Screening for psychopathology in groups of black and white prison inmates by means of the MMPI

Of 225 male offenders who were administered both the MMPI and a structured diagnostic interview, the Psychiatric Diagnostic Interview (PDI), 51 (25 blacks, 26 whites) earned highly elevated MMPI profiles (at least one clinical scale greater than or equal to T score of 90) and 46 (26 blacks, 20 whites) achieved profiles that were essentially within normal limits (all clinical scales less than T score of 70). It was noted that the concordance between the MMPI and the total number of PDI syndromes reported by inmates was significantly greater in the white group (classification accuracy = 96%) relative to the black group (classification accuracy = 71%). However, both the black and white hit rates were found to significantly improved upon chance.     

Black-White Semantic Differences and interracial Communication1

In Phase I, black and white adolescent males made semantic differential ratings of 14 concepts representing a wide range of values. MOTHER, FATHER, GIRLS TV, GOD. POLICE. and NEXT YEAR yielded profiles significantly different for the 2 racial groups. In Phase II, 28 blacks and 28 whites each attempted to decode the profiles of 1 black and 1 white other. For combined racial groups, accuracy was greater when the other was semantically similar. Disregarding semantic similarity, accuracy was greater when the other was of the same race. Semantic similarity made little difference, however, when both encoder and decoder were black. Whites excelled in decoding the profiles of other whites where concepts were commonly encoded by both racial groups, while blacks were more accurate intraracially where concepts were differentially encoded by the 2 racial groups. Results were related to the assumption of a standard set of meanings for whites and a standard-nonstandard dual system for blacks.     

An exploratory study of the draw-a-person as a measure of racial identity.

The race of the figure drawn on the Draw-A-Person Test is proposed as a measure of acceptance of racial identity. Reliability and validity of this measure were explored in a two-part study. Part 1 confirmed the hypothesis that the race of the figure drawn is related to the race of the child producing the drawing. Comparison of the figures drawn by black (n = 157) and white (n = 167) children confirmed three other hypotheses based on the voluminous literature suggesting that black children are less accepting of their racial group membership than whites. These hypotheses were: (a) whites should be more likely to draw figures that are clearly white than blacks are to draw figures that are clearly black, (b) whites should be less likely to draw blacks than blacks are to draw whites, and (c) blacks should be more likely to avoid giving clear indication of the race of the figures they draw than are whites. Inter-rater reliability for the race of the figure drawn was .79. Five weeks after the initial drawing, a subsample of 28 black children drew a second figure and performed a picture choice task designed to assess acceptance of racial identity. The race of the figure drawn showed a test-retest reliability of .53 and correlated significantly with the other measure of racial identity (r27 = .39).     

College Students' Racial Attitudes

Factor analyses of responses from white ( N = 260) and black ( N = 81) college students in two neighboring universities were utilized to develop contemporary measures of racial attitudes and of the degree of interracial contact experienced by blacks and by whites. Two sets of 112 attitudinal statements were utilized for the initial factor analyses, one set for black respondents and one for whites. About 60% of the items in the two sets were identical or the same except that the racial designations were reversed. Two 20-item racial attitude scales were derived from the factor analyses, one for blacks and one for whites. For students of each race, scores on the attitude measure showed a weak but significant relationship with a 16-item self-report scale of amount of interracial contact experienced, past and present. The relationship of these scales to earlier racial attitude measures (symbolic racism, modern racism, the MRAI, value rankings) were assessed. Second-order factor analyses suggested that the black students' racial attitudes were more heterogeneous than were the white students' racial attitudes. In general, black respondents tended to show more support than whites for programs designed to increase opportunities for, and recognition of, blacks. Black students also tended to endorse a greater degree of social distance between the races than white students did. The pattern of relationships between racial attitudes and sociopolitical issues differed for whites and blacks.     

