PSYC 561 - Cultural Issues Flashcards
Acculturation
The process used by the minority culture to imitate the majority culture by adapting various aspects of the majority culture. This can also be seen bidirectionally, with majority culture adapting certain aspects of the minority culture. Occurs at the individual and group level. Acculturation can result in acculturation stress - not unlike post traumatic stress, this type of stress refers to the anxiety depression, and conflict, which accompany moving into a new culture. Can create family conflict, where children acculturate more quickly than parents. Important in worldview for therapy and treatment plan. EXAMPLE: You are seeing a client that recently immigrated to the United States from Brazil. He is under a lot of stress as he navigates American culture and acculturates. As his therapist, you will need to help him navigate through this stress and learn to adapt various aspects of American culture without abandoning his Brazilian culture.
ADDRESSING model
ADDRESSING is an acronym of cultural influences and client factors to be aware of in case conceptualization and treatment. Including these dimensions of identity on intake paperwork can help therapists understand the client more fully. Helps therapist understand personal biases also.
Age and Generational influences -
Developmental disability -disabled from birth
Disability acquired
Religion and spiritual orientation -dominant group: Christian and secular; nondominant: Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and other religions
Ethnic and racial identity -dominant group: European Americans; nondominant: Asian, South Asian, Latino, Pacifiic Islander, Middle Eastern and multiracial people
Socioeconomic status -dominant group: upper and middle class; nondominant: people of lower status by occupation, education, income, or inner city or rural habitat
Sexual orientation
Indigenous heritage
National origin
Gender
Example: 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.
Assimilation
The process by which a person or group adopts a new culture to the point of virtually replacing their original culture, leaving only trace elements behind. 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. Individuals may feel pressure from members of the majority culture to assimilate quickly. Generally seen as negative. Example: 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
Having or combining the cultural attitudes and customs of two nations, peoples, or ethnic groups. An individual who is bicultural is conversant with both sets of values and customs. Identifying with two or more cultures, typically seen with one’s heritage culture and the culture of the country or region in which one has settled. Maintaining biculturality can be difficult if the majority culture pressures assimilation. Being bicultural is a source of strength but negotiating dual group membership can cause problems for many marginalized group members. Example: 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
Philosophical, political, economic or social outlook that emphasizes the interdependence of every human in some collective group and the priority of group goals over individual goals; a way of life in some cultures in which the group is the primary unit, not the individual. The needs and interests of individuals are sacrificed in order to meet the needs of the group as a whole. This philosophy is prominent in Eastern cultures. It is in strong contrast to the prevailing sentiment in the United States, which is individualism. Counselors with individualistic view need to be careful not to impose beliefs on clients of collectivistic view. Example: When counseling someone from a collectivist culture, the therapist must be careful not to impose his/her own individualistic viewpoint on the client. 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
Coming out is the process in which individuals reveal to their family and friends that they identify as gay or lesbian. Not everyone goes through the same process or the same steps. This is not a linear process and the individual typically has to “come out” many times throughout their life. There are positives and negatives of coming out - not always the goal of therapy to come out. Important to consider all consequences when counseling a pt thinking about coming out. Positives include building self esteem, building more genuine relationships, and being a role model to others. Negatives include rejection, harassment, discrimination, and loss of social support. 6 Stages of Coming Out: - Confusion- question and wonder about sexuality; might experience denial - Comparison- accept possibility that you may be gay - Tolerance- acceptance increases, may isolate self because self-concept is becoming different from society’s expectations - Acceptance- have resolved most ?s concerning sexual identity and have accepted self - Pride- begin to feel pride; immerse self in LGB culture; may feel anger with or reject hetero community - Synthesis- integrate sexual identity with other aspects of self so it is just one part of whole identity. Feel more congruence Example: A 20 year old male was seeking therapy due to anxiety about his sexual orientation. He explained to the therapist that his family would never accept him if they found out he was homosexual, but that he had to tell someone. The therapist offered help and together they explored the consequences of coming out process. He role played coming out to his dad with the therapist.
Cross’s model of racial identity
Developed by Cross, this is a five stage Black Identity Development model. - The first stage is the Pre encounter stage, where the individual is focused on assimilating to the white culture and devalues their own culture or “blackness.” - The second stage is the Encounter stage, which is when some significant event occurs that challenges their beliefs, causing a paradigm shift away from assimilation. –The third stage, the Immersion-Emersion stage, is when the individual pulls away from the white culture and immerses themselves into the black culture. The individual develops pride in black culture. - The fourth stage is the internalization stage, where the individual becomes accepting of both white and black cultures, transcends and reconciles, and become flexible and tolerant. The final stage is internalization-commitment - they are more focused on social justice and civil rights for everyone. Example: You are treating an African American client that you believe is in the pre encounter stage of Black Identity development (Cross’s Model). The client comes in one day speaking of an encounter with a racist parent of one of her friends that resulted in her not being allowed to hang out with that friend anymore. This experience shattered her identity and shattered the belief that all people are equal. As a therapist you should help the client understand this situation and the implications of it. This will naturally encourage client to move through encounter stage and hopefully into Immersion-Emersion and ultimately internalization.
