Donald R. Atkinson

The Asian Values Scale: Development, Factor Analysis, Validation, and Reliability.

Multicultural researchers and theorists have noted that client adherence to culture-of-origin values plays an important role in the provision of culturally relevant and sensitive psychological services. However, lack of instruments that measure ethnic cultural values has been a shortcoming in past research that attempted to examine this relationship. In this article, the development of the Asian Values Scale (AVS) is described, and the results of 4 studies investigating the psychometric properties of the AVS are reported. The results indicate that the AVS has adequate internal and 2-week test-retest reliability. Also, factor analysis and comparisons of AVS scores to scores on the Individualism-Collectivism Scale (H. Triandis, 1995) and the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (R. M. Suinn, K. Rickard-Figueroa, S. Lew & P. Vigil, 1987) provided evidence of convergent and divergent validity for the AVS.

Asian-American Cultural Identity and Attitudes toward Mental Health Services.

A total of 557 Asian-American students (263 Chinese Americans, 185 Japanese Americans, and 109 Korean Americans) completed a survey consisting of a demographic questionnaire, a modified version of the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale, and the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPHS). A 3 x 2 x 2 multivariate analysis with main effects of ethnicity, gender, and level of acculturation and the four subscales of the ATSPHS as the dependent variables resulted in a significant F value for acculturation effect and nonsignificant F values for all other main and interaction effects. Regardless of ethnicity and gender, the most acculturated students were: (a) most likely to recognize personal need for professional psychological help, (b) most tolerant of the stigma associated with psychological help, and (c) most open to discussing their problems with a psychologist.

Asian Cultural Values and the Counseling Process Current Knowledge and Directions for Future Research

Based on values common to most Asian cultures, a set of propositions on the relationship between Asian cultural values and the counseling process is presented in the context of a current theory of acculturation/enculturation. Recommendations for future research relating Asian cultural values to the counseling process are offered in an attempt to stimulate more empirical attention in this area.

White Racial Identity Models A Critique and Alternative Proposal

Existing models of White racial identity development (WRID) are challenged as being deficient in terms of: (a) being based on the oppression-adaptive models of minority identity development, (b) focusing primarily on attitudes toward racial/ethnic out-groups, not on White identity attitudes; and (c) depicting the process as developmental in nature. An alternative conceptualization, based on the construct of White racial consciousness, is presented as a more parsimonious explanation for the role of racially oriented attitudes. Three types of unachieved White racial consciousness (avoidant, dependent, and dissonant) are proposed along with four types of achieved White racial consciousness (dominative, conflictive, reactive, and integrative). Changes in attitudes characteristic of one type to those more representative of another are explained in terms of dissonance reduction. Information is provided regarding the availability of an assessment device designed to identify the types of White racial consciousness.

Asian-American Acculturation, Severity of Concerns, and Willingness to See a Counselor.

Asian Americans at a major West Coast university were surveyed to determine how severe each of 24 problems was for them and to assess their willingness to see a counselor for each problem. Factor analysis reduced the 24 problems to 8 areas of concern. A repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that severity ratings for the 8 concerns were related to acculturation and ethnicity. With severity ratings as covariates, a repeated measures analysis of covariance was computed for willingness to see a counselor ratings. Willingness to see a counselor was found to be related to both acculturation and gender across all 8 concerns. Women expressed greater willingness to see the counselor than did men and low-medium acculturated students expressed greater willingness to see a counselor than did high-acculturated students.

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.

Multicultural Counseling Training Past, Present, and Future Directions

This article provides a selective review of the multicultural counseling training (MCT) literature. A brief historical account of multicultural counseling (MCC) is followed by three other sections detailing current models of MCT, conceptualization of training objectives, and empirical research. Within these sections, critical issues for the present and future development of MCT are highlighted and discussed.

Similarity in Counseling

Research on similarity between counselor and client was reviewed to determine the effect on counseling process and outcome. Little evidence was found that membership-group or personality similarity contributes significantly to counseling effectiveness, and too few studies on cognitive similarity have been conducted to date to draw conclusions. Experience similarity and attitude similarity both appear to be directly related to counseling process, but the effect on counseling outcome of the former has not been assessed and/or the latter is equivocal Differences between social and counseling psychology research and limitations of the counseling psychology research to date are discussed.

Cross-Cultural Mentor Effectiveness and African American Male Students

This study examined the effects of mentor ethnicity, cultural sensitivity, and student level of cultural mistrust on perceptions of mentor credibility and cultural competence. African American men attending west coast community colleges listened to a tape-recorded mentoring session in which the faculty mentor was described as eitherAfrican American or European American and was portrayed as either culturally responsive or culturally unresponsive. Mentor ethnicity, as well as an interaction between mentor ethnicity and participant level of cultural mistrust, were found to be related to perceptions of mentor credibility/effectiveness. In addition, mentor ethnicity and cultural sensitivity were found to be related to perceptions of mentor cross-cultural competence.

Design and development of the European American values scale for Asian Americans.

Existing instruments for measuring Asian American acculturation emphasize behavior acculturation to the exclusion of value acculturation. Most are based on the assumption that acquisition of European American behavior occurs simultaneously with the loss of Asian behavior. With the advent of the Asian Values Scale (AVS; B.S.K. Kim, D.R. Atkinson, & P.H. Yang, 1999), it is now possible to assess adherence to Asian cultural values. This article describes the development of a scale that can be used to measure Asian American adherence to European American values. The current scale, combined with the AVS, can be used to independently measure Asian American acculturation to European American values and enculturation in Asian values.