COMMENTARY The Universal Significance of Maslow’s Concept of Self-Actualization Jeevan D’Souza and Michael Gurin DeVry College of New York Abraham Maslow popularized the concept of self-actualization as a process an individual undergoes through life. He believed that most mentally healthy individuals follow a path called growth motivation that allowed them to self-actualize and realize their true potential as they grow older and mature. Maslow’s theory of self-actualization is synonymous with seminal psycholog- ical, philosophical, and religious theories that support the noble human transition from self- indulgence to selflessness and altruism. This article draws correlations between these theories to demonstrate the significance of Maslow’s theory and to develop a need-based activity chart that individuals can follow throughout their lifecycle on the path to self-actualization. Keywords: self-actualization, hierarchy of needs, lifecycle chart Maslow (1943) proposed his hierarchy of needs theory that enlists basic human needs in the form of a hierarchy. The hierarchy of need theory is arguably the most prominent motivational theory in the field of psychology. The five needs originally enlisted were physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow further expanded self-actualization into four needs, namely, cognitive, aesthetic, self- actualization, and self-transcendence (Maslow, 1973). He called the latter needs “being needs” or B-needs and the former four needs “deficient needs” or D-needs. He claimed that mentally healthy individuals follow a path called growth motivation that allows them to move up this hierarchy from D-needs to B-needs. As individuals follow this path they feel more fulfilled, their attention shifts from self-interest to selflessness, and they dedicate more time to causes outside of themselves and family. Maslow regarded the drive toward self-actualization as beneficial to a society because it would lead to more solidarity, compassion, care, problem-solving, and altruism. Prominent psychological and philosophical theories correlate with the concept of Maslow’s path to self-actualization and suggest that individuals are born selfish and must gradually move toward selflessness and compassion to create a flourishing society. These theories are briefly described and correlated with Maslow’s theory of self-actualization to validate the significance of his theory. We took advantage of the well-enlisted needs in Jeevan D’Souza, Engineering and Information Sciences, DeVry College of New York; Michael Gurin, Liberal Arts and Sciences, DeVry College of New York. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jeevan D’Souza, Engineering and Information Sciences, DeVry College of New York, 180 Madison Avenue, Suite 900, New York, NY 10016. E-mail: [email protected] T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an P sy ch ol og ic al A ss oc ia ti on ...

1. COMMENTARY
The Universal Significance of Maslow’s
Concept of Self-Actualization
Jeevan D’Souza and Michael Gurin
DeVry College of New York
Abraham Maslow popularized the concept of self-actualization
as a process an individual
undergoes through life. He believed that most mentally healthy
individuals follow a path called
growth motivation that allowed them to self-actualize and
realize their true potential as they grow
older and mature. Maslow’s theory of self-actualization is
synonymous with seminal psycholog-
ical, philosophical, and religious theories that support the noble
human transition from self-
indulgence to selflessness and altruism. This article draws
correlations between these theories to
demonstrate the significance of Maslow’s theory and to develop
a need-based activity chart that
individuals can follow throughout their lifecycle on the path to
self-actualization.
Keywords: self-actualization, hierarchy of needs, lifecycle chart
Maslow (1943) proposed his hierarchy of needs theory that
enlists basic human needs
in the form of a hierarchy. The hierarchy of need theory is
arguably the most prominent
motivational theory in the field of psychology. The five needs

2. originally enlisted were
physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-
actualization. Maslow further
expanded self-actualization into four needs, namely, cognitive,
aesthetic, self-
actualization, and self-transcendence (Maslow, 1973). He called
the latter needs “being
needs” or B-needs and the former four needs “deficient needs”
or D-needs. He claimed
that mentally healthy individuals follow a path called growth
motivation that allows them
to move up this hierarchy from D-needs to B-needs. As
individuals follow this path they
feel more fulfilled, their attention shifts from self-interest to
selflessness, and they dedicate
more time to causes outside of themselves and family. Maslow
regarded the drive toward
self-actualization as beneficial to a society because it would
lead to more solidarity,
compassion, care, problem-solving, and altruism.
Prominent psychological and philosophical theories correlate
with the concept of
Maslow’s path to self-actualization and suggest that individuals
are born selfish and must
gradually move toward selflessness and compassion to create a
flourishing society. These
theories are briefly described and correlated with Maslow’s
theory of self-actualization to
validate the significance of his theory. We took advantage of
the well-enlisted needs in
Jeevan D’Souza, Engineering and Information Sciences, DeVry
College of New York; Michael
Gurin, Liberal Arts and Sciences, DeVry College of New York.

3. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
Jeevan D’Souza, Engineering
and Information Sciences, DeVry College of New York, 180
Madison Avenue, Suite 900, New
York, NY 10016. E-mail: [email protected]
T
hi
s
do
cu
m
en
t
is
co
py
ri
gh
te
d
by
th
e
A
m
er

4. ic
an
P
sy
ch
ol
og
ic
al
A
ss
oc
ia
ti
on
or
on
e
of
it
s
al
li
ed

5. pu
bl
is
he
rs
.
T
hi
s
ar
ti
cl
e
is
in
te
nd
ed
so
le
ly
fo
r
th

6. e
pe
rs
on
al
us
e
of
th
e
in
di
vi
du
al
us
er
an
d
is
no
t
to
be

7. di
ss
em
in
at
ed
br
oa
dl
y.
The Humanistic Psychologist © 2016 American Psychological
Association
2016, Vol. 44, No. 2, 210 –214 0887-3267/16/$12.00
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hum0000027
210
mailto:[email protected]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hum0000027
Maslow’s theory to develop a need-based activity chart that
might help individuals
self-actualize through their lifecycle.
A Sampling of Prominent Theories Correlated to Maslow’s
Self-Actualization Process
At least five prominent theories correlate very strongly with
Maslow’s theory of self-

8. actualization and growth motivation. These theories claim that
an individual must move from
self-indulgence toward selflessness through the lifecycle to be
fulfilled and enable a flourishing
society. The theories are the Hindu stages of life (Kakar, 1968);
Erikson’s theory of psycho-
social development (Erikson & Erikson, 1998); Freud’s (1957)
theory of the id, ego,
and superego; the ancient Jewish tradition’s understanding of
human progression (Sacks,
2005); and Kohlberg’s stages of moral development (Kohlberg,
1981).
There are four Hindu stages in the life cycle of a human being
(Kakar, 1968). The first
stage, which lasts for approximately twenty years, is called
brahmacharya or the celibate
student. During this stage, individuals focus on gaining
knowledge and skills that will help
them engage in a profession and raise a family. The second
stage, which lasts for the next
twenty years or so, is called grihastha or householder. During
this stage, individuals focus
on love, family life, and pursuit of wealth by engaging in a
profession. The third stage is
called vanaprastha or social worker and lasts for approximately
the next twenty years.
During this stage, an individual reduces focus on family and
pursuit of resources, and
shifts focus toward society and social causes. The fourth and
final stage of life, which lasts
until death, is called sanyasa or ascetic. During this stage, an
individual renounces most
worldly pleasures in the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment in
solitude. Once enlightened,
the individual might return to society to preach and serve

9. humanity. The transition from
the householder to the social worker correlates strongly with
Maslow’s process of
self-actualization where the individual shifts focus from selfish
needs to social needs. The
transition from social worker to ascetic correlates with the
achievement of self-
transcendence, the final need in Maslow’s hierarchy.
Erikson’s psychosocial stages of human development (Erikson
& Erikson, 1998)
mention eight stages in the lifecycle of an individual. The
fundamental virtues associated
with each stage are hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity,
love, care, and wisdom. The
first six stages, which occur during the first 40 years of life, are
geared toward self-interest
and gratification. The last two stages are focused on society and
altruism. Erikson claimed
that if children were raised in a loving, caring, and free
environment, they would grow into
loving, caring, and free adults. In the last two stages of life,
they would tend to focus on
causes outside of themselves and would be highly generative. In
emphasizing the transi-
tion from self-interest to selflessness, Erikson’s theory, like the
Hindu stages of life
concept, correlates with Maslow’s theory of self-actualization.
Freud (1957) conceptualized the theory of the id, ego, and
superego. These three symbolic
entities of the psyche play an important role in his psychosexual
theory of human develop-
ment. According to Freud, the id is a set of instinctual innate
human drives, the ego is the
realistic organized part of the psyche, and the superego is the

10. part that is concerned with
morality and cultural rules taught by parents and other role
models. He claimed that during
infancy an individual’s ego is completely governed by the id,
which functions based on the
pleasure principle and only seeks self-gratification. As an
individual goes through the psy-
chosexual stages, the ego gets more developed. The ego seeks to
satisfy the id, but at the same
time tries to maintain a balance with the superego and reality.
The superego often contradicts
T
hi
s
do
cu
m
en
t
is
co
py
ri
gh
te
d
by

11. th
e
A
m
er
ic
an
P
sy
ch
ol
og
ic
al
A
ss
oc
ia
ti
on
or
on
e
of

12. it
s
al
li
ed
pu
bl
is
he
rs
.
T
hi
s
ar
ti
cl
e
is
in
te
nd
ed
so

13. le
ly
fo
r
th
e
pe
rs
on
al
us
e
of
th
e
in
di
vi
du
al
us
er
an
d

14. is
no
t
to
be
di
ss
em
in
at
ed
br
oa
dl
y.
211MASLOW’S CONCEPT OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION
the id in order to do what is morally right. The peaceful
resolution of this conflict is very
important in the avoidance of mental pathologies. If an
individual resolves all conflicts, the ego
develops more and more through life, following the superego
more than the id, thus exhibiting
moral behavior. If conflicts are not resolved successfully, it
could lead to self-absorption,
narcissism, denial, submission, or self-esteem crises. The

15. gradual process of the ego moving
from the id to the superego correlates with Maslow’s idea of
growth motivation and self-
actualization.
The degree to which Freud’s theory of personal development
emerged from his
personal reinterpretation of traditional Judaism has long been a
subject of debate, but
the subtle and complex nature of this link has been established
(Yerushalmi, 1993).
Freud reiterated the moral imperatives that lie at the heart of the
Jewish tradition he
apparently rejected, translating into psychological terms the
path toward psycholog-
ical health and high moral functioning that had long been
described in traditional
Jewish texts. For example, the body of mystical teachings
known collectively as the
Kabbalah serves as a kind of guide to self-transcendence,
leading the initiate toward
a life of divine service focused on the betterment of mankind.
Most striking here is
“the amazing correspondence that appears to exist between the
Kabbalah and other
longstanding spiritual traditions” focused on “the higher reaches
within each of us,”
on ethical development, and on improving the world through
individual, inner
transformation (Hoffman, 1981, p. 8). Other, less mystical texts
within Jewish
tradition, such as the 11th century Duties of the Heart and the
18th century The Path
of the Just, reinforce the idea that a healthy and fully
functioning individual is one
focused on ascending to ever higher states of awareness to

