Becoming Culturally Oriented: Practical Advice for Psychologists and Educators

In Becoming Culturally Oriented: Practical Advice for Psychologists and Educators, Nadya A. Fouad and Patricia Arredondo provide a comprehensive framework for helping psychologists to increase and improve culturally responsive practice, research, and education. Research shows that racial and ethnic minorities have less access to mental health services than do Whites and are more likely to receive poor quality services. Compounding these problems is the fact that ethnic minority psychologists are poorly represented among psychologists as a whole, relative to their numbers in the general population. To address these concerns, APA has developed the Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, and Organizational Change for Psychologists as a blueprint for psychologists pursuing their work in increasingly diverse communities. The Guidelines are written in aspirational language, but to date, an associated program for applying the guidelines has been missing.

In this book, Fouad and Arredondo show how educators, practitioners, administrators, and researchers can use each of the guidelines as a basis for consciousness-raising and self-examination as well as for broadening culturally responsive practices on an organizational level. Addressing each guideline in turn, the authors provide case studies, checklists, and questions for self-examination and discussion, designed to foster planning and implementation of more culturally informed psychological services and teaching practices.

1. Introduction to Multicultural-Centered Practices
2. Evaluating Cultural Identity and Biases
3. Psychologists in Cross-Cultural Interactions With Others
4. Implications for Psychologists as Practitioners
5. Implications for Psychologists as Educators
6. Implications for Psychologists as Researchers
7. Psychologists as Organizational Change Agents
8. Concluding Thoughts: Psychology as a Transformed Profession

Appendix A: Checklist for Culturally Competent Practice

Appendix B: The Empowerment Workshops' Workforce Diversity Audit: An Organizational Self-Assessment

References

Index

About the Authors

Nadya A. Fouad, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and training director in counseling psychology at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee (UWM). In 2003, she was recipient of the John Holland Award for Outstanding Achievement in Career and Personality Research.

Dr. Fouad was president of Division 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2000–2001, is cointerim vice president for Communications, and previously served as vice president for Diversity and Public Interest of Division 17 (1996–1999). She is editor-elect of The Counseling Psychologist and is chair of the Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs (2003–2007). She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Counseling Psychology, the Journal of Vocational Behavior, Career Development Quarterly, and the Journal of Career Assessment. Dr. Fouad chaired the UWM Task Force on Climate for Women and the APA Task Force for Women in Academe.

Dr. Fouad has published articles and chapters on cross-cultural vocational assessment, career development of women and racial–ethnic minorities, interest measurement, cross-cultural counseling, and race and ethnicity. She has served as cochair (with Patricia Arredondo) of the writing team for the "Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists," which were approved by the APA in August 2002 and were published in the American Psychologist in May 2003.

Patricia Arredondo, EdD, is senior associate vice president for University Undergraduate Initiatives and professor of counseling/counseling psychology at Arizona State University. She is known for her scholarship in the areas of multicultural competencies, organizational diversity management, and Latino psychology.

Dr. Arredondo has served as president of national associations including Division 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues) of the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, the National Latina/o Psychological Association, and the Association of Multicultural Counseling and Development. She is a fellow of Divisions 17 and 45 of the American Psychological Association and was recognized as a "Living Legend" for her contributions to multicultural counseling by the American Counseling Association. Dr. Arredondo holds an honorary degree from the University of San Diego.

This book is a must for those delivering, or training to deliver, psychological or mental health services…Essential.
—CHOICE Magazine

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