Identity, Self-Esteem and Evaluation of Colour and Ethnicity in Young Children in Jamaica and London

Abstract

The concept of identity is a crucial one, and is pivotal in education and the social sciences. How a person sees himself, how he incorporates and synthesises the various aspects of his social world, involves both a psychological and sociological phenomena, concerning both the individual psyche, and the position an individual holds in social structure (Bagley et al., 1979c). In ethnic relations it is frequently possible that a minority group, dominated in racist fashion, reacts to that domination in ways which have particular implications for global and ethnic identity.

Based on a paper presented at the Third Annual Conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies, April 1979; A version of this paper also appeared in New Community (1979), volume 7.