Racial Identity Models

Shihoko Hijioka

A number of racial identity models have been proposed to explain how people develop racial identity. These models were originally developed to understand experiences of African Americans and then expanded to other racial groups in the United States. Many of them conceptualize racial identity development as a series of stages in which individuals change their attitudes and internalized images of their own racial group and other groups. Racial identity models are often used to aid counseling and research. Following are some of the major racial identity models. This is a five-stage racial identity model for African Americans that describes a process of transformation from a negative attitude toward one's own race to a positive one, through racial identity exploration. This model is a basis for many racial identity models. 1. Preencounter stage. Individuals lack conscious awareness of what race means to them and idealize the dominant European American culture. 2. ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.