16. actualize innate potential
and assist in moving the world toward unity and perfection.
Similarly, the 19th
century Mussar movement, centered in Lithuania, emphasized
ethical development as
a high calling that would lead to a more cohesive, peaceful
human community. And
seminal Chassidic texts, such as the Tanya, analyzed in
exquisite psychological detail
the vital struggle of the individual to overcome instinct and
desire to achieve higher
moral purpose, echoing Freud’s later analysis of the interplay
among the id, ego, and
superego. This powerful stream within traditional Judaism has
consistently recognized
the individual as being embroiled in, and ennobled by, the
struggle to overcome
selfishness and, in general terms, views future human happiness
as increasing in direct
proportion to our collective success regarding this universal
struggle. Jonathan Sacks
(2005) referred to the universal human drive to transcend
selfishness and engage in
altruistic behavior as “the ethics of responsibility,” and found in
it the closest thing we
have to a “universal language.” He noted a study that
determined that altruistic
behavior resulted in a 24% increase in “life satisfaction” (p. 6).
In traditional Judaism,
we again recognize strong correlations to Maslow’s path toward
self-actualization.
Kohlberg (1981) developed a theory on the stages of moral
development. He isolated
six stages that healthy individuals go through during their
lifecycle. He placed the six

17. stages into three categories: preconventional morality,
conventional morality, and post-
conventional morality. Preconventional morality is mostly seen
in children and is re-
stricted to self-interest and gratification. This stage of morality
correlates with Freud’s
concept of the id. Conventional morality is seen in adolescents
and young adults, and is
concerned with pleasing others and following the law.
Postconventional morality is seen
in older adults and is concerned with developing social
contracts and universal ethical
principles. This stage of morality correlates with Freud’s
concept of the super ego as well
as with Maslow’s concept of self-actualization, showing an
individual’s progression from
selfishness to selflessness and universal morality.
T
hi
s
do
cu
m
en
t
is
co
py
ri

18. gh
te
d
by
th
e
A
m
er
ic
an
P
sy
ch
ol
og
ic
al
A
ss
oc
ia
ti
on

19. or
on
e
of
it
s
al
li
ed
pu
bl
is
he
rs
.
T
hi
s
ar
ti
cl
e
is
in

20. te
nd
ed
so
le
ly
fo
r
th
e
pe
rs
on
al
us
e
of
th
e
in
di
vi
du
al

21. us
er
an
d
is
no
t
to
be
di
ss
em
in
at
ed
br
oa
dl
y.
212 D’SOUZA AND GURIN
Need-Based Activity Chart for Self-Actualization
Because Maslow’s theory of self-actualization correlates

22. strongly with prominent
theories of morality, spirituality, and utilitarianism, we
developed a need-based activity
chart to guide individuals to self-actualize through the lifecycle.
Table 1 shows a
need-based activity chart describing the amount of conscious
time an individual might
devote to different needs in order to self-actualize as he or she
moves through the
lifecycle. The activities involved could vary significantly
between individuals, depending
on their geographical locations, professions, and circumstances.
The chart is intended to
demonstrate how a normal self-actualizing individual’s behavior
and actions could grad-
ually change throughout the lifecycle, with decreasing focus on
D-needs and increasing
focus on B-needs as the individual grows and matures.
For simplicity, Table 1 splits the lifecycle into four stages that
last for approximately
twenty years each. In the first stage, a normal child would spend
significant amounts of
time with friendships, family, identity resolution, and
schooling. At this stage, there is
little conscious focus on physiological and safety needs because
those needs would be
addressed by caregivers and/or the state; there is also no strong
drive toward aesthetic
self-actualization and self-transcendence at this stage. During
young adulthood, an indi-
vidual typically enters the workforce, enters into romantic
relationships and friendships,
and might choose to start a family; at this stage, he or she
would be spending most of their
time satisfying D-needs and cognitive needs. During late

23. adulthood, a self-actualizing
individual continues to satisfy their D-needs, but starts to shift
focus toward a socially
valued profession or cause. Finally, in late adulthood, an
individual who had faithfully
followed a path toward self-actualization would be capable of
dedicating significant
amounts of time toward B-needs.
Our lives are shaped by biological make up and social
conditions, on the one hand, and
our freely willed choices, on the other. Every individual thus
faces the danger of becoming
fixated on certain deficient needs, or the opportunity to become
a self-actualized, altruistic
human being.
Discussion
With a rapidly growing population, the constant depletion of
natural resources, a
universal emphasis on acquisitiveness rather than altruistic
giving, and advancing tech-
Table 1
Need-Based Activity Chart for Self-Actualization
Need type Need
Time spent on activities to satisfy each need
Childhood Young adulthood Middle adulthood Late adulthood
D-needs Physiological Low High Medium Low
Safety Low High Medium Low
Love and belonging High High Medium Low

24. Esteem High High Medium Low
B-needs Cognitive Low Medium Medium High
Aesthetic Low Low Medium High
Self-actualization Low Low Medium High
Self-transcendence Low Low Low High
Note. B-needs � being needs; D-needs � deficient needs.
T
hi
s
do
cu
m
en
t
is
co
py
ri
gh
te
d
by
th
e

25. A
m
er
ic
an
P
sy
ch
ol
og
ic
al
A
ss
oc
ia
ti
on
or
on
e
of
it
s

26. al
li
ed
pu
bl
is
he
rs
.
T
hi
s
ar
ti
cl
e
is
in
te
nd
ed
so
le
ly

27. fo
r
th
e
pe
rs
on
al
us
e
of
th
e
in
di
vi
du
al
us
er
an
d
is
no

28. t
to
be
di
ss
em
in
at
ed
br
oa
dl
y.
213MASLOW’S CONCEPT OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION
nology that broadly enables mankind’s destructive capabilities,
the world is careening off
course. Rebalancing can be achieved one individual at a time.
Maslow’s theory of
self-actualization posits that mentally healthy individuals are
deeply motivated to follow
a path called growth motivation that shifts focus from self-
interest to social interest,
resulting in personal satisfaction and communal peace.
Maslow’s theory correlates with
other significant theories in the worlds of psychology,
philosophy, and religion. As more

29. individuals self-actualize, society as a whole will recoup the
benefits and increasingly
flourish. In this article, we revisited Maslow’s powerful theory
and developed a need-
based activity chart to enable individuals to self-actualize
throughout their lifecycle.
References
Erikson, E. H., & Erikson, J. M. (1998). The life cycle
completed (Extended version). New York,
NY: W. W. Norton.
Freud, S. (1957). The origins of psychoanalysis. New York, NY:
Doubleday.
Hoffman, E. (1981). The way of splendor: Jewish mysticism and
modern psychology. Boston, NA:
Shambhala.
Kakar, S. (1968). The human life cycle: The traditional Hindu
view and the psychology of Erik
Erikson. Philosophy East and West, 18, 127–136.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1398255
Kohlberg, L. (1981). The philosophy of moral development:
Moral stages and the idea of justice.
New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation.
Psychological Review, 50, 370 –396.
Maslow, A. H. (1973). The farther reaches of human nature.
Chapel Hill, NC: Maurice Bassett.
Sacks, J. (2005). To heal a fractured world. New York, NY:
Random House.
Yerushalmi, Y. (1993). Freud’s Moses. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press.

30. Author Note
Jeevan D’Souza is a professor of engineering and information
sciences at DeVry
College of New York. He received his PhD in Computer Science
from Nova Southeastern
University. His research interests include humanistic
psychology, normative ethics, and
engineering education.
Michael Gurin is a professor of liberal arts and sciences at
DeVry College of New
York. He received his PhD in literature and composition from
the University of Denver.
His research interests include Jewish philosophy and dramatic
literature.
Received October 28, 2014
Accepted July 5, 2015 �
T
hi
s
do
cu
m
en
t
is
co

31. py
ri
gh
te
d
by
th
e
A
m
er
ic
an
P
sy
ch
ol
og
ic
al
A
ss
oc
ia

32. ti
on
or
on
e
of
it
s
al
li
ed
pu
bl
is
he
rs
.
T
hi
s
ar
ti
cl
e

33. is
in
te
nd
ed
so
le
ly
fo
r
th
e
pe
rs
on
al
us
e
of
th
e
in
di
vi

34. du
al
us
er
an
d
is
no
t
to
be
di
ss
em
in
at
ed
br
oa
dl
y.
214 D’SOUZA AND GURIN
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1398255A Sampling of Prominent
Theories Correlated to Maslow’s Self-Actualization

35. ProcessNeed-Based Activity Chart for Self-
ActualizationDiscussionReferencesAuthor Note
cognition and social neuroscience (pp. 350-367). New
York, ;...JY: Oxford University Press.
.!olden, D. C., & Higgins, E.T. (2005). Motivated
thinking. In K.]. Holyoak & R. G. Morrison (Eds.),
The Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning
(pp. 295-317). Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.
Zimmerman, B. A. (2011 ). Motivational sources and
outcomes of self-regulated learning and performance.
In B. ]. Zimmerman & D. H. Schunk (Eds.),
Handbook of self-regulated learning and performance
(pp. 49-64). London, England: Routledge.
MOTIVATION AND CULTURE
For decades, psychologists and researchers have
studied the motivational underpinnings of
achievement-that is, performance evaluated
against a standard of excellence. Interest in the
role of culture in understanding motivation-the
internal state that energizes, directs, and sustains
behavior-has reemerged. Researchers are
becoming mindful that culture, often defined as
membership in a racial, ethnic, or religious group,
is not merely one of many predictors of motivation.
Rather, individuals' motivations and behaviors
synchronize with the cultural practices, norms,
a·nd values in which they are embedded.

