Black College Students' Extropunitive and Intropunitive Responses to Prejudice: Implications for Concrete Attitudes Toward School in a Predominantly White Institution

Abstract

The present research examined whether individual differences in extropunitive (i.e., distrust, dislike, and discriminatory expectations of Whites) and intropunitive (i.e., internalization of society's disparaging views) responses to prejudice account for African Americans' concrete attitudes toward school (i.e., experience-based doubts about extrinsic rewards for scholastic effort), above and beyond or in conjunction with racial centrality. Seventy Black college students at a predominantly White urban institution completed measures of concrete attitudes, extropunitive and intropunitive responses to prejudice, and racial centrality. Results indicated that the more participants expected discrimination from Whites—especially when such prejudice was not internalized— the more negative their concrete attitudes toward school. Intropunitive responses were less important for concrete attitudes, especially for participants who were high in racial centrality.