Collective Self Esteem and Racism

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2002 39: 501Transcultural Psychiatry Sadeq Rahimi and Ronald J. Fisher

Collective Self-Esteem and Construal of Racism

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501

Collective Self-esteem and Construal ofRacism

SADEQRAHIMI

McGill University

RONALD J.FISHER

University of Saskatchewan

Abstract Participants from various ethnic groups were included in a studyof the effects of collective self-esteem (CSE) on construal of racism. It washypothesized that low CSE participants are more likely than high CSEparticipants to construe ambiguous behavior targeted at their groupmembers as racist. Personal self-esteem was hypothesized to not predictconstrual of racism. It was further hypothesized that low CSE participantsare more likely than high CSE participants to attribute higher degrees of racism to the same incident when the victim is an in-group member.Partici-pants interpreted scenarios in which an ‘Active Agent’ was reported to exhibitambiguous behavior to the disadvantage of a ‘Passive Agent.’ Group

membership of passive agents were manipulated to create in-group (sameas the subject) and out-group (different group) conditions. Resultssupported the original hypotheses.

Key words collective identity • collective self-esteem • minority groups •perception • racism

Int roduct ion

Social identity has been defined as ‘that part of an individual’s self-conceptwhich derives from his knowledge of his membership in a social group (or

Vol 39(4): 501–515[1363–4615(200212)39:4;501–515;029519]Copyright © 2002 McGill University

t ranscul turalpsychiatry

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groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to thatmembership’ (Tajfel,1981,p.255).As an integral component of one’s senseof identity, social identity remains theoretically and empirically distinct

from personal identity.Whereas personal identity is defined in reference toindividual attributes such as talent and competence and reflects individualvalues and emotions, social identity is understood to include ‘collective’aspects of values and emotions, with reference to the social group(s) anindividual considers himself or herself to be a member of. According to thepremises of Social Identity Theory (Tajfel, 1981; Tajfel & Turner, 1979), itis essential for an individual to strive to maintain a positive social identityas well as a positive personal identity. Crocker and Luhtanen (1990) intro-duced the construct of ‘collective self-esteem’as an indicator of individuals’

positive evaluation of their social identity, in the same way that personalself-esteem has been generally understood as an individual’s positive evalu-ation of his or her personal identity. They define collective self-esteem as‘the extent to which individuals generally evaluate their social group posi-tively’ (1990, p. 60–61).

Following the development of a collective self-esteem scale by Luhtanenand Crocker (1992), researchers have applied the notion of collective self-esteem to studying various social and clinical aspects of minority groupli fe, from inter-group interactions and racism to identity and self-

evaluation to psychological well-being and even physical health. Thepopulations studied have been selected based not only on traditionalaspects such as ethnicity or culture, but also on social interests (e.g. soccerfan groups, classmates, etc.: Long, Spears, & Manstead, 1994; Robins &Foster, 1994), sexual orientation (e.g. gay or lesbian groups: Rodriguez,2001; Zea, Reisen, & Poppen, 1999), and physical health (e.g. HIV patients:Rodriguez, 2001). Although the concept of collective self-esteem has beenfruitful in studying diverse populations, it appears to be especially relevantto mental health and social adjustment.

A growing body of research demonstrates the influence of collective self-esteem on the physical and psychological health of minority groupmembers (e.g.Barry,2000;Crocker,Luhtanen, Blaine,and Broadnax,1994;Rodriguez, 2001; Yeh, 2001). Yeh (2001), for example, found that amongTaiwanese participants collective self-esteem significantly predictedwillingness to seek professional psychological help when distressed. Barry(2000) reports a significant correlation between collective self-esteem andthe mental health level of East Asian immigrants in the US. Similarly,collective self-esteem has been shown to influence the physical well-beingof gay men with HIV/AIDS (Rodriguez, 2001) and to be associated withlower rates of depression in Latino lesbians and gay men in the US (Zea etal., 1999).

