“Jia never shows emotion, not even in the wake of a terrible loss.” What does the previous sentence lead you to infer about Jia? As a psychologist, how would you judge what is reported to be Jia’s lack of emotion? The level of multicultural competence you achieve as a psychologist might likely influence how you assess this scenario. How might Jia’s cultural background as depicted in the Threaded Family media piece affect your assessment of her behavior? Your understanding of multicultural competence and why it is important has a profound impact on your client relationships.
For this Discussion, review this week’s Learning Resources. Consider your understanding of multicultural competence coming into this course. Think about populations in your community and how you might demonstrate multicultural competence working with those populations.
With these thoughts in mind:
Post by Day 4 an explanation of your understanding of multicultural competence coming into this course. Be specific in your explanation by describing a multicultural population in your community and what it would mean to work with clie
Multicultural Psychology
Prescribed
readings for this week open up a number of avenues by which my understanding of
multicultural competence has simply increased manifold. It is quite surprising
yet pleasing to note that multicultural competence is both complex and
essential for a psychotherapist working in today’s society that is becoming
more and more complex by the day (Constantine, et
al., 2008). Multicultural competence is not only just about getting trained in
this area, but is also about being explicitly aware of one’s own culture before
they can attempt to understand others’. Moreover, culture is a set of a number
of subjective constructs that an individual makes meaning with and cannot be
understood with a straight forward approach such as through different models
for multicultural competence. In addition, since evidence-based research is
still limited, it is important to follow the paths of a highly-fluid
professional such as described by Comas-Díaz (2010) in which the therapist is
ready to play multiple roles with higher level of empathy. Moreover,
multicultural competence is an on-going process that needs to be critiqued from
time to time by the therapist in consultation with their colleagues, seniors,
clients, and other relevant people so that the their focus remains on track,
and keeping culture in the center of therapy is essential (Pedersen, et al.,
2008).
With this understanding in view, I
would like to describe the multicultural population I will be focusing on. It
would be Hispanic population and specifically I would focus on the family
structure, religiousness, and gender-roles in the population. My observation
and readings on this population reveals that there are quite a few cultural
differences I need to carefully analyze in order to effectively treat members
of this community. For instance, it is generally believed in their community
that male should not look for assistance and prefer self-dependence; however,
this can yield serious health related issues because even if a male needs
medical/psychological assistance, they would avoid it. Moreover, in general,
Hispanic family structure is such that members would not share inside matters
to people outside the family. Thus, trust, esteem, self-respect, dynamic
interaction, and empathy become important tools for my cultural competence.
This community also has
culturally-constructed beliefs that need immediate focus for change. For
instance, substance and alcohol consumption by their young is seen as something
common and is considered a part of their permissiveness culture. This aspect
not only has adverse effect on their youth’s upbringing but also comes into
direct conflict with the law. In addition, this community relies heavily on
religiousness and spirituality when it comes to social, psychological, or any
other issues. Moreover, it is often noted that the clergy and other religious
official do not make referrals to professional therapists. The culture also
attaches less value to female gender and comes directly under influence of
socioeconomic status. Thus, these and some other very grave issues have
continued seriously unattended, and I would focus on these attitudes of this
population.
I would like to state in view of Cohen
(2009) that multicultural competence is about understanding the many basic
psychological processes that may differ from one culture to another. These
processes can be subjective and objective and might turn out to contrast
sharply with a process from another culture. It is here that the difference
needs to be understood without stereotyping or bias. It is most probably the
central tenet of multicultural competence that a therapist, while confronting
their own cultural biases, should start from (Gallardo et al., 2009). This is
what I believe has broadened my worldview on multicultural competence from the
readings of this week.
References
Cohen,
A. B. (2009). Many forms of culture. American Psychologist, 64(3),
194-204.
Comas-Díaz,
L. (2010). On being a Latina healer: Voice, consciousness, and identity. Psychotherapy:
Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 47(2), 162-168.
Constantine,
M. G., Miville, M. L., & Kindaichi, M. M. (2008). Multicultural competence
in counseling psychology practice and training. In S. D. Brown, & R. W.
Lent (Eds.), Handbook of counseling
psychology (4th ed., pp. 141–158). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Gallardo,
M. E., Johnson, J., Parham, T. A., & Carter, J. A. (2009). Ethics and
multiculturalism: Advancing cultural and clinical responsiveness. Professional
Psychology: Research and Practice, 40(5), 425-435.
Pedersen,
Paul B. Crethar, Hugh C. Carlson, Jon (2008). Conclusion: Developing
multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skill. Inclusive cultural empathy: Making relationships central in counseling
and psychotherapy (1st Ed.). , (pp. 223-241). Washington, DC, US: American
Psychological Association.