Separate factor analyses of the McCarthy Scales for groups of black and white children

Factor analyses of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA) were performed on separate groups of black (N = 124) and white (N = 688) children, aged 3.0 to 7.6 years, to assess the comparability of the underlying structures and to evaluate the construct validity of the MSCA for each racial group. Little Jiffy I (principal components) solutions produced four factors for the blacks and three for the whites. Each “white” factor had a coefficient of congruence of .85–.93 with one “black” factor, indicating the close similarity of the solutions. In addition, the factors which emerged for the blacks and whites corresponded to several of the scales constituting the MSCA, offering evidence of the instrument's construct validity for each racial group. The results of the study should enhance the use of the McCarthy Scales for assessing young children of all races.     

WISC-R and K-ABC comparison for matched samples of black and white children

The present study examined the performance of matched pairs of black and white fourth and fifth grade males and females on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC). A total of 86 whites (40 males and 46 females) and 86 blacks (40 males and 46 females) were individually matched on age, gender, school, and socioeconomic status. The scores are as follows: the mean WISC-R Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) for blacks was 92.3 (SD=11.6) and for whites was 101.3 (SD=11.6) and the mean K-ABC Mental Processing Composite score (MPC) for blacks was 91.5 (SD=10.1) and for whites was 97.5 (SD=10.6). These findings suggest that black children will likely earn very similar WISC-R FSIQ and K-ABC MPC mean scores. Additionally, Kaufman and Kaufman's conclusion that use of the K-ABC reduces the difference between black and white levels of intelligence by one half in comparison with values found using the WISC-R was not supported.     

Academic Achievement and Self-Esteem Among Black and White College Students

Abstract

Most studies on self-esteem among black and white Americans include samples of elementary school and high school students. In the present study, data on 298 black and white college students and an examination of the relationship between student's grade point average and self-esteem were presented. Several findings corroborate earlier research on school-age children. Self-esteem scores of blacks and whites were not significantly different, despite blacks having significantly lower grade point averages than whites. The relationship between grade point average and self-esteem, however, was negligible among blacks and among white males, suggesting that academic achievement is not critical to the self-concept of college students.     

A statistical note on "differential misdiagnosis of blacks and whites by the MMPI".

This report presents a critique of the conclusion by Strauss et al, that MMPI diagnostic decision-making rules derived from whites are inapplicable to blacks. It is shown that for the data from two of their three MMPI indices, a multiple discriminant function and the Goldberg Index, there was no clear evidence for greater misdiagnosis among blacks than whites when the hit rates among psychotics, behavior disorders or both are examined. For the third measure, semiactuarial profile analysis, the results show less diagnostic accuracy for blacks psychotics, but this one result does not warrant a broad generalization. A preferable method of analysis and a source of potential bias in one of the measures are pointed out.     

Black-white college student attitudes and expectations in paying for dates

This study examined a black-white sample (N= 173) of university students to ascertain if there is a protocol related to paying for dates. The sample was comprised of 97 blacks and 76 whites. Most of the blacks were from a historically black university and most of the whites were from a predominantly white university, both located in the southeast. Blacks had a slightly lower mean family income when compared with whites. Both racial and gender role related attitudes and expectations related to paying for dates were also explored. African Americans have generally been noted to enact more flexible or nontraditional gender role attitudes and behaviors in some areas. This study sought to ascertain if this pattern followed in the economic dimension of dating. Findings showed race differences on several variables related to paying for dates. Blacks were found to be less flexible or more traditional than whites on several aspects of dating related attitudes and expectations. Whites were more likely to endorse more flexible role patterns and seemed less concerned with a dating protocol. Other important background variables related to more flexible gender role attitudes and expectations were classification, age, and total income of respondents' family of origin respectively.     

Race and the differential "power" of the MMPI.

The interpretation that blacks' tendency to score higher on MMPI clinical scales is due to educational deprivation has been challenged by research in which, when educatation was held constant, race-related differences remained. Racial differences in type of psychopathology have seldom been controlled in part research. After establishing that a grester proportion of black psychiatric patients may receive a schizophrenic diagnosis (Study 1), MMPI protocols of black and white schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic psychiatric patients were obtained. All patients had received 12 or more years of education. Schizophrenics scored significantly higher on the MMPI F and Sc scales and nonschizophrenics tended to score higher on Pd. No race-related differences were observed on any of the 11 MMPI scales considered.     

