Academic Summary

Tre’Dessa Smalls

Ms.McKoy

English 2

11 April 2013

What’s the difference?

Authors Paulette Hines and Linda Berg- Cross argue that people have different levels of viewpoints on global self-esteem, self-esteem, and racial differences when it comes to them. They claim that self-esteem in African- American adolescents tend to be lower than self-esteems of white adolescent in both boys and girls. Hines and Berg- Cross developed this claim gathering information from the many conducted studies that took place for this research. The authors reasoning for lower self- esteems are because blacks are exposed to many negative appraisals from larger society. The researchers who conducted this experiment picked 2625 of Maryland star students that are all on an even playing field intellectually speaking. Since the students are all similar in a normal way the results varied and showed a great representation of self-esteems which helped support his claim by showing such a range. Some people do not perceive themselves as others do, as if someone was perceived worthless they may feel different about themselves. Hines and Berg- Cross developed this claim by looking at how society perceives certain groups then studying the results of the self- esteem analysis of those same groups. It was said that females are more self- critical than their male counterpart. The authors’ supports the claim with the results of both races of females having lower self-esteem but African American females had lower self- esteem all together. Lastly, Authors Paulette Hines and Linda Berg- Cross purpose is to show that racial differences have an effect on people’s self-esteem. In order to link answer the question of way black adolescents have lower self- esteems than of those who are white. This work is significant because it supports my research topic in many ways and gives facts to back it up with.