PSYC 561 Flashcards
Acculturation
What: The process by which groups or individuals adjust their social and cultural values, ideas, and behavioral patterns of their culture of origin to those of a different culture (generally the mainstream one). Differences in acculturation within a family/couple can create stress. This is also a bidirectional relationship. Integrating dominant culture into your own.
Why: The degree to which someone is acculturated can affect treatment and their response to the therapist. This is important to keep in mind when creating treatment plans for clients.
EX: Sam, born in Japan but lives in the US is switching from a collectivist identity to an individualistic identity and experiencing issues within their family due to this acculturation.
ADDRESSING Model
What: This model contributes to a full understanding of a client including their beliefs, morals, and values. This can help therapists learn these areas of bias and inexperience. The ADDRESSING model is helpful to see where the client might be a minority and what they could be struggling with when presenting to therapy.
A: Age
D: Disability at Birth
D: Disability Acquired
R: Religion
E: Ethnicity
S: Sexual Orientation
S: Socioeconomic Status
I: Indigenous Heritage
N: Nation of Origin
G: Gender (pronouns)
Why: This model is helpful in getting to know and understand who the client is and formulating treatment goals in collaboration with the client. Helps the therapist meet the client where they’re at.
EX: Sam is a new client who identifies as a cis gender, Jewish female. She is 68 years old. As her therapist does the initial interview, the therapist will want to gather information about how her Jewish heritage/faith and age are influencing her presenting problems, if at all.
Anti-racism
What: This is part of developing a multicultural attitude surrounding societal change, but it’s more than having a nonracist attitude. Being an antiracist involves actively working against the racist attitudes ingrained into society in all aspects. This means working towards social change and being a social justice warrior.
Why: ACA requires counselors to be advocates to address barriers and obstacles that inhibit access and or growth and development of clients
EX: Sarah a therapist attends BLM protests in support of her minority clients to actively work against the system.
Assimilation
What: The process by which an immigrant to a new culture adopts the culture’s beliefs and practices. It happens when individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society. Assimilation is common among immigrant populations that seek to blend in with the existing fabric of society and want to be seen and embraced as belonging.
Why: Individuals may feel pressure from members of the majority culture to assimilate quickly. It can impact immigrants and their children as they adopt to a new culture adopts the culture’s beliefs and practices and add to their stress. This is seen as a negative as it is giving up parts of your own culture to fit into the dominant more.
EX: Juan immigrated to the U.S. with his parents from Guatemala when he was a child. Now he is a teenager and seeking therapy over assimilation conflicts with his parents. He has fully assimilated to US culture, rejecting most aspects of his native culture, language, and customs. He is frustrated that his parents only speak Spanish at home and resist American popular culture.
Bicultural
What: Having or combining the cultural attitudes and customs of two nations, peoples, or ethnic groups. This is the condition in which an individual identifies themselves as two different cultures. This provides a source of strength to identify with two different groups and have a connection with two different cultures, values, and customs.
Why: It can be difficult when one of the cultures is the dominant culture and there are societal pressures to acculturate. This is important in treating individuals with ethnic sensitivity.
EX: You are counseling the child of an immigrant. The child is bicultural because she is deeply embedded in the heritage culture at home, but is also active and knowledgeable of American culture due to interactions at school.
Collectivism
What: A social or cultural tradition, ideology, or personal outlook that emphasizes the unity of the group or community rather than each person’s individuality. In many non-western cultures, identity is seen through a group orientation; most Asian, African, and South American societies tend to put more value on collectivism than do Western societies. They stress communalism, constructive interdependence, and conformity to cultural roles.
Why: This is key in treating individuals as they might have different goals and values than you as to not impose their own views. The needs and interests of individuals are sacrificed in order to meet the needs of the group as a whole which can cause a lot of distress in the client’s life.
EX: For instance, the therapist must resist passing judgements on someone she deems “too dependent” because in collectivistic cultures dependence is viewed as natural, while individualistic cultures disparage dependence.
Coming Out Process
What: The process of self-identification and self-acceptance for LGBTQ+ individuals. Coming out is a lifelong process, and can include disclosures to the individual’s family, employers, or friends. It is the individual’s decision to share their sexual orientation and/or gender identity with others. Coming out can lead to rejection, anger, and grief, and the decision to do so is extremely difficult for many individuals; however it can also ultimately lead to relief and acceptance. 6-stage process; confusion, comparison, tolerance, acceptance, pride, synthesis.
