MULTICULTURAL COMPETENCE: AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL

Transcription

1 Microtraining Associates 25 Burdette Avenue, Framingham, Massachusetts Phone/fax: Website: A VIDEOTAPE LECTURE/DISCUSSION Permission to duplicate all of this summary leader guide or portions is granted. Please provide full credit for Dr. Pedersen. MULTICULTURAL COMPETENCE: AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL Paul B. Pedersen, Professor Emeritus Syracuse University, Visiting Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii ( 2004) All behaviors are learned and displayed in a cultural context. Therefore accurate assessment, meaningful understanding and appropriate intervention---the foundations of competence---require awareness of the multicultural context. The basic multicultural competencies have been best described in the book by D.W. Sue et al (1998) Multicultural Counseling Competencies: Individual and Organizational Development, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. These 34 competencies have been described in three dimensions and can be summarized as follows: Dimension 1: Counselor Awareness of Their Own Assumptions, Values and Biases: Aware of cultural heritage comfortable with differences but aware of limits Knows about oppression, racism and discrimination Skilled in self-improvement toward a non-racist identity Dimension 2: Understanding the Worldview of the Culturally Different Client: Aware of emotional reactions toward other racial and ethnic groups Knows the culture of client population and its influence on counseling and society Skilled in mental health issues of other cultures and actively involved with ethnic minority groups. 1

2 Dimension 3: Developing Appropriate Intervention Strategies and Techniques: Aware of religious and spiritual indigenous mental health resources Knows how counseling fits with other cultures, institutions and assessments Skilled in culturally appropriate counseling of indigenous people. This presentation will examine the applications of training to increase MULTICULTURAL AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL as three separate sequential developmental levels of multicultural competency. These applications of multicultural competency are discussed more completely in Pedersen, P. (2000) Handbook for Developing Multicultural Awareness: Third Edition Alexandria VA: American Counseling Association. AWARENESS TRAINING A.1. Indicators of Multicultural Self Awareness: 1. familiar with cultural and language differences 2. interest in and sensitivity to other cultures 3. awareness of myths and stereotypes of cultures 4. concern for the welfare of culturally different clients 5. ability to articulate your own cultural backgrounds 6. appreciation for the importance of cultural orientation 7. awareness of the relationship between cultural groups 8. knowing how culture influences psychological processes 9. recognizing the limits of cultural expertise 10. being comfortable with cultural differences A.2. Multicultural Awareness has become popular for several reasons: 1. growing concern for Third World development issues 2. search for a postcolonial future in global politics 3. internationalization of the social sciences 4. radicalization of Third World have-not countries 5. a paradigm shift toward complexity in the sciences 6. activists from the 60s are in power in developed countries 7. more interdisciplinary cooperation on problem solving 8. accelerated migrations resulting from technology 9. increased transfer of science and technology 10. more attention to the consequences of globalization A.3. Multicultural incompetence is demonstrated in several ways: 1. biased evaluation with unflattering comparisons 2

3 2. derogation, disparagement and denigration 3. dehumanization of other's dignity 4. fear of contamination and threat 5. redefining outsiders as legitimate enemies 6. acceleration of harm doing with destructive acts 7. approval and condoning destructive behavior 8. blame the victim 9. make self-righteous comparisons to justify retaliation 10. desecrate others to demonstrate contempt 3

4 A.4. The social consequence of cultural exclusion: 1. group think toward unanimity with transcendent ideologies 2. deindividuation to invalidate the relevance of ethical standards 3. psychological distancing and unflattering comparisons 4. dependency on science and technology to solve social problems 5. double standards for evaluating minority and majority groups 6. euphemisms to give respectability to harm-doing 7. displacing and diffusing responsibility 8. concealing the effects of exclusion 9. glorifying and normalizing violence 10. temporal containment and a short-term perspective A.5. The relevance of viewing Multiculturalism as a Fourth Force 1. we know significant changes are happening in psychology 2. multiculturalism has become a powerful domestic force 3. in South Africa and elsewhere multiculturalism used to rationalize oppression 4. it may be premature to declare multiculturalism as a fourth force 5. the US version of multiculturalism is grounded in individualism 6. broadly defined culture includes ethnographic, demographic, status and affiliation variables 7. multiculturalism threatens to change the process and not just the content of thinking 8. the attacks on multiculturalism have increased indicating its growing power 9. the goal of multiculturalism is to strengthen rather than weaken psychology 10. tolerance of ambiguity has replaced dissonance reduction in psychology A.6. The up-side of a culture-centered perspective 1. Accuracy in assessments 2. Common ground conflict management 3. Identity comprehension from culture teachers 4. Health from a diversified ecosystem 5. Protection from encapsulation 6. Survival in the future 7. Social justice 8. Right thinking processes 9. Learning from life 10. Spirituality 11. Political stability and pluralism 12. Good psychology A.7. The Cultural Grid 4

5 PERSONAL VARIABLES Where you learned to do it Why you did it What you did CULTURAL TEACHERS 1. Family relations relatives fellow countrypersons ancestors shared beliefs 2. Power relationships social friends sponsors and mentors subordinates supervisors and superiors 3. Memberships co-workers organizations gender and age groups workplace colleagues 4. Non-family relationships friendships classmates neighbors people like me 5