36. This entry briefly describes culture, reviews the
history of culture in the study of achievement
motivation, and surveys major theories in motiva-
tion research and the efforts to understand their
culturally situated meanings. It concludes by high-
lighting the need for a greater emphasis on socio-
cultural approaches to motivation.
Culture, Achievement Motivation, and
Cultural Psychology
Culture is the framework for human life. It is invis-
ible, unnoticed, and ubiquitous. It is a complex,
multifaceted aspect of the constructed environ-
ment that is both structural (societal institutions
and organizations) and symbolic (heritage, tradi-
tion, values, and behavioral expectations). Culture
is enacted in the ways groups perceive, represent,
interpret, and assign values and meaning to their
experiences.
Motivation and Culture 573
A situated perspective of persons in context-
that is, thinking about persons in the context of
their culture-has been evident in motivational
research since at least the 1930s when Kurt Lewin
emphasized that a person's behavior is a function
of the person and the environment. The study of
achievement motivation-the desire to perform
well in achievement situations-focused primarily
on the need to compete and excel as the root cause
of achievement.
David McClelland, for example, argued that the
key to an economically successful society is creat-

37. ing individuals motivated to achieve high levels of
personal success. In The Achieving Society, he
demonstrated how stressing the motive to achieve
personal success in elementary school textbooks
was related to the economic growth of a country
25 or more years later. He has since been criticized
by motivational psychologists and anthropologists
as being culturally insensitive for judging the
world's population as motivated or unmotivated
based on a male- and Eurocentric standard of indi-
vidual achievement-a criticism that is still valid
and reflected in the methods used by many motiva-
tional researchers.
Most motivational researchers study motivation
as an individual phenomenon. They emphasize
individual needs, goals, task values, and self-regu-
latory mechanisms while acknowledging that
social and cultural factors also influence motiva-
tion. Cultural psychology, however, considers the
varied ways members of a group interpret a cul-
ture's norms and values. It examines the dynamic
and reciprocal relationship between cultural and
psychological processes.
Researchers working from the cultural psychol-
ogy perspective assert that culture and psyche are
mutually constituted. From this perspective, it
stands to reason that motivation is culturally
grounded. For example, in an important study of
self-construal, Hazel Markus and Shinobu
Kitayama explored culture's role in shaping cogni-
tion, emotion, and motivation. They demonstrated
that individualistic Western culture (including the
United States and Europe) fosters an independent
self-construal characterized as egocentric, autono-

38. mous, and unique.
By contrast, collectivist Eastern culture (includ-
ing China, Japan, and India) promotes an interde-
pendent self-construal characterized as sociocentric
574 Motivation and Culture
and connected. Thus, in individualistic cultures,
success is defined in individual terms and arises
from a need to discover and express one's unique
attributes. In collectivist cultures, motivation to
succeed stems from a desire to fulfill expectations
of significant others and to achieve group goals. In
achievement situations, attribution biases for the
independent self are likely to be self-serving and
self-enhancing based on social comparisons, but for
the interdependent self, they are likely to be
self-effacing.
As cultural psychology advances in understand-
ing the self, achievement motivation theories, or
more specifically, sociocognitive theories of moti-
vation-namely, self-efficacy, self-determination,
expectancy value, attribution, and achievement
goal theories-have broadened their focus to
examine how cultural forces shape and inform
individuals' beliefs about autonomy and choice,
expectations of success, causes of success and fail-
ure, goals they pursue, and paths they take to
achieve these goals.
Self-Efficacy, Autonomy, and Choice

39. A fundamental assumption of all sociocognitive
theories of motivation is that individuals have an
inherent need for independence, personal agency,
responsibility, and control. Albert Bandura, the
original proponent of self-efficacy theory, stresses
the key role of beliefs in one's own capabilities-
efficacy beliefs-in accomplishing a task. Simply
put, when people can decide their own destiny by
shaping the environment to meet their specific
needs and goals, they develop self-efficacy and
competence.
The assertion is that perceived personal efficacy
contributes to the productive functioning for mem-
bers of both individualistic and collectivistic cul-
tures. Though self-efficacy does not necessarily
exalt the self or produce an individualistic lifestyle,
it can be argued that the underlying criteria for
self-efficacy-personal choice and autonomy in
shaping and molding one's environment-are indi-
vidualistic perspectives. Thus, people in less indi-
vidualistic cultures, where choices are often made
on their behalf, may be perceived as having lower
levels of efficacy.
Western scholars have tended to associate choice
and autonomy with motivated behavior. Learning
that stems from an internal need to achieve per-
sonal goals serves as the basis for another set of
motivational theories-namely, self-determination
and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation theories. The
underlying premise is that people value and engage
in activities they find personally satisfying. They
experience a sense of autonomy and intrinsic moti-
vation when they choose to engage in a course of

40. action, not when they are externally controlled.
Self-determination theory is often criticized for
adopting a Eurocentric perspective on autonomy,
as it seems to suggest that the Eastern emphasis on
doing one's duty and placing a higher value on oth-
ers' expectations and needs is tantamount to losing
autonomy and agency. Because Western thought
conflates the different dimensions of agency and
relatedness, an interdependent orientation is often
thought to exclude autonomy because it empha-
sizes relatedness. However, based on cross-cultural
research that included individualistic and collectiv-
istic nations, self-determination theorists argue
that autonomy, like relatedness, is a basic and
universal motivational need. Individuals across
individualistic and collectivistic cultures experi-
ence autonomy to the extent to which they voli-
tionally endorse cultural values and practices.
Valuing Achievement and the
Expectation of Success
John Atkinson advanced an expectancy and value
theory of achievement motivation according to
which, in achievement situations, the value of
succeeding in the task is an inverse function of the
difficulty of the task or the probability of success
or failure in performing it. Thus, people are
motivated to select a task that is perceived as
neither too easy nor too difficult but rather of
intermediate difficulty, because it provides them
the most information about their effort and
capabilities. However, Atkinson and his colleagues
paid little attention to the situated nature of these
two orientations-that is, that choices and options

41. for action in the real world are significantly framed
by social norms, group expectations, and the
feelings, actions, and thoughts of significant
persons and groups.
In the contemporary expectancy value theory-
the Eccles-Wigfield model-expectations of suc-
cess and subjective task value are the two most
important predictors of achievement behavior.
Subjective task value answers the question, "Why
should I do this task?" and the answers might be
interest in, the importance of, or the usefulness of
the task. Individuals are likely to have a greater
expectation of succeeding in a task they find rele-
vant, meaningful, and important.
Thus, in this model, expectations of success and
subjective task value are positively, rather than
inversely, related. Of particular relevance to under-
standing achievement motivation according to the
model is the culturally embedded nature of subjec-
tive task value. Culture plays a critical role in shap-
ing individuals' values and expectations-and
consequently, the choices they make and the
options they eliminate. Thus, culture and context
frame the opportunities for and constraints on
individuals' beliefs, motivations, and behavior.
Attributions for Success and Failure
Individuals make attributions-that is, perceived
reasons or causes-for both their successes and their
failures. People across cultures have proffered vari-

42. ous explanations of or attributions for their suc-
cesses and failures. An attribution in terms of ability
or effort to account for success or failure has a pro-
found effect on individuals' feelings about their
capabilities and competences, consequent affective
reactions, and future behaviors.
Studies indicate that in the West, effort and abil-
ity share a reciprocal relationship. Someone who
exerts considerable effort is viewed as possessing
lower ability, but success achieved with little effort
indicates high ability. Research provides some evi-
dence that Asian students are more likely to attri-
bute their academic setbacks or successes to effort
than to ability. However, research also suggests
that ability attributions may play a greater role in
the achievement cognitions of Asian and Asian
American children than previously thought, and
in studies where effort attributions are signifi-
cantly associated with achievement, these associa-
tions are relatively small in magnitude.
Achievement Goals
Achievement goal theory seeks to understand why
people pursue certain tasks and the ways by which
they judge and evaluate the tasks in which they
Motivation and Culture 575
engage. The theory postulates that individuals pur-
sue mastery goals or performance goals (or both).
Mastery goals emphasize learning, self-improve-
ment, and task mastery; performance goals are
focused on demonstrating ability or avoiding dem-
onstrating low ability, including interpersonal

43. comparisons. Considerable evidence has docu-
mented relationships between students' mastery
goal orientations and their use of cognitive, meta-
cognitive, and resource management strategies
(e.g., help seeking), and positive affect while
engaged in a learning task.
Performance goals, which can be distinguished
as either approach or avoidant, are focused on
gaining favorable judgments of ability (perfor-
mance-approach) or not doing worse than others
(performance-avoid). Performance goals have been
consistently linked to maladaptive achievement-
related outcomes, such as lower self-efficacy,
increased worry, and helpless behavior. Conceptions
of mastery, performance-approach, and perfor-
mance-avoid goals are closely tied to Western
individualistic notions of achievement behavior,
reflecting an emphasis on self-be it self-
improvement, self-enhancement, self-esteem, or
self-protection. Current research is examining
social goals in conjunction with achievement goals
to identify goals that are culture-specific versus
goals that are universal.
Cultural Minority Status and Motivation
An understanding of culture and motivation is
incomplete without a discussion of lost and
blocked opportunities for cultural minority youth
and the consequences for their motivation and
achievement. Cultural minority adolescents are
often at risk for maladaptive motivations and
behavioral choices. Such motivations and choices
are the consequence of exclusion experiences in
the school context, perceptions that education

44. cannot help them access blocked economic
opportunities, fear of fulfilling low-ability stereo-
types, or fear of not fulfilling high academic
expectations associated with model minority
stereotypes. Though racial discrimination has
been associated with stronger achievement moti-
vation for some African American youth, it also
has the potential to lower achievement
motivation.
576 Motivation and Personality
On the basis of a series of studies on stereotype
threat, Claude Steele suggests that such awareness
of negative perceptions about one's sociocultural
group is sufficient to undermine achievement.
Negative stereotypes ("blacks are lazy" or "girls
are bad at math") convey attributional informa-
tion that often results in long-term negative moti-
vational and psychological consequences for group
members. The attributions associated with the
stereotype impose obstacles to success for stigma-
tized youth because attributions regarding the
stigmatized group's intellectual capacity are seen
by group members and others as being relatively
stable, internal, and uncontrollable qualities. Such
attributions impair cognitive functioning as stig-
matized group members dis-identify with academic
achievement and focus their energy and efforts on
protecting self-worth.
Implications
Much of the achievement motivation research is

45. based on middle-class White samples and is, there-
fore, culturally bound. When included, culture is
treated as a categorical variable for cross-cultural
comparisons, with motivation still treated as an
individual and internal attribute. An expansion of
sociocognitive motivational theories that accounts
for the social and cultural aspects of motivation is
essential. There is growing recognition that
achievement motivation research needs to move
beyond cross-cultural comparisons to a sociocul-
tural and situated perspective wherein cultural
context and individual characteristics are mutu-
ally instantiating.
Revathy Kumar
See also Achievement Motivation; Cultural Psychology;
Motivation and Cognition; Self-Determination
Further Readings
Elliot, A. J., & Dweck, C. S. (2005). Handbook of
competence and motivation. New York, NY: Guilford
Press.
Kumar, R., & Maehr, M. L. (2010). Schooling, cultural
diversity and student motivation. In J. L. Meece & J.
Eccles (Eds.), Handbook of schools, schooling and
human development {pp. 308-323). New York, NY:
Routledge.
Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000). Expectancy-value
theory of motivation. Contemporary Educational
Psychology, 25, 68-81.
Wolters, C. A. (2004). Advancing achievement goal

46. theory: Using goal structures and goal orientations to
predict students' motivation, cognition, and
achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96,
236-250.
Zusho, A., & Clayton, K. (2011 ). Culturalizing
achievement goal theory and research. Educational
Psychologist, 46, 239-260.
MOTIVATION AND PERSONALITY
William McDougall stated:
Every man is constituted to desire certain goals
which are common to the species, and the attain-
ment of which goals satisfies and allays the urge
or craving or desire that moves us. These goals
are not only common to all men, but also ... r to l
their nearer relatives in the animal world, such
goals as food, shelter from danger, the company
of our fellows, intimacy with the opposite sex,
triumph over our opponent, and leadership
among our companions.
McDougall used the term instinct to refer to
universal goals deeply rooted in human nature and
common to all. Others have used the terms psy-
chological need, intrinsic motive, and basic desire.
Regardless of which term is used, universal goals
motivate significant behavior and appear to moti-
vate many personality traits. Indeed, Steven Reiss
has argued that all human motives can be consid-
ered efforts to manage an individual's experiences
with one or more universal goals and that many, or
all, personality traits are motivated by these goals.
This entry discusses the relationship between per-

