Culture, Ethnicity And Gender Issues Within Psychology

To provide competent care to a client, the therapist has to be culturally prepared to work with the client. To be culturally competent as a therapist I have to be aware of my own bias, my identity, and my values in regards of my culture. I also need to be aware of the judgments that I have about the client’s cultural identity. In order to know the client’s culture, I would inquire about the identity during the intake. I would use the Addressing model by Pamela Hays to inquire the cultural identity of my clients. The addressing model helps to consider the various social categories that a client belongs to. Also, providing culturally competent services is to be aware of the population surrounding the therapist’s office or agency in order to

In my personal opinion and experience, I find that the field of psychology is lacking in diverse cultural competencies as much as the society is diverse in its population. I believe that as with using any theoretical model, the therapists’ cultural knowledge needs to include understanding of the many cultural considerations influencing the effectiveness of treatment when dealing with clients from diverse backgrounds. When servicing the individuals in the family, care and attention needs to be directed towards family and community norms and values around help seeking, secrecy and confidentiality, family roles, child rearing and spiritual practices.

Each client is influenced by race, ethnicity, national origin, life stage, educational level, social class, and sex roles (Ibrahim, 1985). The counsellor must view the identity and development of culturally diverse people in terms of multiple interactive factors rather than a strictly cultural framework (Romero, 1985).

Cultural competency is critical in psychology practice. In the United States, the groups, which considered as cultural and ethnic minorities, are growing in the population (APA, 2003). Culture often influences the content and quality of people’s experience, perception, and response. Thus, it is important for psychologists to be aware of cultural influences on client’s presenting experience(s) (Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2010). Without a regard for cultural influence, there is a significant risk for the psychologist to misunderstand, misinterpret, and misguide his or her client. Such misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and misguidance are not only unhelpful but can be detrimental for the client (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2011; Pope, & Vasquez, 2011).

The importance of a cross-cultural understanding in Psychology is imperative to successful care and assistance of mental health. Understanding and acknowledging the complexities of different cultures is the beginning of a more informed approach to mental health. Cultural factors and questions play a fundamental role, however, simply acknowledging cultural differences does not necessarily provide the best individual help. Thus, a combination of cultural, demographic and individual factors are crucial initial steps to specific individual assistance. Treating individuals in context can help discern deviations from cultural factors and norms. Therefore an approach which recognises that both culture and specificity to the client is most effective. Knowing someone’s background can be fundamental to clinical help but could also reinforce cultural stereotypes, this overly simplistic view could be detrimental to treatment. Throughout this essay the impact of culture on mental health will be examined, and how the health care provider and client mediate a relationship to produce the most effective results.

In all psychological and biological assessment, the use of culturally attuned assessments is top priority. “We may define culturally informed psychological assessment as an approach to evaluation that is keenly perceptive of and responsive to issues of acculturation, values, identity, worldview, language, and other culture-related variables as they may impact the evaluation process or the interpretation of resulting data” (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). Through this process key individuals contribute to the understanding of the client including family, friends, and coworkers input and information. Through the use of translators and other cultural affiliates clinicians are able to demonstrate a clearer understanding, a culturally applicable assessment, and ensure that the client understands the ins and outs of the assessment process. One important aspect of the implementation of the “one size fits all approach” to culturally attuned treatment and care in our mental health facilities (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). Assessment and clinical evaluations should not be a cookie cutter experience. The amount of patients that are

Due to the increase in racial and ethnic diversity in the United Sates there is a great need to provide counseling interventions that cater for social issues that are attributed to the racial and ethnic diversity. Presently, efforts are being made to implement social justice advocacy strategies and interventions into counseling practices. Thus, counselors are encouraged to be agents and advocates for social justice, oppression, and discrimination (Ratts & Hutchins, 2009). At the forefront of social justice counseling approaches, is the need to empower the oppressed or marginalized individual by confronting injustices and inequalities that affect the individual at the systemic level (Pedersen, Lonner, Draguns, Trimble, & Rio, 2015).