6 INDICATORS OF MULTICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND COMPREHENSION K.1. Multicultural knowledge and comprehension requires: 1. specific knowledge about the target culture experience 2. understanding the adjustment process in target cultures 3. understanding one's own cultural experiences 4. developing an educational background about culture 5. understanding the importance of socioeconomic pressures 6. comprehending the range of cultural values and attitudes 7. being able to give multiple interpretations of a behavior 8. appreciating the customs and language of other cultures 9. valuing other learning, thinking and communication styles 10. identifying resources available to other cultures 11. understanding relationships between cultures 12. being expert in your own field or discipline 13. mobilizing training resources for continued learning K.2. Cultural differences include: 1. the part of a way of life that people make 2. ideas transmitted from generation to generation 3. childhood experiences and internalized values 4. socialization of children into adults 5. consistent patterns of concepts and practices 6. occasional variation in consistent patterns 7. resistance to permanent change of patterns K.3. Understanding culturally biased assumptions in conventional psychology: 1. a unimodal definition of normal 2. individualism is the preferred perspective 3. narrowly defined professional boundaries of counseling 4. low context abstractions are more sophisticated 5. dependency is bad 6. support systems are not relevant 7. rational thinking is always linear 8. change the clients and not the system 9. history is not relevant 6

7 10. we already know our assumptions K.4. Understanding cultural encapsulation: 1. individuals define reality according to one set of cultural assumptions 2. people become insensitive to cultural variations among individuals 3. people assume their own views are the only right ones 4. assumptions are not dependent on reasonable proof or rational consistency 5. individuals judge everyone else from their own self-reference criteria K.5. Multicultural counseling theory (Sue, D.W., Ivey, A.E., & Pedersen, P.B. (1996) Multicultural counseling theory. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole 1. Western and non-western theories are different 2. counseling must focus on complex relationships without simplification 3. the cultural identities of the counselor and client influences counseling 4. the ultimate goal of a culture-centered approach is an expanded repertoire 5. conventional models of counseling are rejected by many cultures 6. an expanded consciousness of the cultural context is primary to counseling K6. Cultural biases that are implicit in APA and ACA ethical guidelines 1. an individualistic perspective is good 2. dependency is bad 3. freedom of choice is not ever destructive 4. differences should be overlooked 5. counselors already have self awareness 6. dual relationships are bad 7. counselors should withdraw from conflict 8. services should be paid for with money 9. privacy is universally valued 10. there are universal guidelines for competence 11. counseling is defined narrowly 12. quantitative data is better than qualitative data 13. measures do not always require validation 14. teachers do not learn from students 15. there is no allowance for responsible disobedience INDICATORS OF MULTICULTURAL SKILL 7

8 S.1. Multicultural skill presumes the presence of: 1. appropriate cultural teaching or service techniques 2. appropriate learning styles 3. ability to establish empathic rapport or relationships 4. skills to design and use feedback 5. ability to evaluate accurately in multiple contexts 6. ability to develop new and original methods 7. accurate assessment skills 8. meaningful understanding skills 9. appropriate intervention skills 10. self assessment skills S.2. Six basic approaches to cross-cultural skill training: 1. the classroom model of didactic lectures 2. attribution training focused on explanations 3. cultural awareness training on self awareness 4. cognitive-behavioral modification from reinforcers 5. experiential learning in face-to-face contact 6. the interactional approach with community resources S.3. Training counselors to manage cultural complexity: 1. accept conflicting viewpoints between persons 2. accept conflicting viewpoints within persons 3. assess accurate perspective taking of others 4. listening and storing information for later 5. shifting topics appropriately 6. identify specific and accurate labeling of feelings 7. identifying multiple support systems 8. identifying appropriate evaluation criteria 9. generating unique insights 10. avoiding simple solutions S.4. Aspects of balance in training multicultural counselors: 1. positive aspects of negative experiences 8

9 2. negative aspects of positive experiences 3. integration of positive and negative aspects to derive meaning 4. avoid side-taking and monological perspectives 5. sensitivity to influences by collective forces 6. sensitivity to changing power levels of persons 7. sensitivity to changing power levels across topics 8. sensitivity to changing power levels across roles 9. ability to adjust power-influence to promote growth 10. ability to maintain an inclusive harmony S.5. Matching formal/informal skill building methods by contexts: 1. formal method/formal context (office interview) 2. formal method/nonformal context (community service) 3. formal method/informal context (advice giving) 4. nonformal method/formal context (training) 5. nonformal method/nonformal context (support groups) 6. nonformal method/informal context (self-help) 7. informal method/formal context (presentations) 8. informal method/nonformal context (family and friends) 9. informal method/informal context (daily encounters) Formal, Non-formal and Informal counseling methods and contexts FORMAL METHODS FORMAL NON-FORMAL INFORMAL CONTEXTS NON-FORMAL INFORMAL S.6. Separating positive/negative expectations from behaviors: 1. same positive expectation and same behavior (harmony) 2. same positive expectation different behavior (cross-cultural) 3. different/negative expectation same behavior (personal conflict) 4. different/negative expectation different behavior (war) 9

10 WHY IT WAS DONE Perceived Positive Action Perceived Negative Action WHAT WAS DONE? Perceived Positive Action Perceived Negative Action 10

11 A.7. Advantages of the orthogonal model where each individual has multiple cultures at the same time: 1. cultural groups become non-competitive 2. minorities are neither eliminated nor absorbed 3. a permanent multicultural society is promoted 4. conflicts of value and belief are mediated 5. cultural conflict becomes a positive force 6. militancy by minorities is less necessary 7. minority/majority interaction is promoted 8. economic advantages of cooperation are realized 9. not necessary to chose one and exclude other identities 10. includes the complexity of each cultural context