47. sonality and motivation.
McDougall identified the following principal
instincts by studying anthropological accounts of
primitive societies and published observations of
primates:
• Flight from danger
• Repulsion by pain
• Curiosity in response to new places or things
Journal of Black Psychology
2017, Vol. 43(4) 358 –380
© The Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0095798416641865
journals.sagepub.com/home/jbp
Article
Internalized Racial
Oppression and Higher
Education Values: The
Mediational Role of
Academic Locus of
Control Among College
African American Men
and Women

48. Danice L. Brown1, Christopher B. Rosnick2,
and Daniel J. Segrist2
Abstract
A plethora of research underscores the deleterious effects that
racial
discrimination can have on the higher education pursuits and
experiences of
African Americans. The current study investigated the
relationship between
internalized racial oppression, higher education values,
academic locus of
control, and gender among a sample of African Americans.
Participants
were 156 African Americans currently attending college. All
participants
completed measures of internalized racial oppression, perceived
value of
higher education, and academic locus of control. Results
indicated that
greater internalized racial oppression correlated with a lower
valuing of
higher education and a more external academic locus of control.
Subsequent
mediational analyses showed that academic locus of control was
an
intervening variable in the relationship between internalized
racial oppression
1Towson University, Towson, MD, USA
2Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL,
USA
Corresponding Author:
Danice L. Brown, Department of Psychology, Towson
University, 8000 York Road, Towson,

49. MD, 21252-0001, USA.
Email: [email protected]
641865 JBPXXX10.1177/0095798416641865Journal of Black
PsychologyBrown et al.
research-article2016
mailto:[email protected]
https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798416641865
https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/journals-permissions
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/jbp
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1177%2F00957984
16641865&domain=pdf&date_stamp=2016-04-22
Brown et al. 359
and the value placed on higher education for men, but not
women. For
African American men, greater experiences of internalized
racial oppression
predicted a more external locus of control, which subsequently
predicted a
lower valuing of higher education. Implications for mental
health providers
and educators were discussed herein.
Keywords
internalized racial oppression, African Americans, higher
education, locus
of control
In spite of continued efforts to address racial oppression and
racial inequal-
ity, these factors continue to be a part of the lived experiences
of African
Americans (Brown & Tylka, 2011; Landrine & Klonoff, 1996;

50. Seaton,
Caldwell, Sellers, & Jackson, 2008; Utsey, 1998). Critical race
scholars
argue that the current social condition and inequality
experienced by
African Americans may have detrimental consequences for
various aspects
of their lives (e.g., legal, social, and psychological; Brown,
2003; Delgado
& Stefancic, 2012). In applying critical race theory to the
examination of
African American mental health, Brown (2003) noted that
experiences of
racial inequality and oppression may contribute to the
development of emo-
tional distress and poor psychological health among African
American indi-
viduals. One particular concern highlighted by Brown was the
development
of “antiself issues.” He argued that continued racial inequality
might lead
an African American to internalize negative, and racist,
ideology regarding
one’s racial group and identity. This internalization, in turn may
affect the
self-efficacy, perceived control, and outcome expectations of
African
American youth and young adults. Blackmon and Thomas
(2013) suggested
that internalization of racial oppression may particularly affect
the educa-
tional and career values of African Americans. The authors
noted that
developing negative beliefs about one’s racial identity may
contribute to
youth having a counterproductive approach to education, such

51. as disengag-
ing from school. This may also include placing less value on
higher
education.
Many authors have discussed the continued racial-ethnic gap in
higher
education attainment and achievement among college students
in the United
States (e.g., Cokley, 2002; Lynch & Engle, 2010; Steele, 1992).
The nation-
wide college graduation rates for African American students
who began in
2006 and graduated within 6 years (40%) are lower than their
Caucasian
(63%) and Asian (70%) peers (National Center for Education
Statistics
360 Journal of Black Psychology 43(4)
[NCES], 2015). While the percentage of African American
college students
rose from 10% to 15% between 1976 and 2011 (NCES, 2015),
gender differ-
ences have been observed. African American women (8.4%) are
enrolling in
college at a higher percentage than men (6.2%; U.S. Census
Bureau, 2013).
Additionally, women accounted for 64.8% of the bachelor’s
degrees con-
ferred to African American students in the 2012-2013 academic
year (NCES,
2015).

52. Authors have attempted to explain the discrepancy in African
American
higher education achievement with arguments ranging from
controversial
discussions of genetic influence (e.g., Herrnstein & Murray,
1994) to more
widely explored sociocultural factors, including socioeconomic
status and
experiences of racial oppression (Cokley, 2002; Sellers,
Chavous, & Cooke,
1998). The present study sought to further explore sociocultural
factors
related to the higher education gap by examining the
relationship between
internalized racial oppression and higher education values
among a sample of
African Americans. More specifically, the present study sought
to further elu-
cidate this relationship by examining the mediating role of
academic locus of
control in the relationship between internalized racial
oppression and higher
education values among African Americans. Given the
discrepancy between
African American women and men in their college enrollment
and comple-
tion, gender was also examined as a moderator.
Higher education values include the beliefs one has regarding
the educa-
tional system and how helpful further education may be for
one’s future
(Caldwell & Obasi, 2010; Luttrell & Richard, 2011). Though
many studies
examining the educational development of African American
students have

53. focused on academic performance (e.g., grade point average
[GPA] or school
completion), such performance may be linked to their beliefs
regarding the
value of education (Bandura, 1997; Chavous et al., 2003;
Luttrell & Richard,
2011). Few studies have focused on higher education values
among African
American college students, instead focusing on the aspirations
and achieve-
ment of children and adolescents. Higher education can lead to
greater, and
often more prestigious, career opportunities. Studies suggest
that African
American students are aware of the importance of higher
education for future
career endeavors and financial means. However, this is often
balanced with
the realities of the larger societies’ racially biased perceptions
of them and the
awareness of the oppression they may experience in higher
education settings
(Ford, Moore, & Trotman-Scott, 2011). Ford and colleagues
(2011) noted
that the realities of racial oppression may undermine the
motivation and aspi-
rations of African American students who see more barriers and
less rewards
in pursuit of higher educational goals.
Brown et al. 361
Varying levels of interpersonal and institutional racial
oppression have

54. contributed to difficulties, and at times exclusion, faced by
African Americans
in institutions of higher education and certain higher-status
careers (Brown &
Segrist, 2015). Such experiences may serve to create both
perceived and
actual barriers for African Americans, and other individuals of
color, in these
arenas. Additionally, awareness of the overrepresentation of
African
American individuals in low-status careers, and a lack of role
models or men-
torship in higher status career fields, may contribute to African
American
youth and young adults internalizing negative perceptions of
their racial
group and their ability to achieve higher-status careers (Brown
& Segrist,
2015; Lease, 2006). Thus, decreasing the value of the education
necessary to
achieve greater career opportunities (Blackmon & Thomas,
2013).
Internalized Racial Oppression
Racism, similar to other forms of oppression, is dynamic and
complex, mani-
festing at interpersonal, structural, and cultural levels (Speight,
2007). Speight
(2007) noted that “Racism is a process, a condition, a
relationship that violates
its victims, physically, socially, spiritually, materially, and
psychologically” (p.
127). She argued that a holistic understanding of the impact of
racial discrimina-
tion and oppression required the inclusion of discussions

55. regarding the ways in
which structural, institutional, and interpersonal racial
oppression are internal-
ized. Though the perpetration of racially oppressive acts by
others contributes to
the continued existence of discrimination (Carter, 2007), it is
also maintained by
the psychological internalization of racist ideology by its
victims (Bailey,
Chung, Williams, Singh, & Terrell, 2011; Speight, 2007;
Wilson, 1993).
Internalized racial oppression among African Americans is a
process by
which individuals adopt the racially oppressive beliefs and
behaviors enacted
toward Black people in the larger society (e.g., negative
stereotypes, notions of
racial inferiority, and discrimination), while rejecting positive
ideology regard-
ing African and African American cultural heritage (Bailey et
al., 2011). Though
a victim of institutionalized or interpersonal racial oppression
may disagree with
or dispute negative race-based treatment, individuals who have
internalized
their oppression may accept the limitations placed on their
humanity (Watts-
Jones, 2002). African Americans may exhibit varying levels of
internalized
racial oppression based on their exposure to racial
discrimination and inequality
(Bailey et al., 2011). Regardless, an African American
experiencing internalized
racial oppression may “think, feel, and act in ways that
demonstrate the devalu-

56. ation of their group and of themselves as members of that
group” (Hardiman &
Jackson, 1997, p. 21). This may manifest in negative
psychological and social
outcomes (e.g., feelings of helplessness and hopelessness).
362 Journal of Black Psychology 43(4)
The internalization of racial oppression may be the most
psychologically
damaging result of racism (Akbar, 1984; Speight, 2007). Once
racial oppres-
sion has been internalized, it may become self-sustaining such
that an indi-
vidual accepts notions of inferiority regarding one’s group,
identifies with the
oppressor, and forfeits the ability to define oneself and one’s
life experiences
(Bulhan, 1985; Watts-Jones, 2002). Additionally, African
Americans experi-
encing internalized racial oppression may exhibit oppressive
interpersonal
behavior toward others who belong, or are perceived to belong,
to their own
racial group (Bailey et al., 2011; Cokley, 2002). This may
involve actions
such as avoiding interactions and contact with other Black
individuals (e.g.,
predominantly Black neighborhoods or events), believing them
to be danger-
ous or low class (Bailey et al., 2011).
Earlier literature and measurement of this process focused
largely on

57. internalizing negative racial stereotypes (e.g., African
Americans are lazy).
However, Bailey and colleagues argued that internalized racial
oppression
may also include aspects such as belief in a biased portrayal of
history (e.g.,
early Africans were uncivilized and had no learning
institutions) and desiring
more European features (e.g., body size, facial features, hair
texture; Bailey
et al., 2011; Townsend, Thomas, Neilands, & Jackson, 2010).
Empirical studies have linked internalization of racial
oppression among
African Americans with negative outcomes such as
psychological distress, sub-
stance use, and depressive symptoms (Taylor, Henderson, &
Jackson, 1991;
Taylor & Jackson, 1990; Williams & Chung, 1999).
Additionally, recent stud-
ies have suggested adverse consequences resulting from the
internalization and
endorsement of negative racial stereotypes particularly among
samples of
African American girls and women (e.g., eating disorders and
risky sexual
behaviors; Thomas, Witherspoon, & Speight, 2004; Townsend et
al., 2010).
In a recently published study, Brown and Segrist (2015)
examined the
relationship between aspects of internalized racial oppression
and the career
aspirations of a sample of African American adults. Results
suggested that
individuals with self-reported higher levels of internalized

