Asian American Journal of Psychology © 2010 American Psychological Association

2010, Vol. 1, No. 1, 31– 45 1948-1985/10/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0018820

Testing the Validity of the Colonial Mentality Implicit Association

Test and the Interactive Effects of Covert and Overt Colonial
Mentality on Filipino American Mental Health
E. J. R. David
University of Alaska Anchorage

Colonial mentality (CM) has been found to be an important factor for Filipino
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

American mental health. However, the link between CM and mental health may be
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

more complex and might be influenced by whether Filipino American individuals hold
covert CM, overt CM, or both. Relatedly, although the Implicit Association Test has
been used to capture the covert and automatic aspect of CM, suggesting that this
component of CM is less amenable to accurate self-report and introspection, the
validity of such a method and its ability to predict mental health variables has yet to be
supported. Furthermore, the possibility that the link between overt CM and mental
health may be dependent on the covert aspect of CM has yet to be empirically explored.
Thus, I examined the construct validity and utility of the Colonial Mentality Implicit
Association Test (CMIAT) as a measure of the covert aspect of CM and investigated
the interactions between covert and overt CM in predicting mental health among a
sample of 102 Filipino Americans. Results suggest that the CMIAT may be a valid and
useful tool for capturing the covert and automatic component of CM and that covert
CM may be moderating the link between overt CM and mental health. Implications for
CM theory and for Filipino American mental health are discussed.

Keywords: colonial mentality, internalized oppression, mental health, Filipino Americans, ethnic
minorities, depression

According to the 2007 Census (U.S. Census
Bureau), 3.1 million Filipinos live in the United
States, making them the second largest Asian
American ethnic group in the country. Accord-
ing to the Census, approximately 60% of mod-
ern-day Filipino Americans are immigrants.
Large-scale migration of Filipinos into the
United States began in the early 1900s, when
the Philippines were a U.S. colony and Filipinos
were regarded as U.S. nationals (Espiritu,
2003). Many scholars have argued that this pe-
riod of American colonialism was when many
Filipinos developed a generally positive regard
toward anything American and a generally
negative regard toward anything Filipino (e.g.,
Espiritu, 2003; Nadal, 2009; Root, 1997; Stro-
bel, 2001). Attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors
E. J. R. David, Department of Psychology, University of
Alaska Anchorage.
Correspondence concerning this article should be ad-
dressed to E. J. R. David, Department of Psychology, Uni-
versity of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, An-
chorage, AK 99508. E-mail: ejrdavid@uaa.alaska.edu
31
consistent with such an inferiorizing view of the
Filipino culture and ethnicity are argued to have
been passed on to the later and current genera-
tions of Filipinos and Filipino Americans by the
continued Americanization of the postcolonial
Philippines (e.g., David & Okazaki, 2006a;
Lott, 1976) and Filipinos’ experiences of racism
and discrimination in the United States (David
& Okazaki, 2006b). Indeed, skin-whitening
products and clinics are abundant in the Philip-
pines (e.g., Nadal, 2009; Strobel, 2001); English
is the primary language used in Philippine
schools, government, and business (e.g.,
Espiritu, 2003); and it has recently been re-
ported that approximately 98%–99% of Filipino
Americans have experienced racism (Alvarez,
Huang, & Liang, 2006).
The self-inferiorizing attitudes, beliefs, and
behaviors developed by Filipinos during colo-
nial times and passed on to later generations is
popularly termed colonial mentality (CM) by
scholars and the Filipino community. Accord-
ing to David and Okazaki (2006a), CM is gen-
erally “characterized by a perception of ethnic
 32 DAVID
or cultural inferiority . . . [that] involves an au-
tomatic and uncritical rejection of anything Fil-
ipino and an automatic and uncritical preference
for anything American” (p. 241). CM is a spe-
cific form of internalized oppression that has
been found to be related to various health out-
comes among various oppressed and colonized
groups (for a review, see David, 2009). David
and Okazaki (2006a) also argued that CM
among Filipino Americans may be manifested
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
covertly and overtly. Covert CM is composed of
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
feelings of inferiority, embarrassment, and
shame because of one’s heritage, ethnicity, or
culture. Overt CM, however, consists of dis-
criminating against less-Americanized Filipi-
nos, changing one’s physical characteristics to
look more White, and perceiving life in the
United States as relatively better than life in the
Philippines to the extent that Filipinos begin to
tolerate the injustices they experience. Filipino
American scholars and community leaders have
speculated that CM is prevalent among this
group (Bergano & Bergano-Kinney, 1997; Cor-
dova, 1973; Lott, 1976; Nadal, 2009; Revilla,
1997), and recent research has suggested that
CM is negatively correlated with personal self-
esteem and collective self-esteem and positively
correlated with depression symptoms among
Filipino Americans (David, 2008; David &
Okazaki, 2006a). Most recently, using a self-
report measure of CM (i.e., the Colonial Men-
tality Scale [CMS]; David & Okazaki, 2006a),
David (2008) found that a conceptual model of
depression symptoms that includes CM ac-
counted for 62.4% of the variance in depression
symptoms and that CM had a statistically sig-
nificant direct effect on depression symptoms
among Filipino Americans.
Although both covert and overt CM have
been found to be related to mental health, recent
research has suggested that covert CM may be
more strongly related to mental health than
overt CM (David, 2008; David & Okazaki,
2006a). This finding makes theoretical sense,
because the more covert manifestations of CM
such as feelings of inferiority, shame, and em-
barrassment for one’s Filipino characteristics
(e.g., skin tone, accent, mannerisms) may have
a more proximal and direct link to mental health
variables such as self-esteem and depression
symptoms than the overt manifestations of CM
(David & Okazaki, 2006a). Furthermore, al-
though overt CM is negatively related to mental
health (David & Okazaki, 2006a), albeit more
distal than covert CM, it is theoretically plausi-
ble that overt CM manifestations such as (a)
discriminating against less-Americanized Fili-
pinos may have a self-protective function that
promotes one’s self-esteem (Allport, 1979), (b)
looking and behaving more in accordance with
American norms may lead to fewer experiences
of discrimination and lower levels of distress
(David & Okazaki, 2006a), and (c) normalizing
experiences of racism and discrimination may
lead to lower stress appraisals regarding such
experiences and may serve as a protective factor
for one’s mental health (Landrine & Klonoff,
1996).
Given the potential proximity of the link be-
tween covert CM and mental health, David and
Okazaki (2010) used the Implicit Association
Test (IAT) to capture covert CM and found that
covert CM may operate as a set of automatic
associations that cannot be consciously con-
trolled and are less amenable to accurate intro-
spection. Thus, they concluded that more im-
plicit measures of covert CM such as the IAT
may better capture the covert and automatic
aspects of CM than introspection-dependent
self-report measures such as the CMS. How-
ever, the relationships between the IAT score
and other theoretically related (e.g., ethnic iden-
tity, collective self-esteem, acculturation) and
theoretically unrelated (e.g., social desirability)
constructs have yet to be investigated. Thus, the
validity of the IAT in measuring CM has yet to
be established. Also, whether implicit measures
of covert CM such as the IAT correlate with
mental health variables has yet to be empirically
investigated. Therefore, the utility and im-
proved value of using the IAT as a measure of
covert CM in predicting mental health among
Filipino Americans remains unclear. That is,
does covert CM as measured by the IAT predict
mental health variables above and beyond the
contributions of CM as measured by introspec-
tion-dependent self-report tools such as the
CMS?