Why: It is important to recognize the goal of therapy is not always for the client to come out, if they are fearing the consequences the clinician can help them develop coping skills and other environmental support. This is a significant event and clinicians working with members of the LGBTQ+ community need to understand the intricacies of the process to help individuals work through it.
EX: Luna has recently discovered she is bisexual and told her parents and they do not support her, the therapist will help Luna find good social support and coping skills to deal with the negative reaction.
Cultural Competence
What: This usually involves a recognition of the diversity both between and within cultures, a capacity for cultural self-assessment, and a willingness to adapt personal behaviors and practices. The lifelong process in which one works to develop the ability to engage in actions or create conditions that maximize the optimal development of client and client systems. It is aspirational in nature and consists of counselors acquiring awareness (knowing one’s own culture, views, biases, and comfort levels of various backgrounds), knowledge (therapists knowledge of the cultural group both currently and historically, along with any barriers that group may have faced), and skills (implementing culturally appropriate interventions and receiving and sending information in ways that take into account cultural background while also recognizing one’s own personal limitations) needed to function effectively in a pluralistic democratic society, and on an organizational/societal level, advocating effectively to develop new theories, practices, policies, and organizational structures that are more responsive to all groups.
Why: This is very important for counselors to strive to get to, to make sure they are practicing with consideration to ethnicity, cultural humility, and culture and to improve cross-cultural communication and mental health outcomes. Cultural competence is not something that can be learned once, but is instead a lifelong process in which therapists must remain continually engaged.
EX: Danielle is a white therapist who is practicing on a Native American reservation. She attends ceremonies and meetings with the tribe’s elders in order to better understand how to help her clients in the context of their culture, thereby increasing her cultural competence.
Cultural Universality
What: The view that values, concepts, and behaviors characteristics of diverse cultures can be viewed, understood, and judged according to the universal standards. Proponents of this view believe that culturally diverse individuals do not need treatments to be adjusted for them, but can be treated just the same as an individual from a Western culture. Belief: disorders in the DSM-5 appear in all cultures and societies and that modifications in diagnosis and treatment are required.
Why: Cultural universality is often associated with the etic orientation, but when these values are imposed on a diverse client base, there is a risk of cultural oppression and victim blaming that can negatively affect the therapeutic relationship.
EX: A therapist that takes a cultural universality approach does not spend much time assessing or exploring a client’s culture as they do not believe it affects the person’s symptoms, interpretation of treatments, or presentation of disorders.
Culture
What: The values, beliefs, language, rituals, traditions, and other behaviors that are passed from one generation to another within any social group. It is the totality of the ideals, beliefs, skills, tools, customs, and institutions into which members of society are born. Frequently culture has a significant influence on one’s sense of identity.
Why: To understand the client’s internal frame of reference the counselor must understand their culture considering it has a significant influence on personal identity.
EX: A Muslim woman comes to treatment wearing a headscarf. Women cover their heads in public in her country of origin so this is a practice rooted in her culture
Culture Bound
What: The description of attitudes, practices, or behaviors that are the products of a particular culture and that are not widely found in other cultures. There are some syndromes that are culture bound and can only be found in that specific culture. Mental and physical functioning, insight and the use of, the focus on the individual, patterns of communication, self-disclosure and openness, proxemics, and expressiveness are just a few things that vary from culture to culture and are culture-bound.
Why: This is a very important part of case conceptualization and diagnosis of a client.
EX: Pg 215 of textbook. The experience and perpetuation of grief is often culture-bound. If you are counseling someone of the Jewish faith that just lost her mom, it is important to know that she might grieve for an entire year based on religious underpinnings.
Emic
What: This is a part of cultural competence that is a culturally specific perspective that looks at human behaviors through a cultural lens. An emic approach takes culture into account, and is more appropriate; treatment might need to be tailored for culture because certain cultural aspects cannot be generalized to others.
Why: Taking an emic approach to counseling is important because cultural considerations are key in treating clients properly.
EX: A therapist that takes an emic approach will spend a lot of time assessing or exploring a client’s culture because they believe cultural differences affect how a disorder manifests and how the client should be treated.
