Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar

Experiences of Differential Treatment Among College Students of Color

Caucasian and non-Caucasian students completed surveys containing vignettes of situations of differential treatment. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed two factors: student-faculty academic and campus-related social situations. Results indicated that African Americans experienced more incidents of differential treatment in peer-faculty situations and that females rated higher both the degree of offensiveness and the degree of discrimination manifested.

An Interactive and Contextual Model of Community-University Collaborations for Research and Action:

Community-university partnerships for research and action are at the heart of many fields in the social sciences including public health, urban planning, education, and community psychology. These partnerships involve individuals from different backgrounds and disciplines working together to address social issues of importance to the community. This article proposes an interactive and contextual model for developing and sustaining community-university partnerships. The phases in the model include gaining entry into the community, developing and sustaining a mutual collaboration (developing trust and mutual respect, establishing adequate communication, respecting human diversity, establishing a culture of learning, respecting the culture of the setting and the community, and developing an action agenda), and recognizing the benefits and outcomes of partnership work. The model also includes the potential challenges that might threaten the partnership, such as resource inequality and time commitment.

Cultural competence: Development of a conceptual framework

Purpose. To describe the development of a conceptual framework for cultural competence that could help and guide the training of rehabilitation practitioners, students and researchers. Method. A systematic review of the literature yielded 259 usable documents that were further reviewed by two independent readers to identify 32 publications that described cultural competence conceptual models. Results. After eliminating redundancy, 18 unique cultural competence models were identified. A synthesis model was first developed which included four components. After an empirical validation of the model, a new model with only three components emerged. Conclusion. The empirically validated conceptual framework is a promising tool for training and evaluation of cultural competence.

Applications of Heuristics and Biases to Social Issues

Heuristics and Biases in Applied Settings: An Introduction L. Heath, R.S. Tindale. Heuristics and Biases in Health Decision Making: Their Expression in Genetic Counseling S. Shiloh. AIDS, Sterile Needles, and Ethnocentrism R.M. Dawes. Heuristics and Biases in Medical Judgment and Decision Making S. Schwartz. Cognitive Heuristics and Biases in Personality Assessment H.N. Garb. Negligence Law and Mental Mutation: A Social Inference Model of Apportioning Fault R.L. Wiener, C.C. Pritchard. Lay Evaluations of Encounters with Government Officials: Do Expectations Serve as Filters and Standards? L.J. Stalans. Biases and Rationality in the Mediation Process K. Gibson, et al. Heuristic Processing in Organizational Judgments C.T. Kulik. 7 additional articles. Index.

Internet Access and Empowerment: A Community-based Health Initiative

AbstractOBJECTIVE: To determine whether access to health information via in-home Internet technology can positively influence empowerment among residents of a low-income urban community. DESIGN: In-home Internet access and training were provided to volunteers, who, along with a comparison group, were interviewed prior to and 1 year after initiation of the program. Community-based participatory research methods were used to design and implement the intervention. SETTING: A 57-block area on the West Side of Chicago. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-five community residents completed all phases of the technology intervention. Thirty-five randomly selected neighbors of these residents served as the comparison group. INTERVENTIONS: Members of the intervention group received Internet access via WebTV, training, technical support, and access to a community specific health-oriented web page during the course of the study. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Intervention group members were similar to comparison group members in terms of empowerment at baseline. After receiving Internet access and training, empowerment related to health decision-making improved significantly in the intervention group. Similar changes did not occur in the comparison group. Affinity for and appreciation of information technology also increased in the intervention group but not in the comparison group. As a result, differences in attitudes toward technology increased between the 2 groups over time. CONCLUSIONS: Using community-based participatory research methods, we found that Internet access to community-specific and general health information can lead to increased empowerment and appreciation of information technology. These benefits accrued among the intervention group but not among a random group of their neighbors.

