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The subject of this book is an interesting and a timely one but the title is misleading, as will be explained later on. The author's stated goals are to translate the concept of identity into an experimentally measurable form and to “explore the interface between personality development and social cultural context.”
The book begins with a review of much of the literature on identity development, black-white social psychological differences and studies of the Black American. While not all-inclusive, the review is a brilliant and critical appraisal of the subject matter.
The author, in giving operational definitions of identity formation and its variants (identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, negative identity, and psychosocial moratorium) rightly emphasizes its two fundamental aspects, namely structural integration and temporal stability of self images. The importance of these operational definitions, which go a long way in changing the more or less vague but useful theoretical construct of identity into empirically researchable form, cannot be overemphasized.
The sample is made up of 23 (11 Negro, 11 White, 1 Puerto Rican) subjects, aged 14 to 16 years, with the following characteristics: “male, and neither delinquent, predelinquent, nor “college-bound.” The black and white groups were carefully matched. At the beginning of the study and then twice each year until graduation from high school each boy was interviewed and given a variety of tests. The Q-sort was a major test used in studying identity development in these boys; it is based on abstracts of self-descriptive statements which the subjects made. The results, stated in detail and well illustrated with figures and tables, are discussed and analyzed in a manner that is compelling in its readability and clarity.
The results may be briefly stated as follows, quoting the author: “The whites exemplify an overall pattern most consistent with that of progressive identity formation, in which both the structural integ