Ethnicity
What: A characterization of people based on having a shared culture (e.g., language, food, music, dress, values, and beliefs) related to common ancestry and shared history. The fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.
Why: Ethnicity of a client can help inform culturally appropriate interventions, as well as provide insight to the therapist regarding client worldviews.
Etic
What: The belief that human beings share broad commonalities and that the manifestation and treatment of disorders are similar across ALL cultures and societies. It’s the belief that everybody can be treated universally regardless of your culture, and their specific culture doesn’t need to be taken into account during treatment. It teaches counselors that the Western concepts of normality and abnormality can be considered universal and equally applicable across cultures.
Why: This is important because treating through a cultural lens is imperative as lifestyles, cultural values, and worldviews affect the expression and determination of disorders.
EX: A therapist that takes an etic approach does not spend much time assessing or exploring a client’s culture because they believe cultural differences do not affect how a disorder manifests and should be treated.
Ethnocentric Monculturalism
What: Ethnocentric monoculturalism is the belief that one’s own culture or ethnicity is superior to everyone else’s. There are three main beliefs to this concept. The first being that their own cultural heritage is above every other heritage around them. The second being that those who are of color are automatically inferior since their cultural heritage is inferior. And the third is that the ‘superior’ group has the right to impose their cultural heritage (language, values, beliefs) on the ‘inferior’ group
Why: This is the heart of the oppressor-oppressed relationship and affects trust and self-disclosure in therapy. This tends to be an issue when a minority client is seeking therapy from a therapist of the dominant culture.
EX: A clinician has a client referred to them by a doctor for refusing to undergo a surgery the doctor deemed necessary. The client is an indigenous Native from the Amazon and acknowledges he has a medical issue, but does not believe in Western medical practices. He believes the medicine men in his village were wiser and more skilled. The ethnocentric therapist considers this idea ignorant and encourages him to go through with the surgery, ignoring his personal, culture bound beliefs.
Individualism
What: A social or cultural tradition, ideology, or personal outlook that emphasizes the individual and their rights, independence, and relationships with other individuals. The Western world embraces this view which focuses on the autonomy of the individual and promotes freedom of action for the individual over the collective. The individual is the psychosocial unit of operation, the individual has primary responsibility for his or her own actions, independence and autonomy are highly valued and rewarded, and no one should be internally directed or controlled.
Why: This is an important distinction to make during treatment as to not come to any erroneous conclusion and decisions during the therapeutic process. It is important to see how the client views self and relation to others in therapy.
EX: When counseling someone from an individualistic background, the therapist should allow the client to guide and inform therapeutic goals because he/she likely values autonomy. When working with a client from a collectivistic background, the therapist might be required to do a little bit of advice giving.
Institutional Racism
What: Differential treatment of individuals on the basis of their racial group resulting from policies, practices, and procedures of institutions—such as school, health care, law enforcement, and criminal justice systems—that marginalize diverse racial groups. This is done by sanctioning unequal goals, unequal status, and unequal access to goods and services.
Why: This is the hardest racism to recognize as it is ingrained in culture. This is a difficult idea for people who think of themselves as fair and just but of the dominant culture to comprehend as they are not hurt by the system that tends to put a lot of people behind.
EX: An African American client that you are counseling for depression details the institutional racism that her family has had to endure. Her husband and the father of her children was unfairly imprisoned due to the third strike policy. He was sent to jail for years over a personal bag of weed. You empathize with her and help her come to terms with this new reality for her family
Microaggression
What: These are everyday slights, put-downs, invalidations, and insults directed at socially devalued group members by well-intentioned people who often are unaware that they have engaged in such biased and harmful behavior. Microaggressions serve to undermine their humanity through exposure to racial hostility and assumptions of inferiority. They tend to be subtle, unintentional, and indirect; often occur in situations in which there are alternative explanations; represent unconscious and ingrained beliefs and attitudes; and are more likely to occur when people pretend not to notice differences.
microinsults (unintentional ways of being insensitive/demeaning)
microassault (blatant, hostile - conveys bias and prejudice)
microinvalidation (dismiss, exclude other person’s experience/beliefs)
Why: A lifetime of microaggressions can have a major harmful impact on the psychological well-being of victims.