Related to the possibility that the covert as-
pect of CM may be less amenable to accurate
self-report and introspection is the discrepant
findings regarding the prevalence of the covert
and overt CM manifestations. Many Filipino
Americans seem to admit to the overt manifes-
tations of CM such as discriminating against
less-Americanized Filipinos, not wanting to be
 CMIAT’S VALIDITY AND CM’S INTERACTIVE EFFECTS
dark skinned, and being so thankful for being in
the United States that they tolerate the injustices
they experience. Indeed, David and Okazaki
(2006a) found that approximately 30% of their
sample reported at least one type of overt CM.
However, findings from the same sample also
suggested that although many Filipino Ameri-
cans admit to the overt CM manifestations,
many of them deny feeling inferior, embar-
rassed, or ashamed of being Filipino. Indeed,
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
only about 10% of David and Okazaki’s sample
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
reported at least one type of covert CM. Thus,
given that there seems to be a stronger link
between covert CM and mental health, many
Filipino Americans may endorse overt CM
manifestations but deny holding covert CM,
having low self-esteem, and experiencing de-
pression symptoms.
Relatedly, classical colonial theory (Fanon,
1965; Freire, 1970; Memmi, 1965) and CM
theory (David & Okazaki, 2006a; 2006b) sug-
gest that overt CM manifestations are driven by
internal factors such as a desire to separate
oneself from what one has already come to
believe as inferior characteristics (a mediation
model). Thus, overt CM manifestations are ex-
pressed after covert CM has already developed.
With this theoretical stance, the findings regard-
ing the prevalence of overt CM and covert CM
are difficult to interpret. That is, how can overt
CM be more common than covert CM if overt
CM develops after covert CM? In other words,
how can overt CM exist without covert CM if
overt CM is a result of covert CM? Further-
more, how can many Filipino Americans report
overt CM manifestations but do not experience
low self-esteem, depression, symptoms, and
other mental health concerns? To this end, it is
possible that overt CM by itself may not be
directly related to mental health and that the link
between overt CM and mental health may be
dependent on whether an individual also holds
covert CM. In other words, many Filipino
Americans may display overt CM manifesta-
tions such as discriminating against less-
Americanized Filipinos, changing their physical
characteristics to fit in better with the White
majority, and tolerating oppression in the
United States because of external factors such
as (a) seeing others practice such behaviors and
hold such attitudes; (b) pressure from others to
fit in with the White majority; and (c) realizing
that economic opportunities in the Philippines
33
are far more limited than those in the United
States, but not because of internal factors that
are characteristics of covert CM such as feelings
of inferiority, shame, and embarrassment for
being Filipino. Thus, such individuals may be
less likely to report low self-esteem and depres-
sion symptoms because of their Filipino heri-
tage. However, despite the possibility that overt
CM’s link to mental health may be dependent
on the simultaneous presence of covert CM,
such an interactive effect has yet to be empiri-
cally explored. Moreover, given that covert CM
may not be as easily identifiable through intro-
spection and not as easily self-admissible, a
more implicit measure of covert CM such as the
IAT may better capture this construct when
investigating such possible interactions. Finally,
if one was to use the IAT in capturing CM, the
validity of such a measure would need to be
further established.
Summary of the Literature Review
The literature review suggests three impor-
tant conclusions: (a) Covert CM may operate as
a set of automatic associations that cannot be
consciously controlled and are less amenable to
accurate introspection, making self-report mea-
sures of covert CM limited; (b) covert CM may
be a stronger predictor of mental health than
overt CM; and (c) the link between overt CM
and mental health may be dependent on covert
CM. Thus, I tested three research questions:
1. What is the evidence for the validity of
using the IAT in measuring CM?
2. Does covert CM as measured by the IAT
predict mental health variables above and
beyond the contribution of overt CM as
measured by the CMS?
3. Is there an interactive effect of overt and
covert CM on mental health, with covert
CM functioning as a moderator for the
relationship between overt CM and men-
tal health?
Method
Participants
A total of 171 individuals logged on and
began completing the study. However, only 102
 34 DAVID
individuals (58 women, 44 men) completed the
entire study. Thus, only data from these indi-
viduals were considered to be of good quality
and were the only ones used for data analyses.
The average age of the sample was 22.82
(SD ⫽ 5.34), and 19.60% reported being first-
generation Filipino Americans (the rest were
second or later generations). In terms of educa-
tional attainment, 70.60% of the sample had a
high school degree and an additional 20.60%
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
reported having at least a college degree. The
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
mean personal income was $17,539.22 (SD ⫽
$20,583.17).
Measures
Colonial Mentality Implicit Association
Test (CMIAT). The CMIAT was used as the
method of assessing covert CM. The CMIAT fol-
lows the design of the basic IAT, initially devel-
oped by Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz
(1998). It is an alternative technique for measuring
individual differences in evaluative associations
that underlie implicit attitudes. The IAT directly
tests a hypothesized learned and possibly implicit
association (or link) between objects (or nodes) by
asking individuals to categorize a set of attribute
terms into their hypothesized corresponding cate-
gories. For example, individuals are initially
(Block 1) asked to press A on a computer key-
board if they see a word referring to a FLOWER
on the computer screen or press 5 if the word
they see refers to an INSECT. In Block 2,
individuals are asked to press A if the word they
see is PLEASANT or 5 if the word they see is
UNPLEASANT. Next, the participants are
asked to press A if they see either a FLOWER or
a PLEASANT word and 5 if they see either an
INSECT or an UNPLEASANT word for
Block 3. In Block 4, individuals are simply
asked to switch the keys (i.e., press A for INSECT
or 5 for FLOWER), and in Block 5 they are
asked to press A for either an INSECT or a
PLEASANT word and 5 for either a FLOWER
or an UNPLEASANT word. In this example,
one would expect participants to find Block 3
easier (e.g., quicker reaction times, fewer mis-
takes) than Block 5 because of the existence of
strong and automatic learned associations that
people have between insects and unpleasant
feelings and flowers and pleasant feelings.
Similarly, the CMIAT is composed of five blocks,
with the first block involving PLEASANT–
UNPLEASANT (e.g., beautiful and ugly, respec-
tively) discrimination, the second block being
the FILIPINO–AMERICAN (e.g., Tagalog and
English, respectively) discrimination, the third
block containing FILIPINO ⫹ PLEASANT or
AMERICAN ⫹ UNPLEASANT discrimination
(incompatible block), the fourth block being the
reverse key stage (switching the keys to press
for PLEASANT and for UNPLEASANT),
and the fifth block being the FILIPINO ⫹
UNPLEASANT or AMERICAN ⫹ PLEAS-
ANT discrimination (compatible block). Fewer
errors and faster reaction times to trials in the
compatible block than to trials in the incompat-
ible block suggest an implicit positive associa-
tion with the American culture and an implicit
negative association with the Filipino culture,
consistent with CM.