Collective self-esteem is only moderately correlated with personal

Transcult ur al Psychiat ry 39(4)

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Rah imi &Fish er : Col l ect ive Sel f-Est eem and Const r ual of Racism

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self-esteem (r = .35) (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992; Verkuyten & Masson,1995). Despite the empirical distinction between collective and personalself-esteem, a number of studies indicate parallels between the two

constructs, particularly regarding the mechanisms employed to enhanceself-perception. Individuals with high self-esteem, for example, tend tobecome involved in self-serving perceptual distortions of the self and theenvironment (S. E. Taylor & Brown, 1988). Similarly, in-group favoritism(the distortion of reality to enhance own-group members) has been notedto affect interpretations of the environment and others (e.g. Mann &Taylor, 1974; D. M. Taylor & Jaggi, 1974; see Hewstone, 1990 for a compre-hensive review). Recent studies show that higher degrees of in-groupfavoritism are found among group members with higher collective self-

esteem (Aberson, 1999; Crocker & Luhtanen, 1990; De Cremer, Van Vugt,& Sharp, 1999; Verkuyten & Masson, 1995).

Just as personal self-esteem is a predictor of responses to threats topersonal identity, scores on a measure of collective self-esteem predictresponses to situations that pose a threat to social identity (De Cremer etal., 1999; Garza, 1998; Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992; Robins & Foster, 1994).Verkuyten and Masson (1995) found that for minority group members amore positive in-group evaluation (higher collective self-esteem) wasassociated with lower out-group rejection (lower ethnic prejudice). Low

collective self-esteem may lead to negative evaluation of the out-group inan effort to enhance one’s own self-esteem. The negative evaluation of theout-group, in other words, may be a result of threatened self-esteem andinsecurity caused by social exclusion (Verkuyten & Masson, 1995).

Sel f -evaluat ion and At t r ibut ion Bias

The concept of self is generally believed to be closely related to the evalu-ation and understanding of others (e.g. Ashmore & DelBoca, 1979; De

Cremer & Oosterwegel, 1999; Sanchez Santa-Barbara, 1999; Verkuyten &Masson, 1995). Individuals with higher self-esteem are known to construeambiguous behavior aimed at them in more positive ways than those withlow self-esteem (S. E. Taylor & Brown, 1988). The effects of self-esteem onthe interpretation of others has been especially emphasized in research onattribution bias (e.g. Fenigstein, 1984; Greenberg, 1983; Kulik, Sledge, &Mahler,1986;Tetlock & Levi,1982;Zuckerman,Kernis,Guarnera,Murphy,& Rappoport, 1983). Based on this literature, it appears that, whereas highself-esteem individuals are more likely to make positive egocentric attri-butions to others’ behavior, low self-esteem may lead to interpretation of the behavior of others as derogatory.

A study by Fenigstein (1984) provides further evidence for a relation-ship between the perceptions of oneself and others. In the context of a









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study involving perception of interpersonal rejection, Fenigstein foundthat overperception of the self as target was associated with high levels of public self-consciousness. He explained this by an increased availability of

self-referent information about the social self in participants with highpublic self-consciousness. Interestingly, whereas higher levels of publicself-consciousness appeared to directly increase perception of the self astarget and victim, private self-consciousness showed no effect on thisphenomenon. This led Fenigstein (1984) to argue for a distinction betweenthe effects of ‘private’ and ‘public’ aspects of the self in studying egocentricattr ibutions – an argument especially important in the context of thepresent study.

Hypot heses

The present study was designed to examine the effects of collective self-esteem on the perception of racism in an experimental setting. Followinga pattern similar to that explored in egocentric bias research, low collectiveself-esteem may be associated with an ‘overperception of one’s group asvictim or target of an event which, in reali ty, may not be directed towardthe group’ (Fenigstein, 1984). The group membership of victims shouldalso play a role in the construal of racism. If the victim of a negative social

interaction is an in-group member, low collective self-esteem participantsmay allocate cognitive resources to a defensive interaction with thepresumably hostile environment.Consequently, less rigorous processing of the available information may be undertaken, such as using a stereotypedinterpretation of the situation. Of course, there may also be a differencebetween the high collective self-esteem and the low collective self-esteemparticipants in attribution of racism where the victim is an out-groupmember. Theoretically, such a difference would be due to the generalperception of the host society as racist or nonracist.

The hypotheses of our study may thus be summarized as follows:

1. Collective self-esteem will have a negative correlation with construalof racism. Participants with low collective self-esteem will construethe same behavior as more racist than participants with high collec-tive self-esteem. This higher attribution of racism will exist regardlessof the group membership of the victim.

