersion attitudes, and (f) feelings of self-acceptance would be positively associ- ated with internalization attitudes.

Method

Subjects

Subjects were 166 (65 male and 101 female) black college students enrolled in four predominantly white universities, one each in the eastern and midwestern United States and two on the west coast. Ages for the entire sample ranged from 17 to 25 years, with the av- erage age ranging from 19 to 20 years. Subjects' self- reported socioeconomic status ranged from the lower to the upper middle class, with 51% of the sample indi- cating that they were in the middle class. Because of the difficulty in attracting black subjects and because of the need to acquire subjects with a variety of atti- tudes, both introductory psychology courses and black studies courses were used to solicit subjects. No in- centives for participation were offered to any of the subjects regardless of their location.

Instruments

The instruments used in this study were (a) the Personal Orientation Inventory, (b) the Racial Identity Attitude Scale, (c) the Symptom-90 Checklist, and (d) a personal data information sheet.

Personal Orientation Inventory (POI). The POI (Shostrom, 1963) is a multiple scale instrument de- signed to measure an individual's degree of self-actu- alization or positive mental health and was used in the present study because of its emphasis on health rather than illness. The POI consists of 150 items to which subjects respond by marking true or false; subjects' scores for each of 12 scales are calculated by summing the true responses for appropriately keyed items.

Three scales from the POI were used, the two basic personal orientation scales, Inner Directed (127 items) and Time Competence (23 items), and the Self-Accep- tance Scale (26 items). The Inner Directed Scale as- sesses whether a person's reactions are self or other oriented. High scores indicate a reliance on self. The Time Competence Scale assesses the degree to which an individual lives in the past, present, or future; high scores indicate an integration of past and future, which permits the individual to be content in the here and now. The Self-Acceptance Scale measures the person's level of self-acceptance or affirmation in spite of ac- knowledged weaknesses or deficiencies. Overall level of self-actualization can be inferred from the Inner Directed and Time Competence scales. Although Shostrom (1963) reported no internal consistency data for the three scales, Klavetter and Mogar (1967) re- ported test-retest coefficients of .71, .77, and .77 for the Time Competence, Inner Directed, and Self-Acceptance scales, respectively.

Validity data reported by Shostrom (1963) indicate that the POI significantly discriminated between groups who were judged by clinical psychologists to be self- actualizing or non-self-actualizing. Knapp (1965), in a study of the diagnostic usefulness of the POI, found it to be effective in differentiating between a self- actualized group and a group with high scores on a neuroticism scale.

Racial Identity Attitude Scale. The Racial Identity Attitude Scale is a 30-item scale that was developed by Parham and Helms (1981) to measure attitudes asso- ciated with the various stages of black identity devel- opment as described in Cross's (1971) model of psy- chological nigrescence. The scale was adapted from Hall, Cross, and Freedle's (1972) Q-sort items, which were designed to assess attitudes and behaviors char- acteristic of the various stages of racial identity. Re- spondents used a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 — strongly agree) to indicate the extent to which each item was descriptive of them. Scores for each of the four aubscales (Preencounter, Encounter, Immersion-Emersion, and Internalization) were ob- tained by summing the responses to the items keyed to a particular subscale and dividing by the number of items in the subscale to maintain the scale metric. Thus, scores for each subscale could range from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating higher levels of a given attitude. Parham and Helms reported the following internal consistency reliability coefficients for the four subscales: Preencounter, .67; Encounter, .72; Immer- sion-Emersion, .66; and Internalization, .71. They also reported some evidence of the construct validity of the Racial Identity Attitude Scale in their finding that racial identity attitudes predicted subjects' preference for the race of their counselor.

Symptom-90 Checklist (SCL-90). The SCL-90 (Derogatis, Rickels, & Rock, 1976) is a self-report in-

434 THOMAS A. PARHAM AND JANET E. HELMS

Table 1 Summary °f Regression Analyses Using Racial Identity Attitudes to Predict Dependent Measures

