R

RACIAL DIFFERENCES

Discussing racial differences in the field of psychology
is problematic. The term ‘‘race’’ can be defined as a
distinct biological group of people who share inherit-
ed physical and cultural traits that are different from
the shared traits in other races. By definition, there-
fore, race implies racial differences. No scientific basis
exists for notions of racial differences as biological,
genetically inherited differences. Race is a social con-
struction. Race and racial differences do not really
exist. Rather, they have a social reality—they exist
within the context of culture and the environment.
Ideas of race and meanings of racial differences are
determined by people in their interactions and
through the negotiation of the meaning of race in ev-
eryday situations, circumstances, and contexts.

The problem with the study of racial differences
is that the ambiguity surrounding definitions and
meanings of race and racial differences precludes us
from understanding variability in behavior and/or
processes of development. When race was used as a
study variable in most behavioral research of the past,
it was assumed to be the explanation for any differ-
ences found in behavior or the construct being stud-
ied. Therefore, researchers misled readers to assume
that the differences were due to genetic differences.
In reality, instead of helping clarify human variability,
race merely identifies another aspect of that variabili-
ty.

Historical View of Race

Historically, scientists defined race as being a bio-

logical entity. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, scien-

tists’ claims of hierarchies among the races were used

to justify slavery and segregation in addition to social,

political, and economic dominance over and oppres-

sion of blacks by whites. Race was defined by skin

color, hair texture, and other physical features. More-

over, researchers believed that a person’s race was re-

lated to intellectual, spiritual, and moral qualities that

they inherited and that the races were unequal in this

regard. While scientists were not able to, and still have

not been able to, scientifically validate this idea of

race, this notion has continued to be perpetuated

over time.

In the early 1900s, social scientists—specifically

psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists—

began to realize that differences in behavior, morali-

ty, religiosity and spirituality, culture, and intelli-

gence were the result of environmental factors,

including history and education, not genetic inheri-

tance. As a result, the concept of race in psychology

generally has come to mean inheritable, physical

characteristics. If race refers to inherited physical

characteristics, then one would expect that there

would be genetic markers for racial characteristics

that scientists can identify, just as there are genes for

eye color or biological sex, for example. In other

words, if being black, white, or Asian causes a person

to have the bone structure, facial features, hair tex-

ture, or skin complexion that they do, there ought to

be some gene or chromosomal marker that scientists

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