Identity and Self-Esteem: A Look at Self-Verification in African Americ

Individuals atomic number 18 born into families, races, cultures, and countries, but have little awareness of their personal indistinguishability as very young children. The psychological sense of being fall in individuals from their families or caretakers appears to be of little importance until they recognize themselves as withdraw selves. This is true for all human beings in all cultures, but for races or cultures who have been marginalized, having a separate identity and gaining self-esteem appear to bestow an even more important role. This essay will look at African American literature from a psychological perspective. From Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs to Zora Neale Hurstons Delia in effort to James Baldwins John in Go Tell It On the Mountain, convocation and individual identity, in conjunction with a high level of self-esteem, are critical factors in determining the successes achieved by individuals and literary characters in the African American literary tradit ion. Without this sense of group identity, individual identity, and self-esteem, the African American character becomes like Richard Wrights Bigger Thomas and can not survive. self-pride is an important component of human growth. Abraham Maslows psychological theory argues for a hierarchy of needs composed of a pyramid of five levels. Beyond the expand of air, water, food, and sex, he laid out five broader layers physiological needs, needs for guard duty and security, needs for love and belonging, needs for esteem, and the need to actualize the self, in that order. (Boeree) Maslow argued that a few(prenominal) reach the highest level of self-actualization. According to his research, only about 2% of the universe reach that level, and most of those were historical figures-Albert Einstein, Ab... ...Abstract. Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the heart of Frederick Douglass. African American Literature. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. New York W. W. Norton, 1997. 302-368.Drake, Kimberly. Rewriting the American self Race, gender, and identity in the autobiographies of Frederick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs. Melus. Winter 1997. Vol. 22, Issue 4, p. 91. Full text article. Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl Written By Herself. Ed. and Intro. Nell Irvin Painter. New York Penguin, 2000.Parsons, Richard D., Stephanie Lewis Hinson and Deborah Sardo-Brown. educational Psychology A Practitioner-Researcher Model of Teaching. Belmont, CA Wadsworth, 2001. 80-81.Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York HarperPerennial, 1998.