Ann R. Fischer

Reconceptualizing Multicultural Counseling Universal Healing Conditions in a Culturally Specific Context

Some tension appears to exist in the literature between the emic, or culturally specific, and etic, or universal, approaches to counseling with culturally different clients. Prompted by the lack of clear theoretical models for multicultural counseling, as well as by the inability of specific factors to explain treatment effectiveness in general, we suggest that consideration of the common factors found in psychotherapy and healing across cultures provides a useful way to bridge the gap between culturally specific and universal approaches. We believe that the skeleton of universal healing factors requires the flesh of cultural knowledge, resulting in the formulation of multicultural counseling as universal healing processes taking place in a culturally sensitive context. We propose that this perspective (a) may serve as a framework for unifying the diverse body of multi-cultural counseling literature, (b) has some empirical support, and (c) may be useful in guiding future multicultural research, training, and practice.

Assessing Women's Feminist Identity Development: Studies of Convergent, Discriminant, and Structural Validity

Researchers have called for increasing sophistication in the assessment of womens feminist identity development (Enns & Hackett, 1990; Hackett, Enns, & Zetzer, 1992) to understand important psychological processes. This series of studies examined recent efforts to operationalize Downing and Roushs (1985) model of feminist identity development. Specifically, the psychometric properties of two existing measures—the Feminist Identity Development Scale (Bargad & Hyde, 1991) and the Feminist Identity Scale (Rickard, 1987)—were examined in two studies with separate samples of women (total N = 486). Results of Study 1 indicated the strengths and significant limitations associated with each scale (e.g., low internal consistency for some subscales, item-subscale inconsistency). A composite measure (derived from these scales) with better overall psychometric properties is described. In Study 2, we found good support for the composite instruments internal consistency, as well as convergent, discriminant, and factorial validity in a sample that included a wide age range and nonstudent community residents.

Examining Objectification Theory Lesbian and Heterosexual Women's Experiences With Sexual- and Self-Objectification

Many theorists have suggested that living in a culture in which womens bodies are sexually objectified socializes girls and women to treat themselves as objects. This study developed a theory-based measure of cultural sexual objectification and explored the relationship between womens reports of cultural sexual objectification experiences and self-objectification. The possible moderating effects of sexual orientation were explored using hierarchical moderated regressions. The major findings, in a sample of 361 women, were (a) womens reports of sexualized gaze/harassment were significantly related to their own self-objectification, (b) lesbian and heterosexual women reported similar levels of sexualized gaze/harassment, and (c) the relationship between sexualized gaze/harassment and self-objectification was not significantly different for the lesbian and heterosexual subsamples. Potential implications for counseling and directions for future research are discussed.

Testing a Culture-Specific Extension of Objectification Theory Regarding African American Women’s Body Image

Objectification theory has emphasized objectification in terms of body shape and size. African American women may expect to be evaluated on additional physical attributes such as skin tone. Therefore, we extended previous research on objectification theory by adding separate measures of skin-tone concerns in a survey of 117 African American women. Results from a series of path analyses revealed that as hypothesized, habitual body monitoring of skin tone predicted specific skin-tone dissatisfaction as well as general shame regarding body shape and size. Contrary to theoretical predictions, self-objectification did not mediate links between habitual monitoring (of skin tone or of body size and shape) and body dissatisfaction. In terms of objectification theory, results suggest that skin tone is a relevant dimension of habitual body monitoring and dissatisfaction for some African American women.

WOMEN'S BENEVOLENT SEXISM AS REACTION TO HOSTILITY

Grounded in the theory of ambivalent sexism, this study tested the speculation that womens benevolent sexist attitudes may be, in part, a self-protective response to environments they perceive as hostile to women. Data that have indirectly supported this conjecture thus far have been correlational. The current study involved a more powerful, experimental test of the hypothesis. Women (N = 105) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, which differed only in what participants were told about research findings on mens attitudes toward women (negative or positive attitudes, or no information). As predicted, benevolent sexist attitudes—but not hostile sexist attitudes—were strongest for women told that men hold negative attitudes toward women. This effect is consistent with a benevolent sexism-as-protest explanation and was statistically significant even while controlling for attitudes toward feminism. The differential effect of beliefs about mens attitudes on these two types of sexism lends further support to the idea that, although hostile and benevolent sexism are related, they may serve different functions.

