Social Position and Self-Evaluation: The Relative Importance of Race

Evidence and argument designed to demonstrate that blacks suffer higher levels of personal disorganization than whites has not seriously attempted to assess the relative effects of racial status upon psychological state. Here two samples of blacks and whites are used to evaluate the relative effects of racial status on a measure of self-esteem and on a measure of psychological symptoms of stress. In competition with sexual status, city, age, education, marital status, and work-force participation, racial status has minimal effects upon these measures of affective state employing a multiple classification analysis. City and work-force participation have a greater effect upon whites than upon blacks; marital status has a greater effect upon blacks than upon whites; and education has strong effects upon both racial groups. Caution is therefore suggested for researchers who employ racial differences as an explanation for behavioral differences between racial groups.