Cultural competence
Therapist’s ability to understand the various influences of culture on a person’s behavior and interactions. Can be defined in three different areas: Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills. -Awareness includes knowing one’s own culture, views, biases, and comfort levels of various backgrounds. -Knowledge refers to the therapist’s knowledge of the cultural group both currently and historically, along with any barriers that group may have faced. -Skills refer to implementing culturally appropriate interventions and receiving and sending information in ways that take into account cultural background; also recognizing one’s own personal limitations. Cultural competence is not something that can be learned once, but is instead a lifelong process in which therapists must remain continually engaged. Cultural humility is also important. Example: Danielle is a white therapist who is practicing on a Native American reservation. She attends ceremonies and meetings with 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 relativism
Cultural relativism focus on how a disorder manifests and is treated within the patient’s culture (in contrast to cultural universality, which minimizes cultural factors in diagnosis and treatment). Cultural values and world views influence the expression and determination of deviant behavior, which makes paying attention to relativism in the clinical context critical. In some cultures, it is more acceptable to express psychological complaints in physical terms. In other cultures, it is not considered abnormal to experience hallucinations. Example: Amy, a Vietnamese immigrant, comes to therapy complaining of headaches and stomachaches. In the course of treatment, the therapist realized that these frequent aches, with no apparent physical cause, were manifestations of anxiety about her family’s financial well-being back in Vietnam. The therapist approached case conceptualizations with a perspective of cultural relativism and understood that this was a valid way of expressing that anxiety, and crafted a plan to address it.
Cultural racism
A variation of structural racism that occurs when the assumption of the inferiority of one or more races is embraced by the culture of a given society. Includes aspects of society that overtly and covertly attribute value and normality to white people and whiteness, and devalue, stereotype, and label people of color as “other,” different, less than,” or render them invisible. Example: Studies have shown that resumes with white-sounding names get calls for interviews at a much higher rate than resumes with Black-sounding names, when qualifications and other resume content is comparable. This is an example of cultural racism, because employers treat the dominant group as superior and more qualified.
Cultural universality
In contrast to cultural relativism, this is the view that the concepts of normality and abnormality can be universally be applied, regardless of culture. 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. Abnormality and psychopathology is different in varous cultures and is not taking into consideration with this. Etic. Example: 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
Culture consists of all those things that people have learned to do, believe, value, and enjoy. 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, and to understand the client’s internal frame of reference the counselor must understand their culture. Example: A Muslim woman comes to treatment wearing a head scarf. Woman cover their heads in public in her country of origin so this is a practice rooted in her culture.
Culture bound
Refers to behaviors that are linked to a specific culture or tied to a specific group of people and their values and beliefs. Certain syndromes and disorders may be culture bound, as well as certain treatments. A counselor must be careful not to diagnose something that is considered normal in a culture as a disorder, and also must be sure to be aware of disorders that occur only in specific cultures. Values can be culture bound as well, such as emotional expressiveness, insight, and self-disclosure. EXAMPLE: 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.
Example: penis
Emic
The belief that cultural differences must be considered in the diagnosis and treatment of culturally diverse groups (Remember EMic - multicultural). The emic perspective emphasizes culture-specific norms and views clients in the context of his/her own culture - cultural relativism/cultural bound. What is true for one culture may not apply to another culture in terms of noramlity and abnormality. EXAMPLE: 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.
Ethnocentrism
The belief that one’s culture or ethnicity is superior to everyone else’s culture or ethnicity. Ethnocentrism becomes a problem when the dominant culture is ethnocentric and attempts to assimilate all other cultures into it. The therapist must be careful not to perpetuate any ethnocentrism in their practice. 5 components: Belief in superiority of the domninant group, belief in the inferiorty of others, power to impose standards, manifestations in institutions and the invisible veil. At the heart of oppressor/oppressed relationship and affects trust and self-disclosure in therapy (especially for minority/majority relationship). EXAMPLE: 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.
Etic
The belief that human beings share broad commonalities and that the manifestation and treatment of disorders are similar across ALL cultures and societies (remember eTic - Total). The etic perspective emphasizes similarities between all people, assumes universality, and downplays culture-based differences - cultural universality/nomothetic EXAMPLE: 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
Ethnicity
The fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition. Ethnicity generally describes a group’s sense of possessing a shared identity informed by a common language, culture, or religion. Racial and ethnic identities often overlap, where ethnicity is more of a social idea (not based on biological and physical characteristics) and race is more appearance. Inform culturally appropriate interventions. Culturally relevant issues. EXAMPLE: The Martinez family came to therapy because the father was hearing voices and sounds no one else heard. The therapist talked about the father’s problems in front of the entire family, using the son to translate, without realizing that the family’s Hispanic ethnicity would prohibit the son from taking on such a role.
