RACIAL-ETHNIC IDENTITY OPEN AND CLOSE ENDED MEASURES
CITE AS: Oyserman, D., Gant, L. & Ager, J. (1995). A socially contextualized model of African American identity: School persistence and possible selves. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(6), 1216-1232.
Open-Ended Assessment of African American Racial Identity-
People use different words to describe themselves, which of the following best describes you and people who look like you?
1. African American
2. Black
3. Mixed; parents are from different groups. If so, which: ______and ______
4. Other (write in ): ______.
So when you think of yourself, you would most likely use the term ______(write in from the list above) to describe your racial or ethnic group.
Describe what it means to you to be an African American:
What are the everyday things you do that make you feel like an African American
Think about yourself as a male or female, what does it mean to be an African male or female?
Does it make a difference to others that you are an African American? If so, can you tell me in what ways it makes a difference?
How important is it to you to be an African American?
CITE AS: Oyserman, D., Gant, L. & Ager, J. (1995). A socially contextualized model of African American identity: School persistence and possible selves. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(6), 1216-1232.
Close-ended measure of African American Racial Identity
People have different opinions about what it means to be African American, I will read some statements to you. For each one, say how close it is to your opinion using the following scale, where 1= strongly disagree; 2=disagree; 3=neither agree nor disagree; 4= agree; 5=strongly agree.
1. It is important to me to think of myself as an African American.
2. I feel that I am part of the African American community.
3. I have a lot of pride in what members of the African American community have done and achieved.
4. I feel close to others in the African American community.
5. If I am successful it will help the African American community.
6. It is important for my family and the African American community that I succeed in school.
7. Some people will treat me differently because I am African American.
8. As an African American, the way I look and speak influences what others expect of me.
9. Things in the African American community are not as good as they could be because of lack of opportunity.
10. It helps me when others in the African American community are successful.
11. People might have negative ideas about my abilities because I am an African American.
12. If I work hard and get good grades, other African Americans will respect me.
The ethnic identity subscales are as follows:
Embedded achievement (items 5,6,10,12),
Connectedness (items 1-4),
Awareness of racism (items 7,8,9,11).
Alphas for the items were all in the .7 range (.74 for awareness of racism, .75 for connectedness, and .67 for embedded achievement) a sample of minority youth in the Netherlands, n = 304.
In the Netherlands, these variables, together with rated importance of ethnic group membership predicted standardized test scores, level of middle school track recommended, and depression.
Similarly, in our last smaller study of African American youth, alphas were at about this level - .75 for connectedness, and .62 for awareness of racism and .63 for embedded achievement.
Alphas are provided in each of the above articles for the specific sample.
This is another format for this scale:
For the following questions, think about yourself as a black male or female. Please mark the response closest to your opinion. Use the following scale.
1 2 3 4 5
------
strongly disagree somewhat agree agree strongly agree
disagree and disagree
I am happy to be Black. 1 2 3 4 5
I feel that I am part of my community. 1 2 3 4 5
I have a lot of pride in what members of my community 1 2 3 4 5
have done and achieved.
I feel close to others in my community. 1 2 3 4 5
If I am successful it will help my community. 1 2 3 4 5
It is important for my family and community that I succeed 1 2 3 4 5
in school.
Some people will treat me differently because I am 1 2 3 4 5
Black.
Only other Black people can really understand me. 1 2 3 4 5
Things in my community are not as good as they could be 1 2 3 4 5
because of lack of opportunity.
It helps me when others in my community are successful. 1 2 3 4 5
People might have negative ideas about my abilities 1 2 3 4 5
because I am Black.
I'll have to work hard to get ahead otherwise my chances 1 2 3 4 5
will be limited.
Descriptive Statistics From Detroit Fall and Spring 1995-1996 8th graders
Achievement - Fall / 104 / 1.5-5 / 1-5 / 3.92 / .76 / -.93 / -.72
Achievement - Spring / 99 / 0-6 / 0-6 / 3.84 / 1.41 / -.28 / -.55
Connectedness - Fall / 104 / 1.5-5 / 1-5 / 4.02 / .77 / -.95 / .84
Connectedness - Spring / 99 / 0-6 / 0-6 / 3.49 / 1.43 / -.17 / -.53
Awareness of Racism - Fall / 104 / 1-5 / 1-5 / 2.97 / .92 / -.11 / -.57
Awareness of Racism - Spring / 99 / 0-6 / 0-6 / 2.76 / 1.32 / .22 / -.11
The original 1-5 scale administered in the fall was expanded to a 0-6 scale in the spring in an effort to improve the normality of the scale distributions. Repeated measures within subjects Hotelling’s F(3,72) = 3.42 p < .05. Examination of the individual F statistics shows that while Achievement and Awareness of Racism are stable over time (both F’s < 1.00), Connectedness changed, F(1,74) = 8.67 p < .01. The means and standard deviations are presented below and show a significant decline in connectedness over the school year:
Fall Spring
Achievement 3.92 (.79) 3.90 (1.39)
Connectedness 4.02 (.84) 3.60 (1.36)
Racism 2.99 (.91) 2.84 (1.35)
Racial identity as assessed in the Pathways for Youth projects (NIMH R01 MH58299, Pathways for Youth: School-to-Jobs, A Prevention Model, Oyserman PI. NIMH R01 MH57495, Pathways for Youth: Risk and Resilience, Oyserman PI).