2. Collective self-esteem will predict construal of racism above andbeyond personal self-esteem.

3. Group membership will interact with collective self-esteem inpredicting the construal of racism. Participants with low collectiveself-esteem will attribute higher levels of racism to the same behaviorwhere the victim was a member of their own ethnic group than wherethe victim belongs to another minority ethnic group.








Methods

Part icipant s

Sixty-nine graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Saskatchewan participated in this study. These were students whoresponded to class presentations or advertisements across the universityinviting students who consider themselves members of minority ethnicgroups to participate in a study of the ‘inter-group determinants of cross-cultural relations.’ Three participants were excluded from analyses becauseof errors in ethnicity classification or incomplete information. The finaldata belonged to 30 female and 36 male participants, ranging in age from19 to 38 years. Participants represented a wide range of minority ethnic

groups, covering over 21 different nationalities from Africa, Asia, theAmericas, and Europe.

Minori ty Ethnic Group Membership

The main selection criterion was self-identification as ‘a member of aminority ethnic group.’ Following Yinger (1986), we defined a minorityethnic group as ‘a subgroup whose members are perceived by themselvesand others to have a common origin and culture, and shared activities inwhich the common origin or culture is an essential ingredient.’

As an investigation of collective self-esteem, the study assumed a socialidentity perspective on minority group membership and discrimination,and the ‘subjective’ perception of group membership by an individual isessential within social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978, 1981). Therefore, self-identification was chosen as the criterion instead of place of birth, skincolor, mother tongue, or other ‘objective’ and ‘external’ measures of groupmembership.

Gender

Earlier studies have often failed to find significant effects for gender withregard to the collective self-esteem scale (e.g. Crocker & Luhtanen, 1990;Long et al., 1994; Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992; Robins & Foster, 1994;Wright& Taylor, 1995), even though certain researchers report effects of gender.Verkuyten and Masson (1995), for example, found a noticeable genderdifference, and Ethier and Deaux (1990) also reported that their Hispanicfemale participants scored higher than males on one of the subscales of thecollective self-esteem scale (Identity). Generally, however, gender appearsto have little influence on collective self-esteem. To avoid any possiblegender effects, comparable numbers of male and female participants wererecruited for the present study.


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Measures

Personal Self-esteem

Personal self-esteem was defined as a subject’s score on the 10-item Per- sonal Self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg,1965).As mentioned earlier,a moderatecorrelation between collective and personal self-esteem has allowedempirical distinction between the two constructs (e.g. Luhtanen &Crocker, 1992; Verkuyten & Masson, 1995). In the studies reported byLuhtanen and Crocker (1992), these correlations ranged from r = .26 tor = .38. The Personal Self-esteem Scale was included to replicate formerfindings, as well as to study the relationship – or lack thereof, as predicted– between personal self-esteem and the construal of racism.

Collect ive Self-esteem

Collective self-esteem was defined as the score achieved on the publiccollective self-esteem subscale of the 16-item Collective Self-esteem Scale developed by Luhtanen and Crocker (1992). Each subject could thusachieve a score of 4–28 on collective self-esteem. The original scale wasadjusted to fit the purposes of the present study, by focusing on ethnicgroup membership instead of social groups in general. The generic words‘group’ or ‘groups’ in the original scale were replaced by ‘ethnic group’ in

the adjusted version. According to Luhtanen and Crocker’s (1992) report,the psychometric characteristics of the scale remain intact after such alter-ation. A median split of scores provided the high- versus low-collectiveself-esteem groups.

Scenarios

The scenarios were brief reports of a situation in which one individual(Active Agent, AA) demonstrated behaviors that were against the desires,or to the disadvantage of another individual (Passive Agent, PA). The

scenarios were considered ‘ambiguous’ in the sense that they contained noexplicit information to justify or indicate a motive for the AA’s behavior.Scenarios were presented as cases derived from real-life, describing class-room, public transportation, employment, and shopping situations. Thiswas assumed to make it easier for the participants to react to the situationsas though they were real.Participants were told that the original names andlocations (but not ethnicity) had been replaced by fictitious names toassure anonymity of individuals involved. The following is an examplescenario with Mei as the Passive Agent and Lisa as the Active Agent:

Lisa has worked in the perfume section of one of the department stores inSaskatoon for many years. She works well with people, and likes her job.Ona busy Saturday afternoon Lisa notices that an expensive brush is missing.She didn’t see who took it. There are four people in the store, one of whom


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is Mei, a woman from China. Lisa calls Mei, and tells her that she has stolenthe brush and must return it immediately.