Socialization and career orientation among black and white college women

In a study of career orientation among black and white college women, support was found for hypotheses derived from postulates of Rotter's Social Learning Theory. Compared to whites, (1) blacks were less likely to expect the level of work involvement preferred; (2) blacks expected more employment; and (3) blacks were more likely to prefer less employment than they realistically expected. Antecedents of career expectation were categorized as internal, external, or neutral. As hypothesized, variables expressive of external control predicted level of career expectation among blacks, whereas variables expressive of internal control predicted high career expectations among whites.     

The effect of race,sex, and career goal differences on sex role attitudes at home and at work

Male and female blacks and whites whose career goals differed as to sex role stereotypy were administered two sex role inventories. One measured attitudes toward women's expanding sex roles in the home/personal environment, while the other measured sex role attitudes in the working environment. The major finding of the present study is that black women had more traditional sex role attitudes in the home environment than white women but the same sex role attitudes about working, whereas both black and white women were more liberal in their sex role attitudes in both environments than black and white men.     

Race, social class and ability patterns on the WISC-R

The national standardization sample of whites and blacks on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised (WISC-R) was the basis for a detailed analysis of the psychometric nature of racial and social class differences on the original 13 subscales of the WISC-R. The profiles of subtest scores of whites and blacks were compared directly and also after the racial groups were statistically equated on Full Scale IQ (FSIQ). Under the latter condition, the races differ only very slightly, although significantly, on some of the subtests, in ways generally contrary to popular expectations. The profile of white-black differences on the WISC-R subtests is markedly different, and negatively correlated with, the profiles of social class differences within each racial group, indicating that the pattern of racial differences is not explainable in terms of the difference in the average socio-economic status (SES) of blacks and whites. A Schmid-Leiman orthogonalized hierarchical factor analysis yields virtually identical factor structures and highly congruent factor loadings on the subtests for whites and blacks. Analysis of factor scores shows that by far the largest proportion of the variance between races is attributable to the general factor (g) common to all the subtests, whereas the group factors (verbal, performance and memory) contribute only minutely to the interracial variance. Hence the white-black differences on the diverse subtests of the WISC-R, and in the Full Scale IQ, are interpreted primarily as a difference in Spearman's g, rather than as differences in the more specific factors peculiar to particular content, knowledge, acquired skills or type of test. However, some slight but significant differences in patterns of ability also occur that are independent of g.     

Racism and Feminism: Is Women's Liberation for Whites Only?

The women's movement is often described as „white middle-class” despite the fact that black women not only are more oppressed than whites, but are more favorable to the goals of the women's movement. Black women, especially those identified with the black rights movement, fear that feminism will split their ranks and divert public attention. Black women's problems also differ from those of whites in other ways, mostly related to the fact that their economic position is much worse than that of either white women or black men. Moreover, blacks hesitate to join organizations they perceive as white dominated. It is argued that both black and women's rights movements need each others' support and that black women cannot achieve equality unless both movements succeed     

Physical activity, motor development and self-concept: race and age differences

To investigate the effect of organized physical activity on the development of specific motor skills (body coordination and self-concept) of elementary age children, 344 children from the ethnic origins, black and white, were administered the Schilling Body Coordination Test and the Martinek-Zaichkowsky Self-concept Scale for Children. Motor development (body coordination) and self-concept scores were significantly higher for the group who participated in the physical activity program than for controls who did not. There was a linear trend in motor skill improvement, with Grades 2, 3, 4, and 5 showing significantly higher gains than Grade 1. The self-concept scores indicated a significant decline for Grades 3, 4, and 5. There were no significant differences between blacks and whites. A two-way interaction was found between grade and race in motor development, with blacks demonstrating lower mean scores than whites in Grade 2 but higher mean scores in Grade 5. Correlations between self-concept and motor development were non-significant.     