ECC1) How would you describe your race or ethnicity? ______
(If respondent gives more than one description) ECC1a Which would you say you identify with the most? ______
The following section focuses on the race or ethnicity you just chose to describe you the best.
These are statements people sometimes make about their ethnic community. For each statement, say how close it is to your opinion using the following scale, where 1=strongly disagree; 2=disagree; 3=neither agree nor disagree; 4=agree; 5=strongly agree.
ETH1) It is important to me to think of myself as a(n) ____.
ETH2) I feel that I am part of the ____ community.
ETH3) I am proud in what ____s have done and achieved.
ETH4) I feel close to other ____s.
ETH5) If I am successful it will help other ____s.
ETH6) It is important for my family and the ____ community that I have a successful career.
ETH7) Some people will treat me differently because I am a(n) ____.
ETH8) Others who are not ____ treat me differently because of how I look and speak.
ETH9) Things in the ____ community are not as good as they could be because of lack of opportunity.
ETH10) I feel like I belong when I act ____.
ETH11) I don't like it when I find myself acting ____.
ETH12) I have a clear image of what it means to act ____.
ETH13) It helps me when other ____s are successful.
ETH14) People might think that I am less good at things because I am ____.
ETH15) If I work hard and succeed at my job I will be respected by other ____s.
ETH16) I am a good member of the ____ community.
ETH17) I often wish I weren't ____.
ETH18) Overall, being a(n) ____ has a lot to do with how I feel about myself.
ETH19) Overall, people outside the ____ community view ____s positively.
ETH20) I feel that I don't have much to offer the ____ community.
ETH21) Most people outside and within the ____ community consider ____s, on average, to be less good at doing things than other groups.
ETH22) In general, I am glad to be ____.
ETH23) Being ____ is an important part of who I am.
ETH24) I am a contributing member of the ____ community.
ETH25) Overall, I often feel ____s are worthwhile.
ETH26) In general, others not part of the ____ community respect ____s.
ETH27) Being ____ is important to my sense of what kind of person I am.
ETH28) I often feel that I am useless to the ____ community.
ETH29) I feel good about ____.
ETH30) In general, others not in the ____ community think that ____s deserve the same things that other people do.
ETH31) In general, being ____ is an important part of how I see myself.
Publications that describe my racial identity model and/or use the measure and provide psychometric information:
Oyserman, D., Bybee, D, & Terry, K. (in press). Gendered racial identity: Possible selves and school involvement. Self and Identity.
Oyserman, D., Kemmelmeier, M., Fryberg, S., Brosh, H., & Hart-Johnson, T. (in press). Racial-ethnic self-schemas. Social Psychology Quarterly.
Oyserman, D., Terry, K., & Bybee, D., (2002). A possible selves intervention to enhance school involvement. Journal of Adolescence, 24, 313-326. Reprinted in Clinician’s Digest, (2003), 21, 4.
Oyserman, D., Harrison, K., & Bybee, D. (2001). Can racial identity be promotive of academic efficacy in adolescence? International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 379-385.
Oyserman, D. & Harrison, K. (1998). Implications of ethnic identity: African American identity and possible selves. In J. K. Swim & C. Stangor (Eds.) Prejudice: The target's perspective. Academic Press, Calf.
Oyserman, D., Sakamoto, I. & Lauffer, A. (1998) Cultural accommodation: Hybridity and the framing of social obligation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1606-1618.
Oyserman, D. & Sakamoto, I. (1997). Being Asian American: Identity, Cultural Constructs and Stereotype Perception. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 33, 435-453.
Oyserman, D., Gant, L. & Ager, J. (1995). A socially contextualized model of African American identity: School persistence and possible selves. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(6), 1216-1232.