AA Psychology Flashcards
Race
A social, not biological construct (though influenced by biology, genetics, ancestry) that refers to categories to which people are assigned based on physical color and hair type
- Black, White (Caucasian), Asian, Hispanic, etc
Culture
Constellation of values, customs, and traditions that influences how people interpret and respond to life events
Ethnicity / Ethnic Group Membership
Acceptance and internalization of group practices and beliefs
- African American, European American, Asian American, Latino
Sakhu
Spirit / soul; original form illumination or enlightenment of the soul or spirit
African / Black Psychology
A system of knowledge (philosophy, definitions, concepts, practice) regarding the native of the social universe from the perspective of the African worldview
African-centered / Africentric / Afrocentric
Utilization of the history, culture, and philosophy of African people as a frame of reference for organizing (orienting) one’s approach to reality, survived, and understanding the world
KEMET (KMT) civilization
African-Egyptian
Scientific Colonialism
A political control of knowledge and info for the purpose of advancing a particular group’s agenda and/or to prevent another group from advancing its own
Cultural Hegemony
The process of imposing one’s cultural views on another
What is the norm?
The African-centered “norm” is informed by common themes related to:
- holistic conception
- collectivism
- oral tradition
- time as past and present
- death as a stage of life
1) the individual (self) is a spiritual being. “Dimensions” or dichotomies are non-existent
2) Feelings are necessary, legitimate, speak to vitality (rather than suppression) and help to inform thinking
3) Survival is based on cooperate rather than competitions interactions
4) Oral language is valued beyond that which is written and detach (allowing for interconnectedness)
5) Present-orientation focused on events rather than a future orientation
6) Harmony and balance rather than control and manipulation of people and the environment
7) Death as another stage of life rather than an absolute end
8) Worth determined by contribution to the community rather than material accumulations / possessions
Oneness and harmony with nature / balance
AA Worldview
Control and mastery (master of) over nature
European / EuroAm Worldview
Collectivism; “I am because we are” “I exist because we exist” - proverb
AA Worldview
Competition
European Worldview
Survival of the group
AA Worldview
Survival of the fittest
European Worldview
Spiritualism
AA Worldview
Materialism
European Worldview
Past and Present
AA Worldview
Future time orientation
European Worldview
Ma’at
Principle of truth, justice, compassion, harmony (in order to have order we need harmony), balance, reciprocity, and order to which all should aspire for order
Maafa
The enslavement of African people by Europeans, designed to oppress and destroy (culture); African holocaust
Sankofa
An African Adinkra symbol that means ‘in order to go forward, one must go (look) back’ (go/look back - understand / know history)
Can/does an African Worldview exist among contemporary African-Americans?
- yes, despite the diverse people on the African continent
- enslaved Africans adapted; culture existed, African adapted
- spirituality remains strong (consisted)
- “fictive kin” treated as biological relatives; adapting a non-biological relatives as their own
- centuries of legalized isolation; separated - “keeping culture”
Inferiority Model
Blacks are intellectually, physically, and mentally inferior to white;
etiology of problem - genetics/heredity;
Relevant hypothesis/theories - genetic inferiority, eugenics
Deficit-Dediciency Model
Blacks deficient with respect to intelligence, cognitive style, family structure;
Etiology of problem - lack of environmental stimulation; racism and oppressive conditions, individual;
Relevant hypothesis/theories - cultural deprivation, cultural enrichment
Multicultural Model
All culturally district groups have strengths and limitations;
Etiology of problem - differences viewed as different, lack of skills needed to assimilate
The function of Black identity
- identity refers to how one sees him/herself and is interrelated to values and attitudes
- Identity determines “reference group orientation” or the social group that represents the individual’s self-concept
- AA identity is believed to be a social anchor that provides a connection to the broader African diaspora which buffers the psyche from non-affirming and dehumanizing messages; Black identity cannot bring them back to a Eurocentric diaspora but rather to the Afrocentric diaspora
Deracination
The attempt to erase Black consciousness
Nigrescence
The struggle for Black self-awareness; trying to act a positive imagine/identity; to become black
Goal: the search for an authentic self-image; to have an authentic self
Cross’s Model of Nigrescence
“Negro-to-Black” conversion experienced by characterized by an individual movement through 5 distinct psychological stages:
- Pre-encounter
- Encounter
- Immersion-Emersion
- Internalization
Pre-Encounter
In this stage, the traditional description characterizes the individual who is prone to view the world from a white frame of reference - s/he thinks, act, and behaves in ways that devalue and/or deny his/her blackness
