ABSTRACT
Researchers have increasingly become aware of the need for information regarding psychological processes in samples that are other than White and middle class. This awareness has led to an increasing interest in within-and cross-ethnic/race research. However, this research is complicated because we often have little evidence regarding whether the measures of psychological constructs are culturally biased or cross-ethnically/racially equivalent. Because we often have little information regarding whether an operationalization of a given psychological construct is valid across different ethnic or racial groups, and perhaps across different language versions, it is difficult to decipher whether group differences or similarities are indications of differences or similarities in psychological processes. Because much of the psychological research involving ethnic minority persons has used measures developed in the majority culture, it is essential that we have some awareness of the degree to which these measures are accurately measuring the psychological constructs that they are assumed to measure when administered to ethnic or racial minority samples. That is, once one has developed a conceptual model applicable across ethnic or racial groups, including the appropriateness and breadth of the constructs for the specific ethnic or racial groups included in the research, then one must consider the psychometric properties (see Anastasi, 1982; Cronbach, 1970; Nunnally, 1967) of the measures within each ethnic or racial group.
