Assessment, Ethnic Identity

Self-Labeling

At the simplest level, some people consider ethnic identity to be the group label that one uses to identify oneself; for example, Chinese or Mexican American. To assess this self-label, two types of measures have been used. One approach uses an open-ended item, asking simply, “In terms of ethnic group, what do you considerable yourself to be?” This approach provides information on how individuals see themselves as group members, but the results can be difficult to interpret because of the lack of consistency in terminology, such as Hispanic, Latino, and Chicano. That type of item also allows individuals to express a range of possibly idiosyncratic labels or no ethnic label at all, such as “a human being,” so that the respondent cannot be categorized by ethnicity. A second type of measure of self-label requires individuals to select their ethnic labels from a list of ethnic groups. This approach is complicated by the lack or precision in ethnic labels and the overlap and confounding of the concepts of race and ethnicity. For example, people of Hispanic or Latino origin can belong to various racial categories, such as White, Native/Indian, or Black. Thus, a list forces people to choose categories that may not accurately reflect their sense of group membership. A further complication is the increasing numbers of people of mixed origin, whose parents are from two or more different groups. People of mixed origin may not indicate that they are multiethnic or multiracial. To get a more accurate picture of people's backgrounds, some measures elicit the ethnicity of respondents' mothers and fathers.

Social Identity

However, simply knowing the categories in which individuals place themselves tells little about their identities as members of those groups. Ethnic identity is a group or social identity. Social identity has been defined by Tajfel and Turner (1986) as that part of an individual's self-concept that derives from his or her knowledge of membership in a social group together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership. Thus, to assess ethnic identity, it is necessary to determine not just the group label but also how individuals feel about their group, including the strength of their attachment and their evaluation of their group membership. In studies based on social identity theory, group identity is typically measured with items assessing the strength of respondents' identification with, or commitment to, their groups (Ellemers, Spears, & Doosje, 1999). Using such a measure, it is possible to study how commitment to one's group is related to other psychological variables of interest.

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