Qualitative Research Article Summary – Minority Identity and Self-Esteem

Porter & Washington (1993) studied the concept of self-esteem among the Hispanic and American Asian sub-groups and compared their findings on the existing literature on the self-image of the African American people. A summary of the model used in this research is found on page 139 of the research article. This research article primarily employed grounded theory in its qualitative research design, and this is the reason why it was chosen. Reviews were done on the available theoretical models done on Asian Americans and Hispanics. The research findings were then compared to the existing literature on African American self-image.

Problem Statement

            The research sought to investigate the personal self-esteem among the Asian Americans and Hispanics. The research identified the research problem after a review of the existing theoretical models on Asian Americans and Hispanics showed that they centered primarily on description that focused on ethnic groups rather than self-image, (Porter & Washington, 1993).

Statement of Purpose

The main purpose of the research article was to describe the paradigms of personal esteem racial/ethnic and self-image that has been studied among the Asian Americans and the Hispanics. In addition, this research article finally concludes by showing the parallels that exist between the theories that deals with ethnicity and race.

Research Questions

            The research employed chiefly empirical evidence analysis and from the analyses, the researchers made some conclusions.

Method

The research employed empirical analysis of past theoretical models as its grounded theory in the research method design. The research pursued this core method in its data collection, as well as creation of parallels and paradigms.

Key Findings

The research article made a number of findings based on its analysis of theoretical models and existing literature on African American self-image. The key findings from the research are:

            Research Findings on Personal Self-Esteem among Hispanics and Asian Americans

            The research found that the Mexican American children have lower self-esteem as do the African Americans and Anglo-Americans, (Porter & Washington, 1993). Furthermore, the research further found that some studies reveal no major difference in the personal self-esteem among these groups. Other studies pointed out that Japanese and Korean Americans have poor personal esteem compared to the white or the blacks.

On the other hand, the research found a relationship in biculturalism and psychological adjustments among the Hispanic and Asian subgroups. Finally, under this category of research, it was determined that in overall, the Asian American children had lower personal esteem than that of Blacks, Anglos and Mexican Americans.

            Relationship between Personal Self-Esteem and Group   

The research found out that most of the paradigms in the ethnic discussion had a reciprocal relationship between personal self-esteem and race, (Porter & Washington, 1993). Furthermore, the research found that the ability to manage ethnic and racial discrimination is dependent on high self-esteem. Additionally, the research found out that a group image, which is positive, was generally seen to be a protective of the self-esteem. The research found also that research showed that the good group image among the Asian and Hispanic subgroups was closely related to their high personal self-esteem.

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