According to Nosek, Greenwald, and Banaji
(2005), the most effective IATs have at least
four stimulus items for each category, and each
stimulus item must be clearly identifiable as
belonging to one of the superordinate catego-
ries. The CMIAT has a total of 40 terms (10 for
each category) that are easily and clearly iden-
tifiable as belonging to either the Filipino or the
American culture and to either the pleasant or
the unpleasant category. Terms for the Filipino
and American cultural categories represent ma-
jor cultural components such as language, name
of country, capital city, popular food, name of
current president, popular historical figure, pop-
ular landmark, popular geographic locations,
and skin color commonly associated with peo-
ple from each culture. Four of the unpleasant
terms (i.e., embarrassing, shame, inferiority,
sadness) and four of the pleasant terms (i.e.,
beautiful, attractive, intelligent, superiority) re-
fer to attributes that are believed to be particu-
larly indicative of CM. The rest of the pleasant
and unpleasant terms were selected from the
norms presented by Bellezza, Greenwald, and
Banaji (1986). Previous research (David &
Okazaki, 2010) has suggested that Filipino
Americans (a) easily and commonly think of the
Filipino and American cultural terms in the
CMIAT; (b) do not explicitly rate the Filipino-
related stimuli in the CMIAT as more unpleas-
ant than the American-related stimuli; (c)
clearly identify the pleasant and unpleasant
stimuli in the CMIAT as being pleasant or un-
pleasant; (d) clearly identify the Filipino and
American stimuli in the CMIAT as belonging to
 CMIAT’S VALIDITY AND CM’S INTERACTIVE EFFECTS
either the Filipino or American culture; and (e)
find all the pleasant, unpleasant, Filipino, and
American stimuli in the CMIAT as equally easy
to understand.
CMS. The CMS was used as the measure
of overt CM (David & Okazaki, 2006a). The
CMS is a self-report measure that is intended to
assess various feelings, opinions, attitudes, and
behaviors that are believed to be manifestations
of CM among Filipino Americans. It is com-
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
posed of 36 items divided into five subscales:
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
Internalized Cultural and Ethnic Inferiority (Int-
Inferior), Cultural Shame and Embarrassment
(CulturalShame), Physical Characteristics
(PhysChar), Within-Group Discrimination
(WGDiscrim), and Colonial Debt (CD). Explor-
atory and confirmatory factor analyses sup-
ported the CMS’s five-factor structure. The par-
ticipants rated their level of agreement (1 ⫽
strongly disagree to 6 ⫽ strongly agree) with
each statement. Means for each subscale are
calculated, with higher scores on each CMS
subscale indicating higher levels of the particu-
lar CMS manifestation. The initial validation of
the CMS suggested good reliability and validity
(David & Okazaki, 2006a) because each sub-
scale produced acceptable alpha levels and cor-
related in theoretically consistent directions
with related constructs such as collective self-
esteem and acculturation. From the current sam-
ple, alphas of .87 (IntInferior), .86 (Cultur-
alShame), .90 (PhysChar), .90 (WGDiscrim),
and .83 (CD) were observed.
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES).
The RSES (Rosenberg, 1965) was used as the
measure of personal self-esteem. It is composed
of 10 items with possible responses for each
item ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree), with higher total scores indi-
cating more positive evaluations of one’s per-
sonal characteristics. The RSES has produced
test–retest reliability coefficients ranging from
.81 to .88 and Cronbach’s alphas ranging be-
tween .77 and .88 (Blascovich & Tomaka,
1993). Various studies have also supported the
construct and convergent validities of the RSES
(e.g., Hagborg, 1993). Previous studies (e.g.,
David, 2008; David & Okazaki, 2006a) have
produced alphas of .93 and .91 using a sample
of Filipino Americans. The current sample pro-
duced an alpha of .78.
Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSES). The
CSES (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992) measures
35
the extent to which individuals evaluate their
social groups positively. It is composed of four
subscales consisting of four items each. The
four subscales are Private (e.g., “In general, I
am glad to be a member of my racial/ethnic
group”), Public (e.g., “Overall, my racial/ethnic
group is considered good by others”), Impor-
tance to Identity (e.g., “Overall, my race/
ethnicity has very little to do with how I feel
about myself”), and Membership Esteem (e.g.,
“I am a cooperative participant in the activities
of my racial/ethnic group”). Participants rated
their level of agreement with each item using a
7-point scale (1 ⫽ strongly disagree, 7 ⫽
strongly agree). Means for each subscale are
calculated. Coefficient alphas for the CSES
have been reported to be .72 (Private), .88 (Pub-
lic), .84 (Importance to Identity), and .75 (Mem-
bership Esteem; Crocker, Luhtanen, Blaine, &
Broadnax, 1994). Previous studies (e.g., David,
2008; David & Okazaki, 2006a) have produced
alphas of .62–.72 (Private), .75–.79 (Public),
.69 –.80 (Importance to Identity), and .65–.74
(Membership Esteem), using a sample of Fili-
pino Americans. For the current sample, alphas
of .95 (Private), .91 (Public), .84 (Importance to
Identity), and .86 (Membership Esteem) were
observed.
Vancouver Index of Acculturation (VIA).
The VIA (Ryder, Alden, & Paulhus, 2000) is a
20-item self-report measure that independently
assesses individuals’ levels of identification
with the mainstream and their heritage cultures.
The VIA is used as one way to assess the
CMIAT’s concurrent validity. The VIA in-
cludes items such as “I often participate in
mainstream American cultural traditions”
(Mainstream subscale) and “I would be willing
to date a person from my heritage culture” (Her-
itage subscale). Participants rated their level of
agreement with each item on a 9-point scale
(1 ⫽ strongly disagree, 9 ⫽ strongly agree),
and sum scores are calculated for each subscale.
Internal consistency coefficients of .91 (Chinese
Americans) and .92 (East Asians) for the Heri-
tage subscale were reported in the VIA’s initial
validation. The Mainstream subscale produced
internal consistency coefficients of .89 (Chinese
Americans) and .85 (East Asians). Previous
studies (e.g., David, 2008; David & Okazaki,
2006a) have produced alphas of .86 –.90 for
both subscales using a sample of Filipino Amer-
 36
icans. For the current sample, alphas of .94
(Heritage) and .87 (Mainstream) were observed.
Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure
(MEIM). To further test the CMIAT’s con-
struct validity, the MEIM (Phinney, 1992) was
used. The MEIM is a popular 12-item measure
of ethnic identity development that has shown
good reliability and validity (Roberts et al.,
1999). A sum score is calculated, with higher
scores indicating higher levels of ethnic identity
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
development. A previous study with a Filipino
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
American sample (e.g., David, 2008) produced
an alpha of .92. The current sample produced an
alpha of .95.
Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS).
The SWLS (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Grif-
fin, 1985) was used as the measure of life
satisfaction and also to test the CMIAT’s
concurrent validity. It is a widely used five-
item scale that has been shown to have good
concurrent and discriminant validity, as well
as excellent reliability (Pavot & Diener,
1993). Each item is scored on a 7-point scale,
with higher mean scores indicating higher
levels of life satisfaction. Although no known
study has used the SWLS on a Filipino Amer-
ican sample, the SWLS has been successfully
used in various countries and cultures around
the world (Diener, Oishi, & Lucas, 2003). An
alpha of .88 was observed in the current sam-
ple.
Center of Epidemiological Studies—
Depression Scale (CES–D). The CES–D
(Radloff, 1977) was designed to measure de-
pression symptoms in nonclinical popula-
tions. It asks participants to indicate how of-
ten they have felt or experienced 20 depres-
sive symptoms during the past week, ranging
from 0 (rarely or none of the time) to 3 (most
or all of the time). A sum score is calculated,
with higher scores indicating more experi-
ences of depression symptoms. The scale’s
initial validation showed high internal consis-
tency, test–retest reliability, concurrent valid-
ity, and construct validity. Previous studies
(e.g., David, 2008; David & Okazaki, 2006a)
have produced alphas of .88 and .90 using a
sample of Filipino Americans. The current
sample produced an alpha of .93.
Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Question-
naire (MASQ). Another mental health vari-
able used in the study was the MASQ (Clark &
Watson, 1991). The 90 items represent symp-
DAVID
toms of depression and anxiety based on the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental
Disorders (American Psychiatric Association,
2005). Participants are asked to rate how much
they have experienced each of the symptoms
during the past week using a 5-point scale (1 ⫽
not at all, 5 ⫽ extremely). The MASQ provides
five sum scores for each subscale: General Dis-
tress: Mixed; General Distress: Anxiety; Anx-
ious Arousal; General Distress: Depression;
and Anhedonic Depression. In the initial val-
idation of the MASQ, Clark and Watson
(1991) reported excellent reliability and va-
lidity. Further evidence supporting the
MASQ’s reliability and validity was found in
subsequent investigations (Watson et al.,
1995). Only the depression subscales were
used in the current study. The General Dis-
tress: Depression subscale assesses symptoms
associated with but not specific to depression,
whereas the Anhedonic Depression subscale
assesses symptoms specific to depression, es-
pecially somatic symptoms. A previous study
using these subscales with a sample of Fili-
pino Americans (David, 2008) produced al-
phas of .93 (General Distress: Depression)
and .93 (Anhedonic Depression). For the cur-
rent sample, alphas of .96 (General Distress:
Depression; 12 items) and .91 (Anhedonic
Depression; 22 items) were observed.
Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale
(MCSD). To test the CMIAT’s discriminant
validity, the MCSD (Crowne & Marlowe,
1960) was used. It is composed of 33 true-or-
false items designed to assess individuals’
desire for social approval. Higher total scores
indicate stronger tendencies for social desir-
ability. The MCSD has demonstrated conver-
gent and discriminant validity (Crowne,
1979), test–retest reliability (Crowne & Mar-
lowe, 1960), and internal consistency
(Paulhus, 1991). The current sample obtained
an alpha of .84.
Procedures
Because the 2000 U.S. Census reported that
Asian and Pacific Islanders have the highest rate
of residential Internet access (Newburger, 2001)
and because it is difficult to obtain large num-
bers of Filipino American participants, the
study was made available online. The study was
advertised through Filipino student and commu-
 CMIAT’S VALIDITY AND CM’S INTERACTIVE EFFECTS
nity organizations who expressed through per-
sonal communication their permission to adver-
tise the study to their members. Interested peo-
ple were screened for two criteria: (a) at least 18
years old and (b) identify as Filipino. Qualified
people received the URL for the Web page and
the password to access the study. On logging in,
they were screened again; the study was de-
signed so that people who did not satisfy the
criteria were not able to continue. Those who
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
were eligible were taken to the consent page,
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
where they had to click on the “I Agree” button
before completing the study. No incentives
were provided to the participants, and study
participation was completely voluntary.
The study used the Inquisit 2.0 Web Edition
software (Millisecond Software, Seattle, WA),
which allows for the launching of implicit as-
sociation experiments from a Web page and for
gathering accurate data remotely over the In-
ternet. Furthermore, Inquisit 2.0 Web Edition
also allows participants to complete the ex-
periment without downloading Inquisit or any
other nonbasic software on their computers.
Collected data are stored in an isolated data-
base that can only be accessed with a correct
password, which is only known to the princi-
pal investigator. No identifying information
such as names, e-mail addresses, or Internet pro-
tocol addresses were collected. All participants
were provided with a debriefing form on complet-
ing the study. The debriefing form included my
contact information in case participants had any
questions or concerns, along with study informa-
tion and counseling resources.
The order of measurement was not counter-
balanced. Instead, all participants completed
the CMIAT before completing the explicit
self-report measures. In addition to recent
findings that implicit– explicit measurement
order has no effect on participants’ perfor-
mance (Nosek, 2005; Nosek et al., 2005), my
preference was to present the CMIAT before
the other measures to prevent the participants
from becoming aware of the purposes and
intentions of the study if they completed ex-
plicit self-report measures first (e.g., the
CMS). However, because recent findings
continue to find block-order effects in IAT
performance (i.e., compatible first, then in-
compatible second, or vice versa), the presen-
tation of the compatible and incompatible
blocks in the CMIAT was counterbalanced.
37
Results
CM as Implicit Associations
Computation of the IAT scores followed the
improved scoring algorithm proposed by
Greenwald, Nosek, and Banaji (2003), who
evaluated multiple alternative scoring algo-
rithms for the IAT in terms of their ability to (a)
resist confounds associated with response
speed; (b) correlate with self-report measures;
(c) obtain internal consistency; and (d) resist
procedural confounds. They found that the
best-performing algorithm involves eliminating
responses above10,000 ms, eliminating partici-
pants who have more than 10% of their re-
sponses below 300 ms, computing the mean of
correct latencies for each block, replacing error
latencies with the block mean plus 600 ms, and
averaging the resulting values for each block.
To compute the IAT effect size for the entire
sample— or the D600 score—the differences
between the mean latencies of the incompatible
and compatible blocks were divided by the
pooled standard deviation of both blocks
(Greenwald et al., 2003). In this study, only
eight trial responses had latencies of more
than 10,000 ms, and these responses were elim-
inated. Furthermore, no participant had more than
10% of his or her responses being below 300 ms.
The sample’s error rate was low at 12.3%, sug-
gesting that participants were not randomly re-
sponding during the IAT task and were putting
forth good effort. In addition to the sample IAT
effect (i.e., D600), individual IAT effect scores
were also calculated for each participant (i.e.,
d600). A participant with a positive d600 score
indicates stronger AMERICAN–PLEASANT and
FILIPINO–UNPLEASANT associations than
AMERICAN–UNPLEASANT and FILIPINO–
PLEASANT associations, a pattern that is consis-
tent with David and Okazaki’s (2006a, 2006b)
conceptualization of CM. Thus, in this study,
the individual d600 score is referred to as the
CMIAT score. Finally, because the mean laten-
cies for both the incompatible and the compat-
ible blocks were skewed, these latencies were
log transformed (Greenwald et al., 1998) to
satisfy the normal distribution assumptions of
consequent statistical analyses.
Fifty-seven participants had faster reaction
times (i.e., lower latencies) during the compat-
 38
ible blocks (i.e., AMERICAN–PLEASANT and
FILIPINO–UNPLEASANT) than during the
incompatible blocks (i.e., AMERICAN–
UNPLEASANT and FILIPINO–PLEASANT),
producing positive CMIAT scores for these
participants and suggesting that these individ-
uals have associated pleasantness, desirabil-
ity, or superiority with American culture and
unpleasantness, undesirability, or inferiority
with the Filipino culture. Also, the average
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
reaction time of the entire sample for the
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
compatible block (M ⫽ 1,206.06 ms, SD ⫽
433.03) was significantly faster than its aver-
age latency for the incompatible block
(M ⫽ 1,369.18 ms, SD ⫽ 391.65), IAT dif-
ference ⫽ 163.12 ms, t(101) ⫽ 2.99, p ⫽
.004, D600 ⫽ 0.40, suggesting that, on aver-
age, Filipino Americans have strongly asso-
ciated PLEASANT with AMERICAN and
UNPLEASANT with FILIPINO, consistent
with CM theory (David & Okazaki, 2010).
Validity of the CMIAT and Its Correlations
With Mental Health Variables
A series of bivariate correlations were con-
ducted to explore the relationships between the
CMIAT scores (d600) and other variables. The
results show that participants’ individual
CMIAT scores had theoretically consistent re-
lationships with other constructs, as presented
in Table 1. More specifically, the CMIAT score
had significant positive correlations with all
the CMS subscales, providing support for the
CMIAT’s concurrent validity. Moreover, the
correlations between the CMIAT score and the
CMS subscales ranged from .39 (CMIAT and
CD) to .57 (CMIAT and WGDiscrim), suggest-
ing that at most, the CMIAT and the CMS share
only about 32.5% of their variance. This pro-
vides support for the notion that the CMS (overt
CM) and the CMIAT (covert CM) may be tap-
ping into different aspects of CM. The CMIAT
also correlated positively with mainstream ac-
culturation and correlated negatively with heri-
tage acculturation, consistent with theory.