EX: A white woman tells a Black woman that she loves her hair and asks to touch it. This is a microaggression because the white woman thinks she is being complimentary, but she is actually dehumanizing the other woman by exotifying her hair
Minority
What: A population subgroup (e.g., ethnic, racial, social, religious, or other group) with differential power than those deemed to hold the majority power in the population. It can also cover any group that is the subject of oppression and discrimination, whether or not it literally compromises a minority of the population.
Why: Being a member of a minority in a mono-cultural society often puts one at a significant disadvantage, which can significantly impact the individual who is a minority’s life and well-being.
EX: As a white therapist, I am part of the majority in the US. I must recognize that I may not understand a minority group member’s unique experiences and I must be open to learning about it from that member
Multicultural competencies
What: Multiculturalism leads to social justice initiatives and actions. It includes quadrants (privilege, oppressed statuses), domains (counselor self-awareness, client worldview, counseling relationships, and counseling and advocacy interventions), and competencies (attitudes, beliefs, skills, and action). Counselor self-awareness, counselor knowledge of client worldview, the counseling relationship, and Culturally appropriate counseling and advocacy interventions
Why: Being aware of the different levels of competencies is crucial when practicing with multicultural competence.
EX: A multiculturally competent therapist working with diverse populations will understand her own limitations in understanding the marginalized experience, routinely seek education about marginalized groups, and seek training to build her skills in working with these groups.
Multicultural Counseling
What: The therapist defines goals and uses treatments that are consistent with an individual’s cultural values. The therapist must recognize that their values may not be the same as that of their culturally diverse client, but that does not give them the right to pressure their client to accept their values. The therapist must also recognize some behaviors considered deviant in Western society are not considered deviant in the culture of their clients. use ADDRESSING model to gather information about the client
Why: It can and should be used with any therapeutic approach or methodology, because it allows the therapist to fully understand the client and not come at it with any biases.
EX: A therapist treating an Asian American client is careful when defining goals not to impose his individualistic values on his client, who has more of a collectivist perspective
Multicultural Perspective in Counseling
What: This perspective recognizes the differences between and within clients and how their cultures may impact their values. A counselor must maintain awareness of her own cultural biases and values in order to prevent her from interfering with interactions with culturally diverse clients.
Why: Counselors are also responsible for cultivating knowledge about different cultures and skills that are useful with culturally diverse clients. Helps with an emic approach to treating clients.
EX: a therapist being aware of their own bias and not letting it interfere with how they treat clients that come from a different culture/background (growing up poor but then treating the rich).
Oppression
What: Oppression is the abuse of power whereby a dominant group engages in unjust, harsh, or cruel activities that perpetuate an attitude or belief toward a marginalized group that is reinforced by society and maintained by a power imbalance. Person’s of color and members of other marginalized groups live under a societal umbrella of individual, institutional, and cultural forces that often demean them, disadvantage them, and deny them equal access and opportunity. These experiences of oppression are a social reality for many marginalized groups and affects the perception of helping professional in multicultural counseling
Why: Mental health professionals must become aware of the dynamics that form their clients’ worldview and the struggles they have faced to bring them to therapy. Chronic oppression can lower self-esteem, reduce opportunity, lead to anger, anxiety or depression or internalized oppression. This is reinforced by society and maintained by a power imbalance.
EX: Marvin is a young gay male coming to therapy for depression. He describes the oppression he experiences at school, work, and even in his family: - he is bullied at school. He comes for treatment for symptoms of depression due to oppression from peers
Poverty and Mental Illness
What: Studies show a direct correlation between poverty and mental illness. Impoverished people are 2-3 times more likely to develop mental illness than those w/ higher SES. Living in poverty for any significant length of time increases all sorts of risk factors for mental health problems. One will likely live in a neighborhood more prone to violence, exposing them to more trauma and risk for personal violence. It often precedes the development of emotional problems like anxiety and depression and is conducive to the development. They face extra risk of PTSD, violence, aggression, substance abuse, and academic difficulties.
Why: These families must deal with economic stressors like unemployment and lack of affordable housing, which can lead to mental health disorders.
EX: Richard grew up in a poor family that didn’t have access to mental health or medical resources to help him when he began to show signs of schizophrenia. He began to self-medicate with drugs. As an adult, he is unhoused and has spent time in and out of psychiatric wards of hospitals and prisons for actions related to his addiction and mental illness.
