The construct of multicultural competence has gained much currency in the counseling psychology literature. This article provides a critique of the multicultural counseling competencies and argues that counseling psychology's operationalization of multicultural competence must be grounded in a commitment to social justice. Such a commitment necessitates an expansion of our professional activities beyond counseling and psychotherapy. While counseling is one way to provide services to clients from oppressed groups, it is limited in its ability to foster social change. Engaging in advocacy, prevention, and outreach is critical to social justice efforts, as is grounding teaching and research in collaborative and social action processes.
This study explores the relationship of the accumulative effect of gendered racism, the discrimination felt by African American women, on psychological distress. The study also explores whether coping serves as a mediating variable between gendered racism and psychological distress. Over 300 African American women participated in the study and were administered the Symptoms Checklist 90, a revised version of the Schedule of Sexist Events, and the Africultural Coping Styles Inventory. A positive significant relationship between global psychological distress was found with experiences of gendered racism. Regression analyses suggest some degree of partial mediation on the relationship between gendered racism and global psychological distress via cognitive-emotional coping styles, but no mediating effects with spiritual-centered, collective, and ritual-centered coping. Suggestions for future research and implications are discussed.
Preliminary findings on the validation of the Stereotypic Roles for Black Women Scale (SRBWS) are presented. A sample of 186 African American women took the SRBWS along with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Racial Identity Attitude Scale–B. A confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure of the scale, and moderate reliability estimates were found for each of the interrelated but distinct subscales. Stepwise regression analyses revealed that Mammy and Sapphire images were significant predictors of self-esteem scores and that the internalized stereotypic roles contributed unique variance over racial identity attitudes in understanding self-esteem in Black women. Suggestions for future research and validation of the SRBWS are discussed.
This study explores racial socialization messages used by African American parents, specific messages according to the gender of children, and the relationship between racial socialization and racial identity attitudes as measured by the Racial Identity Attitude Scale. One hundred four African American parents participated in the study. Racial socialization was seen as important to the vast majority of parents and they reported a wide variety of socialization messages. Chi-square analysis suggests that messages differ according to gender. Multiple regression analysis suggests that internalization attitudes contribute to 19% of the variance of racial socialization attitudes, indicating that parents with internalization attitudes are more likely to view racial socialization as important. Implications and limitations of the investigation are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented.
Positive self‐identity is not easily attained in this culture. This premise is supported by the pervasive number of “‐isms” (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism) and their adverse impact on those who are defined as inferior by the dominant way of perceiving. Examination of the conceptual system that predisposes people to these “‐isms” concludes that (a) it is the nature of the conceptual system that is inherently oppressive and (b) all who adhere to this conceptual system have a difficult time developing and maintaining a positive identity. This article postulates a new way of describing the identity development process under oppression using optimal theory (Myers, 1988). From this optimal worldview, oppression is perceived as self‐alienating and yielding a fragmented sense of self, based upon devaluation by self and others. Therefore, identity development is a process of integrating and expanding one's sense of self. Optimal theory provides a new inclusive model of identity development, which is described, along with its applications for counseling practice. No es facíl obtener una identidad positiva de uno mismo en esta cultura. Esta premisa se apoya en la gran cantidad de “‐ismos” (e.g., racismo, sexismo, heterosexismo, “edadismo”) y los impactos adversos en la gente que sería definida como inferior por la manera dominante de percibirlo. La conclusión de un examen del sistema conceptual que predispone a las personas a estos “‐ismos” es que (a) la naturaleza del sistema conceptual es inheréntemente opresivo, y (b) todos aquellos que se adhieran a este sistema conceptual tendrán dificultades con el desarrollo y mantemiento de una identidad positiva. Este artículo postula una nueva manera de describir el proceso del desarrolo de la identidad bajo opresión utilizando la teoría óptima (Myers, 1.988). Desde esta visión universal óptima, se ve a la opresión como autoalienación y creadora de un sentido fragmentado del yo, basado en la devaluación por uno mismo y por los demás. Por tanto, el desarrollo de la indentidad es un proceso de integración y amplificación de la percepción de uno mismo. Esta óptima teoría nos da un modelo inclusive nuevo del desarrollo de identidad, lo cual se describe, junta con sus aplicacions para la práctica de consejería.
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