Racial identity attitude

Dependent

measures

POI scale Time Competence Inner Directed Self-Acceptance

SCL-90 scale Interpersonal

Sensitivity Anxiety Hostility Obsessive-

Compulsive

Preencounter

-0.29 -0.30 -0.15

0.19 0.13 7.66

0.12

14.88** 14.38" 3.36**

5.22** 2.49* 0.84

2.03

Encounter

0.19 0.14 0.14

-0.10 -0.16 -3.90

-5.89

5.37** 2.71* 2.69*

1.47 3.26* 0.19

0.43

Immersion

-0.20 -2.40 -6.66

0.15 0.20 0.16

0.11

7.05** 0.10 0.69

3.48** 6.19** 3.82*

1.75

Inter nal-

ization

2.84 8.39 5.26

-6.68 -6.60 -4.99

3.61

0.15 1.24 0

0.72 0.70 0.38

Overall

model

fi2

.18

.15

.06

.08

.03

8.54" 7.30** 2.42

3.36* 3.54* 1.33

1.14

Note. POI = Personal Orientation Inventory; SCL-90 = Symptom-90 Checklist. * p < .05. ** p < .01.

ventory comprising 90 items, designed to measure var- ious moods and psychological symptoms. Although 48 of the items, representing five subscales, were admin- istered to each subject, only the four subscales for which definite hypotheses were proposed were analyzed. The four subscales, Interpersonal Sensitivity (inferiority), Anxiety, Hostility, and Obsessive-Compulsive, were used to operationalize the affective states and styles presumed to be associated with racial identity devel- opment. Respondents used a 5-point scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely) to indicate how distressed they were by each of the symptoms. Dero- gatis et al. (1976) reported internal consistency coeffi- cients as follows: Obsessive-Compulsive, .86; Inter- personal Sensitivity, .86; Anxiety, .85; and Hostility, .84. Concurrent validity is shown by their findings that each of the nine SCL-90 subscales showed peak correlations with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory scale to which they logically should have been re- lated.

Personal data sheet. The personal data sheet was used in this study to acquire information about subjects' backgrounds and demographic characteristics. The questionnaire required subjects to indicate their age, sex, and whether they designated themselves as colored, Negro, Afro-American, or black. Subjects were also asked to indicate their (a) socioeconomic class at birth, (b) current socioeconomic class, and (c) highest socio- economic class to which they aspired. In addition, each subject was asked to indicate his or her academic class level (freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior).

Procedure

Several black professors, instructors, and school of- ficials, each affiliated with one of the four universities previously mentioned, were contacted and identified as test administrators. Subjects who participated in

the study were contacted by these individuals by way of classroom or other group activities. One of the present authors served as the test administrator in one of the west coast locations. The battery of scales and the appropriate instructions were administered to each subject in the format of a four-part questionnaire that consisted of the four instruments described above, presented in the same order.

Subjects were informed that the investigation in- volved an examination of their political attitudes as well as how they typically felt about themselves. Because of the small numbers of black students in some classes, some subjects completed the questionnaire individually whereas others were part of a general classroom ad- ministration. Because the manner in which subjects were located was left to the discretion of the test ad- ministrators, analysis of data according to specific set- ting variables was not possible (e.g., black studies classes vs. introductory psychology classes). However, the differential testing environments were not expected to differentially influence the subjects' responses to the instruments.

Results

To test the hypotheses that racial identity attitudes were differentially related to subjects' self-actualizing tendencies and various affective states or styles, seven in- dependent multiple regression analyses were used. Beta weights and F ratios for all of the regression analyses are presented in Table 1. Mean scale scores on each of the four racial identity attitude scales were used as predictor variables in each of the regression analyses. Thus, scale scores for each of the

BLACK STUDENTS' RACIAL IDENTITY 435

four types of attitudes could potentially vary from 1 to 5. The significance level of overall regression models (as indicated by the F ratio) reveals the extent to which a linear combination of the four types of attitudes predicted each of the dependent variables. Examination of the F ratios associated with the beta weights of the attitudes indicates the extent to which the types of attitudes differentially contributed to the prediction of the dependent variable. In general, beta weights were not examined for significance unless the overall model was significant. However, in those instances in which a spe- cific hypothesis concerning an attitudinal type had been proposed, the relevant beta weight was examined even if the overall model was not significant. Prior to com- puting the multiple regression analyses, simple correlations were computed between the four types of racial identity attitudes.2

Correlations ranged from .07 (internalization and immersion) to —.37 (preencounter and encounter), and the direction and size of the correlations were consistent with a linear model of attitude development.

Relations Between Racial Identity Attitudes and Self-Actualization

Two multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypothesis that racial iden- tity attitudes would be differentially related to respondents' mentally healthy self-actu- alizing tendencies. The Time Compe- tence and Inner Directed scales served as successive measures of self-actualization in these analyses.

