Student development theories and student-support programs should be designed to meet the special needs of culturally diverse populations. Specifically, those responsible for teaching and helping black students must create models of human and student development that take into account the unique needs and experiences that black students bring to the college campus. Various issues specific to African-American adult development are not inclusive in traditional adult development theories. This literature review suggests that most traditional theories fail to define factors that promote black adult students overall psychosocial development. Results reveal that most traditional theorists presumed that all adult students experience developmental tasks in a similar manner, failing to acknowledge the culture-race aspects of development. In contrast to theorists who proposed the utilization of traditional models of psychosocial development, nontraditional theorists suggested the conceptualization of different models to identify the unique characteristics if psychosocial development for culturally diverse black adults. A review of nontraditional theories suggests that analysis of black adult development should be based on three development and socialization areas: enhanced psychosocial concepts, bicultural factors, and the Afrocentric paradigm. (Contains 41 references and 2 tables.) (GCP)