I am committed to embracing cultural diversity and social responsibility in my counseling practice (Corey, et al., 2015, p. 112). I am committed to my own cultural competency and, although I am not perfect, I am open to learning and growth (p. 118). I invite you to challenge my assumptions. Many therapy approaches reflect Western patriarchal values that do not fit the needs of all cultural perspectives (p. 117-118). I consider your disclosure of personal information to be an important aspect of therapy, but I will encourage you to self-disclose according to your own timeline, not mine (p. 120). Some people hesitate to speak due to respect and cultural norms, so I encourage you to let me know when I am being too direct or assertive in my questions (p. 122). Therapy sometimes assumes a goal of individualization, buy I realize this might not be your goal, so I am open to exploring issues of collective responsibility as well as self-actualization (p. 123). Finally, I come from a Western cultural orientation, both personally and professionally, and am often unconscious of my nonverbal behaviors, so I encourage you to let me know when I treat you disrespectfully in my use of eye contact, facial expression, or gestures, or when my interventions feel uncomfortably personal or intrusive (p. 123). “Recognizing our own cultural and historical embeddedness can remind us that our assumptions about what a person is and what a person should be or become

How can we ensure that therapeutic practice does not escape the scrutiny with which we investigate other social institutions? Intersectionality theory offers an opportunity to respond to these questions in way that allows for a reframing of the approach to cultural competency in way which provides an avenue to more libratory practice.

While gender and ethnicity may be the more apparent cultural features other things are important also, which include sexual orientation, spiritual or religious practices, political aspects, and general philosophy of life are all cultural elements that need to be incorporated into interventions and treatment options” (Cummins et al., 2012, p.237). In addition, it is important for the social worker to have cultural knowledge because it is necessary for selecting the appropriate intervention and treatment methods for that client. Furthermore, the appropriate multidimensional assessment provides the social worker with the internal culture of the client such as cognitive abilities or limitations, emotional health, and emotional responses and

The relationship of a counselor to his or her client can be troubled when the two come from different cultural backgrounds. "As counselors incorporate a greater awareness of their clients' culture into their theory and practice, they must realize that, historically, cultural differences have been viewed as deficits (Romero, 1985). Adherence to white cultural values has brought about a naive imposition of narrowly defined criteria for normality on culturally diverse people" (Bolton-Brownlee 1987). The challenge for counselors today is to balance multiculturalism and sensitivity for the client with the need to move the client forward and enable him or her to reach productive life goals. Cultural acceptance cannot be synonymous with complacency.

In a multicultural counseling perspective there are four key approaches when counseling individuals, (a) multicultural awareness of culturally learned assumptions about self and others leading to accurate assessments of clients, (b) multicultural knowledge of information, (c) multicultural skills and interventions, that are appropriate treating clients, and (d) individuals are from a variety of backgrounds, demographic status, and affiliation of cultures. The three-stage approach, will direct the counselor towards levels of multicultural competence in therapy by providing a successful outcome in the recovery process. When conducting a psychotherapy session with a client the counselor should be able to demonstrate skills, when exploring the client’s cultural background. Counselors should also be able to focus on the essential skills and pattern behaviors, when identifying cultural differences. Counseling a minority from a different culture counselors’ must be able to identify their own personal behaviors. These behaviors are crucial when counseling these individuals. First, a counselor must be able to sense the clients’ viewpoint or issue in some way. Secondly, a counselor should be specific when asking a question rather than being unclear and confusing.

Counselors who are unaware of diverse cultural viewpoints are more than likely to do intentional or unintentional damage when working within communities opposite of their own and with those whose cultures and worldviews differ from theirs. If a counselor is unaware of their own cultural identity, biases, and stereotypes, how then will they know if they are unintentionally causing harm to their clients or build rapport? Cultural self-awareness is relevant because counselors need to know their cultural identity and what they must offer their clients in a therapeutic relationship and to help clients become aware their cultural identities.

Culture is fundamental to understanding human experience. It makes the world inspiring, entertaining, enables effective communication, and influences most factors of modern life, so it’s no surprise that psychologists are interested in the impact it has. Sociocultural psychology and cross- cultural psychology are two different approaches that explore cultural experience. The two disciplines, though different in their definitions of cultural impact, share many of the same goals and ideas, and can arguably offer great insight to the other approach. The potential for collaboration between the two disciplines to garner a rich insight into personal and social cultural influence means that the two approaches are by no means incompatible, and their compatibility can offer a wealth of positive contribution to psychological research.

Cross cultural psychology and cultural psychology are two fields of psychology that are often confused. Cross-cultural psychology and cultural psychology have many similarities and they differ in a few areas. Cross-cultural psychology is a comparative field of psychology that studies the cultural effects on human psychology. A cross-cultural study draws its conclusions from at least two samples of at least two different cultures and compares them in order to examine underlying reasons for diversity between the cultures, as well as the universals that each culture shares with another. Cultural psychology seeks to find the meaningful links between a culture and the psychology of the individuals living within that culture. Cultural psychology's main message is that human behavior is only meaningful when you're studying the behavior of individuals within the particular sociocultural, or in the culture in which the behavior occurs. The comparisons that cross-cultural psychology makes about each culture must begin with cultural studies.