An Arousal Optimization Model of Lighting Level Preferences An Interaction of Social Situation and Task Demands

Both the lighting level of a setting and the social situation can affect arousal. If individuals attempt to maintain an optimal arousal level, then preferred lighting levels for a particular setting should vary with social variables. The purpose of this study was to examine this hypothesis. Male and female subjects (N = 105) were presented with 48 hypothetical situations and were asked to indicate their lighting level preferences for each. Some of the situations involved activities requiring a high degree of visual attention, while the other situations involved activities of a nonvisual nature. Activities were crossed with a social variable: a platonic friend present, a romantic partner present, or a group of platonic friends present. Across all activities, brightness preferences for the romantic partner situations were significantly lower than preferences for either the platonic friend situations or the group of friends situations. The effect of the social situation was very strong for nonvisual activities, but it was considerably weakened for visual activities. Also, brightness preferences were lower for situations with a group of friends than with one friend, but only for complex tasks. The results are consistent with arousal optimization theory.

Testing a Model of Women's Personal Sense of Justice, Control, Well-Being, and Distress in the Context of Sexist Discrimination.

Popular media convey notions that the United States is a postfeminist culture, where sexism is a thing of the past and gender equality prevails. Empirical data suggest otherwise. Further, links between group-based discrimination and psychological distress have been well documented (e.g., in bisexual and gay Latino men, African Americans, Asian Americans). Less understood are mediating factors explaining these links. We hypothesized a theory-based, integrated path model of womens distress and well-being as predicted by sexist events, highlighting intermediate effects of womens beliefs about justice and control in their lives. Specifically, we hypothesized that the more a woman experiences sexist events, the less fair and just her life seems; in turn, she feels less control of her life and reports heightened mental health concerns (depression, anxiety, less well-being). Cross-sectional data from 264 women indicated that sexist events had indirect effects on all three mental health variables, as mediated by just world beliefs and personal control, in sequence. However, direct (nonmediated) effects of sexist events on mental health remained. Both mean levels and patterns of links among variables were similar for African American and European American women. Regarding intervention, a key feminist goal is connecting personal distress with power and context. Womens health may be enhanced by increasing awareness of links found here, supporting development of attributions for distress extending beyond personal problems to societal conditions, skills to enhance feelings of personal control in other areas of their lives, and connections to the history of womens empowered social action.

Understanding Men's Psychological Distress: Contributions of Problem-Solving Appraisal and Masculine Role Conflict

The relations among masculine role conflict, problem-solving appraisal, and 3 aspects of psy-chological distress (depression, anxiety, and dissatisfaction with social support) were investigatedusing latent variable modeling in a sample of 260 male college students. The final model indicatedacceptable representation of the data and explained 35% of variance in men’s experience ofpsychological distress. Problem-solving appraisal predicted 34% of men’s psychological distress.However, contrary to published research, masculine role conflict accounted for only 1% of men’sexperience of psychological distress via its indirect relation through problem-solving appraisal.These findings call into question the uniformity myth that greater masculine role conflict isclosely associated with men’s experience of psychological distress. Potentially salient implica-tions of the findings for practice and future research are discussed.

MORE ON THE STRUCTURE OF MALE ROLE NORMS

This study assessed the structure of a widely used measure of masculinity ideology, the Male Role Norms Scale (Thompson & Pleck, 1986), using data from four samples of male college students (total N= 656) at two large, public universities (one Midwestern, one Eastern-Central). Exploratory factor analysis suggested a four-factor model best fit the data in the exploratory sample (sample 1; N = 210). The four factors were Status/Rationality, Antifemininity, Tough Image, and Violent Toughness. A series of confirmatory factor analyses on a validation sample (samples 2, 3, and 4; N = 446), tested four models based on theory (i.e., Brannon, 1976) and previous research (i.e., Thompson & Pleck, 1986). Results from Study 1, our exploratory analysis, indicated that the four-factor model derived from the exploratory sample in Study 1 provided the best fit for the validation sample data of all models tested and also provided a good fit in absolute terms, according to several model–data fit indices. Implications for the assessment of masculinity ideology and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Validity and construct contamination of the Racial Identity Attitude Scale—Long Form.

The Racial Identity Attitude Scale-Long Form (RIAS-L; J.E. Helms & T.A. Parham, 1996) is likely to be the instrument of choice in future research on African American racial identity development, but little is known about its psychometric properties. RIAS-L data from 275 African American community members and students were collected, and a series of analyses (i.e., correlations, multiple regressions, and confirmatory modeling) was conducted to explore convergent and discriminant validity. Overall, results were mixed, generally revealing limited support for the RIAS-Ls convergent and discriminant validity and highlighting concerns regarding the Preencounter and Encounter subscales.