Multicultural Psychology Commons^™

Moral Identity From Cross- And Bi-Cultural Perspectives, Fanli Jia

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Researchers in moral psychology have initiated projects to investigate moral identity; however, they agreed that a precise definition and methodology of moral identity has been lacking in establishing the value of this new area. One of the challenges is that cultural explorations of moral identity are absent. Moral identity may take different forms in different cultures, or play an important role in morality in some cultures but not in others (Hardy & Carlo, 2005). The present dissertation was aimed at investigating how Western Canadian and Eastern Chinese cultural orientations relate to moral identities. Three studies were conducted.

In the first …

Addressing The Mental Health Needs Of Women In Rural Communities: A Women’S Wellness Group, Andriana Hench

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

This paper explores the mental health needs of women in rural communities. Based on Myers and Sweeny’s Wellness Model (2008), as well as other relevant research, I have developed a group curriculum as a unique intervention to reach this specific population. This paper provides an overview of relevant literature and includes both a handbook for group facilitators and a participant workbook that compliments the facilitator handbook. This group curriculum is suggested for Clinical Mental Health Counselors and other mental health professionals to promote wellness among rural women.

Ethnic Differences In Self-Efficacy At Southern Adventist University, Seth L. Daly Stennis

Capstone Research Projects

Valid concern has been expressed about the poor academic performance of African American students, in comparison to their other ethnic counterparts. The literature has attempted to explain this anomaly. A large portion of the studies show how socioeconomic standing and parental involvement play a role in this achievement gap. A more modest smattering used psychological factors to explain the deplorable academic achievement in African Americans. One such psychological factor, self-efficacy, was not well represented in the literature; few papers discussed the association of self-efficacy and African American academic success. The purpose of this study was to describe self-efficacy levels of …

Intercultural Communication Between Forensic And Clinical Psychologists, Brittany Schmeck

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

While working in clinical and forensic psychology settings, a communication difficulty between the two professions became apparent. Forensic psychologists often appeared cold and callous from the clinical psychologist’s perspective, while clinical psychologists often appeared naïve or too client centered from the forensic psychologist’s perspective. I wondered if viewing each subfield of psychology as a culture could facilitate better communication through intercultural communication. Guided by Intercultural Communication in Contexts (Martin & Nakayama, 2010) in approaching intercultural communication between the two professions, I explored factors contributing to each profession’s cultural identities. Once this was established, I attempted to explore the different ways …

Construction Of An Anti-Mexican American Bias Scale And Its Validation, Leslie N. Martinez

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of the dissertation is to develop a meaningful measure of Anti-Mexican American attitudes and to test that measure for its utility in predicting biased attributions for Mexican Americans. Attention has mainly focused on bias against Blacks, and this has produced important gaps in the understanding of race/ethnic bias that must be addressed. For the past few decades, the number of racial minorities, especially the number of Latinos/Hispanics, has been on the rise. The psychometric properties and validation of the new Anti-Mexican American Attitude Scale (AMAAS) were investigated through study 1 and study 2. The principal components analysis pulled …

Six Principles To Consider When Working With Roman Catholic Clients, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Although the majority of Americans consider themselves to be Christian and affiliated with various Protestant denominations, a quarter of the American population identify themselves as Roman Catholics who are the largest single religious denomination in the country. Yet, surprisingly, fairly little research has been published in the professional psychology literature about working with this very large and diverse group. Psychologists have an ethical responsibility to be aware of and respectful to diversity including diversity based on religious background, affiliation, and perspectives. The purpose of this brief reflection is to offer 6 important principles to keep in mind for professional psychologists …

Construct Validation Of The Psychosocial Costs Of Racism To Whites Scale For Ashkenazic Jews In The United States, Emile Tobias Berk

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study is a construct validation of the Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (Spanierman & Heppner, 2004) with Orthodox and non-Orthodox Ashkenazic (of European descent) American Jews. While Jewish-American biculturalism has been explored at length, there is a dearth of psychological research on Jewish-White biculturalism (Langman, 1999). Furthermore, the literature has yet to explore the impact of Jewish religious diversity on Ashkenazic-American self-perception as racially White beneficiaries of unearned privilege.

The Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW) measures three dimensions of White racial attitudes: White Empathic Reactions Towards Racism, White Guilt, and White Fear of Others. …

Culture And Cognition: The Role Culture Plays In Cognitive Development In Rural Tanzania, Eileen Seissen

Capstone Collection

This capstone paper examines the perceived difference of cognition in a Tanzanian classroom. It also examines the effects culture has on cognition. It aims to answer the questions: What role does Tanzanian culture play in shaping the cognitive skills of its children? And, from an American trainers perspective, within an experiential learning environment, what cognitive differences are perceived in abstract thinking, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving? Nine American trainers, one Tanzanian trainer, and one Tanzanian student participated in my study. Each participant filled out a questionnaire geared toward understanding their training methods and perceptions of participant's skills and abilities. After …

The Association Between Stalking And Violence In A Sample Of Spanish Partner Violence Cases, Rosa Viñas-Racionero, Chitra Raghavan, Miguel Ángel Soria-Verde, Remei Prat-Santaolaria

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present descriptive study analyzes stalking in a sample of 278 Spanish court cases involving partner violence and contrasts the benefits of the new bill article 172ter, which criminalizes stalking, compared with the Organic Law 1/2004 on partner violence. Thirty-seven percent (37%) of the total sample included stalking behaviors, which manifested in intimidatory (60%) and controlling (45%) unwanted verbal communications (62%) and physical approaches (42%) that ended violently in a third of the cases (35%). Cases involving violent stalking, non-violent stalking, and physical violence without stalking were compared. A closer look at violent stalking cases uncovered that intimacy-seeking stalking behavior …

A Parent-Child Therapy Program For Latino Families, Michael P. Fung

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study used a randomized control design with treatment and wait-list conditions to evaluate the efficacy of a culturally-adapted version of the Early Pathways program (Fox & Gresl, 2014), an in-home, parent-child therapy program with 137 at-risk Latino children under the age of six referred for severe behavior and emotional problems, such as aggression, oppositional behavior, self-injury and property destruction. Early Pathways directly engaged the parent-child dyad, emphasizing parent-directed training and child-engagement activities, such as psycho-education, child-led play, and cognitive-behavioral strategies. Cultural modifications included establishing community partnerships to identify Latino family needs, translation of materials, offering bilingual services, acculturation assessment, …

The Association Of Racial Identity And Locus Of Control With Eating Attitudes And Obesity In African American College Women, Jamie Grisham

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

African-American women have been disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic in the United States, and studies have suggested that sociocultural factors may have a negative influence on weight and weight loss efforts. Relatedly, other studies have found that African-American women have reported feeling less motivated to lose weight than other ethnic groups. Previous research has also indicated that locus of control plays a role in some health outcomes for African America women. The current study aimed to examine the impact of Black identity, external locus of control, and exercise motivation on obesity in African-American college women. Uncontrolled eating and exercise …

Primary And Family Stigma Of Mental Illness: Comparing Perceptions Of African Americans And European Americans, Julia Rubinshteyn

Dissertations (1934 -)

Research has shown that stigma is a significant barrier to mental health treatment seeking, and that African Americans tend to have significantly lower rates of treatment seeking compared to European Americans (Wang et al., 2005). Stigma affecting the individual directly is called primary stigma (Corrigan & Kleinlein, 2005), whereas stigma affecting the individual’s family members is referred to as family stigma. In the present study, a vignette was presented to 287 undergraduate students at Marquette University. The study examined attitudes of primary and family stigma toward a target based on race (European American or African American) and type of mental …

Hope Among Resilient African American Adolescents, Jessica Briana Mcclintock

Dissertations (1934 -)

African American youth have historically been disproportionately affected by an array of environmental stressors that have put them at higher risk for poor adjustment outcomes (Adams III et al., 2003; Mcloyd, 1990). Despite their hardships, not all of these youth fall victim to negative environmental influences (Miller & MacIntosh, 1999). Many exceed expectations and their lives take positive trajectories that lead to positive adaptation (Hunter, 2012; Miller & MacIntosh, 1999). This positive adaptation in spite of significant risk is referred to as resilience (Cicchetti, 2010). While the importance of resilience has been well documented in European Americans, the majority of …

