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Cultural identity development introduction
Cultural identity development introduction
Cultural identity development introduction
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Comparing and contrasting models of identity development in people of color with racial identity models for whites, in Chapter 12 they address the issue of White identity development and discuss how it may impact clients of color. These specialists point out that while the Racial/ Cultural Identity Development model in people of color proves beneficial in our work as therapists, more attention should be devoted toward the White therapist's racial identity. White racial identity development models describe the salience of identity for establishing relationships between the White therapist and the culturally different client, and some have now linked stages of identity with stages for appropriate training. A number of these models tell us much …show more content…
One important aspect relatively untouched in our main textbook is the racial identity development of helping professionals, especially the level of racial consciousness of the minority therapist and how it may impact that of the client of color. But it is equally important for counselors of color to consider their own racial consciousness and how it may interact with a client from their own group. A culturally competent counselor needs to be cognizant of and to understand how sociopolitical factors influence and shape identity. Identity development is not solely due to cultural differences but to how the differences are perceived in our society. The R/ CID framework reminds therapists of several important clinical imperatives like how within-group differences are very important to acknowledge in clients of color because not all members of a racial/ cultural group are the same. Depending on their levels of racial consciousness, the attitudes, beliefs, and orientations of clients of color may be quite different from one another. (Gone,
The Helms White Racial Identity Model, created by Dr. Janet Helms, has six stages which are now referred to as statuses. The statuses are, contact, disintegration, reintegration, pseudoindependence, immersion/emersion, and autonomy. The first status, contact, shows obliviousness to being unaware of racism. This status shows that an individual believes everyone has an equal chance to success and lacks understanding of discrimination and prejudice. The second status is the disintegration status meaning that there is conflict among an individual’s loyalty to their group and “humanistic ideals”. These people may try to avoid people of a different race, may attempt to be “color blind”, and may seek reassurance from other Whites that racism is not their fault. The next status is reintegration. If reintegration occurs, racial/ethnic minorities may be blamed for their problems.
One of Beverly Tatum's major topics of discussion is racial identity. Racial identity is the meaning each of us has constructed or is constructing about what it means to be a white person or a person of color in a race-conscious society. (Tatum, pp Xvii) She talks about how many parents hesitate to talk to their children about racism because of embarrassment and the awkwardness of the subject. I agree with her when she says that parents don't want to talk about racism when they don't see a problem. They don't want to create fear or racism where none may exist. It is touchy subject because if not gone about right, you can perhaps steer someone the wrong way. Another theory she has on racial identity is that other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves. (tatum pp18) 'The parts of our identity that do capture our attention are those that other people notice, and that reflects back to us.'; (Tatum pp21) What she means by this is that what other people tell us we are like is what we believe. If you are told you are stupid enough you might start to question your intelligence. When people are searching for their identity normally the questions 'who am I now?'; 'Who was I before?'; and 'who will I become'; are the first that come to mind. When a person starts to answer these questions their answers will influence their beliefs, type of work, where they may live, partners, as well as morals. She also mentions an experiment where she asked her students to describe themselves in sixty seconds. Most used descriptive words like friendly, shy, intelligent, but students of color usually state there racial or ethnic group, while white students rarely, if ever mention that they are white. Women usually mention that they are female while males usually don't think to say that they are males. The same situation appeared to take place when the topic of religious beliefs came up. The Jewish students mentioned being Je...
This cognizance really ensued when I first started work as an educational therapist in a residential placement for severely emotionally disturbed teenage girls. Being in such a arbitrary position of power was difficult enough with people who have issues with control and lack of respect from elders but I also happened to be the only male ever in this position at the facility and a "white guy" to boot. Ninety percent of my clients happened to be Latina or African American. This ethnic flash point did not initially bother me because of my lack of awareness of its existence and my naive determination that it was not important for my therapeutic and educational goals. However, of course I had not really considered at that time what being 'white' really entails in this society. Consideration of one's identity is obviously key to successful educational and therapeutic interventions but it took the actual experience of being what I call "white-washed" to make me realize that skin color may actually have something important to do with one's perceived identity.
