Multicultural Psychology Commons^™

Early Childhood Bilingualism Leads To Advances In Executive Attention: Dissociating Culture And Language, Sujin Yang, Hwajin Yang, Barbara Lust

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study investigated whether early especially efficient utilization of executive functioning in young bilinguals would transcend potential cultural benefits. To dissociate potential cultural effects from bilingualism, four-year-old U.S. Korean-English bilingual children were compared to three monolingual groups – English and Korean monolinguals in the U.S.A. and another Korean monolingual group, in Korea. Overall, bilinguals were most accurate and fastest among all groups. The bilingual advantage was stronger than that of culture in the speed of attention processing, inverse processing efficiency independent of possible speed-accuracy trade-offs, and the network of executive control for conflict resolution. A culture advantage favoring Korean monolinguals …

Parent-Child Relationships In Early Learning., Carolyn P. Edwards, Susan M. Sheridan Dr., Lisa Knoche

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Parental behavior during a child’s first five years of life is critical for the development of important social and cognitive outcomes in children that set the stage for life-long adaptation and functioning. This chapter will review some of the key findings about the importance of parent-child relationships in early learning. Three dimensions of parent behavior will be described as “parental engagement”: (a) warmth and sensitivity, (b) support for a child’s emerging autonomy, and (c) active participation in learning. Cross cultural variations in which the styles of these behaviors are expressed are also considered, contrasting physical, social, and cognitive styles of …

What Do Social Groups Have To Do With Culture? The Crucial Role Of Shared Experience, Bradley W. Bergey, Avi Kaplan

Publications and Research

In an eloquent article in American Psychologist, Cohen (2009) evoked a contentious question: What are the boundaries of culture? In this opinion piece, we argue that signifying “cultural” identities that have nominal labels as potential markers for culture may be interpreted to suggest that group membership is synonymous with cultural processes. The emphasis on nominal groupings such as religion and SES, raises the question: What do these social groups have to do with culture? We argue that a focus on shared meanings of experiences, rather than nominal social groupings, is a more appropriate and productive path toward achieving Cohen’s …

Creating A Safe Learning Space For The Discussion Of Multicultural Issues In The Classroom, Katherine M. Helm

Psychology Department Faculty Articles

This paper reviews best pedagogic practices for creating a safe environment in which to hold courses on race, racism, and multicultural issues. Inherent in these courses are student feelings of angst, vulnerability, guilt, trepidation, and sometimes anger and hostility. The sensitive educator must manage and acknowledge these feelings so that learning can occur without diminishing the power and impact issues of race have on our collective and individual psyches and experiences. Strategies for managing and incorporating students' strong emotions into the dialogue on multiculturalism will be reviewed.

Racial Or Ethnic Minority Students' Experiences Of The Multicultural Climate In Counseling Psychology Doctoral Programs, Allison K. Bradshaw

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current research is a qualitative study in which the researcher used semistructured interviews to examine the lived experiences of racial or ethnic minority students in Counseling Psychology doctoral programs with the purpose of determining the barriers and supports that these students encounter during their doctoral training. Participants were 11 women from APA-accredited Counseling Psychology doctoral programs from across the United States. The researcher used a grounded theory-based approach to identify a model of the students' experiences. Overarching themes included personal struggles, struggles in or with the participants' programs, supporters, specific ways that support was provided, and positive experiences in …

Ciis Today, Fall 2006 Issue, Ciis

CIIS Today

This volume is the Fall 2006 issue of CIIS Today, the Magazine of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Parental Involvement In Education: A Comparison Of English And Spanish Speaking Parents, Lisa Kelly-Vance, Collette Nero, Juan F. Casas, Carey S. Ryan, Bridget O. Ryalls, Sarah A. Kurien, Angela Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publications

We examined the educational involvement of English speaking and Spanish speaking parents of students in a Dual Language Program. Parents responded to open-ended questions about how they were involved, what they would like to be involved in but were not, and what barriers prevented them from being more involved. Monitoring/assisting with homework was the most frequently mentioned involvement activity fir both groups, followed by reading with their children, school involvement and communication, and providing social and emotional support to their children. The top areas in which parents wanted to do more were school involvement and communication, social and emotional support, …

Ciis Today, Fall 2005 Issue, Ciis

CIIS Today

This volume is the Fall 2005 issue of CIIS Today, the Magazine of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Toward A Cleaner Whiteness: New Racial Identities, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The article re-examines racial and ethnic identity within the context of pedagogical attempts to instill a positive white identity in white students who are conscious of the history of white racism and white privilege. The paper draws heavily from whiteness studies and developmental cognitive science in arguing (against Henry Giroux and Stuart Hall) that a positive notion of white identity, however postmodern its construction, is an oxymoron, since whiteness designates less a cultural/ethnic ethos and meaningful way of life than a pathological structure of privilege and narrowminded cognitive habitus.