Group membership of the Passive Agents were manipulated throughmanipulation of the name and ethnicity of each PA, to create the two in-group and out-group scenario types. In order to do this manipulation,participants were originally (upon first contact) asked to report the ethnicgroup they consider themselves to be a member of,and based on that infor-mation, appropriate scenarios were prepared to be administered in thesecond session.1

In both the in-group and the out-group condition scenarios, the AA waspresented as a member of the ‘White’ Canadian group, using typical

‘Canadian’ names. Since the group membership of the AA was not explic-itly mentioned within each scenario, a question was added as a measure of manipulation check. Participants were asked to report the group member-ship of the AA, according to the story. In the in-group scenarios the PA wasa member of the same minority ethnic group as the subject’s group. In theout-group scenarios the PA was presented as a member of a minorityethnic group other than the subject’s own group.Construal of Racism was measured by a scale based on one originally

developed by Hartman, Hoogstraten, and Spruijt-Metz (1994). The

Construal of Racism Score (CRS) was defined in terms of the level of racism and discrimination attributed by each subject to the behaviordescribed within the scenarios. After reading each scenario participantswere directed to evaluate on a scale of 1–7,11 adjectives in terms of applica-bility to the behavior of the AA in that scenario. The additional tenadjectives were included in order to mask the two target adjectives.CRS foreach scenario was measured as the sum of the scores selected in responseto two adjectives, ‘Racist’ and ‘Discriminatory.’ A subject could score aminimum of 2 to a maximum of 14 on each scenario.Two sets of CRS were

thus achieved for each subject, namely, in-group CRS (ICRS) and out-group CRS (OCRS). In-group CRS was the sum of a subject’s CRS on thetwo in-group scenarios, and out-group CRS the sum of that subject’s CRSon the two out-group scenarios. Each subject could thus achieve a scorebetween 4 and 28 on in-group and out-group CRS.

Manipulation Check

Participants were asked to identify the purpose and design of the study, for

further assurance regarding any possible confounding biases. Also, aquestion accompanied each scenario, as mentioned above, as a measure of manipulation check regarding the group membership of the AA.


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Procedure

The study was presented to the participants as a study of the ‘Inter-groupDeterminants of Cross-cultural Relations.’ Participants were told that theaim of the study was to study inter-group relations in a cross-culturalsetting, with an interest in attaining a ‘better understanding of the wayindividuals function in a cross-cultural inter-group environment such asthe Canadian society.’

They were informed of the procedure as follows. First they would begiven short stories from real-life events.They would be required to evaluatethe behavior in those stories objectively, by applying the given adjectivesand scales. After the objective evaluation, they would be given the Inter-

group Anxiety Scale which they were requested to fill, as if they were the

actual participants of the situation described in the scenario.Participants were randomly assigned to two groups. Those in one group

received scenarios in the following order: IG, OG, IG, OG (IG and OGrepresent in-group or out-group membership of the PA in a scenario).Those in the other group received the scenarios in same order, except thatthe group membership of the victim (PA) in each scenario was manipu-lated in reverse order, that is, OG, IG, OG, IG. This design served twopurposes: to control for possible order effects,and to manipulate the group

membership of the PA: where participants in one group received the in-group victim version, those in the second group received the out-groupvictim version of the same story, and vice versa. Participants wereinstructed to evaluate the AA’s behavior after reading each scenario. Thisevaluation consisted of rating 11 adjectives describing the AA’s behavior,followed by four fillers, the manipulation check question regardingsubject’s perception of the PA’s ethnicity, and finally the subject’s assess-ment of the PA’s ‘emotional experience’ in that scenario (described as theIntergroup Anxiety Scale ).

Subsequent to the four scenarios and the CRS questions, participantswere given the Collective Self-esteem Scale , followed by the Personal Self- esteem Scale , and a manipulation check item, requiring participants toreport their understanding of the purpose and the design of the study.Participants were debriefed regarding the study’s actual purpose andhypotheses at the end of the session, and were given the three options of e-mail, telephone,or mail for receiving the results of the study if interested.