Moreover, the CMIAT score did not signifi-
cantly correlate with social desirability, provid-
ing support for the CMIAT’s discriminant va-
lidity. The CMIAT score also had significant
negative correlations with the CSES subscales
and the MEIM, indicating that higher levels of
CM are related to more negative evaluations of
DAVID
one’s ethnic group. Furthermore, the CMIAT
score also had significant negative correlations
with personal self-esteem and the SWLS, sug-
gesting that higher levels of CM are related to
more negative evaluations of one’s personal
characteristics and lower levels of life satisfac-
tion, respectively. In addition to providing sup-
port for the CMIAT’s concurrent validity, these
theoretically consistent correlations suggest that
CM may be related to mental health-related
constructs.
Table 1 also presents the interrelationships
between the CMIAT score and depression
symptoms. More specifically, the CMIAT score
positively and significantly correlated with
CES–D, Generalized Distress: Depression, and
Anhedonic Depression. In addition to providing
support for the CMIAT’s construct validity,
such results also suggest that higher levels of
CM as measured by the CMIAT score are re-
lated to more experiences of general distress
and depression symptoms. Also as presented in
Table 1, similar patterns of correlations were
observed between the CMS subscales and de-
pression symptoms.
Incremental Validity of the CMIAT and
Moderator Analysis
Given that both an introspection-dependent
self-report measure of CM (i.e., the CMS) and
an implicit measure of CM (i.e., the CMIAT)
significantly correlated with mental health vari-
ables, it is not clear whether the CMIAT pre-
dicts mental health variables above and beyond
the CMS. Thus, I tested the possibility that the
CMIAT will continue to be correlated with
mental health variables even after controlling
for the contributions of the CMS. I also hypoth-
esized that a combination of the CMIAT score
and the CMS scores would be a better predictor
of depression than either measure by itself. To
test these predictions, a hierarchical multiple
regression was conducted for the depression
index (a composite score made up of the sum of
CES–D, Anhedonic Depression, and General-
ized Distress: Depression scores). A total CMS
score was calculated for each participant by
summing the five CMS subscale scores. Also, I
statistically controlled for status variables
known to be related to depression such as sex,
educational attainment, and annual income. In
the current study, the status variables related to
 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

Table 1
Intercorrelations Between Measured Variables
Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
CMIAT
1. CMIAT score —
CMS subscales
2. IntInferior .43ⴱⴱ —
3. CulturalShame .53ⴱⴱ .83ⴱⴱ —
4. PhysChar .48ⴱⴱ .68ⴱⴱ .65ⴱⴱ —
5. WGDiscrim .57ⴱⴱ .77ⴱⴱ .82ⴱⴱ .73ⴱⴱ —
6. CD .39ⴱⴱ .51ⴱⴱ .37ⴱⴱ .58ⴱⴱ .56ⴱⴱ —
CSES subscales
7. Imp. to Identity ⫺.39ⴱⴱ ⫺.35ⴱⴱ ⫺.42ⴱⴱ ⫺.19ⴱ ⫺.29ⴱⴱ ⫺.11 —
8. Membership ⫺.52ⴱⴱ ⫺.39ⴱⴱ ⫺.47ⴱⴱ ⫺.39ⴱⴱ ⫺.34ⴱⴱ ⫺.03 .44ⴱⴱ —
9. Private CSE ⫺.55ⴱⴱ ⫺.71ⴱⴱ ⫺.82ⴱⴱ ⫺.47ⴱⴱ ⫺.61ⴱⴱ ⫺.23ⴱ .46ⴱⴱ .60ⴱⴱ —
10. Public CSE ⫺.45ⴱⴱ ⫺.53ⴱⴱ ⫺.63ⴱⴱ ⫺.44ⴱⴱ ⫺.55ⴱⴱ ⫺.15 .31ⴱ .55ⴱⴱ .79ⴱⴱ —
VIA subscales
11. Heritage ⫺.62ⴱⴱ ⫺.56ⴱⴱ ⫺.68ⴱⴱ ⫺.48ⴱⴱ ⫺.59ⴱⴱ ⫺.25ⴱ .46ⴱⴱ .74ⴱⴱ .79ⴱⴱ .70ⴱⴱ —
12. Mainstream .32ⴱⴱ .24ⴱ .29ⴱⴱ .36ⴱⴱ .51ⴱⴱ .43ⴱⴱ ⫺.09 .16ⴱ ⫺.18ⴱ ⫺.07 ⫺.04 —
Mental health
13. CES–D .55ⴱⴱ .51ⴱⴱ .52ⴱⴱ .46ⴱⴱ .41ⴱⴱ .28ⴱ ⫺.28ⴱ ⫺.67ⴱⴱ ⫺.66ⴱⴱ ⫺.61ⴱⴱ ⫺.61ⴱⴱ ⫺.07 —
14. Anhedonic Dep .44ⴱⴱ .46ⴱⴱ .43ⴱⴱ .41ⴱⴱ .39ⴱⴱ .29ⴱ ⫺.17ⴱ ⫺.66ⴱⴱ ⫺.61ⴱⴱ ⫺.59ⴱⴱ ⫺.62ⴱⴱ ⫺.09 .83ⴱⴱ —
15. GD: Dep .49ⴱⴱ .48ⴱⴱ .52ⴱⴱ .46ⴱⴱ .39ⴱⴱ .25ⴱ ⫺.25ⴱ ⫺.69ⴱⴱ ⫺.61ⴱⴱ ⫺.63ⴱⴱ ⫺.61ⴱⴱ ⫺.16 .86ⴱⴱ .82ⴱⴱ —
Other variables
ⴱⴱ ⴱⴱ ⴱⴱ ⴱⴱ ⴱⴱ ⴱ ⴱⴱ ⴱⴱ ⴱⴱ ⴱⴱ ⴱⴱ ⴱⴱ ⴱⴱ
16. MEIM ⫺.59 ⫺.57 ⫺.65 ⫺.53 ⫺.56 ⫺.25 .47 .72 .80 .69 .93 ⫺.02 ⫺.62 ⫺.60 ⫺.57ⴱⴱ —
17. RSES ⫺.30ⴱⴱ ⫺.16ⴱ ⫺.22ⴱ ⫺.05 ⫺.02 .00 .28ⴱ .34ⴱⴱ .32ⴱⴱ .13 .26ⴱ .28ⴱ ⫺.37ⴱⴱ ⫺.25ⴱ ⫺.32ⴱ .32ⴱⴱ —
18. SWLS ⫺.44ⴱⴱ ⫺.32ⴱⴱ ⫺.39ⴱⴱ ⫺.17ⴱ ⫺.32ⴱⴱ ⫺.08 .21ⴱ .44ⴱⴱ .49ⴱⴱ .38ⴱⴱ .46ⴱⴱ .11 ⫺.65ⴱⴱ ⫺.77ⴱⴱ ⫺.57ⴱⴱ .44ⴱⴱ .32ⴱⴱ —
CMIAT’S VALIDITY AND CM’S INTERACTIVE EFFECTS

19. MCSD ⫺.09 ⫺.33ⴱⴱ ⫺.46ⴱⴱ ⫺.18ⴱ ⫺.33ⴱⴱ ⫺.09 .18ⴱ .46ⴱⴱ .62ⴱⴱ .56ⴱⴱ .56ⴱⴱ ⫺.09 ⫺.58ⴱⴱ ⫺.65ⴱⴱ ⫺.62ⴱⴱ .46ⴱⴱ .02 .45ⴱⴱ —
Note. N ⫽ 102. CMIAT ⫽ Colonial Mentality Implicit Association Test; CMS ⫽ Colonial Mentality Scale; IntInferior ⫽ Internalized Cultural and Ethnic Inferiority;
CulturalShame ⫽ Cultural Shame and Embarrassment; PhysChar ⫽ Physical Characteristics; WGDiscrim ⫽ Within-Group Discrimination; CD ⫽ Colonial Debt; CSES ⫽ Collective
Self-Esteem Scale; Imp. To Identity ⫽ Importance to Identity; Private CSE ⫽ Private Collective Self-Esteem; Public CSE ⫽ Public Collective Self-Esteem; VIA ⫽ Vancouver Index
of Acculturation; CES–D ⫽ Center of Epidemiological Studies—Depression Scale; Anhedonic Dep ⫽ Anhedonic Depression; GD: Dep ⫽ General Distress: Depression; MEIM ⫽
Multidimensional Ethnic Identity Measure; RSES ⫽ Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; SWLS ⫽ Satisfaction With Life Scale; MCSD ⫽ Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale.