58. racial oppression
were less likely to strive for achievement or continued
education in their
career field. Interestingly, while gender was not a significant
predictor of
career aspirations in the study, results suggested that there were
significant
gender differences found for various aspects of internalized
racial oppres-
sion. Men were more likely to internalize negative racial
stereotypes and
devalue an African worldview than women. In contrast, women
were more
likely to desire Eurocentric hairstyles (see also Bailey et al.,
2011). These
findings suggest that the racial oppression faced by African
American men
and women may lead to differential experiences of internalized
racial oppres-
sion and possibly varied outcomes.
Brown et al. 363
However, few studies have examined the association between
internalized
racial oppression and higher education aspirations or
achievement. Harper
(2006, 2009) conducted related qualitative studies with samples
of high
achieving African American male college students. He
concluded that there
was no evidence of internalized racism affecting the academic
achievement
of participants. In both studies, the author noted the role that

59. support of same-
race peers and African American male leadership had in
participants’ ability
to cope with racial oppression. Other related studies have
focused on the
relationship between racial identity development and academic
achievement
among African Americans (e.g., Sellers et al., 1998).
Strong connections with African American culture, history, and
commu-
nity have been linked to valuing education, better educational
adjustment,
and motivation toward educational success (Bowman & Howard,
1985;
Chavous et al., 2003). Some studies suggest that African
Americans who are
more likely to view their race as a core aspect of their self-
concept have better
academic performance and academic self-concept (Chavous,
Rivas-Drake,
Smalls, Griffin, & Cogburn., 2008; Sellers et al., 1998).
In a study conducted with a sample of late adolescent (i.e., age
17 years)
African American students, Chavous and colleagues (2003)
examined the
relationship between racial identity and academic outcomes.
Results indi-
cated that participants who reported more positive feelings
toward African
Americans and being African American had more positive
beliefs regarding
academic achievement and were more likely to attend college.
The authors
noted that this was the case regardless of whether race was an

60. important
aspect of a participants’ identity.
With previous research suggesting a negative relationship
between inter-
nalized racial oppression and aspects of career and educational
development,
the psychological consequences of internalized racial
oppression on the
higher education values of African Americans warrants further
exploration.
More important, it is necessary to investigate potential
intervening variables
through which internalized racial oppression may be related to
the value
some African American students place on higher education.
Academic Locus of Control
Locus of control represents a set of beliefs regarding one’s level
of control
over one’s life outcomes (Lefcourt, 1982; Rotter, 1966).
Individuals who
have an internal locus of control tend to perceive that their life
outcomes and
achievements are largely influenced by their individual efforts,
whereas indi-
viduals with an external locus of control believe that the
environment largely
determines their life outcomes (Rotter, 1966; Wallston,
Wallston, Smith, &
364 Journal of Black Psychology 43(4)

61. Dobbins 1987). Perceived personal control may play an
important role in
psychological well-being (Moradi & Hasan, 2004), serving as a
coping (pro-
tective) mechanism against daily stressors (Lazarus & Folkman,
1984).
Continued exposure to racial inequality and oppression has been
linked to
the development of an external locus of control among
individuals of color,
serving to undermine their sense of personal control across
situations (Moradi
& Hasan, 2004; Pieterse & Carter, 2010; Sue & Sue, 2013). In
an examina-
tion of the relationship between locus of control and career
decision making,
Lease (2004) found that African American college students
exhibited more
external locus of control than European American students.
Additionally,
Lease noted that men, across racial groups, had a more external
locus of con-
trol than women. In an earlier descriptive study exploring levels
of locus of
control and self-esteem among a sample of at-risk African
American adoles-
cents, Wood and colleagues (1996) also found that African
American boys
were more likely to exhibit an external locus of control than
girls.
There is an extensive body of literature documenting the
relationship
between locus of control and academic achievement among
students, though

62. few have focused on African American students (Flowers,
Milner, & Moore,
2003; Graham, 1991). Trice (1985) noted that an academically
focused locus
of control involves one’s beliefs regarding academic success,
effort, and abil-
ity. An external academic locus of control has been shown to
relate to a vari-
ety of poor student behaviors, including non–illness-related
absenteeism
(Trice & Hackburt, 1989), ineffective approaches to homework
assignments
(Janssen & Carton, 1999), and incomplete class work (Trice &
Milton, 1987).
Additionally, an external academic locus of control has been
linked to lower
GPAs among students (Nordstrom & Segrist, 2009; Ogden &
Trice, 1986).
Studies have also suggested that, among college students,
individuals with an
internal academic locus of control may be less likely to take an
academic
withdrawal from college (Ogden & Trice, 1986) and more likely
to have
graduate school aspirations (Landrum, 2010; Nordstrom &
Segrist, 2009).
In examining the locus of control of African American students,
Flowers
and colleagues (2003) noted that many earlier studies focused
on racial com-
parisons and often reported that African American students were
more likely
than their European American counterparts to attribute their
academic perfor-
mance to external, environmental factors (e.g., luck and ease of

63. task).
However, the influence of life experiences, such as racial
oppression, must be
accounted for in understanding the perceptions of academic
control and edu-
cational aspirations among African American students (Flowers
et al., 2003).
For African American students, daily experiences of racial
discrimination
and possibly the internalization of such oppression may
influence locus of
control. Lambert and colleagues (2009) examined the mediating
role
Brown et al. 365
of perceived academic control on the relationship between
perceptions of
racism and depression in a sample of African American
adolescents. Results
indicated that girls who reported more perceived experiences
with racism
were less likely to believe in their ability to achieve academic
outcomes.
Additionally, low perceptions of academic control were related
to increased
depressive symptoms among girls, indicating that experiences of
racial
oppression may influence their perceptions regarding their
ability to achieve
academic successes. This mediational path was not found for
male partici-
pants, suggesting gender differences in the experiences and

64. behavioral out-
comes of African American adolescents (Lambert, Herman,
Bynum, &
Ialongo, 2009).
Though no published studies have examined the relationship
between
internalized racial oppression and an academically related sense
of control,
the results of a dissertation study conducted by Washington
(1997) indicated
that individuals who internalized their racial oppression
exhibited a more
external locus of control. Thus, there is still more to be
understood regarding
the ways in which internalized racial oppression may influence
male and
female African American college students’ perceptions of their
academic
control and thus their educational aspirations.
Empirical research examining the psychological influence of
internalized
racial oppression and its impact on various aspects of African
American life
is still in its infancy (Bailey et al., 2011; Speight, 2007; Watts-
Jones, 2002).
Thus, it is necessary to further explore this phenomenon to
understand the
complexity of racial oppression and the psychological
consequences of inter-
nalized racial oppression for the African American community.
Additionally,
there is more to be learned regarding the educational
achievement of African
American students and factors that affect the development of

65. their educa-
tional aspirations (Swail, Redd, & Perna, 2003). Although there
are several
studies that have investigated the influence of interpersonal and
institutional
racial discrimination on the educational aspirations of African
American stu-
dents (e.g., Chavous et al., 2008; Reynolds, Sneva, & Beehler,
2010), no pub-
lished studies have examined the influence of internalized racial
oppression
or the mediational role of academic locus of control.
Present Study
The present study sought to understand the influence of
internalized racial
oppression on the educational aspirations of African American
men and
women by examining the ways in which internalized racial
oppression may
influence the value African American students place on higher
education.
More specifically, the present study examined academic locus
of control as
366 Journal of Black Psychology 43(4)
a potential intervening variable through which internalized
racial oppression
may relate to the value African American students place on
higher educa-
tion. In order to have a more in-depth understanding of
psychosocial devel-

66. opment among African American students, the influence of
gender must be
taken into account (Cokley, 2001), thus, we included gender as
a moderating
variable.
Using the PROCESS macro developed by Hayes (2013), we
tested a mod-
erated-mediation model in a sample of African Americans that
examined
whether or not academic locus of control was an intervening
variable in the
relationship between internalized racial oppression and higher
education val-
ues with gender moderating every path. At the most basic level,
we hypoth-
esized that higher levels of internalized racial oppression would
be related to
higher levels of external academic locus of control which would
result in less
value being placed on higher education. Though no previous
studies have
examined this specific model with an African American sample,
previous
studies have found gender differences among African Americans
on the con-
structs under investigation. Thus, it was hypothesized that
gender would
serve as a significant moderator in every path in the proposed
model but we
did not have any specific a priori hypotheses (i.e., the gender
moderation was
exploratory).
Method

67. Participants and Procedure
Participants were drawn from a larger sample of 315 African
Americans par-
ticipating in a separate study on career aspirations (Brown &
Segrist, 2015).
After limiting the data to respondents who provided data on the
Academic
Locus of Control questionnaire, 184 respondents remained in
the sample. In
addition, we excluded participants who reported being
transgendered (n = 1)
and those who were not in college (n = 27). Thus, the final
sample consisted
of 156 college-attending participants with a mean age of 26.20
years (SD =
7.90; range 18-55 years). Furthermore, the respondents were
primarily
women (62.8%) and almost exclusively identifying as Black or
African
American (96.8%). With regard to education and income, 37.2%
of the
respondents completed a bachelor’s degree or higher and 62.2%
reported
making less than $50,000 a year.
Participants were initially recruited through an advertisement
sent out on
a listserv that promotes African American community and arts
events taking
place in a Midwestern metropolitan city (n = 73). Participants
from the list-
serv source had the option of entering a raffle for a $50 Visa
gift card.

