Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Human Relations
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (3)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rovner, R. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Ethno-Cultural Identity and Self-Esteem: A Reapplication of Self-Attitude Formation Theories

Ralph Alan Rovner

University of Minnesota: 2928 30th Avenue South #1, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55406.

Traditional application of self-attitude formation theories to members of ethnocultural minority groups has postulated that they will internalize the dominant social group's negative evaluations of them and thus suffer from low self-esteem. Therefore, members of ethnocultural minority groups have been said to be in need of interventions designed to increase their self-esteem through enhancement of their ethnic identity. However, empirical findings fail to support the proposition that ethnocultural minority group members in general suffer from low self-esteem. It is suggested that these empirical findings are entirely consistent with self-attitude formation theories and that those theories actually predict that only a specific subset of ethnocultural minority group members will tend to internalize negative evaluations from out-groups. That subset consists of those ethnocultural minority group members who are immersed in a dissonant ethnocultural context. Conclusions are drawn about the appropriate role which interventions designed to enhance ethnic identity may reasonably be expected to fulfill in the struggle to ameliorate the effects of ethnic prejudice and racism.

Human Relations, Vol. 34, No. 5, 427-434 (1981)
DOI: 10.1177/001872678103400506
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?