Socially Desirable Responding: Enhancement And Denial In 20 Countries, Jia He, F.J. Van De Vijver, A.D. Espinosa, A. Abubakar, R. Dimitrova, B.G. Adams, Jochen Reb, Samantha Sim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article investigated the dimensionality, measurement invariance, and cross-cultural variations of social desirability. A total of 3,471 university students from 20 countries completed an adapted version of the Marlowe–Crowne scale. A two-dimensional structure was revealed in the pooled sample, distinguishing enhancement (endorsement of positive self-description) and denial (rejection of negative self-description). The factor structure was supported in most countries; medium-sized item bias was found in two denial items. In a multilevel analysis, we found that (a) there was more cross-cultural variation in denial than enhancement; (b) females tended to score higher on enhancement whereas males tended to score higher on …

Exploring Mindfulness As A Culturally Sensitive Intervention For The Deaf Community, Barrymore R. Rosellini

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Mental health issues are as prevalent in the deaf community as the hearing community, if not more. Yet, Deaf individuals are often treated by mental health professionals less frequently and less effectively. Many systemic barriers exist that influence the lack of services provided to the Deaf community, primarily related to a lack of cultural understanding rooted in perceptions of Deaf individuals. However, the Deaf community may be best understood as a cultural minority, a unique community sharing a distinct culture, history, and language. This paper investigates the effects of systematic barriers and cultural misunderstanding among mental health professions regarding the …

The Emotional Experience Of American Indians Receiving Hemodialysis And How It Relates To Treatment Adherence, Anitra M. Warrior

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study used a phenomenological approach as an attempt to capture the essence of the experience of American Indians with diabetes who are receiving dialysis. The purpose of this study and this approach was to develop an understanding of factors that influence treatment adherence, specifically with mental health concerns. As an additional component of this study, this research also followed an advocacy/participatory approach (Creswell, 2007) in which steps to reform services are provided to the Indian Health Service in support of this marginalized group through a written Agenda for Change.

Participants for this study were recruited from multiple states serving …

The Nature And Etiology Of Religious Certitude: Implications Of The Ei Framework And Beliefs, Events, And Values Inventory, Timothy W. Brearly

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Religious certitude is often associated with conflict between individuals and groups, though the nature of this relationship is still not clear. To further clarify these dynamics, the historical psychology of religion is reviewed and contrasted with current perspectives from social psychology and neuroscience, with an eye towards better understanding the variance within religious expressions and their associated relationships with intergroup conflict. It is hypothesized that religious certainty is related to a difficulty in engaging with contradictory religious perspectives, and that the pull towards certainty is tied to an individual’s unique psychological structure, much of which is developed through the interaction …

Eye Movements Of Highly Identified Sport Fans, Michele N. Murdock

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Individuals who are highly identified with a sport team have a strong psychological connection with the team (Wann et al., 2001). Sport team identification can be beneficial to communities and individuals. It provides entertainment, helps form group affiliation, and improves self-esteem. Because team identification is important to people, they notice environmental cues related to the team. Individuals are more likely to attend to a stimulus that is liked or one that is familiar. When an individual has accessible attitudes toward an object, he or she is more likely to attend to and notice the object (Roskos-Ewoldsen & Fazio, 1992). The …

Museum Spaces As Psychological Affordances: Representations Of Immigration History And National Identity, Sahana Mukherjee, Phia S. Salter, Ludwin E. Molina

Psychology Faculty Publications

The present research draws upon a cultural psychological perspective to consider how psychological phenomena are grounded in socio-cultural contexts. Specifically, we examine the association between representations of history at Ellis Island Immigration Museum and identity-relevant concerns. Pilot study participants (N = 13) took a total of 114 photographs of exhibits that they considered as most important in the museum. Results indicate that a majority of the photographs reflected neutral themes (n = 81), followed by nation-glorifying images (n = 24), and then critical themes that highlight injustices and barriers faced by immigrants (n = 9). Study 1 examines whether there …

Helping Missionary Kid Repatriation, Angela Bredeman

Senior Honors Theses

The children of expatriates grow up being a part of two or more cultures which allows them to have unique experiences and challenges. Many of these children return to their parents' home country after they finish school and have trouble adjusting to the change. This study interviewed a sample of Missionary Kids about their transition back to the United States as their home country. It looked at how well they have adjusted and what helped and hindered their transition. The subjects were evaluated on how different factors of their overseas experience influenced their repatriation process, current adjustment, and cultural adjustment. …