Examined the construct validity of the Racial Identity Attitude Scale, an instrument designed to measure attitudes consistent with the four stages of Cross's (1971) Negro-to-Black conversion experience. Found strong support for Cross's pre-encounter, immersion-emersion, and internalization stages, and little support for the construct of encounter…

Argues that an earlier assessment of a racial identity scale was appropriate. Claims that "possible failures" of the analysis were addressed in the study and confirms that the complex patterns expected from the racial identity measure do not exist in the data. Other results, along with implications for counseling research, are discussed.…

J. E. Helms's (1995b) White racial identity theory is said to resemble a pseudoscience in certain respects because its empirical support is based on the White Racial Identity Attitude Scale (J. E. Helms & R. T. Carter, 1990) in spite of consistent evidence that the instrument does not measure the constructs that the theory proposes.