- individual views the world from a “white” (majority) frame of reference; value a Eurocentric Worldview
- accepted deracination stage
- associated with socioeconomic status
- motivated by bees to dissociate from negative impact of “Blackness”
(Start/first stage)
Person exist in this stage when they see/don’t see themselves as black; when an individual internalize negative impact of blackness and values of Eurocentric Worldview
Encounter
This stage is characterized by an individual experiencing one or many significant personal/social events that are inconsistent with his or her frame of reference - ex. A black person who views his/her race as not important and wishes to be viewed and accepted simply as a “human being” is denied access to living in an exclusive neighborhood due to their skin color
1st phase: realization phase
- an individual recognized that his or her old frame of reference or Worldview is inappropriate and s/he begins to explore a new identity
2nd phase: decision phase
- decision occurs when the person cautiously and defiantly decides to develop a black identity
- intro of some frame-of-reference-altering event or series of events
- realization that old reference is inappropriate
- decision to defiantly accepted “black identity”
In this stage-
When something happen that the person will start to “act out” in stereotypical manner - for explain, when a person is stereotyped as x, the person will then “act out” in x manner
Immersion-Emersion
- turning point (in conversion from the old to the new frame of reference)
- pro-Black / anti-white attitude (denigrate white people, glorifying black people)
- emotionally intense (trying to figure out authenticity) (struggle to repress or destroy all vestiges of the pre-encounter orientation while simultaneously becoming intensely concerned with personal implications of the newfound black identity)
In this stage-
A person is emerging into a stage of “full” blackness - everything for value in life must be Black or relevant to blackness
Internalization
This stage is characterized by
- the individual achieving a sense of inner security and self-confidence with his or her Blackness
- psychological openness, ideological flexibility, and a general decline in strong anti-White feelings
- tension, defensiveness is resolved and replaced by psychological flexibility
- likely more open to multicultural/non racist perspective
- reference group is “Black”
In this stage-
Individual now has a positive image on their roots/blackness but also has a more multicultural perspective
The psychology of survival - the beginning of Black identity development
- escape from the slave master
- fight the slave master
- identify with slave master in order to minimize inner conflict
Need for survival so make decision for family; bring culture to colony; survival slavement:
- making a decision to run away
- or stay and fight
- or stay and not fight
Pathologized; a sickness
Theoretical notions of AA personality
- Nobles
- Akbar
- Williams
- Kambon
Nobles
- Extended self-Model: African Worldview (and sense of interdependence and collective consciousness) is the essence of personality and self-concept
Akbar
- Divine spiritual care Model: similarly based of African Worldview; constant striving to connect spiritually with African consciousness/nature/universe and deidentification of black people
Williams
- WEUSI Model: personality rooted in Black self-concept
- Genetic/cultural/psychological/spiritual blackness, collective was, “naturalness”
Kambon
- Self-consciousness theory
Component of African self-consciousness theory
- African self-consciousness
- cultural misorientation
African self-consciousness
Collective identity, African cultural survival, advocacy, and defense against matters that are anti-African
Adolescent identity development
- adolescence marks the age where identity assessment occurs in response to race-based environmental cues:
- racial messages (“you’re not like other black people, do you play football”) (msgs may be internalized)
- another cue might be the conversation that one is the ONLY black person in a given setting
- adolescents likely enter into Cross’s Encounter stage when society “reflects his/her blackness back to him/her” some event or series of events causes one to acknowledge racism (an awareness stage where children are more prepare of certain encounters)
Coping strategies (responses to negative/positive encounters)
- development of an oppositional stance (not “acting white”) –^– recognizing that s/he is different and that’s not a good thing; kid saying “no I’m not, that’s not how I am” so they will act “more black” to fit in with their black friends
- a coping strategy for feeling excluded in a majority white society
- problem is that the oppositional stance is based on stereotypes of speech and academic achievement
- “racelessness” as a strategy for de-emphasizing membership in a certain ethnic group
Racelessness
- happens in Cross’s pre-encounter stage
- having no race; “I am just an American”
Cultural misorientation
Personality disorder that occurs from cultural oppression and Eurocentric consciousness
Cultural Mistrust
- a general distrust of white people, “white” institutions, and all who adopt a “white” ideology
- a core component of Black consciousness
The construct and its measurement
- cultural “paranoia”
* believed to affect mental and physical health seeking and academic performance