ⴱ
p ⬍ .05. ⴱⴱ p ⬍ .001.
39
 40 DAVID
depression in a manner consistent with previous
reports, with women (M ⫽ 106.27, SD ⫽ 41.49)
scoring higher on the depression index than men
(M ⫽ 90.77, SD ⫽ 32.97), t(101) ⫽ 2.093, p ⫽
.039, and educational attainment (r ⫽ ⫺.22,
p ⫽ .013) and annual income (r ⫽ ⫺.192, p ⫽
.048) having negative correlations with the de-
pression index. The status variables were en-
tered on the first step, the total CMS score was
entered on the second step, the CMIAT score
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
was entered on the third step, and the interaction
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
term of the CMIAT score and the total CMS
score (i.e., CMIAT ⫻ CM interaction) was en-
tered on the last step. All predictors were cen-
tered for the regression analysis and before the
computation of the interaction term. The results
of the final step of the regression are presented
in Table 2, showing that significant R2 statistics
were obtained for each predictor. The signifi-
cant R2 change statistics beginning in the sec-
ond step suggest that CM predicts variance in
depression above and beyond that predicted by
status variables. The significant R2 change for
the CMIAT in the third step suggests that this
measure of CM predicts unique variance in de-
pression symptoms that are not accounted for by
the CMS and status variables, supporting the
incremental validity of the CMIAT. Also as
hypothesized, results showed that the
CMIAT ⫻ CM interaction term significantly
predicted depression symptoms above and be-
yond the separate effects of the CMS and the
CMIAT scores. Such results suggest that an
implicit or indirect measure of CM (i.e., the
CMIAT), combined with a direct measure of
CM (i.e., the CMS), predicts unique variance
(approximately 11.3%) in depression symptoms
Table 2
Hierarchical Regressions of Colonial Mentality Measures On Depression Symptoms
Variable ␤ R
Step 1: status variables 1.439 .159
Step 2: total CMS scores 1.525 .366
Step 3: CMIAT scores 1.344 .441
Step 4: CMIAT ⫻ CMS interactions 1.376 .554
Note. N ⫽ 102. Status variables ⫽ sex, educational attainment, and annual income; total Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS)
scores ⫽ the centered sum of the five CMS subscales (Internalized Cultural and Ethnic Inferiority, Cultural Shame and
Embarassment, Physical Characteristics, Within-Group Discrimination, and Colonial Debt); CMIAT scores ⫽ the centered
Colonial Mentality Implicit Association Test (CMIAT) score; and CMIAT ⫻ CMS interactions ⫽ the interactions of the
CMIAT score and the total CMS score.
not captured by the CMIAT and the CMS sep-
arately.
To further investigate the interaction between
the CMIAT and the CMS, I calculated condi-
tional variables for both the CMIAT (a positive
CMIAT score suggests presence of covert CM)
and the CMS (a mean of 3.5 or higher suggests
high overt CM). These dichotomized condi-
tional variables were subjected to a univariate
analysis of variance with depression as the de-
pendent variable. The results suggest that re-
porting overt CM manifestations (i.e., high
CMS scores) is positively correlated with de-
pression symptoms only for participants with
high CMIAT scores but not for participants with
low CMIAT scores (see Figure 1). In fact, par-
ticipants with high CMS scores (high overt CM)
and low CMIAT scores (no covert CM) tend to
endorse fewer depression symptoms. Tests of
simple slopes of the lines showed that increased
CMS scores were significantly associated with
higher depression symptoms as a function of
higher CMIAT scores (␤ ⫽ 70.269),
t(18) ⫽ 3.08, p ⬍ .003. Thus, it seems as though
reports of overt CM by themselves are not suf-
ficient to predict more depression symptoms.
Instead, a combination of reporting overt CM
manifestations and implicitly associating inferi-
ority, shame, and embarrassment with the Fili-
pino culture is necessary to predict higher levels
of distress and depression. Depression symp-
toms also changed significantly, toward the neg-
ative direction, as a function of increased CMS
scores and low CMIAT scores (␤ ⫽ ⫺40.269),
t(82) ⫽ ⫺4.81, p ⬍ .001, suggesting that overt
CM in the absence of covert CM may be a
protective factor against depression symptoms.
Predictor
2
Adjusted R2 ⌬R2 ⌬F p⬍
.133 .159 6.154 .001
.340 .208 31.754 .001
.412 .075 12.860 .001
.526 .113 24.066 .001
 CMIAT’S VALIDITY AND CM’S INTERACTIVE EFFECTS 41
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

Figure 1. Interaction between the CMIAT and CMS in predicting depression symptoms.
Positive CMIAT scores suggest presence of covert colonial mentality; high CMS scores
suggest presence of overt colonial mentality. CMIAT ⫽ Colonial Mentality Implicit Asso-
ciation Test; CMS ⫽ Colonial Mentality Scale.

Discussion validity. Such a pattern of findings is evidence

Validity and Utility of the CMIAT
The results provide evidence supporting the
validity of the CMIAT. Given that identifying
and acknowledging the presence of CM in one’s
self requires accurate introspection and may be
vulnerable to various response biases, the use of
a more subtle and indirect measure of CM such
as the CMIAT may be needed. The current
findings suggest that the CMIAT is a prom-
ising tool in addressing such limitations and
barriers to accurately assess CM among Fili-
pino Americans. The CMIAT correlated in
the theoretically consistent direction with
similar constructs (e.g., collective self-esteem,
ethnic identity) and alternative measures of CM
(i.e., the CMS), providing support for its con-
current validity. Also, the CMIAT did not cor-
relate significantly with social desirability, pro-
viding support for the CMIAT’s discriminant
for the CMIAT’s construct validity. Further-
more, the CMIAT also correlated with various
mental health variables, providing support for
its predictive validity and suggesting that covert
CM may be a significant predictor of mental
health outcomes. Also, results suggest that the
CMIAT predicts mental health variables above
and beyond the contribution of the CMS, pro-
viding support for the incremental validity of
using the CMIAT in measuring CM and pre-
dicting mental health.