When time competence was used as the dependent variable, results of the regression analysis indicated that the 18% of the vari- ance explained by the combination of racial identity attitudes was significant, F(4,161) = 8.54, p < .001. As shown in Table 1, preencounter, encounter, and immersion attitudes were significantly related to time competence. However, the beta weights show that preencounter and immersion at- titudes were inversely related, whereas en- counter attitudes were positively related. Thus, the higher one's prowhite-antiblack (preencounter) attitudes and the higher one's problack-antiwhite (immersion) atti- tudes, the less present oriented the person.

On the other hand, attitudes consistent with a decision to become black (encounter) were related to a tendency to be present ori- ented.

When the other indicant of self-actuali- zation, inner directedness, was used as the dependent variable, results of the regression analysis indicated that the 16% of the vari- ance explained by racial identity attitudes was significant, F(4, 161) = 7.03, p < .05. Whereas both preencounter and encounter attitudes were significantly related to inner directedness, preencounter attitudes were related in a negative direction but encounter attitudes were related in a positive direction. These results suggest that encounter atti- tudes were related to a tendency to rely on one's self for intrapersonal support whereas preencounter attitudes were related to a tendency to rely on others for such sup- port.

In summary, it appears that the linear combination of racial identity attitudes predicted self-actualization as inferred from time competence and inner directedness. Indications are that higher levels of preen- counter attitudes consistently were associ- ated with less self-actualization, and thus these attitudes were less psychologically healthy; encounter attitudes were positively associated with self-actualization. It ap- pears that higher immersion attitudes, de- spite their extremely problack perspective, contributed to lower levels of self-actuali- zation, particularly as indicated by time competence. Internalization attitudes were not significantly related to measures of self-actualization.

Relations Between Racial Identity Attitudes and Affective States

When the regression analysis was per- formed to test the hypothesis that Inter- personal Sensitivity (feelings of inferiority) scale scores would be predicted by preen- counter attitudes, the 8% of the variance explained by the four types of racial identity attitudes was significant, F(4,161) = 3.36, p < .05. Preencounter attitudes were signif- icantly related to feelings of interpersonal

2 A table of simple correlations is available from the first author.

436 THOMAS A. PARHAM AND JANET E. HELMS

Table 2 Summary of Means and Standard Deviations of Racial Identity Attitudes and Dependent Variables Analyzed by Sex

Men

Variables

Racial identity attitude Preencounter

Encounter Immersion-Emersion Internalization

POI scale Time Competence Inner Directed Self -Acceptance

SCL-90 scale Anxiety Obsessive-Compulsive Interpersonal Sensitivity Hostility

2.17 4.15 3.09 3.56

14.63 77.22 12.54

1.87 2.25 2.17 1.85

0.70 0.83 0.62 0.74

3.26 9.79 2.04

0.62 0.70 0.73 0.65

Women

1.80 4.24 3.05 3.78

15.36 80.63 12.53

1.99 2.21 2.17 1.86

0.50 0.72 0.61 0.56

2.74 10.76 2.25

0.73 0.70 0.70 0.72

Total

1.96 4.20 3.07 3.70

15.07 79.30 12.54

1.94 2.22 2.17 1.86

0.61 0.77 0.61 0.64

2.97 10.39 2.17

0.69 0.70 0.71 0.69

F ratio

12.38** 0.50 0.13 4.50*

2.39 4.28* 0

1.23 0.15 0 0

Note. On all scales, higher scores equal more of the attribute. For men, n = 65; for women, n = 101. POI = Personal Orientation Inventory; SCL-90 = Symptom-90 Checklist. * p < .05. ** p < .001.

sensitivity in a positive direction as pre- dicted; immersion attitudes were also sig- nificantly positively related, suggesting that high levels of preencounter and immersion attitudes were likely to be related to feelings of inferiority, personal inadequacy, and hy- persensitivity.

In the regression analysis in which anxiety scores were used as the dependent variable to test the hyothesis that encounter attitudes would be positively associated with feelings of anxiety, the 8% of the variance explained by racial identity attitudes was significant, F(4,161) = 3.53, p < .05. Encounter atti- tudes were significantly related to feelings of anxiety, but in a negative direction. In addition, both preencounter and immersion attitudes were positively related to anxiety, although no specific hypotheses about these attitudes have been proposed.