68. Brown et al. 367
In order to increase sample size, Amazon’s MTurk was also
used to recruit
participants (n = 83). MTurk is an Internet resource that enables
partici-
pants—in MTurk parlance referred to as “workers”—to take part
in online
studies for a small remuneration—$40 in the current study. Only
those work-
ers who received a 95% approval rating or better for their work
in previous
studies were eligible to participate. Although as an Internet-
based tool MTurk
has a global reach, the current study was limited to participants
living in the
United States. Other authors (e.g., Buhrmester, Kwang, &
Gosling, 2011;
Mason & Suri, 2012) have noted that MTurk has many
advantages as a data
collection tool, including access to a more diverse group of
participants as
well as quality data that is as sound and reliable as data
collected through
traditional means. In fact, Goodman, Cryder, and Cheema
(2013) noted that
“research has not demonstrated significant differences between
MTurk par-
ticipants and traditional samples” (p. 213). There can be some
demographic
differences between the general population and MTurk samples,
however.
For example, MTurk workers tend to have slightly lower income
levels than
the general population (Goodman et al., 2013) but a higher

69. education level
(Paolacci, Chandler, & Ipeirotis, 2010).
Materials
Internalized Racial Oppression. Internalized racial oppression
was assessed
with the Internalized Racial Oppression Scale (IROS; Bailey et
al., 2011).
The IROS includes 28 items rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale
ranging from
1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), with higher scores
reflecting
increased experiences of internalized racial oppression. Items
address several
aspects of internalized racial oppression including negative
stereotypes (e.g.,
Black people are lazy), physical appearance/hair style (e.g., I
wished I looked
more White; Straight hair is better than my natural hair texture),
and accep-
tance of a biased representation of history (e.g., Cannibalism
was widely
practiced in Africa). The factors of this measure (i.e., Biased
Representation
of History, Alteration of Physical Appearance, Internalization
of Negative
Stereotypes, and Hair Change) were found to exhibit criterion-
related valid-
ity as evidenced by the significant negative correlations
between the factors
of the IROS and a measure of African self-consciousness (i.e.,
African Self-
Consciousness Scale; Baldwin & Bell, 1985). In the present
study, we were
interested in the overall experience of internalized racial

70. oppression, versus
specific facets, thus the IROS total scores were used in all
analyses. Bailey
and colleagues (2011) report a total scale coefficient alpha of
.87; in the pres-
ent study, coefficient alpha for the total scale was .91.
368 Journal of Black Psychology 43(4)
Valuing Higher Education. The degree to which participants
valued higher edu-
cation was assessed via the Higher Education Values Inventory
(HEVI; Lut-
trell & Richard, 2011). The HEVI consists of 30 items rated on
a 5-point
Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree),
such that higher scores reflect greater importance placed on
higher education.
Items and subscales of the HEVI reflect various aspects related
to the value
individuals place on higher education, including family
expectations (e.g., I
must do well in school to satisfy my family), scholastic focus
(e.g., I party
more than I study [reverse-coded item]), achievement value
(e.g., I place a lot
of pressure on myself to do well in school), general education
value (e.g., I
understand why I am required to take a variety of courses to
graduate), and
achievement obstacles (e.g., Work-related activities interfere
with my school-
work [reverse-coded item]). The scale exhibited adequate

71. construct validity
in a sample of 327 college freshman. Individuals with higher
scores on the
HEVI were positively associated with participants’ overall
GPA. Luttrell and
Richard (2011) reported a coefficient alpha of 0.75 for the total
scale. Sub-
scale scores and a total score can be derived from the HEVI.
Though some of
the participants in the original study racially identified Black
(i.e., 2%), this
scale has not been utilized solely with an African American
sample. In the
present study, the coefficient alpha for the HEVI total scale was
0.82.
Academic Locus of Control. Participants completed the
Academic Locus of
Control Scale (ALOC; Trice, 1985). The ALOC is a 28-item,
true/false scale
assessing the extent to which a college student believes that he
or she controls
academic activities and outcomes at the college level (e.g.,
College grades
most often reflect the effort you put into classes; There are
some subjects in
which I could never do well; I can easily be talked out of
studying), with
higher scores reflecting a more external orientation. The
original study
reported a coefficient alpha of .70 in a sample of 82 freshmen
college stu-
dents. Construct validity was supported by a significant
correlation with Rot-
ter’s (1975) I-E (internal-external) scale. No published studies
have used the

72. ALOC with an African American sample. The coefficient alpha
for the ALOC
in the present study was .79.
Results
Examining Possible Differences Between the Two Recruitment
Strategies
We conducted several t tests to determine if there were any
differences
between the 73 participants who were recruited form the local
community
Brown et al. 369
and the 83 participants who were recruited via Amazon’s
MTurk. The results
revealed that the groups did not differ in age, family income, or
their aca-
demic locus of control. However, the community sample placed
greater value
on higher education, t(145) = 2.13, p = .04, reported higher
levels of educa-
tion, t(153) = 2.83, p = .005, and reported lower levels of
internalized racial
oppression, t(144) = −3.91, p < .001, compared with the MTurk
sample.
Thus, we controlled for sampling method in all analyses.
Correlation Among Potential Covariates and Measures of
Interest
Table 1 presents the partial correlations between the

73. demographic character-
istics and the three variables of interest (ALOC, HEVI, and
IROS) while
controlling for sampling method. As hypothesized, higher
scores on the IROS
were related to lower scores on the HEVI (r = −.44, p < .001)
and higher
scores on the ALOC (r = .37, p < .001), suggesting that
individuals with more
internalized racial oppression valued higher education less and
reported
higher levels of external academic locus of control.
Furthermore, scores on
the HEVI were negatively related to ALOC (r = −.66, p < .001).
Age had a
significant positive relationship with education (r = .43, p <
.001) and a nega-
tive relationship with the ALOC (r = −.22, p = .009) indicating
that as age
increased respondents reported lower levels of externalized
academic locus
of control and reported higher levels of education. Men reported
having more
income (r = .18, p = .02), higher levels of externalized academic
locus of
control (r = .18, p = .03), and valued higher education less (r =
−.24, p = .004)
compared with the women in the study. Education level was
positively related
to higher education values (r = .17, p = .046). Income was not
related to any
of the variables of interest—ALOC, HEVI, and IROS. Based on
these find-
ings, we added age as a covariate, in addition to sampling
method, in the
mediation model.

74. Moderated-Mediation Model Controlling for Age and Sampling
Method
The moderated-mediation model tested three interactions: IROS
and gender
on ALOC, ALOC and gender on HEVI, and IROS and gender on
HEVI.
Table 2 and Figure 1 present the results of the moderated-
mediation analysis.
At the individual variable level, the sampling method, IROS
total, and gender
were not related to ALOC scores but age was negatively related
to ALOC
scores. Furthermore (and more important), there was a
significant interaction
370 Journal of Black Psychology 43(4)
between scores on the IROS and gender when predicting ALOC
scores. As
can be seen in Figure 1B, there was a significant positive
relationship between
IROS scores and scores on the ALOC for the men and no
relationship for the
women. In other words, for the men in this sample, as
internalized racial
oppression scores increased academic locus of control became
more exter-
nalized. Next, there was a significant negative relationship
between ALOC
and IROS total scores and HEVI scores—more externalized
locus of control
was related to lower self-reported educational values and lower

75. levels of
internalized racial oppression regardless of gender (i.e., the
interactions were
not significant). The other variables in the model predicting
HEVI scores
were not significant. Ultimately, the indirect effect of IROS
scores on HEVI
scores through ALOC scores was statistically significant for the
men (β =
−0.30, Boot SE= 0.09, 95% Bootstrap CI = −0.50 to −0.14) but
not present
for the women (β = −0.07, Boot SE = 0.05, 95% Bootstrap CI =
−0.18 to
0.02).
Discussion
The present study added to the existing literature by exploring
the relation-
ship between internalized racial oppression, academic locus of
control, higher
education values, and gender among African Americans. The
results of the
present study supported the hypothesized moderated-
mediational relation-
ships for African American men. More specifically, ALOC was
an interven-
ing variable in the relationship between IROS and HEVI but
only for African
American men.
Table 1. Descriptive Statistics and Partial Correlations Among
the Background
Characteristics and the Three Variables of Interest While
Controlling for Sampling
Method.

76. M (SD) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1. Age, years 26.20 (7.90) —
2. Gender .03 —
3. Highest education .43*** –.03 —
4. Family included .04 .18* .06 —
5. ALOC 10.47 (4.76) −.22** .18* −.02 .12 —
6. HEVI total 73.24 (13.75) .13 −.24** .17* −.02 −.66*** —
7. IROS total 57.61 (16.07) −.15 .13 −.14 −.05 .37*** −.44***
—
Note: Gender: 0 = female, 1 = male; ALOC = Academic Locus
of Control; HEVI = Higher Education Values
Inventory; IROS = Internalized Racial Oppression Scale.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
371
T
a
b
le
2
.
M
o
de
l C
o

77. ef
fic
ie
nt
s
fo
r
th
e
M
o
de
ra
te
d-
M
ed
ia
ti
o
n
M
o
de
l.

78. O
ut
co
m
e
A
LO
C
H
EV
I
to
ta
l
C
o
ef
fic
ie
nt
SE
95

79. %
C
I
p
C
o
ef
fic
ie
nt
SE
95
%
C
I
p
LL
C
I
U
LC
I
LL

80. C
I
U
LC
I
IR
O
S
to
ta
l
0.
05
0.
04
−
0.
03
0.
12
.2
2
−
0.

81. 26
0.
08
−
0.
42
−
0.
09
.0
02
G
en
de
r
−
4.
93
2.
91
−
10
.6
8

82. 0.
82
.0
9
−
8.
51
6.
69
−
21
.7
5
4.
73
.2
1
IR
O
S
*
G
en
de

83. r
0.
11
0.
05
0.
02
0.
21
.0
2
0.
14
0.
12
−
0.
09
0.
37
.2
3
A
LO

84. C
—
—
—
—
—
−
1.
59
0.
26
−
2.
10
−
1.
07
<
.0
01
A
LO
C
*

85. G
en
de
r
—
—
—
—
—
−
0.
28
0.
39
−
1.
04
0.
48
.4
7
A
ge
−

86. 0.
14
0.
05
−
0.
24
–0
.0
4
.0
1
−
0.
12
0.
12
−
0.
35
0.
11
.3
2

87. Sa
m
pl
e
−
0.
95
0.
85
−
2.
63
0.
73
.2
7
0.
22
1.
89
−
3.
53
3.

88. 97
.9
1
R
2
=
.2
6
R
2
=
.5
5
F(
5,
1
26
)
=
8
.6
2,

89. p
<
.0
01
F(
7,
1
24
)
=
2
1.
99
, p
<
.0
01
C
o
nd
it
io
na
l i

90. nd
ir
ec
t
ef
fe
ct
o
f
IR
O
S
o
n
H
EV
I
fo
r
ea
ch
g
en
de

91. r
Ef
fe
ct
B
o
o
t
SE
B
o
o
t
LL
C
I
B
O
O
T
U
LC
I

92. Fe
m
al
e
–0
.0
7
0.
05
–0
.1
8
0.
02
M
al
e
–0
.3
0
0.
09
–0

93. .5
1
–0
.1
4
N
o
te
: S
E
=
s
ta
nd
ar
d
er
ro
r;
C
I
=
c

94. o
nf
id
en
ce
in
te
rv
al
; U
LC
I
=
u
pp
er
li
m
it
o
f
co
nf
id
en

95. ce
in
te
rv
al
; L
LC
I
=
lo
w
er
li
m
it
o
f
co
nf
id
en
ce
in
te

96. rv
al
; A
LO
C
=
A
ca
de
m
ic
L
o
cu
s
o
f
C
o
nt
ro
l;
H
EV

97. I
=
H
ig
he
r
Ed
uc
at
io
n
V
al
ue
s
In
ve
nt
o
ry
; I
R
O
S

98. =
I
nt
er
na
liz
ed
R
ac
ia
l O
pp
re
ss
io
n
Sc
al
e.
A
ll
m
o
de
ls

99. w
er
e
pe
rf
o
rm
ed
w
hi
le
c
o
nt
ro
lli
ng
f
o
r
ag
e
an
d

100. sa
m
pl
in
g
m
et
ho
d.
372 Journal of Black Psychology 43(4)
Figure 1. Moderated-mediation results with gender as a
moderator in the overall
mediation model. (A) Coefficients for the moderated-mediation
analysis with
gender moderating all possible paths; (B) The interaction
between Internalized
Racial Oppression Scale (IROS) and gender on respondents’
Academic Locus of
Control (ALOC) scores. There was a significant positive
relationship between
IROS scores and ALOC for the men but no association for the
women. Taken
together, the mediation model works for men where higher
levels of self-reported
internalized oppression was related to more external academic
locus of control,
which in turn was related to lower educational values.

