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Sociocultural, sociohistorical, and sociopolitical effects on African American women's sense of self

The current study was an attempt to increase understanding within the field about the self-conceptualization processes of African American women given the perceptions/ stereotypes that exist about them. Grounded theory methodology was utilized to ascertain participants' understanding of themselves as well as whether historical and/or contemporary perceptions/stereotypes impacted how they saw themselves. The African American women in this study tended to define themselves in positive terms. Often their self-definitions included perceptions/stereotypes that are typically thought to be socially desirable (e.g., strong and independent). The participants' self-definitions tended to exclude perceptions/ stereotypes that carry more negative connotations (e.g., loud and unintelligent). Future research should investigate the implications of perceptions/stereotypes for self-concepts of African American women who are also members of other traditionally oppressed groups.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:uiowa.edu/oai:ir.uiowa.edu:etd-1723
Date01 May 2010
CreatorsLeathers, Leslie Carol
ContributorsLiu, William Ming
PublisherUniversity of Iowa
Source SetsUniversity of Iowa
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typedissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceTheses and Dissertations
RightsCopyright 2010 Leslie Carol Leathers

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