Racial Identity and Career Assessment

Abstract

In the career assessment literature, relatively little attention is given to the matter of the influence of racial factors on assessees' responses to traditional assessment measures. In this paper, I argue that racial identity models could provide a framework by which to investigate the influence of racial factors on the career decisionmaking process but existing measures are inadequate for this purpose. The construct of racial salience is used to discuss hypothesized deficiencies in the career maturity and congruence racial group comparison assessment literature, and to recommend ways in which measures could be modified to incorporate racerelated theory more directly.In the career assessment literature, as is true of the assessment literature more generally, investigations of the construct of race or racial factors have been virtually nonexistent. Moreover, according to Nkomo (1992), there has been an absence of theoretical models or perspectives by which to guide such research. For example, in their review of 11,801 articles published in major organizational behavior journals over a 25-year (1964 to 1989) period, Cox and Nkomo (1990) found that only 1.1% focused on racial factors, while 11% focused on gender factors. Although it is not clear how many of the relatively few racial studies that Cox and Nkomo located were directly relevant to the topic of career assessment, it does appear that most of them were based on simplistic operational definitions of racial factors.Helms (1994) and Helms and Piper (in press) argue that, in psychology, racial factors conceivably can be investigated by means of at least one of the following three approaches: (a) nominal or demographic-inferring psychological characteristics from racial-group classifications; (b) culturalwherein persons are classified according to shared cultural criteria (e.g., values, traditions, and rituals) rather than racial categories per se;

Relations Among Racial Identity Attitudes, Perceived Stressors, and Coping Styles in African American College Students

“…Another unique and related contribution of this research is that it is one of the few studies to include socioracial constructs both as predictor and criterion variables. This feature adds to the complexity of our understanding of psychological processes (Helms, 1994), specifically, perceived stressors and problem solving for African American students at PWIs. However, additional research is needed to replicate and extend these results to more fully understand the experiences of African American college students at PWIs and subsequently to facilitate the development of comprehensive models of coping as well as effective interventions for this group.…”

Mentoring in Academia: Considerations for Diverse Populations

“…According to Bradley (as cited in Cook, 1994, p.4), "…supervision is intended to assist supervisees in integrating their personal and professional identities." In order to explore the supervisory relationship, Cook (1994) applied a mainstream approach (Constantine, Richards, Benjamin, & Wilson, 1998) which is characterized by the development of ego statuses that reflect varying degrees of racial self-awareness ranging from internalized feelings of inferiority to feelings of cultural acceptance of one's self and others (Cross, 1995;Helms, 1994). The combination of different racialized egostatuses on between mentor and protégé according Cook can be both predictive and descriptive of possible strengths and limitations of the dyad.…”

Individualism—Collectivism and the Vocational Behavior of Majority Culture College Students

“…Although some studies support differences in the vocational behavior of people representing similar (Leong & Tata 1990) or diverse (Westbrook & Sanford, 1991) cultural groups, the literature in this area remains scant. Researchers thus continue to call for efforts to examine empirically the interface between multicultural and career psychology (Betz, 1993;Fouad, 1993;Helms, 1994). Examining the extent to which variability on the constructs of individualismcollectivism relates to the contents of Anglo American college students' occupational plans, career choices, and work values provides a response to such calls.…”