Psychological Research and the Black Self‐Concept: A Critical Review

Abstract

Distinctive theoretical features characterizing research in the area of the self‐concept, with attention paid to the approaches of phenomenology, existentialism, behaviorism, and symbolic interaction, are related to investigations into the nature of the black self‐concept. A modification of Mead's symbolic interactional approaches is developed. The grounding of research on the black self‐concept in non‐African epistemologies is considered sufficient reason to discard most, if not all, previously published research in the area.