Want, V., Parham, T. A., Baker, R. C., & Sherman, M. (2004). African American Students’ Ratings of Caucasian and African American Counselors Varying in Racial Consciousness. : Educational Publishing Foundation.
One’s cultural identity consists of their race, gender, socioeconomic status, age, religion, and so on. Being aware of your own cultural identity is just as important as being aware of other’s. People’s cultural identity defines who they are, the privilege (or lack of privilege) they receive, and how society views them. It is important to understand that White individuals have more privileges than individuals of color. White individuals do not experience detriment and difficulties due specifically to their skin color and instead receive advantages. White privilege is defined as benefits that white individuals have that people of color do not (Kendall, 2012). The following walks through my personal cultural background, how it was shaped, defined, and developed, and limitations to my personal competencies.
Antonio, a 19 year old Mexican-American originally from Dallas, Texas, is the son of undocumented parents who came to the United States to achieve the American Dream. His parents instilled in him that the White majority were a superior ethnicity and encouraged him to speak and act White in order to achieve the same life White American’s have. Because he received a full-ride scholarship, Antonio moved in Minnesota to attend college. Due to two emotional incidents during his freshman year, he is now considering therapy. These included being called a “sell out” by White peers because he was he was trying to act and sound White and having a professor write on a A-quality paper that he “did well for a Latino.” Antonio now questions his parent’s
Unlike cultural competence, Anti- racism and the Anti-oppression framework has a clear focus, to directly address oppressive practices, and privilege in large institutions. In the “ More than being against it: Anti– racism and Anti –oppression in mental health services “ the authors Simon Corneau and Vicky Stergiopouls, identify seven strategies of the anti-racism and anti-oppression that should be employed when practicing direct service with clients. These seven strategies are "empowerment, education, alliance building, language, alternative, healing strategies, advocacy, social justice/activism, and fostering reflexivity” (Corneau & Stergiopoulos, 2012). The goal of using these seven strategies with clients is to engage the client in the process of care by recognizing the strengths and knowledge that the client brings to the relationship and honoring the idea that there is a racial feature of oppression that is inherent in the dynamics of the client clinician relationships. For example, the use of this practice in my current job with the Family Drug Courts could have a profound effect on the outcomes for both parents and children involved in the program. One example is the case of a 28-year-old mother of three that was separated from her children because of her drug addiction. This parent had an extensive history of trauma,
Loyd and Williams (2016) define ethnic-racial identity as a “multidimensional psychological construct that represents the aspect of a person's overall identity that is associated with race or ethnicity.” These facets of racial identity develop and consolidate when a person continuously explores and associates with a specific racial group (Loyd & Williams, 2016). The more positive people feel about membership of a specific group, the stronger their racial identity will be. Neville and Cross (2017) conceptualize Black racial identity through the emphasis of being cognizant and conscious of what it means to be Black mentally, politically and socially. Sellers and Colleagues (1998) define racial identity as the importance and specific meaning one attaches to their racial group. They consider both the historical and cultural background associated with African Americans when examining their group membership. They primarily focus on the status of one's racial identity as opposed to the process of the formation of it. Sellers and Colleagues (1998) define racial identity in African Americans as “the significance and qualitative meaning that individuals attribute to their membership within the Black community.” Our current study uses Sellers and Colleagues (1998) definition of racial identity. There are four main dimensions of the MMRI: Racial Salience, Racial Centrality, Racial Regard and Racial Ideology
The therapeutic alliance, or working alliance, may be defined as the quality of involvement between therapist and client through task teamwork, mutual goal settings and strong rapport established (Orlinsky, Ronnestad & Willutzki, 2004). Indeed, the therapist’s role is an important contributing factor to the therapeutic relationship as a positive working alliance will greatly be determined by the skills they portray (Ornstein & Ganzer, 2005). Achieving a therapeutic alliance depends largely upon the therapist’s ability to communicate emphatic understanding of the client’s feelings and belief systems. However, disparities in assessing clients may arise when both clients and therapists belong to different cultures due to the lack of understanding and awareness of the therapist towards client’s racial and cultural affliation. One of the significant cultural factors which may impair the therapeutic relationship is the underlying problem of unintentional bias. According to Vasquez (2007), ethnic minorities are treated unfairly due to the subtle insults (verbal, nonverbal and/or visual) directed towards people of colour, often automatically or unconsciously – specifically termed microaggressions (Solórzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2011). Besides that, cultural factors may also enter into transference and countertransference between therapist and client - termed as cultural transference and countertransference (Gelso & Hayes, 2002). Clients who engage in cultural transference may posess culture-related distortions in thinking or rigid behaviour towards therapist who are of a different ethnicity from them as they may be uncomfortable in sharing certain information with the fear of being judged. Likewise, cultural countertransference refers to thera...