The test of the hypothesis that feelings of anger would be positively related to immer- sion attitudes revealed no significant effect due to the combination of racial identity attitudes, F(4,161) = 1.32, p > .05. How- ever, the Immersion attitude scale was a significant predictor of anger (Hostility scale). The direction of the beta weight suggested that problack-antiwhite attitudes were likely to be associated with feelings of anger or hostility as predicted.

The overall regression model, testing the hypothesis that feelings of self-acceptance would be predicted by internalization atti- tudes, barely missed significance, F(4,161) = 2.42, p = .06. Examination of its beta weight indicated that internalization atti- tudes were not significantly related to feel- ings of self-acceptance. Because the overall model was nearly significant (an F of 2.425 was necessary for significance at the .05 level), we also examined the beta weights for the other attitudes. Preencounter attitudes were inversely related to self-acceptance, indicating that prowhite-antiblack attitudes were indicative of difficulty in accepting oneself in spite of the absence of identifica- tion with one's ascribed racial group. En- counter attitudes were positively related to feelings of self-acceptance, indicating that making a decision to question previously held negative assumptions about blackness may be indicative of emerging feelings of self-acceptance. The final hypothesis that obsessiveness would be related to encounter attitudes was not supported by the obtained results, F(l, 161) = 0.43, ns; the overall model also lacked significance, F(4, 161) = 1.14, ns.

In summary, it seems that with the ex- ceptions of anger, obsessiveness, and possi- bly self-acceptance, affective states were

BLACK STUDENTS' RACIAL IDENTITY 437

predicted by linear combinations of the ra- cial identity attitudes, with particular atti- tudes being differentially related to specific affects, though not always as expected.

Secondary Analyses

Secondary analyses were conducted to explore the extent to which racial identity attitudes could be predicted from demo- graphic characteristics. Several additional regression analyses were conducted. In these analyses, social class indicators, racial self-designation, class level, age, and sex served as successive predictor variables, and mean scores on the four racial identity atti- tude scales served as the dependent vari- ables.

Results of the regression analyses indi- cated that racial identity attitudes were not significantly predicted by social class indi- cators, academic class, racial self-designa- tion, or age (all Fs < 1). However, sex sig- nificantly predicted preencounter, /3 = -0.26, F(l, 64) = 12.53,p < .005, and inter- nalization attitudes, /3 = 0.16, F(l, 164) = 4.5, p < .05, but not encounter or immer- sion-emersion attitudes. The direction of the beta weights suggests that black men were more likely to endorse preencounter attitudes and less likely to endorse inter- nalization attitudes than black women.

To explore the nature of these two ob- served sex differences further, one-way analyses of variance comparing men and women on each of the dependent and inde- pendent variables were performed. Means, standard deviations, and F ratios for these analyses are shown in Table 2. The analyses of variance revealed that in addition to lower preencounter and higher internalization attitudes, black women also exhibited sig- nificantly higher levels of inner directedness than did black men.

Discussion

Since the early 1970s, black scholars have speculated about the relation between racial identity attitudes and self-actualization, or the nigrescence process, and affective states that are presumably related to each stage of racial identity (e.g., Butler, 1975; Cross, 1971; Thomas, 1971). The bulk of existing theo-

retical literature seems to suggest that an individual's progression from Stage 1 (preencounter) to Stage 4 (internalization) is marked by transitions from feelings of inferiority to self-acceptance and from non-self-actualizing to self-actualizing atti- tudes and behaviors. The results of the present study, which is the first to examine empirically the relation between racial identity attitudes, self-actualization tendencies, and affective states, suggest that the racial identity process either may be more complex then previous authors had speculated or it may be a more difficult process to operationalize for diagnostic purposes than one might anticipate.

Consistent with previous theory were the obtained relations between preencounter attitudes and the other personality variables. That is, the findings that preencounter at- titudes were related to lower levels of time competence and higher levels of other di- rectedness (i.e., self-actualizing tendencies, according to Shostrom, 1963) as well as to feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, hyper- sensitivity, anxiety, and lack of self-accep- tance are consistent with theoretical dis- cussions in which the preencounter stage is described as least mentally healthy (e.g., Butler, 1975; Cross, 1971).

