Cultural Issues Pertemuan 11 Matakuliah: L0332 – Psikologi Konseling Tahun: 2009

PERTEMUAN 11 Cultural Issues

Introduction Assessment may insufficiently take into account differences in how behaviours are perceived in different cultures Therapist may fail to understand and address the chronic stresses attached to being in a cultural minority group and the emotional disruption of migration to a different culture.

The Terminology of culture Culture: Herskovits (1948): part of the environment that is shaped or created by humans. Spindler (1963): a patterned system of tradition derived norms influencing behaviour. Cross et all (1989): an integrated pattern of human behaviour that includes thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group A colloquial definition of culture is THE WAY WE DO THINGS HERE Enculturation: the transmission of cultural norms within a given culture. Acculturation: the behavioural and psychological changes that occur in individuals as a result of their interaction with a different culture.

The Terminology of culture Culture Shock: a fairly common reaction to stresses of adapting to a new culture.  Its symptoms can include anxiety, a sense of loss, confusion of roles, feelings of helplessness and a desire for a more familiar and predictable environment.  Culture shock can engender pathological symptoms, such as depression and psychological and physical withdrawal. Culture change: change can come from within and without, or a mixture of the two.  in Britain and Australia, there are traditional mainstream cultures adhered to mainly by the older generation, as well as emergent cultures being created predominantly by the younger generation. Multiculturalism: cultural mosaics rather than cultural melting-pots (Britain, Australia, America)

The Terminology of culture Cultural cohesion: the extend to which the norms of a culture or nation help it to stick together. In Britain, Austria and USA, many of the problems of cultural minorities are those of equality of access to opportunities within the mainstream culture rather than the fact that a mainstream culture exists. In such culturally diverse countries, a balance needs to be struck between multiculturalism and cultural cohesion. Race: human sub-groups possessing distinctive physical characteristics that distinguish them from other human sub-groups. Ethnic minority: groups differentiated from the main population of a country by racial origin and/or cultural background.

THEORY Current theories of counselling and psychotherapy inadequately describe, predict and deal with the richness and complexity of a culturally diverse population (Derald Sue, Allen Ivey and Paul Pedersen) One of the main dimensions of a culture is that of values or the underlying principles that guide how people live their live. There is no exact relationship between how people think they ought to behave, their values and their actual behaviour. Universal values: Schwarz (1992) classified values into 10 types: power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, conformity, and security Laugani’s four core values distinguishing western (British) and eastern (Indian): read p. 426

THEORY MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLING AND THERAPY (MCT) Sue, Ivey, and Pedersen (1996) proposed a meta-theory (theory about theories) that they called Multicultural Counselling and Therapy (MCT) MCT consists of 6 proposition, each of which has corollaries: (read p )

THERAPY Counsellors of all races and backgrounds will increasingly be called upon to assist clients who posses markedly different worldviews (Ingrid Grieger & Joseph Ponterotto) There are some goals, which may overlap, for working with clients in whose problems issues of culture play a significant role: read p * Support * Dealing with post-traumatic stress * Assisting acculturation and assimilation * Assisting clients to handle cross-cultural relationship * Consciousness raising and liberation * Avoiding further marginalization * Attaining higher levels of development * The good society

THERAPY Therapeutic approaches: read Making existing Euro-American therapist more culture-sensitive Multicultural counselling and therapy competences Non-Western approaches to counselling and therapy Additional Roles for multicultural counsellors and therapists: read p. 435