Race, as a general understanding is classifying someone based on how they look rather than who they are. It is based on a number of things but more than anything else it’s based on skin's melanin content. A “race” is a social construction which alters over the course of time due to historical and social pressures. Racial formation is defined as how race shapes and is shaped by social structure, and how racial categories are represented and given meaning in media, language and everyday life. Racial formation is something that we see changing overtime because it is rooted in our history. Racial formation also comes with other factors below it like racial projects. Racial projects seek
I interviewed an African American male (D. Simington) age thirty. This section of the paper will illustrate how certain factors played a significant part in developing his cultural identity. I began by asking him to define his ethnic/cultural/racial identity, he explained the following:
Of the many examples of teachers who impacted students’ identity development Dr. Beverley Daniel-Tatum provides in Identity Development in Adolescence, the example with which I resonated the most was the role Terri’s teacher Mrs. Campbell played in her life. Terri, a young Black woman attending a predominantly White school, experienced rejection from the other Black students at her school, and was described as “not really bring Black” by White students. Coupled with the racial tensions at school, Terri lacked positive Black friends and mentors on the home-front. Fortunately, her teacher, Mrs. Campbell, recognized Terri’s
What is identity? Identity is an unbound formation which is created by racial construction and gender construction within an individual’s society even though it is often seen as a controlled piece of oneself. In Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum’s piece, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’, Tatum asserts that identity is formed by “individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical factors, and social and political contexts” (Tatum 105). Tatum’s piece, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’” creates a better understanding of how major obstacles such as racism and sexism shape our self identity.
The Racial/Cultural Identity Development model is a framework to help oppressed people make sense of who they are, their culture compared to the dominant culture (Sue & Sue, 2013). There are five stages of the Minority Development Model with the interaction of stages with the attitude and beliefs of self, other of the same minority, others of different minority and towards the dominant group: conformity, dissonance and appreciating, resistance and immersion, introspection, and integrative awareness (Sue & Sue, 2013).
“Identity development is the process through which individuals achieve a sense of who they are, what moral and political beliefs they embrace, the sort of occupation they wish to pursue, and their communities and culture” (Lightfoot, Cole & Cole, 2012, p.573). There are many paths of identity development, but the path that will be mostly focused on is ethnic identity. According to the text ethnic identity is the extent of identifying oneself as a part of a particular ethnic group, including the part of one’s feelings, perception and behavior that is due to being a member in that group. Identity formation is more complicated on minority ethnic groups than majority ethnic groups. It is because of their differences in customs, values and beliefs. Also ethnic-minority groups have two identities to form and join together; one based on their own cultural background and the other “based on that of the majority group.” (Lightfoot, Cole & Cole, 2012, p.578). In the text it mentions stages of ethnic-identity formation. Many researchers label the three stages differently but all follow the same basic content and the labels mentioned are specifically suggested by Jean Phinney (2008).