The relation between immersion attitudes and affective states and self-actualizing tendencies was least consistent with con- temporary theory about the developmental process. Instead of indicating that these attitudes reflect a positive sense of self due to the acceptance of one's blackness, the re- sults of the present study suggest that im- mersion attitudes (and by implication the immersion stage) are affectively similar to preencounter attitudes. The only difference between the two types of attitudes and the only relation that was anticipated by prior theory was that anger was related to im- mersion attitudes. However, use in the present study of the SCL-90 Hostility scale to operationalize anger feelings does not permit one to determine whether the anger was directed inward (i.e., toward oneself in response to one's previous identity resolu- tions) or outward (i.e., toward society in re- sponse to discrimination). The latter form presumably is more healthy, and to the ex- tent that outward-directed anger typifies

438 THOMAS A. PARHAM AND JANET E. HELMS

immersion attitudes, it is still possible that immersion attitudes represent somewhat healthier adjustment than preencounter attitudes.

Cross (1978) speculated that encounter attitudes are a muted form of immersion attitudes and that both are alike in their positive orientation toward blackness. The results of the present study suggest that the positive perspective may be more charac- teristic of encounter attitudes than of any of the other attitudes, including immersion. In fact, the present findings that encounter attitudes were predictive of feelings of per- sonal adequacy, self-acceptance, and low levels of anxiety indicate that encounter at- titudes, as operationalized in the present study, may capture the euphoric feelings about becoming black that Cross discussed, but not the feelings of guilt and anxiety that have also been considered part of the en- counter stage. It is possible that entry into the encounter stage is a uniformly positive experience rather than a mixture of positive and negative; it is also possible that current measures may not be sensitive enough to capture the subtle nuances of affective states making up this stage.

At first glance, it is surprising that inter- nalization attitudes were not significantly related to any of the measures of affective states or self-actualizing tendencies. How- ever, a closer examination of the regression analyses indicates that these attitudes seemed to be related to the other measures in the same direction as were encounter at- titudes, though not significantly so. One possible explanation for the lack of signifi- cant relations is that internalization atti- tudes may represent a muted form of en- counter attitudes, that is, encounter atti- tudes with the emotion removed. In his early descriptions of internalization, Cross (1971) described it as a stage governed pri- marily by the intellect rather than affect. Because all of the measures used in the present study were measures of affect of some sort, it is possible that they were not suitable for capturing the rational focus of internalization attitudes. Further studies, which should include measures of cognitive style, affective state, and racial identity at- titude, might be useful in providing addi- tional insight about the internalization stage and consequent attitudes.

Although not all of our hypotheses were confirmed, the present findings suggest that emotions not only are present but also may be a vital part of the conversion experience. Also, to the extent that one can infer stages from attitudes, speculation that the domi- nant affect varies at different stages of the process (e.g., Pugh, 1972) appears to have received some support from the obtained results. Nevertheless, the results do raise some interesting theoretical, methodological, and counseling practice issues in addition to those already discussed.

An interesting theoretical possibility is that cognitive aspects of the racial identifi- cation process and affective aspects may not evolve at the same rate or by the same pro- cess. Studies of attitudes in other areas of psychology have often reported lack of con- gruence between cognitive, affective, and behavioral elements (e.g., Kutner, Wilkins, & Yarrow, 1952; La Piere, 1934; Weitz, 1972), though no commonly accepted explanation for discrepancies seems to exist. In the present instance, it is possible that cognitive aspects of the racial identification process such as attitudes and perceptions may evolve by a stagewise linear model, as Hall et al. (1972) found, but that affective states evolve by a different model. If such is the case, then one possibility is that a typology con- sisting of healthy and unhealthy affective states might be most useful in interpreting the relation between racial identity attitudes and affect. Thus, on the basis of the data at hand, a predominance of preencounter and immersion attitudes might predict un- healthy affective adjustment and a pre- dominance of encounter and internalization attitudes might predict healthy affective adjustment. If this typology is accurate at all, then it may provide a diagnostic frame- work by which the counselor can decide whether to intercede in the black client's self-actualization process to promote better adjustment. That is, clients demonstrating a preponderance of preencounter or im- mersion attitudes might require such inter- cession, whereas clients demonstrating a preponderance of encounter or internaliza- tion attitudes might not.

