Empirical Study of the Application of Double-Consciousness Among African-American Men

Abstract

The current study serves to add to the existing literature on African-American men and masculinity, and to provide empirical evidence of the hypothesized mental conflict that exists among African-Americans, particularly as it relates to double-consciousness. Mental conflict was measured as a function of psychological distress, surfacing in high levels of depression, anxiety, and somatization, made evident through the measurement of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18). It was hypothesized that African-American men engaged in the practice of double-consciousness made evident through the scores on the General Ethnicity Questionnaire (GEQ). More specifically, those who failed to integrate and only identified with one’s Blackness and those who made drastic changes in one’s reality by taking on characteristics of the Eurocentric worldview were expected to have higher levels of psychological distress. Results from this study found a practical use of the theory of double-consciousness and further provide implications for future research on the topic.