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Cultural and Social
Foundations
Part 2
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African/Black Americans
African/Black Americans have a long
history in the U.S., dating to the early
settlement of the southern colonies when
they were imported as slave labor.
Deprived of freedom and education,
African/Black Americans developed a
strong oral tradition that still exists.
Even with the advent of emancipation in 1865,
the sheer strength of structural racism
prevented African/Black Americans from
accessing institutions, businesses, and
occupations open to citizens of European
descent.
It was not until the passage of civil rights
legislation in the 1960s that African/Black
Americans legally could enter public
facilities, marry whom they chose, and vote
in all states.
African/Black Americans constitute
approximately 12% of the U.S. population.
Female African/Black Americans tend to
have higher employment rates than males,
for whom the male employment advantage
found in other groups does not apply.
Fewer African/Black American couples
marry and stay married than any other
racial/ethnic group.
African/Black American households often
include several generations, relatives outside the
immediate family, and friends.
African/Black Americans are underrepresented in the sciences and overrepresented in
low paying, human service occupations.
Although pride in work is a common value,
middle-class African/Black Americans are less
wealthy than their peers in other groups.
Other major characteristics of the
African/Black American cultural group
include:
speaking various dialectical forms of
English;
emphasis on nonverbal communication;
field sensitive interpretation of events;
presence of spiritual networks in the
community;
using either angry or blunted affect with
members of the macroculture;
strong sense of communal heritage,
commonality, and cooperation;
action orientation with focus on short
term goals; and
collective sensitivity to injustice and discrimination.
Common presenting social and mental
health problems of African/Black
Americans include:
physical difficulties (hypertension)
associated with excessive emotional
control;
self-esteem issues related to the inability to
fulfill societal roles typically expected of
males;
problems of aggression;
drug and alcohol dependence, possibly
resulting from a sense of societal
alienation and racism.
African/Black Americans generally do not seek
counseling and, when they do, they tend to
terminate prematurely.
Asian Americans
Asian Americans in the U.S. have their
origins in Korea, Japan, China, and
Southeast Asia.
As a group, Asian Americans tend to display
a bimodal economic distribution in which a
large number are highly educated and
economically successful and others are
extremely poor and uneducated.
Asian Americans are overrepresented in
technical and scientific occupations and
underrepresented in supervisory and
managerial occupations.
Asian American families tend to have few
children and often include elders in the
household.
Asian American mothers may retain strong
control over their children, even into
adulthood.
Spirituality for many first and second
generation Asian Americans may include
witchcraft, ancestor worship, herbalism, and
belief in demonic possession.
Cultural characteristics of Asian Americans
may include:
a priority on filial piety, harmonious relationships, and respect for elders;
an enjoyment and appreciation of a
passive, contemplative lifestyle;
appreciation of the virtues of moderation,
humility, and patience;
an emphasis on academic/educational
preparation and development.
Asian Americans tend to view mental health in
terms of harmonious relationships among
family members and with the spirit world.
Disharmony results in physical ailment and is
thought to be remediated by the intervention
of a shaman, herbalist, or healer.
Counseling does not exist in the traditional
Asian (American) frame of reference.
Counselors can expect to encounter Asian
Americans primarily in college counseling
centers or through social welfare agencies.
Common social and mental health problems of
Asian Americans include:
distress caused by the failure of children
to sufficiently please their less
acculturated parents;
lack of social skills and educational
skills necessary to “fit in” or succeed in
the macroculture;
language barriers;
poverty; and
conflict between old world customs
and macroculture expectations
regarding child rearing, abuse, and/or
neglect.
Hispanic/Latino Americans
Hispanic/Latino Americans can point to
North, South, or Central America as well
as Spain for their origins.
Over 90% of Hispanic/Latino Americans in
the U.S. have their roots in Mexico, Puerto
Rico, Cuba, or South America.
Hispanic/Latino Americans are considered
multiracial because they represent the
historical blending of the native peoples of
the Americas with Europeans and Africans.
The common denominator among Hispanics
and Latinos, regardless of nationality, is a
history involving the Spanish language.
Hispanic/Latino Americans typically marry
and have children at an earlier age than other
racial/ethnic groups.
As a group, Hispanic/Latino Americans have
greater marital stability than other groups,
fewer divorces, and a higher percentage of
two parent households.
Hispanic/Latino Americans also have the
highest birth rate of all major cultural
groups.
Largely because of this high birth rate, the
percentage of American society made up of
Hispanic/Latino Americans is growing rapidly.
A preponderance of Latinos practice Roman
Catholicism.
Hispanic/Latino Americans as a group have
the lowest education and salary levels of the
major cultural groups; about 50% do not
have high school diplomas.
Hispanic/Latino Americans are overrepresented in low status, low wage, and
declining occupations, such as machine
operators and household workers, and are
underrepresented in the scientific, technical,
and medical fields.
Hispanic/Latino Americans tend to reside
in urban areas, and a great proportion
reside in just two states: California and
Texas.
Cultural characteristics of Hispanic/Latino
Americans include:
an action-oriented, practical approach
to problem solving;
unquestioning acceptance of parental
and elder authority;
emphasis on enduring, selflessness,
morality, and dependence (females);
emphasis on virility, aggressive sexual
behavior, and authority over women
and children (males); and
high value is placed on work.
Common problems within the Hispanic/Latino
American cultural group include:
conflicting cultural demands from
various groups;
feelings of disloyalty when moving
away from family;
conflicts in interethnic marriages,
particularly feelings of inferiority to
spouse;
teenage pregnancy; and
gang membership, violence, and
criminal behavior.