Resul t s

As shown in Table 1, there was a significant negative correlation betweenthe public subscale of collective self-esteem and construal of racism for thein-group members, as predicted. Where the victims were out-group


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members construal of racism was not significantly correlated with collec-tive self-esteem. This finding supported the hypothesis that collective self-esteem would be a predictor of construal of racism, specifically, where thevictim is an in-group member.

Participants’ scores on the Rosenberg personal self-esteem scale did notshow any significant correlation with the participants’ construal of racism,either in the in-group condition (r = –.09, p = .23), or in the out-groupcondition (r = .05, p = .35). This finding supported the second hypothesis,that construal of racism would not be predictable on the basis of the indi-vidual’s personal self-esteem.

The correlation found between personal and collective self-esteem wascomparable with those reported by Luhtanen and Crocker (1992) andothers,at r = .41.With regards to the subscales, the highest correlation with

personal self-esteem was for the Membership subscale (r = .48), followedby Private (r = .40), Public (r = .21), and Identity (r = .17) subscales. Theoverall correlation between the construal of racism when the victim wasan in-group member and the construal of racism when the victim was anout-group member was significant (r = .43, p < .001).

To assess the interaction of group membership and collective self-esteem, a 2 2 mixed ANOVA was conducted, where group membershipwas a within participants factor and collective self-esteem was a betweenparticipants factor. The results of this test revealed a main effect for collec-

tive self-esteem on the participants’ construal of racism (F (1,64) = 4.98,p = .03), as well as a main effect for group membership (F (1,64) = 38.07,p < .001).Furthermore,an interaction was found between group member-ship and collective self-esteem on construal of racism (F (1,64) = 6.97,p = .01).

In order to interpret the above interaction, two independent t -tests wereconducted to assess the effects of low versus high collective self-esteem(assessed via median split) for both in-group and out-group conditions.The results of the t -tests showed significant effects of collective self-esteemwithin the in-group conditions (t = 3.41,p = .001,mean difference = 4.28),but nonsignificant effects for collective self-esteem in the out-groupcondition (t = .46, p = .64, mean difference = .62). Further, as shown inFigure 1, a nonsignificant difference was found between the construal of

TABLE 1Pearson correlations between construal of racism and self-esteem (N = 66)

Collect ive self-esteem In-group racism Out-group racism

Personal self-esteem .21* –.09 .05Collective self-esteem –.42** –.03

One-tailed significance, *p < .05; **p < .001.









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racism for in-group and out-group conditions for high collective self-esteem participants.

To further examine the hypothesis that collective self-esteem would

predict construal of racism beyond and above personal self-esteem, partialcorrelations were calculated (not shown) controlling for personal self-esteem, and obtained results showed similarly significant correlationsbetween collective self-esteem and the construal of racism.

Discussion

The results generally supported original hypotheses. Collective self-esteemwas negatively associated with construal of racism. Personal self-esteem did

not appear to have an important association with the process leading toattribution of racism to ambiguous incidents. Although the semi-experimental design employed in this study cannot demonstrate a causalrelationship between collective self-esteem and construal of racism, thepatterns strongly suggest dynamics worth further exploration.

The study also provided evidence for an interaction between groupmembership and collective self-esteem on the construal of racism (seeFigure 1). Low collective self-esteem was associated with differentialinterpretation of a behavior when directed at in-group members asopposed to when the same behavior was directed at out-group members:the same behavior was interpreted as more highly racist by low collectiveself-esteem participants when the victim was an in-group member thanwhen the victim was an out-group member. High collective self-esteem

Figure 1 Effect of collective self-esteem and group status of victims on perceived racism.








participants, however, did not show a significant difference in interpre-tation of the same behavior based on the victim’s group membership.

The essential premise on which our hypotheses were conceived is that

individuals’ attitudes towards the environment greatly influence theirunderstanding of that environment. The same society may be perceiveddifferently by different members of the same minority group. Whereassome may simply attribute such differential perceptions to differentialindividual experiences of that society, we suggest collective self-esteem asa more reliable predictor of these differences.