Of course, it is also possible that Cross's (1971) model is no longer an accurate de- scription of black people's reactions to the social conditions that they face. It is

BLACK STUDENTS' RACIAL IDENTITY 439

tempting, for instance, to hypothesize that the model accurately characterized the ni- grescence process of black people in the late 1960s and early 1970s hut that present day hlacks, struggling to find their identity, are influenced hy a different set of personal, social, and environmental factors; as a con- sequence, they may have learned to adapt differently than did their predecessors. If such is the case, then perhaps a stagewise progression of the cognitive aspects of identity development is no longer accurate either. However, the questions of whether the Cross model should be modified in the manner discussed and whether the model continues to be useful and accurate can only be answered through additional empirical investigations involving measurement of racial identity attitudes in conjunction with various operationalizations of adjustment. In addition, longitudinal studies of identity development are greatly needed.

In interpreting the results of the present study, it is important to take several meth- odological issues into consideration. First of all, only one aspect of a person's iden- tity—his or her adaptations to race and ra- cism—was investigated. Thus, even when the regression analyses were significant, only 8% (interpersonal sensitivity and anxiety) to 18% (time competence) of the variance was explained by linear combinations of racial identity attitudes. This range of effect sizes compares favorably with the median effect size of 8% of explained variance reported by Haase, Waechter, and Solomon (1982) in their review of univariate analyses reported in counseling research, but one still wonders what other factors might contribute to a person's identity. Perhaps other demo- graphic characteristics (e.g., social class) may influence the person's global identity to some extent. Nevertheless, the results of the present study suggest that where racial as- pects of that identity were concerned, only sex seemed to be a significant demographic predictor. Black women exhibited lower levels of preencounter attitudes and higher levels of internalization attitudes and inner-directed self-actualizing tendencies than black men. It is possible that because black women experience less diversity of experiences in white culture than black men do, they are more likely to rely on themselves for self-definition and are less likely to be-

lieve that their life situation can be improved by identifying with white attitudes and val- ues (Hooks, 1981; Jackson, 1973). In any case, it is difficult to form concrete conclu- sions about the relation between racial identity attitudes and demographic factors because although the sample size used in the present study was adequate for the analyses used, it was not of sufficient size or diversity to permit separate within-group analyses on the basis of various demographic charac- teristics (e.g., sex, age). Further studies involving samples of different ages, educa- tional levels, and socioeconomic statuses are needed.

The manner in which the different vari- ables were operationalized in the present study is also open to debate. For instance, the Racial Identity Attitude Scale (Parham & Helms, 1981), used to assess subjects' racial identity attitudes, may require some modi- fications. Although the reliabilities of the subscales are comparable with those of other personality instruments, the measure's usefulness could possibly be enhanced by improving the reliabilities (Anastasi, 1982). Such scale refinement seems particularly important because the Racial Identity At- titude Scale is one of only a few instruments designed to measure black personality characteristics (cf. Milliones, 1980; Snowden & Todman, 1982), and for it to become a commonly accepted tool in counseling as- sessment, it probably must be shown to be a marked improvement over the more general measures that already exist.

In addition, one might argue about the use of nonblack measures to operationalize af- fective states and self-actualizing tendencies. For example, for a person to obtain a high score on the POI Self-Acceptance Scale, he or she must endorse individualistically ori- ented items. However, theorists such as Akbar (Luther X, 1974) suggest that such an orientation is antithetical to healthy black development. As a result, one may not find the expected relations between variables that evolve from black personality theory because the available personality measures are not consistent with such theory.

Regardless of the theoretical and meth- odological issues raised, the results of the present study do offer some possibilities for understanding the dyamics of black people and for counseling those who are displaying

440 THOMAS A. PARHAM AND JANET E. HELMS

different levels of the various racial identity attitudes. In general, counselors who work with black clients who are struggling with racial identity issues should explore both the cognitive and affective aspects of their con- cerns because the two may not be related in an obvious manner. The goal of the coun- selor should be to help black clients integrate the various aspects of their identity by be- coming aware of what they think about their racial identity as well as how they feel about it. In other words, counselors should avoid merely inferring adjustment from stated attitudes and should actively explore the client's emotional adaptations. Both counselors and clients may also need to be aware that although some of the feelings associated with particular racial identity attitudes are unpleasant and may require resolution, such feelings may be a natural part of the nigrescence process. Therefore, mental health workers (and researchers) should be cautioned against inferring serious pathology where none exists.

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Received May 4,1984

Revision received November 28,1984 •