Race differences and the Spearman hypothesis

Certain published data have been reviewed and new data presented relevant to the so-called Spearman hypothesis concerning the racial differences on cognitive tests of black and white Americans. In the published data, the correlation between the profiles of low socio-economic and high socio-economic status (SES) whites became ?.90 when sex, area of the country, and grade/age were controlled. This nearly mirror-image relationship suggests that the residual across-the-board difference between the two groups is primarily on the general factor in intelligence. In contrast, the same correlation between blacks and the low SES whites was only ?.19. This indicated not only independence of the profiles but the presence of multiple causes of differences in addition to a possible contribution of the general factor. These published interpretations have now been confirmed by obtaining correlations between general factor loadings and the group differences for most of the same tests. For the SES dochotomy in whites this correlation is .86. For blacks and the low SES whites it is .17. When the two distributions of differences are correlated, a value of .42 is obtained. The Spearman hypothesis appears to apply primarily to differences in socio-economic status rather than race. Furthermore, one cannot assume a large genetic component for each set of differences. Nor can one argue that the possibility of a large environmental component for each set indicates common environmental causes.     

Fertility, menstrual characteristics, and contraceptive practices among white, black, and Southeast Asian refugee adolescents

This study compares fertility and menstrual characteristics and contraceptive practices of white, black, and Southeast Asian refugee adolescents participating in the Minneapolis Health Department's Maternal and Infant Care Program between 1980 and 1982. Mean ages were similar among all racial groups; however, half the Hmong adolescents had a live birth as compared to less than 25% of the other racial groups. More than 75% of the Hmong and other Southeast Asian adolescents were married as compared to 11% of the whites and 8% of the blacks. Menarche was significantly later (2 years) for Hmong and other Southeast Asians, and the interval between menarche and first pregnancy was significantly shorter for the Hmong. While more than half of the whites and blacks previously used contraception, 14% of the Hmong and 29% of the other Southeast Asians had used contraception. Oral contraceptives were the most frequently used method for whites, blacks, and Southeast Asians; the Hmong were equally likely to choose oral contraceptives or barrier methods. The Hmong were less likely to choose contraception postpartum than were the other groups.     

Intergroup contact experience and frequency as predictors of cross-racial attitudes

This study examined the relationships between contact frequency, experiences of intergroup contact and a number of demographic intergroup variables. A telephone survey was conducted among 544 blacks (57.5% male; 42.5% female) and 478 whites (44.6% male; 55.4% female). Three CHAID models with attitudes towards blacks and Afrikaans-speaking and English-speaking whites as dependant variables were investigated. Contact experience rather than frequency was the most significant predictor of racial attitudes. Age and geographical location were significant predictors of black attitudes towards the two white groups. A complex web of factors seems to influence intergroup relations in culturally heterogeneous societies.     

RACE AND SEX DIFFERENCES IN SEX ROLE ATTITUDES OF SOUTHERN COLLEGE STUDENTS

A sample of southern college students is used to investigate race and sex differences among nine Likert-type sex role attitudes. Results show that black and white men share a similar sex role orientation while black and white women also share a similar world view. There were only two instances where blacks were notably different from whites. First, blacks were more likely to feel that a woman's real fulfillment in life comes from motherhood, and second, blacks were more likely to feel that it was appropriate for a mother with school-age children to work.     

Level I and level II abilities in Asian,white, and black children

All the Asian-American, white, and black children in grades 2 through 6 in a California school district were given a battery of tests including measures of IQ, scholastic achievement, and short-term memory. Factor analysis of the tests yielded two main factors identified as Level I (memory) and Level II (general intelligence) in Jensen's system. The three ethnic groups were compared with one another on uncorrelated Level I and Level II factor scores. At every grade level, bivariate means of the three groups occupy distinctly different quadrants in the factor space. Asians and whites differ on Level I (A < W) but not on Level II. Asians and blacks differ on Level II (A > B) but not on Level I. Whites and blacks differ (W > B) on both Levels I and II, but the white-black difference on Level I is less than one fourth as large as the white-black difference on Level II. A similar pattern of group differences is found for scores on tests of memory and nonverbal IQ. Scholastic achievement shows much smaller correlations with the Level I than with the Level II factor.