Verkuyten and Masson (1995) have emphasized the importance of studying prejudice and group preferences within ethnic minority groupsas well as within the majority group. As they argue, a comparison of the

patterns of ethnic prejudice in these groups may provide important infor-mation for the study of social psychological mechanisms involved in ethnicprejudice. Studying both majority and minority groups can enhance ourunderstanding of many ideas simply assumed about the minority‘position.’ Even though it would be reasonable to assume that, as pointedout by Tajfel (1981), minorities are more often victimized by social dero-gation and exclusion, it is essential to consider the fact that the so-calledvictims’ cognitive and emotional reaction to their social position mayfurther play a significant role in their general pattern of adjustment and

social progress. In other words, we argue that a minority group memberwould be better equipped for dealing with what is perceived to be dis-criminatory behavior, if he or she has a more accurate perception of thenature of that behavior. LaFromboise, Coleman, and Gerton (1993)present a useful example of an alternative approach to social interactionwhere the minority group is considered not simply a passive receiver, butan actor. They suggest that behavioral disorders of ethnic minority groupadolescents are related to those adolescents’ attitudes towards the majoritygroup, emphasizing not only the significant role of collective self-esteem

on mental health, but also the importance of the individual’s attitudetowards both own-group and the majority group for his or her social func-tioning. A better understanding of the place of collective self-esteem inthese individuals’ lives may introduce a more balanced view of the locus of control in minority group members’ social interactions.

Finally, several cautions need to be taken into consideration ininterpreting the results of this study. The design of this study was ‘semi-experimental,’ rather than a purely experimental design. Although thegroup membership of the victims were systematically manipulated, the lowand high collective self-esteem participants were not originally assigned todistinct groups, rather, the collective self-esteem measure remained a‘within participants’ measure. It is possible, therefore, that a third factorcould be affecting both collective self-esteem and construal of racism, and


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hence their correlation. A fully experimental design in which both groupmemberships and collective self-esteem levels have been directly manipu-lated would provide more conclusive basis for drawing causal conclusions.

Although this study was designed to examine a general effect for collec-tive self-esteem on construal of racism across a broad cultural range of minority ethnic group members, different cultures may show differentresults in a comparative study. Cross-cultural variations may exist due todifferences in the salience and/or the magnitude of collective self-esteem.Either or both of these variables may be affected by cultural and historicalevents and trends, both internal and external to a specific group, includingcurrent and historical representations of a group in local and globalcommunities, the colonial history of a group, and specific psychocultural

dynamics. Clearly,much further research is needed to clarify the social andclinical significance of the construct of collective self-esteem.

Acknowl edgement s

The authors would like to acknowledge the help of the Office of the InternationalStudents Advisor at the University of Saskatchewan; as well as Dr Dave Scott,Psychology Department, University of Saskatchewan, and Dr D. M. Taylor of thePsychology Department, McGill University for much valued advice and criticism.

Notes

This research was conducted as the first author’s BA Honours thesis project at thedepartment of psychology, University of Saskatchewan.

1. This task was facili tated by the use of a computerized version of the ques-tionnaire administered via a software developed for this study by the firstauthor. The software was designed so that the name and ethnicity of the PAin each scenario were variables that could be easily replaced by a givenparameter chosen through a control panel inaccessible to the subject. The useof a computerized version of the questionnaire greatly reduced error byautomating ethnicity–name matching, ensuring completion of each sectionbefore proceeding to the next, and making possible direct data entry forsubsequent analysis.

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SADEQ RAHIMI,BA (HON),MSC, is a doctoral candidate in Social and TransculturalPsychiatry at McGill University.He works as a clinician with the Transcultural Psy-chiatry team at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and holds a visiting researchfellow position at the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard University. His








current research concerns collective identity and psychosis. Address : Culture andMental Health Research Unit, Sir Mortimer B. Davis–Jewish General Hospital,4333 chemin de la Côte Ste-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1E4, Canada. [E-

mail: [email protected]]

RONALD J. FISHER, BA (HONS), MA (PSYCHOLOGY), University of Saskatchewan,PHD (Social Psychology), University of Michigan, has primary research interestsin unofficial third party interventions in international conflict, especially pro-tracted ethnopoli tical conflict, and how these interventions can contribute toofficial peacemaking efforts. At the time of this research,he was a professor in theDepartment of Psychology at the University of Saskatchewan. He is currently Pro-fessor of International Peace and Conflict Resolution at the School of InternationalService of the American University. His latest book is Interactive Conflict Resolu-

tion (1997, Syracuse University Press). Address : School of International Service,American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue N.W., Washington, DC20016–8071, USA.


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Collective Self Esteem and Racism

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