Empowering Latinos with disabilities to address issues of independent living and disability rights: A capacity-building approach

SUMMARY Latinos with disabilities have historically been underrep-resented in efforts to set the disability agenda and promote disability rights. This manuscript describes a capacity-building approach to community empowerment. Our goal was to empower Latinos with disabilities, increasing their degree of control over services and decisions that directly affect them. The capacity-building approach is grounded in a contextual/behavioral model of empowerment of people with disabilities. This approach emphasizes developing partnerships with local advocacy organizations and encourages active participation of people with disabilities and their families in identifying and addressing their own needs. Such capacity-building includes six major steps: (1) community entry and project planning; (2) identifying community concerns and strengths; (3) community organizing; (4) action planning; (5) monitoring and feedback; and (6) sustaining community organizing efforts. We illustrate the process with an example of an effort to promote compliance with the American with Disabilities Act in the Latino communities of Chicago, which resulted in over 70 actions and 24 outcomes over a period of 10 to 16 months. The capacity-building approach represents a community psychology effort to support ethnic minority individuals with disabilities in their struggle for equality and justice. To date, it has yielded encouraging results. Challenges for implementing this approach to community empowerment are discussed.

Methodological issues in applied social psychology

Resource Planning for Applied Research L. Bickman. Problem Identification in Social Intervention Research Y. Suarez-Balcazar, et al. Ethical Issues in CommunityBased Research and Intervention J.E. Sieber, J.L. Sorensen. Lessons from the Meta-Analysis of Quasi-Experiments P.M. Wortman. A Structure Diary Methodology for the Study of Daily Events A. DeLongis, et al. Time Series Methods in Applied Social Research M.M. Mark, et al. Structural Equations Modeling R.E. Olmstead, P.M. Bentler. Research Without Control Groups J. McKillip. Statistical Analysis for SingleCase Designs P.R. Yarnold. Qualitative Activist Research M. Fine, V. Vanderslice. Thought Experiments and Applied Social Research R.S. Tindale, D.A. Vollrath. Computer Networks in Field Research S. Kiesler, et al. Communicating Applied Social Psychology to Users E.J. Posavac. Index.

Understanding and Measuring Evaluation Capacity: A Model and Instrument Validation Study.

This study describes the development and validation of the Evaluation Capacity Assessment Instrument (ECAI), a measure designed to assess evaluation capacity among staff of nonprofit organizations that is based on a synthesis model of evaluation capacity. One hundred and sixty-nine staff of nonprofit organizations completed the ECAI. The 68-item measure assessed participants’ perceptions of individual and organizational predictors of two evaluation capacity outcomes: mainstreaming and use of evaluation findings. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and internal consistency results support the inclusion of the items and factors measured by the ECAI. Moreover, structural equation modeling results support the synthesis model and its depiction of relationships among evaluation capacity predictors and outcomes. We discuss the implications of using a validated model and instrument in evaluation capacity building research and practice.

Using the Internet to Conduct Research With Culturally Diverse Populations: Challenges and Opportunities

People from around the globe rely on the Internet for daily use in a variety of ways from downloading information and staying connected with friends and family to collecting data for research purposes. Although the authors have seen rapid growth in access to the Internet among multicultural populations, some groups are still far behind. In particular, those with most limited access include non-English-speakers and low-income and working-class individuals in general. This paper discusses the use of the Internet as a research tool with culturally diverse populations with a focus on two specific purposes: The Internet as a tool to collect information about participants (e.g., survey research, qualitative and descriptive research, and needs assessment); and the Internet as an intervention tool in itself (e.g., intervention research and participatory research). The authors will discuss issues and challenges of using the Internet as a research tool and provide recommendations for using the Internet with culturally diverse populations in a culturally competent manner.

Multicultural training practices in community psychology programs

Surveyed the directors of 56 community psychology graduate programs to assess multicultural training practices and attitudes. Although most program directors agreed that multicultural training is important in their mission to educate students, less than half the programs (48%) required their students to take any relevant course work and only half of the programs surveyed had any faculty who were members of an ethnic minority group and one third had only one such faculty member. Furthermore, less than half the programs had a combination of training opportunities in place to integrate classroom, research, and field experiences relevant to multicultural issues. Finally, only 23% of program directors believed their training programs were successful for most students, suggesting the need to improve training.