101. As hypothesized, there was an inverse relationship between
internalized
racial oppression and the value participants placed on higher
education
regardless of gender. Providing further evidence for arguments
regarding the
possible damage caused by internalized racial oppression and
the importance
of understanding this aspect of racial oppression (Bailey et al.,
2011; Brown,
2003; Speight, 2007; Williams & Chung, 1999). The present
study findings
suggested that individuals who exhibited higher levels of
internalized racial
oppression also reported placing less value and importance on
higher educa-
tion. As noted earlier, Blackmon and Thomas (2013) argued that
Brown et al. 373
internalization of racial oppression may affect the educational
values of
African American individuals. African American students who
have less pos-
itive views of their cultural heritage, endorse negative
perceptions of their
racial group, and place more value on a Eurocentric worldview
may not have
a positive academic outlook as this may lead them to accepting
negative soci-
etal perceptions regarding their academic and career potential
(Chavous
et al., 2003).

102. To further understand some of the possible underlying
mechanisms of this
relationship the results of the moderated-mediation analysis
must be exam-
ined. Interestingly, the current findings suggested that academic
locus of con-
trol mediated the link between internalized racial oppression
and higher
education values for African American men, but not women. In
an attempt to
understand why the mediational model was only significant for
men, closer
examination of the pathways indicated that gender served as a
significant
moderator in the relationship between internalized racial
oppression and aca-
demic locus of control, but not the association between locus of
control and
higher education values. Specifically, the positive relationship
between inter-
nalized racial oppression and academic locus of control was
only significant
for men.
This result may be linked to the racially oppressive beliefs that
African
American men internalize versus women. Previous research
findings indicate
that men may be more likely to internalize messages that could
be linked to
educational development such as negative stereotypes (Brown &
Segrist,
2015). Harper (2006) noted that as a result of the constant
exposure to racial
oppression, African American males may internalize and

103. endorse stereotypes
that depict them as less intelligent and more athletic. In
contrast, women may
be more likely to internalize messages related to beauty
standards (i.e., hair
styles and texture), aspects that may be unassociated with
academic outcomes
(Brown & Segrist, 2015).
Therefore, in the context of the mediation analysis, results
suggested that
African American men who internalized more racially
oppressive beliefs
were more likely to feel that they did not have control over their
academic
outcomes at a college level, and thus, placed less value and
importance on
higher education. This finding supports previous research
suggesting that
aspects of racial oppression may have an influence on an
individual’s sense
of perceived control (e.g., Lambert et al., 2009; Sue & Sue,
2013), as well as
the role of locus of control in the educational aspirations of
African American
students (Flowers et al., 2003). Additionally, the findings in the
present study
support previous research suggesting that racial discrimination
may nega-
tively affect aspects of educational value (e.g., academic
achievement and
motivation) among African American students (Caldwell &
Obasi, 2010;

104. 374 Journal of Black Psychology 43(4)
Chavous et al., 2008; Lambert et al., 2009; Sellers et al., 1998;
Wong et al.,
2003). However, the findings also add to our existing
knowledge of the influ-
ence of racial oppression by examining a component of this
concept that has
not been as widely studied as perceptions of racial
discrimination experi-
ences (i.e., internalized).
Limitations
The findings of the present study must be interpreted in light of
the limita-
tions. First, a note of caution regarding the generalizability of
the present
findings pertains to characteristics of the sample. While there
was variation
in region of residence and level of education, the sample
consisted largely of
individuals from the Midwest, most participants completed a
high school
diploma/GED, and most identified as female. It is important to
consider the
heterogeneity that exists among African American adults, as
well as the indi-
vidual, unique, differences in their lived experiences. Second,
participants
recruited from the community, compared with those recruited
through MTurk,
reported lower levels of internalized racial oppression and
higher levels of
valuing higher education. Although we controlled for sampling
method, these

105. differences limit the generalizability of our results. Third, two
of the mea-
sures had not been previously used with African American
samples (i.e.,
HEVI and ALOC). However, both measures exhibited good
reliability with
the present study sample. Additionally, the results of this study
were correla-
tional and the causal direction of the relationships cannot be
confirmed.
Although, theoretically, it would be unlikely that having an
external academic
locus of control would increase one’s level of internalized racial
oppression.
Finally, It is possible that other factors not measured in this
study (e.g., past
academic performance) may have influenced participants beliefs
regarding
the value of higher education. Chavous and colleagues (2003)
noted that stu-
dent’s beliefs regarding higher education can start to form well
before their
final year of high school.
Implications
Despite the limitations, the study findings support the notion
that internalized
racial oppression presents a great challenge for mental health
practitioners
and educators alike. Experiences of racial oppression may serve
as signifi-
cant stressors for African American men and women.
Understanding how
racial oppression is perceived, interpreted, and internalized is a
necessary

106. component of culturally competent work with African American
clients
(Brown, Blackmon, Schumacher, & Urbanski, 2013; Caldwell &
Obasi,
Brown et al. 375
2010). More important, enhancing the resources that African
American stu-
dents have for coping with and managing experiences of racial
stress may
serve as an important intervention when working with African
American cli-
ents (Harrell, 2000; Lambert et al., 2009) and may help buffer
against the
internalization of racial oppression. Additionally, educators and
clinicians
should become familiar with the ways in which internalized
racial oppression
may influence academic achievement and motivation,
particularly for African
American men. There is much focus on the lower academic
achievement of
African American boys and men without understanding the
factors that influ-
ence academic beliefs among them or factors that contribute to
their success
(Harper, 2006, 2009). These students may benefit from
clinicians and educa-
tors who invest time in discussing the effects of internalized
racial oppres-
sion, addressing the ways in which these psychological
processes might
affect a student’s academic cognitions or behavior and

107. contribute to lowered
academic aspirations (Caldwell & Obasi, 2010; Freeman, 1997;
Lambert
et al., 2009).
Given that the study of internalized racial oppression is still in
its early
development (Speight, 2007), further examination of this
process and the psy-
chological and behavioral consequences for African Americans
is warranted.
Additionally, examining factors that may underlie the
internalization of racial
oppression (e.g., institutional practices) may prove useful in
understanding this
complex process. Researchers and clinicians would also benefit
from examin-
ing other factors (e.g., racial identity or socialization practices
of educators and
parents) that may influence the perceived control that African
Americans and
other individuals of color, exhibit over life outcomes and
challenges, as a sense
of control may serve as a coping mechanism for many life
stressors (Lazarus &
Folkman, 1984). Additionally, there may be other relevant
academic constructs
that could be incorporated into the current model. For example,
Zajacova,
Lynch, and Espenshade (2005) found that academic self-
efficacy was a reliable
predictor of GPA in a sample of college freshmen. Given that
academic self-
efficacy involves perceptions about the degree to which one has
the skills to
succeed academically, this construct may be particularly

108. relevant in the current
model and could, easily be incorporated as either an additional
mediator or a
moderator. There is little research examining the value that
African Americans
place on higher education that may be of importance in
understanding their
motivation to attend college (Freeman, 1997) and may be a
critical piece of the
puzzle in shrinking the gap in higher education attainment.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.
376 Journal of Black Psychology 43(4)
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publica-
tion of this article.
References
Akbar, N. (1984). Chains and images of psychological slavery.
Jersey City, NJ: New
Mind Productions.
Bailey, T. K. M., Chung, Y. B., Williams, W. S., Singh, A. A.,
& Terrell, H. K. (2011).
Development and validation of the internalized racial

109. oppression scale for Black
individuals. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 58, 481-493.
doi:10.1037/a0023585
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New
York, NY: W.H.
Freeman.
Blackmon, S. M., & Thomas, A. J. (2013). Linking contextual
affordances:
Examining racial-ethnic socialization and parental career
support among African
American college students. Journal of Career Development, 41,
301-320.
doi:10.1177/0894845313495588
Bowman, P. J., & Howard, C. (1985). Race-related
socialization, motivation, and
academic achievement: A study of Black youths in three-
generation families.
Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 24, 134-
141. doi:10.1016/
S0002-7138(09)60438-6
Brown, D. L., Blackmon, S., Schumacher, K., & Urbanski, B.
(2013). Exploring clini-
cian’s attitudes toward the incorporation of racial socialization
in psychotherapy.
Journal of Black Psychology, 39, 507-531.
doi:10.1177/0095798412461806
Brown, D. L., & Segrist, D. (2015). African American career
aspirations: Examining
the relative influence of internalized racism. Journal of Career
Development.
Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/0894845315586256

110. Brown, D. L., & Tylka, T. (2011). African American resiliency
and perceived racial
discrimination: Examining the moderating effects of racial
socialization. Journal
of Black Psychology, 37, 259-285.
doi:10.1177/0095798410390689
Brown, T. N. (2003). Critical race theory speaks to the
sociology of mental health:
Mental health problems produced by racial stratification.
Journal of Health and
Social Behavior, 44, 292-301.
Buhrmester, M., Kwang, T., & Gosling, S. D. (2011). Amazon’s
Mechanical Turk: A
new source of inexpensive, yet high quality, data? Perspectives
on Psychological
Science, 6, 3-5. doi:10.1177/1745691610393980
Bulhan, H. A. (1985). Frantz Fanon and the psychology of
oppression. New York,
NY: Plenum Press.
Caldwell, T., & Obasi, E. M. (2010). Academic performance in
African
American undergraduates: Effects of cultural mistrust,
educational value,
and achievement motivation. Journal of Career Development,
36, 348-369.
doi:10.1177/0894845309349357
Carter, R. T. (2007). Racism and psychological and emotional
injury recognizing and
assessing race-based traumatic stress. The Counseling
Psychologist, 35, 13-105.