Native Americans
The Native American cultural groups refer
to people whose ancestors populated the
areas now known as The United States of
America before the arrival of European
settlers.
Native Americans further self-define by
tribal affiliation.
Often, persons self-identifying as members of
another major cultural group will also claim
Native American heritage.
Native Americans tend to live in poverty,
especially on the reservations. They have a
high divorce rate and the highest unemployment rate of all major cultural groups.
Among Native Americans, men have
significantly higher status than women.
Family disruption of all kinds, child abuse
and neglect, poverty, school drop out, and
high unemployment rates are prevalent
among Native Americans.
Very few Native Americans count themselves as members of the middle class.
Characteristics of Native American culture
include:
emphasis on the collective well-being of
the community;
distrust of persons outside the
community or tribe;
the teaching of good sportsmanship,
self discipline, and humility;
a stance of acceptance, dependence, and
passivity in problem situations;
knowledge of English as well as a native
language;
emphasis on immediate, practical,
short term actions to fulfill needs or
wants;
a flexible approach to time;
obligatory hospitality for all;
a reluctance to lead, argue, or to show
emotion;
avoiding direct eye contact as a sign
of respect; and
perceiving the macroculture as the
oppressor.
(Native American) Indian religion is based on
the tribe’s maintaining a harmonious
relationship with the environment.
A Native American’s problems are considered
problems of the community, not the individual,
and a result of breaking a taboo.
A shaman can use a healing ceremony to
restore harmony, but introspective
interventions have no place in Native
traditions.
Common problems found in the Native
American culture include:
problems (e.g., unemployment) brought
on by geographic isolation;
alcoholism and drug addiction;
family violence;
child abuse and neglect;
feelings of disloyalty upon leaving the
reservation for education or employment
opportunities.
Cross-Cultural Counseling
Individual, Family, and Group Strategies
All human interactions are cross cultural to
the degree that persons differ by age,
socioeconomic status, gender, lifestyle, and
affiliation.
Learning more about one’s own culture than
is commonly required is a first step toward
understanding the basis of other cultures.
A culture centered, or emic, approach to
counseling emphasizes the cultural
assumptions that determine behavior,
expectations, and values.
Multicultural awareness prevents over- or
underemphasizing any single cultural
characteristic a person (i.e., client) may
possess.
Overemphasizing cultural similarities by
presuming all people are alike imposes the
majority viewpoint on less powerful minorities
and results in inaccurate inferences and
attributions.
Overemphasizing differences creates
stereotyping and polarization.
Culturally sensitive counselors are aware
that all individuals:
form expectations depending on how
they view a situation;
base judgments on incomplete
information;
use stereotypes to judge in new
situations or with unknown people;
change their judgments as interactions
increase; and
perceive selectively, favoring evidence
that supports their expectations.
Most clients, when given the choice, prefer
counselors from their own racial/ethnic group.
Culturally sensitive counselors separate fact
from inference.
Statements of inference are made before,
during, and after observation. They are only
somewhat probable and can lead to honest
disagreement.
To the extent that people share the same
cultural system, their assumptions are likely to
be similar.
Counseling from a multicultural perspective
involves developing knowledge of how
American history has been experienced
differently by persons of low socioeconomic
status, little education or access to power, as
well as by ethnic and racial groups.
While client and counselor cultures may be
different, political, social, cultural, economic,
or historical commonalities may serve as
connection points for client and counselor.
Cognitive complexity refers to the extent of a
person’s personal constructs for interpreting
the world.
The more cognitively complex and sensitive to
others’ perspectives, the more tolerant of
ambiguity and less anxious the individual is in
unstructured or unfamiliar situations.
Culturally sensitive counselors have a high
degree of cognitive complexity.
Counselors enhance their cognitive complexity
through activities such as:
reading newspapers and periodicals
targeting specific populations;
attending different religious services;
participating in civil rights marches;
shopping in ethnic groceries;
learning a second or third language;
going to welfare or civil service offices to
observe the service orientation;
engaging a mentor from another culture;
enrolling in cultural studies courses; or
attending minority group celebrations
or gatherings.
Counselors may unwittingly erect barriers that
prevent effective cross-cultural counseling,
including:
assuming that a Eurocentric, middle class
value system exists for all clients;
promoting individual, as opposed to
family centered, interventions;
preferring and expecting verbal
expressiveness to controlled speech in
clients;
preferring and encouraging client assertiveness vis-a-vis client consultation with
the family or cultural group;
preferring and encouraging client insight
to avoidance of unpleasant thoughts;
using primarily linear or analytical
thinking processes to explain the world, as
opposed to holistic or harmonious
thinking;
asserting the superiority of mental health
counseling over a client’s homeopathic or
religious mental health resources;
preferring and encouraging client
flexibility and tolerance for ambiguity to
structured social patterns and relations;
insisting upon establishing a relationship
of equals in counseling when the client
might expect and prefer a more
hierarchical relationship;
disregarding language barriers, including
use of imagery, analogy, and expressions
with which the client is unfamiliar.
In multicultural counseling, helpers evaluate
the world view of clients to help determine the
appropriate intervention.
Intervention may take the form of family
consultation, community outreach, or
facilitation of indigenous support systems in
place of or in addition to traditional
counseling strategies.
This concludes Part 2 of the
presentation on
Cultural and Social
Foundations