Acculturation is considered to be on a continuum with traditional and bicultural individuals. Traditional individuals identify with African values, traditions and practices. They usually cannot speak much English and may be immersed in their culture of origin. Acculturated individuals have embraced and adopted the majority culture. They may not be familiar with an native language and associate themselves with the mainstream.
Bicultural individuals fall somewhere in-between.
This study seeks to verify a correlation between the presence of positive socialization messages with the developed stages of racial identity. The researchers hypothesize individuals who have experienced racial socialization messages will have a higher salience to race and racial awareness will be incorporated into their self concept. Such individuals are assumed to be more traditional than acculturated. Conversely, this study assumes individuals receiving negative or no socialization messages will have less salience to racial issues and may not consider race when defining themselves. Such individuals are hypothesized to be more acculturated and be more at ease in the mainstream.