Racial/Ethnic Minority Vocational Research Trends in Counseling Psychology and Multicultural Psychology Journals: A Trend Analysis Across 51 Years

This study extends Flores et al.’s (2006) 36-year analysis of racial/ethnic minority (REM) vocational research published in career journals to REM vocational research in eight counseling psychology and multicultural psychology journals across a span of 51 years. We identified 483 REM vocational studies published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP), The Counseling Psychologist (TCP), Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development (JMCD), Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology (CDEMP), Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (JCCP), Journal of Black Psychology (JBP), Journal of Latina/o Psychology (JLP), and Asian American Journal of Psychology (AAJP) between 1969 and 2020. Results showed that less than 5% of all articles published in these journals during the past 49 years focused on vocational issues with REMs. Publication trends, article topics and type, samples, and leading individual and institutional contributors to REM vocational research are reported. JMCD published the largest percentage of these articles (33.9%, n = 132) as well as the largest percentage (18%) of REM vocational articles relative to other articles in its journal during this time frame. Implications of the findings are provided for expanding REM vocational scholarship in counseling psychology in the future.

African American Activism: The Predictive Role of Race Related Stress, Racial Identity, and Social Justice Beliefs

Historically, African American activism has played a pivotal role in advancing social change in the United States. As such, there is an interest in examining possible factors that may engender activism among African Americans. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to extend research by Szymanski and Lewis (2015), which explored potential predictors of activism among African Americans. With a sample of 458 African American undergraduates, race-related stress, racial identity dimensions, and social justice variables were examined. A four-stage, multiple linear hierarchical regression model and two multiple mediation bootstrap analyses were employed. Race-related stress and racial identity attitudes significantly and uniquely predicted involvement in African American activism, complementing existing literature. Beyond that, social justice beliefs predicted African American activism over and above racial identity and race-related stress. More specifically, social justice subjective norms (i.e., social influence) was the most important predictor of activism for African American undergraduates. Implications for social justice development within institutions of higher education are discussed.

Key Concepts, Theories, and Issues in African/Black Psychology: A View From the Bridge

An impressive body of psychological literature exists that attests to the amount of intellectual labor put forth by Black psychologists in developing and implementing unique approaches to understanding people of African descent. Yet the impact of these contributions made by Black psychologists have often been marginalized and rendered invisible within the overall context of Black intellectual thought. The absence leaves a void in the literature for those seeking an accurate account of the ideas that shape contemporary Black thought. This cursory review of the psychological literature attempts to fill that void by examining some of the major issues, concepts, and themes addressed in African/Black psychology, as well as identifying a few neglected areas and offering suggestions for future research directions in the discipline.

Learning While Black: A Culturally Informed Model of the Impostor Phenomenon for Black Graduate Students

This study presents a culturally informed model of the impostor phenomenon construct for Black graduate students who attend predominantly White universities. The impostor phenomenon is an internal sense of intellectual fraudulence and a tendency to attribute success to external factors, such as luck. However, the original construct was conceptualized with a sample of White individuals and may not capture the culturally relevant factors for Black graduate students such as race or racial discrimination. Furthermore, only one empirical study investigates impostor feelings in Black graduate students. The current study addresses these gaps by using focus groups to qualitatively investigate the impostor phenomenon in 12 Black graduate students. Inductive thematic analysis revealed five themes ( Awareness of Low Racial Representation, Questioning Intelligence, Expectations, Psychosocial Costs, and Explaining Success Externally) and multiple subthemes. The findings extend the original construct, contribute to a culturally informed framework for understanding the impostor phenomenon in Black graduate students, and have implications for theory, educators, clinicians, and researchers.

African American Gender Roles: A Content Analysis of Empirical Research From 1981 to 2017

The purpose of this study was to explore how gender roles research has been conducted among African Americans in the psychological literature. Accordingly, we completed a content analysis of empirical studies on this topic. We utilized the Table of Contents of several psychology journals, psychological databases, and search engines to identify relevant literature. Articles included for review met the following criteria: (a) published between 1981 and 2017, (b) empirically based, (c) psychologically focused on gender- or sex-role constructs, and (d) included samples that were solely African American or consisted of a substantial number of African American participants (range: 17-3,000). Qualifying articles ( N = 56) were categorized into one of five content areas (i.e., Self-Concept and Social Identity, Scale Development and Validation, Personality, Family and Gender Role Socialization, and Education/Vocation). We also analyzed sample characteristics, research methods, and publication trends across studies. A majority of the reviewed studies included samples of adults, utilized quantitative methods, and were published within the past 18 years. Using the results of the analysis, we highlight the strengths and limitations of the current scholarship focused on gender roles among African Americans and offer suggestions regarding future research and its significance within the field of Black psychology.