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3. Some Issues, Questions, and Problems Surrounding the Black Self-Concept: Self-Esteem
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CHAPTER 3 Some Issues, Questions, and Problems Surrounding the Black Self-concept: Self-Esteem IfYou have no conjdence in selfyou are twice defeated in the race of Ife. With conjdenceyou have won even beforeyou have started. -MARCUSMOZIAH GARVEY T h i s chapter builds on the two previous ones by using the insights obtained to explore the various conceptual and methodological issues pertaining to the frequently explored concept of self-esteem. Here, I provide an overview of some of the major conceptions presented by several disciplines. As part of the conceptualization, I place considerable attention on revealing the many and diverse theoretical and operational definitions of self-esteem, and on analyzing the voluminous past empirical research. Taking into account conclusions gathered from this literature and using cross-sectional data,Ireport a secondary analysis. Hypotheses derived from this aforementioned theorizing are tested. I include an examination of issues associated with the reliability and validity of the measures and more general measurement concerns. Operating from awide range of theories, disciplines, and ideologies over a very long time span, it has been argued that people have an abiding need for a strong sense of self(Allport, 1937,1954;DuBois, 1903;Marcus &Ltayama, 1994;Nobles, 1973).According to Crocker and Luhtanen (1990),a number of theoretical perspectives posit that individuals strive to keep a high level of personal self-esteem and to also keep a high positive group identity.Whereas many variations of the concept of self have been proffered (e.g., Baldwin, 1979; Banaji &Prentice, 1994; Kambon, 1992; Nobles, 1991a),self-esteem in its many manifestations, variously conceived, has commandeered much of the research and theoretical attention, especially with respect to African Americans. Many disciplines and fields have studied the self, and they have brought with them their own respective paradigms, modes of inquiry, 68 EXAMINATIONS OF THE BLACK SELF methodologies and theories, or fragments thereof. While this has enriched discourse in many ways and has provided insights not otherwise attainable from an interdisciplinary approach, many of these scholars are not familiar with the work in the other areas. Thus, it is not uncommon for people in different fields to use different concept names to talk about the same phenomenon or to use the same concept name but to define or operationalize it differently. It is imperative to set definitional boundaries and strive to be precise and explicit, with an eye toward eliminating possible confusion and vagueness. While there are a number of different aspects of the self, I focus on only one of these in this chapter, namely, self-esteem. One prominent theorist in this area maintains that the self may be divided into the phenomena of self-esteem and identity (e.g., Tajfel, 1982; Tajfel & Turner, 1986), and this distinction has often been made in the literature. Several others have viewed the self as composed of personal identity and group identity or reference group identity (e.g., Cross, 1985, 1991). Further, the term esteem has been maintained, but the distinction has been made between personal esteem and racial esteem (e.g, Porter &Washington, 1979, 1993; Rosenberg, 1985a). This form of self-esteem may be more reflective of personal well-being than of group activity (Cross, 1985). Beyond the concept names employed, the designations pertain to phenomena that relate to the individual's self-evaluation and, conversely, that which pertains to the conception or evaluation of the collective (e.g., African Americans). More important, Cross (1991) makes the point that discussion of the black self-concept has assumed a relationship between group identity and self-esteem. Because of this, rarely have researchers bothered to collect independent assessments of each concept. The relationship was taken for granted so that if you collected data for either variable, you would have a reflection of the other. This practice persisted with few exceptions until the 1970s. Within these two variously defined broad classifications-group identity and self-esteem-several different subcategories have been identified by various scholars. Noting that these two categories are related in complex ways, it has been argued by many that such distinctions are useful (Broman, Neighbors, &Jackson, 1988; Cross, 1985; Rosenberg, 1985). In one of the most comprehensive studies on the identity of Africans in the United States, Cross (1991) included the following concepts under the broad designation of personal identity: self-esteem, self-worth, selfconfidence ,self-evaluation,interpersonalcompetence, ego-ideal, personality traits, introversion-extroversion, and level of anxiety. Under the heading of reference group orientation, he included racial identity, group identity...