Social Stereotypes and Self-Concept in Black and White College Students

Abstract

Favorability of racial and gender stereotypes and their relationship to self-concept was studied for 51 black and 66 white middle-class college students. They were administered the Katz and Braly (1933) adjective checklist and were told to describe themselves, black and white Americans, and women and men. Their ratings were then converted into favorability scores. Black and white students held more favorable stereotypes of their own racial group. In addition, own-race ratings were related to the self-concepts of black students, and own-gender stereotypes were unrelated to self-concept. The self-concept of the women was related to their ratings of men.