Modifying CM Theory: Internally Driven
and Externally Driven Overt CM
The covert component of CM was also found
to be especially related to mental health, con-
sistent with theory and previous findings using
more explicit methods of assessing covert CM.
More important, covert CM seems to be mod-
 42 DAVID
erating the link between overt CM and mental
health, and feelings of inferiority, shame, and
embarrassment regarding the Filipino ethnicity
and culture may be necessary for one’s mental
health to be negatively affected. Furthermore,
given that the covert, implicit, and automatic
component of CM was found to be significantly
predictive of depression symptoms even after
controlling for the effects of status variables and
overt CM, these findings demonstrate the im-
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
portance of using implicit measures such as the
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
IAT to more accurately assess covert CM.
The current findings also suggest that CM
theory needs to be modified. According to CM
theory (David & Okazaki, 2006b), covert CM is
externally driven. That is, one’s experiences of
oppression may eventually lead to the develop-
ment of feelings of inferiority, shame, and em-
barrassment toward the Filipino ethnicity and
culture. Once individuals develop covert CM, it
may create an internal desire among them to
display overt CM such as changing one’s phys-
ical characteristics and discriminating against
less Americanized Filipinos. Thus, overt CM
was initially conceptualized as internally driven
and develops after, or as a result of, covert CM.
However, CM theory is incomplete in that co-
vert CM may also develop as a result of overt
CM. Furthermore, overt CM may also develop
as a result of external factors such as one’s
experiences of oppression. Individuals who
commonly observe others being discriminated
against, made fun of, or teased may eventually
learn to display such behaviors in an effort to fit
in and not be subjected to such maltreatment.
Thus, individuals need not develop covert CM
first before developing and displaying overt
CM. Instead, individuals may display overt CM
without covert CM or without their overt be-
haviors being driven by internal factors. Indeed,
their overt behaviors may also be driven by
external factors such as the pressure to fit in and
avoid being maltreated. Future research may
more directly investigate such possible correla-
tions and alternative models.
In terms of mental health implications, the
results suggest that internally driven overt CM
(overt CM with covert CM) may be negatively
related to mental health. This may be the case
for the participants who had high CMS scores
(presence of overt CM) and positive CMIAT
scores (presence of covert CM). Externally
driven overt CM (overt CM without covert
CM), however, may not be negatively related to
mental health. In fact, overt CM with no covert
CM may even serve as a protective factor
against mental health concerns. This may be the
case for the participants who had high CMS
scores but negative CMIAT scores. Such indi-
viduals may be displaying overt CM not be-
cause of covert CM, but because of learned
behaviors (through latent learning, vicarious
learning, etc.) that they believe will allow them
to fit in better and not be subjected to maltreat-
ment. This may possibly be how overt CM may
function as a protective factor against depres-
sion, because individuals with externally driven
overt CM may indeed be more Westernized
and, thus, are less likely to experience oppres-
sion that may negatively affect their mental
health. Also, individuals with externally driven
overt CM may be more likely to normalize the
injustices they experience, leading to lower
stress appraisals for such experiences. However,
this does not mean that such individuals will not
develop covert CM. It is possible that individ-
uals with externally driven overt CM may even-
tually develop covert CM with continued expo-
sure to and practice of overt CM. That is,
individuals with externally driven overt CM
may begin to internalize the oppressive mes-
sages about one’s cultural group with continued
exposure to and practice of overt CM. Further-
more, such individuals may begin to feel con-
flicted and distressed about the contradictions
between their behaviors (overt CM) and feel-
ings (covert CM; cognitive dissonance theory;
Festinger, 1957). Thus, consistent with cogni-
tive dissonance theory’s contention that it is
easier to change one’s attitudes than to change
one’s behaviors (Aronson, 1969), individuals
with externally driven overt CM may eventually
change their attitudes and feelings (i.e., develop
covert CM) to make them more consistent with
their behaviors. Future research investigating
such possibilities and more clearly defined path-
ways between overt and covert CM and mental
health outcomes are needed.
Finally, such overt displays of CM may still
be detrimental to the community as a whole as
it creates division within the community and
prevents Filipino Americans from speaking out
against oppression. Furthermore, such overt
acts of CM may also be detrimental to future
generations of Filipino Americans who witness
such behaviors, which, in turn, may contribute
 CMIAT’S VALIDITY AND CM’S INTERACTIVE EFFECTS
to the development of feelings of shame, em-
barrassment, and inferiority for being Filipino.
Limitations
Given that the current study used the same
IAT stimuli set as previous studies (i.e., David
& Okazaki, 2010), the stimuli set may be lim-
ited in that it may not be representative of the
entire Filipino, American, Pleasant, and Un-
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
pleasant knowledge networks. Also, the stimuli
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
were all text. Future studies using a larger set of
stimuli or other types of stimuli (e.g., images,
sounds) should be conducted to test the gener-
ality of CM-consistent cognitions. Furthermore,
the Filipino stimuli used in this study may be
argued to be primarily salient only to some
Filipinos—namely, Filipinos who are Tagalogs,
proficient in English, who are Catholics or
Christians, and whose heritage is from the
northern Philippine island of Luzon that in-
cludes metropolitan Manila. For example, the
concept of CM may not be salient or an issue at
all for those from the southern Philippines,
where a large Muslim community continues to
exist and strongly resists the westernization of
their culture as they have ever since the advent
of Spanish occupation in the early 1500s. It is
important to remember that although the major-
ity of Filipinos are argued to have experienced
centuries of oppression, not all Filipinos may
have internalized such oppression and, thus,
hold CM. It should be emphasized that CM is an
individual-differences variable that may or may
not be true for some Filipinos and whose exis-
tence among Filipinos may also vary. Further-
more, the current study’s findings are limited in
the sense that most of the participants were
college students or had leisurely access to com-
puters with Internet connections. Future studies
may explore the frequency, operation, and psy-
chological implications of CM using a more
representative sample of the Filipino American
population. Moreover, given the continued
American influence in the modern-day Philip-
pines, future studies may also explore such
questions using a representative sample of Fil-
ipinos in the Philippines. Finally, the study’s
cross-sectional design does not support the di-
rectionality of the relationships between vari-
ables. Future studies using more sophisticated
designs (e.g., longitudinal, experiments) are
needed to determine causality.
43
Conclusion
Despite its limitations, this study significantly
contributes to our understanding of CM as it
operates within and consequently affects Fili-
pino Americans. More specifically, the results
provide further evidence not only that CM is a
vital construct to consider in terms of Filipino
American mental health, but also that the influ-
ence of overt and covert CM on Filipino Amer-
ican mental health is complex. It is proposed
that using the concepts of internally driven and
externally driven overt CM are ways to improve
our understanding of how CM influences Fili-
pino American mental health. Also, given that
the presence of covert CM is a good indicator of
whether overt CM is internally driven, I propose
that implicit measures of covert CM such as the
CMIAT should be used more frequently. On the
basis of the current study’s results, there is
psychometric evidence supporting the validity
of the CMIAT in capturing the covert and au-
tomatic component of CM. Finally, it is hoped
that the current study contributes to our under-
standing of the psychological consequences of
colonialism and oppression not only among Fil-
ipino Americans, but also among other histori-
cally and contemporarily oppressed groups.
References
Allport, G. (1979). The nature of prejudice. New
York: Anchor.
Alvarez, A. N., Huang, L., & Liang, C. T. H. (2006).
Asian Americans and racism: When bad things
happen to “model minorities.” Cultural Diversity
& Ethnic Minority Psychology, 12, 477– 492.