111. doi:10.1177/0011000006292033
Brown et al. 377
Chavous, T. M., Bernat, D. H., Schmeelk-Cone, K., Caldwell,
C. H., Kohn-Wood,
L., & Zimmerman, M. A. (2003). Racial identity and academic
attainment
among African American adolescents. Child Development, 74,
1076-1090.
doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00593
Chavous, T. M., Rivas-Drake, D., Smalls, C., Griffin, T., &
Cogburn, C. (2008).
Gender matters, too: The influences of school racial
discrimination and racial
identity on academic engagement outcomes among African
American adoles-
cents. Developmental Psychology, 44, 637-654.
doi:10.1037/0012-1649.44.3.637
Cokley, K. O. (2001). Gender differences among African
American students in the
impact of racial identity on academic psychosocial
development. Journal of
College Student Development, 42, 480-487.
Cokley, K. O. (2002). Ethnicity, gender and academic self-
concept: A prelimi-
nary examination of academic disidentification and implications
for psy-
chologists. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology,
8, 378-388.
doi:10.1037/1099-9809.8.4.379

112. Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2012). Critical race theory: An
introduction (2nd ed.).
New York: NYU Press.
Flowers, L. A., Milner, H. R., & Moore, J. L. (2003). Effects of
locus control on
African American high school seniors’ educational aspirations:
Implications
for preservice and inservice high school teachers and
counselors. High School
Journal, 87, 39-50. doi:10.1353/hsj.2003.0014
Ford, D. Y., Moore, J. L., III, & Scott, M. T. (2011). Key
theories and frameworks for
improving the recruitment and retention of African American
students in gifted
education. Journal of Negro Education, 80, 239-253.
Freeman, K. (1997). Increasing African Americans’
participation in higher educa-
tion: African American high-school students’ perspectives.
Journal of Higher
Education, 68, 523-550.
Goodman, J. K., Cryder, C. E., & Cheema, A. (2013). Data
collection in a flat
world: The strengths and weaknesses of Mechanical Turk
samples. Journal of
Behavioral Decision Making, 26, 213-224.
doi:10.1002/bdm.1753
Graham, S. (1991). A review of attribution theory in
achievement contexts.
Educational Psychology Review, 3, 5-39.
doi:10.1007/BF01323661

113. Hardiman, R., & Jackson, B. W. (1997). Conceptual foundations
for social justice
courses. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching
for diversity and
social justice: A sourcebook, (pp. 16-29). New York, NY:
Routledge.
Harper, S. R. (2006). Peer support for African American male
college achievement:
Beyond internalized racism and the burden of “acting White”.
Journal of Men’s
Studies, 14, 337-358. Retrieved from
http://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/168
Harper, S. R. (2009). Niggers no more: A critical race
counternarrative on Black
male student achievement at predominantly White colleges and
universi-
ties. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education,
22, 697-712.
doi:10.1080/09518390903333889
Harrell, S. P. (2000). A multidimensional conceptualization of
racism-related
stress: Implications for the well-being of people of color.
American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, 70, 42-57. doi:10.1037/h0087722
http://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/168
378 Journal of Black Psychology 43(4)
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and
conditional process

114. analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford
Press.
Herrnstein, R. J., & Murray, C. (1994). Bell curve: Intelligence
and class structure in
American life. New York, NY: Free Press Paperbacks.
Janssen, T., & Carton, J. S. (1999). The effects of locus of
control and task dif-
ficulty on procrastination. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 160,
436-442.
doi:10.1080/00221329909595557
Lambert, S. F., Herman, K. C., Bynum, M. S., & Ialongo, N. S.
(2009). Perceptions
of racism and depressive symptoms in African American
adolescents: The role
of perceived academic and social control. Journal of Youth and
Adolescence, 38,
519-531. doi:10.1007/s10964-009-9393-0
Landrine, H., & Klonoff, E. A. (1996). The schedule of racist
events: A measure of racial
discrimination and a study of its negative physical and mental
health consequences.
Journal of Black Psychology, 22, 144-168.
doi:10.1177/00957984960222002
Landrum, R. E. (2010). Intent to apply to graduate school:
Perceptions of senior year
psychology majors. North American Journal of Psychology, 12,
243-254.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and
coping. New York, NY:
Springer.

115. Lease, S. H. (2004). Effect of locus of control, work knowledge,
and mentoring on
career decision-making difficulties: Testing the role of race and
academic institu-
tion. Journal of Career Assessment, 12, 239-254.
Lease, S. H. (2006). Factors predictive of the range of
occupations considered
by African American juniors and seniors in high school. Journal
of Career
Development, 32, 333-350.
Lefcourt, H. M. (Ed.). (1982). Locus of control: Current trends
in theory and research.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Luttrell, V. R., & Richard, D. C. (2011). Development of the
Higher Education
Value Inventory: Factor structure and score reliability.
Psychology, 2, 909-916.
doi:10.4236/psych.2011.29137
Lynch, M., & Engle, J. (2010, August). Big gaps, small gaps:
Some colleges and uni-
versities do better than others in graduating African-American
students. College
Results Online. Retrieved from http://edtrust.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/10/
CRO-Brief-AfricanAmerican.pdf
Mason, W., & Suri, S. (2012). Conducting behavioral research
on Amazon’s
Mechanical Turk. Behavioral Research, 44, 1-23.
doi:10.3758/s13428-011-
0124-6

116. Moradi, B., & Hasan, N. T. (2004). Arab American persons’
reported experiences of
discrimination and mental health: The mediating role of
personal control. Journal
of Counseling Psychology, 51, 418-428. doi:10.1037/0022-
0167.51.4.418
National Center for Education Statistics. (2015). The condition
of education.
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of
Educational Research
and Improvement.
Nordstrom, C. R., & Segrist, D. J. (2009). Predicting the
likelihood of going to grad-
uate school: The importance of locus of control. College
Student Journal, 43,
200-206.
http://edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/CRO-Brief-
AfricanAmerican.pdf
http://edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/CRO-Brief-
AfricanAmerican.pdf
Brown et al. 379
Ogden, E. P., & Trice, A. D. (1986). The predictive validity of
the academic locus of
control scale for college students freshman outcomes. Journal of
Social Behavior
and Personality, 1, 649-652.
Paolacci, G., Chandler, J., & Ipeirotis, P. G. (2010). Running
experiments on Amazon

117. Mechanical Turk. Judgment and Decision Making, 5, 411-419.
Pieterse, A. L., & Carter, R. T. (2010). A exploratory
investigation of the relation-
ship between racism, racial identity, perception of health, and
health locus of
control among Black American women. Journal of Health Care
for the Poor and
Undeserved, 21(1), 334-348.
Reynolds, A. L., Sneva, J. N., & Beehler, G. P. (2010). The
influence of racism-
related stress on the academic motivation of Black and Latino/a
students. Journal
of College Student Development, 51, 135-149.
doi:10.1353/csd.0.0120
Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal
versus external control
of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and
Applied, 80, 1-28.
doi:10.1037/h0092976
Rotter, J. B. (1975). Some problems and misconceptions related
to the construct of
internal versus external control of reinforcement. Journal of
Consulting and
Clinical Psychology, 43, 56-67.
Seaton, E. K., Caldwell, C. H., Sellers, R. M., & Jackson, J. S.
(2008). The preva-
lence of perceived discrimination among African American and
Caribbean Black
youth. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1288-1297.
doi:10.1037/a0012747

118. Sellers, R. M., Chavous, T. M., & Cooke, D. Y. (1998). Racial
ideology and racial
centrality as predictors of African American college students’
academic perfor-
mance. Journal of Black Psychology, 24, 8-27.
doi:10.1177/00957984980241002
Speight, S. L. (2007). Internalized racism: One more piece of
the puzzle. The
Counseling Psychologist, 35, 126-134.
doi:10.1177/0011000006295119
Steele, C. M. (1992). Race and the schooling of Black
Americans. The Atlantic
Monthly, 269, 68-78.
Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2013). Counseling the culturally
diverse: Theory and practice
(6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Swail, S. S., Redd, K. E., & Perna, L. W. (2003). Retaining
minority students in
higher education: A framework for success (ASHE-ERIC Higher
Education
Research Report Series, Vol. 30, No. 2). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Taylor, J., Henderson, D., & Jackson, B. B. (1991). A holistic
model for understand-
ing and predicting depressive symptoms in African-American
women. Journal of
Community Psychology, 19, 306-320.
Taylor, J., & Jackson, B. (1990). Factors affecting alcohol
consump-
tion in black women. Part II. Substance Use & Misuse, 25,

119. 1415-1427.
doi:10.3109/10826089009056228
Thomas, A. J., Witherspoon, K. M., & Speight, S. L. (2004).
Toward the development
of the stereotypic roles for Black women scale. Journal of Black
Psychology, 30,
426-442. doi:10.1177/0095798404266061
Townsend, T. G., Thomas, A. J., Neilands, T. B., & Jackson, T.
R. (2010). I’m
no Jezebel; I am young, gifted, and Black: Identity, sexuality,
and Black
380 Journal of Black Psychology 43(4)
girls. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 34, 273-285.
doi:10.1111/j.1471-
6402.2010.01574.x
Trice, A. D. (1985). An academic locus of control scale for
college students.
Perceptual and Motor Skills, 61, 1043-1046.
Trice, A. D., & Hackburt, L. (1989). Academic locus of control,
Type A behavior and
college absenteeism. Psychological Reports, 65, 337-338.
Trice, A. D., & Milton, C. T. (1987). Locus of control as a
predictor of procrastina-
tion among adults in correspondence courses. Perceptual and
Motor Skills, 65,
1002. doi:10.2466/pms.1987.65.3.1002

120. U.S. Census Bureau. (2013). School enrollment. Retrieved
January 25, 2015, from
https://www.census.gov
Utsey, S. O. (1998). Assessing the stressful effects of racism: A
review of instrumenta-
tion. Journal of Black Psychology, 24, 269-288.
doi:10.1177/00957984980243001
Wallston, K. A., Wallston, B. S., Smith, S., & Dobbins, C. J.
(1987). Perceived con-
trol and health. Current Psychology, 6, 5-25.
Washington, N. C. (1997). The relationship between
internalized racism, locus of
control, and marital satisfaction in African-Americans (Doctoral
disserta-
tion, California School of Professional Psychology).
Dissertation Abstracts
International, 57(10-B), 6658.
Watts-Jones, D. (2002). Healing internalized racism: The role of
a within-group
sanctuary among people of African descent. Family Process, 41,
591-601.
doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.2002.00591.x
Williams, D. R., & Chung, A. M. (1999). Racism and health. In
R. Gibson & J. S.
Jackson (Eds.), Health in Black America. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Wilson, A. N. (1993). The falsification of Afrikan
consciousness: Eurocentric history,
psychiatry, and the politics of White supremacy. New York,
NY: Afrikan World

121. InfoSystems.
Wood, P. C., Hillman, S. B., & Sawilowsky, S. S. (1996). Locus
of control, self-con-
cept, and self-esteem among at-risk African-American
adolescents. Adolescence,
31, 597-604.
Wong, C. A., Eccles, J. S., & Sameroff, A. (2003). The
influence of ethnic dis-
crimination and ethnic identification on African American
adolescents’
school and socioemotional adjustment. Journal of Personality,
71, 1197-1232.
doi:10.1111/1467-6494.7106012
Zajacova, A., Lynch, S. M., & Espenshade, T. J. (2005). Self-
efficacy, stress, and
academic success in college. Research in Higher Education, 46,
677-706.
doi:10.1007/s11162-004-4139-z
not overburdening them with excessive specifiers
and subtypes. Thus, the revision process behind the
ICD-11 is intended to enhance, at a minimum, the
face validity of the classification.
However, the tension between clinical utility
and the possibly greater use of "unspecified" when
making a diagnosis contrasts with greater preci-
sion of more specific codes provided by subtypes
and other specifiers. Balancing this tension when
using the ICD for all classification purposes con-