Parental Influence On Children's Ethnic Identity Among Chinese Americans, Sham'ah Md. Yunus

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the influence of Chinese American parents on their children's ethnic identity. Two research questions were designed to examine these relationships: Does the personal construct of Chinese American parents influence their children's ethnic identity and does the length of stay in the United States of Chinese American parents influence children's ethnic identity? Parental influence was identified as parents' ethnic behaviors, parents' ethnic values, parents' personal construct, and their length of stay in the United States. The 93 families who participated in this study were purposely selected from three Chinese language schools from a Midwestern city of the United …

The Impact Of Racial Identity Attitudes On The Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Of African American Undergraduate Students, Tamara A. Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between racial identity attitudes and career decision-making self-efficacy. Two hundred and forty-three African American undergraduate students completed a demographic questionnaire, the Cross Racial Identity Scale (Worrell, Vandiver, & Cross, 2000), and the Career Decision-Making SelfEfficacy- Short-Form (Betz and Taylor, 1994). Results from a hierarchial multiple regression revealed a significant negative relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy and pre-encounter self-hatred attitudes, and a significant positive relationship between internalization multiculturalist inclusive attitudes and career decision-making self-efficacy. The other four racial identity attitudes, pre-encounter assimilation, pre-encounter miseducation, immersion-emmersion anti-white, and internalization afrocentricity, were not significant predictors of career decision-making …

Perceptions Of Diversity Among Current And Former Students And Faculty In Three Graduate Programs, Margot E. Ackermann

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study compared the perceptions of diversity among current graduate students, former graduate students, and current faculty in three graduate programs. Sense of belonging, universality, openness to experience, diversity experiences, and perceptions of diversity were examined. Participants included 64 current students, 30 former students, and 15 faculty members in Old Dominion University's M.S. and Ph.D. programs in psychology and the Virginia Consortium Program's Psy.D. program. Solicited by either email or postal mail, participants completed an online survey that assessed demographic details and the variables of interest. After addressing data issues, Pearson's r examined the relationships among the dependent variables. ANOVAs …

Public Discourse On Ethnic Diversity And Improvement Of Formal Education, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article presents a commentary on the belief that ethnic diversity improves the quality of formal education.

Identity Formation Of Asian American Teenagers And The Role Of The School Counselor, Susan K. Baker

Graduate Research Papers

Teachers and counselors who work with young people know that adolescence is a time of physical, mental, emotional, and social change. Adolescence is a time when teenagers are trying to form an identity for themselves and as they go through this process, many factors will help form who they are and who they become. Most teenagers are able to navigate these years with little conflict, on the other hand, some struggle with different issues. Adolescents have to deal with issues related to sexuality, peer pressure, and development to name a few. However, adolescents belonging to ethnic/racial underrepresented groups have to …

The Relationship Between Multicultural Counseling Competencies And Attitudes Toward African Americans Among White Female Graduate Students, Dianne T. Robinson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between multicultural counseling competencies and attitudes toward African Americans among White female graduate students in counseling psychology. Participants were 67 White female students enrolled in either the master’s or doctoral level counseling psychology programs in a large Midwestern university. Subjects were administered four instruments. Participants’ self-perceived competencies in multicultural counseling were measured by the Multicultural Counseling Inventory (MCI, Sodowsky, Taffe, Gutkin, & Wise, 1994) and racial attitudes were measured by the Attitudes Toward Blacks Scale (ATB, Brigham, 1993). Demographic information as well as subjects’ level of participation in several activities …

An Analysis Of Parental And Peer Attachment And Its Determinant Factors: A Test Of Attachment Theory On Malaysian Students At American Universities, Noriah Mohd. Ishak

Dissertations

This study examined the quality of parental and peer attachments among Malaysian students studying at universities in the midwestern region of the United States. The study was conducted in two phases. Two hundred and two students (106 male, 96 female) participated in the first phase of the study, and 8 students (4 male, and 4 female) participated in the second phase of the study. Phase One employed a cross-sectional quantitative design using a self-administered questionnaire [the Inventory of Parental and Peer Attachment (IPPA) developed by Armsden and Greenberg (1987)] and revised by the researcher. This instrument has 53 items that …

The Relationship Between Selected Environmental Variables And Attrition, Persistence, And Academic Success Of Majority And Minority College Students, Carole J. Woolford-Hunt

Dissertations

Research indicates that college student persistence, attrition, and success is related to the student’s ability to gain academic and social integration into the university community. This theory has guided researchers to explore either the academic or social factors that promote integration. Under the umbrella of social integration exists the underresearched category of environmental factors.

The overall purpose of this study was to identify selected environmental factors that affect minority and majority students’ persistence and success rates in a Midwestern state-run university. The environmental variables of size of college within a larger university, residential versus nonresidential nature of colleges within a …

Acculturation And College Attendance In Hispanic Students, Alma D. Najera

Masters Theses

This study investigated the relationship between acculturation and college attendance of Hispanic high school students. Acculturation is mainly associated with the degree to which one experiences cultural change toward the majority culture. It was theorized that acculturation would have a postive association with college attendance. Acculturation level, socioeconomic status and college attendance were the varibles utilized. The students filled out a questionnaire that was composed of 12 questions and five-self report questions. The Twelve qestions were taken from the Short Acculturation Scale, two questions regarding socioeconomic status were taken from the Hollingshead Scocioecomic Scale, with the remaining questions inquiring about …

A Cross-Cultural Study Of Moral Developmental Theory: The Influence Of Collectivism On Moral Reasoning Of Asian Students And Caucasian American Students, Chang-Ho Clyde Ji

Dissertations

Problem Statement. Lawrence Kohlberg's stage model of moral development has attracted agreat deal of attention from educators and psychologists. Not surprisingly, his work has also inspired considerable criticism and revisionism. A number of authors have argued that Kohlberg's theory does not incorporate the collectivistic moral reasoning that emphasizes human relationships among individuals, families, the community, and society in general.

Methodology. Analyses of variance, t-test, correlational analyses, and regression analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between ethnicity, moral reasoning, and collectivism using the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and the Individualism-Collectivism (INDCOL) Scale. These scales were administered to 179 Asian students …