American Psychiatric Association. (2005). Diagnos-
tic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th
ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Aronson, E. (1969). The theory of cognitive disso-
nance: A current perspective. In L. Berkowitz
(Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology
(Vol. 4, pp. 1–34). New York, NY: Academic
Press.
Bellezza, F. S., Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R.
(1986). Words high and low in pleasantness as
rated by male and female college students. Behav-
ior Research Methods, Instruments, and Comput-
ers, 18, 299 –303.
Bergano, A. L., & Bergano-Kinney, B. L. (1997).
Images, roles, and expectations of Filipino Amer-
icans by Filipino Americans. In M. P. P. Root
(Ed.), Filipino Americans: Transformation and
identity (pp. 198 –207). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
 44 DAVID
Blascovich, J., & Tomaka, J. (1993). Measures of
self-esteem. In J. P. Robinson, P. R. Shaver, &
L. S. Wrightsman (Eds.), Measures of personality
and social psychological attitudes (3rd ed., pp.
115–160). Ann Arbor, MI: Institute of Social Re-
search.
Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1991). Tripartite model
of anxiety and depression: Psychometric evidence
and taxonomic implications. Journal of Abnormal
Psychology, 100, 316 –336.
Cordova, F. (1973). The Filipino American: There’s
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
always an identity crisis. In S. Sue & N. Wagner
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
(Eds.), Asian Americans: Psychological perspec-
tives (pp. 136 –139). Palo Alto, CA: Science &
Behavior Books.
Crocker, J., Luhtanen, R., Blaine, B., & Broadnax, S.
(1994). Collective self-esteem and psychological
well-being among White, Black, and Asian college
students. Personality and Social Psychology Bul-
letin, 20, 503–513.
Crowne, D. P. (1979). The experimental study of
personality. Hillside, NJ: Erlbaum.
Crowne, D. P., & Marlowe, D. (1960). A new scale
of social desirability independent of psychopathol-
ogy. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 24, 349 –
354.
David, E. J. R. (2008). A colonial mentality model of
depression for Filipino Americans. Cultural Diver-
sity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 14, 118 –127.
David, E. J. R. (2009). Internalized oppression, psy-
chopathology, and cognitive-behavioral therapy
among historically oppressed groups. Journal of
Psychological Practice, 15, 71–103.
David, E. J. R., & Okazaki, S. (2006a). The Colonial
Mentality Scale for Filipino Americans: Scale con-
struction and psychological implications. Journal
of Counseling Psychology, 53, 241–252.
David, E. J. R., & Okazaki, S. (2006b). Colonial
mentality: A review and recommendation for Fil-
ipino American psychology. Cultural Diversity &
Ethnic Minority Psychology, 12, 1–16.
David, E. J. R., & Okazaki, S. (2010). Activation and
automaticity of colonial mentality. Journal of Ap-
plied Social Psychology, 40, 850 – 887.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin,
S. (1985). The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Jour-
nal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75.
Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Lucas, R. E. (2003). Person-
ality, culture, and subjective well-being: Emo-
tional and cognitive evaluations of life. Annual
Review of Psychology, 54, 403– 425.
Espiritu, Y. L. (2003). Home bound: Filipino Amer-
ican lives across cultures, communities, and coun-
tries. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Fanon, F. (1965). The wretched of the earth. New
York, NY: Grove.
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive disso-
nance. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.
Freire, P. (1970). The pedagogy of the oppressed.
New York, NY: Continuum.
Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz,
J. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences
in implicit cognition: The Implicit Association
Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychol-
ogy, 74, 1464 –1480.
Greenwald, A. G., Nosek, B. A., & Banaji, M. R.
(2003). Understanding and using the Implicit As-
sociation Test: I. An improved scoring algorithm.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85,
197–216.
Hagborg, W. J. (1993). The Rosenberg Self-Esteem
Scale and Harter’s Self Perception Profile for Ad-
olescents: A concurrent validity study. Psychology
in the Schools, 30, 132–136.
Landrine, H., & Klonoff, E. A. (1996). The Schedule
of Racist Events: A measure of racial discrimina-
tion and a study of its negative physical and mental
health consequences. Journal of Black Psychol-
ogy, 22, 144 –168.
Lott, J. T. (1976). Migration of a mentality: The
Pilipino community. Social Casework, 57, 165–
172.
Luhtanen, R., & Crocker, J. (1992). A Collective
Self-Esteem Scale: Self-evaluation of one’s social
identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulle-
tin, 18, 302–318.
Memmi, A. (1965). The colonizer and the colonized.
Boston, MA: Beacon.
Nadal, K. L. (2009). Colonial mentality of Filipino
Americans. In Filipino American psychology: A
handbook of theory, research, and practice (pp.
90 –108). Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.
Newburger, E. C. (2001). Home computers and In-
ternet use in the United States: August 2000.
Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Re-
trieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/
2001pubs/p23–207.pdf
Nosek, B. A. (2005). Moderators of the relationship
between implicit and explicit evaluation. Journal
of Experimental Psychology: General, 134, 565–
584.
Nosek, B. A., Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R.
(2005). Understanding and using the Implicit As-
sociation Test: II. Method variables and construct
validity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulle-
tin, 31, 166 –180.
Paulhus, D. L. (1991). Measurement and control of
response bias. In J. P. Robinson, P. R. Shaver, &
L. S. Wrightsman (Eds.), Measures of personality
and social psychological attitudes (Vol. 1, pp.
17–59). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the Sat-
isfaction With Life Scale. Psychological Assess-
ment, 5, 164 –172.
Phinney, J. (1992). The Multigroup Ethnic Identity
Measure: A new scale for use with adolescents and
 CMIAT’S VALIDITY AND CM’S INTERACTIVE EFFECTS
young adults from diverse groups. Journal of Ad-
olescent Research, 7, 156 –176.
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report
depression scale for research in the general popu-
lation. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1,
385– 401.
Revilla, L. A. (1997). Filipino American identity:
Transcending the crisis. In M. P. P. Root (Ed.),
Filipino Americans: Transformation and identity
(pp. 95–111). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Roberts, R., Phinney, J., Masse, L., Chen, Y., Rob-
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
erts, C., & Romero, A. (1999). The structure of
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
ethnic identity in young adolescents from diverse
ethnocultural groups. Journal of Early Adoles-
cence, 19, 301–322.
Root, M. P. P. (1997). Contemporary mixed-heritage
Filipino Americans: Fighting colonized identities.
In M. P. P. Root (Ed.), Filipino Americans: Trans-
formation and identity (pp. 80 –94). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent
self-image. Princeton, NJ: University of Princeton
Press.
45
Ryder, A. G., Alden, L. E., & Paulhus, D. L.
(2000). Is acculturation unidimensional or bidi-
mensional? A head-to-head comparison in the
prediction of personality, self-identity, and ad-
justment. Journal of Personality and Social Psy-
chology, 79, 49 – 65.
Strobel, L. M. (2001). Coming full circle: The pro-
cess of decolonization among post-1965 Filipino
Americans. Quezon City, Philippines: Giraffe
Books.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2007). 2007 American Com-
munity Survey. Washington, DC: Author.
Watson, D., Weber, K., Assenheimer, J. S., Clark,
L. A., Strauss, M. E., & McCormick, R. A. (1995).
Testing a tripartite model: I. Assessing the conver-
gent and discriminant validity of anxiety and de-
pression symptom scales. Journal of Abnormal
Psychology, 104, 3–14.
Received September 4, 2009
Revision received January 6, 2010
Accepted January 6, 2010 䡲