Transcript chapter 1 the multicultural journey to cultural competence

CHAPTER 10
RACIAL/CULTURAL
IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT:
THERAPEUTIC
IMPLICATIONS
Importance
 1. Understanding Within Group Differences
 2. Influence of Racism and Oppression on Identity
Formation
 3. Assessment Tool
 4. Intervention Implications
RACIAL IDENTITY
ASSUMPTIONS
 1. Racism is a basic and integral part of U.S. life and
permeates all aspects of our culture and institutions.
 2. Persons of color are socialized into U.S. society and,
therefore, are exposed to the biases, stereotypes, and racist
attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the society.
 3. The level of racial identity development consciousness
affects the process and outcome of interracial interactions.
RACIAL IDENTITY
ASSUMPTIONS
 4. How people of color perceive themselves as racial beings seems to be
strongly correlated with how they perceive and respond to racial stimuli.
Consequently, race-related reality represent major differences in how
they view the world.
 5. It seems to follow an identifiable sequence. There is an assumption
that people of color who are born and raised in the United States, may
move through levels of consciousness regarding their own identity as
racial beings.
 6. The most desirable development is a multicultural identity that does
not deny or negate one’s integrity.
Levels of Consciousness
 1. Conformity
 2. Dissonance
 3. Resistance and Immersion
 4. Introspection
 5. Integrative Awareness
Self/Other Perceptions
1. Attitude and Beliefs toward Self.
2. Attitudes and Beliefs toward Members of the Same
Minority.
3. Attitudes and Beliefs toward Members of Different
Minorities.
4. Attitude and Beliefs toward Members of the Dominant
Group.
PHASE 1 - CONFORMITY
 Marked by desire to assimilate and acculturate – buys in to
the melting pot analogy.
 Accepts belief in White superiority and minority inferiority.
 Unconscious and conscious desire to escape one’s own
racial heritage.
 Validation comes from a White perspective.
 Role models, lifestyles, and value systems all follow the
dominant group.
CONFORMITY
 Physical and cultural characteristics identified with one’s own
racial/cultural group are perceived negatively, something to be avoided,
denied, or changed.
 Physical characteristics (black skin color, “slant-shaped eyes” of
Asians), traditional modes of dress and appearance, and behavioral
characteristics associated with the minority group are a source of shame.
 There may be attempts to mimic what is perceived as “White
mannerisms”, speech patterns, dress, and goals.
 Low internal self-esteem is characteristic of the person.
CONFORMITY
 These individuals may have internalized the
majority of White stereotypes about their group. In
the case of Hispanics, for example, the person may
believe that members of his or her own group have
high rates of unemployment because “they are lazy,
uneducated, and unintelligent.”
 The denial mechanism most commonly used is “I’m
not like them; I’ve made it on my own; I’m the
exception.”
CONFORMITY
 Belief that White cultural, social, institutional standards are superior.
Members of the dominant group are admired, respected, and emulated.
White people are believed to possess superior intelligence.
 Some individuals may go to great lengths to appear White. In the
Autobiography of Malcolm X, the main character would straighten his
hair and primarily date White women.
 Reports that Asian women have undergone surgery to reshape their eyes
to conform to White female standards of beauty may (but not in all
cases) typify this dynamic.
PHASE 2 - DISSONANCE
 Breakdown of denial system.
 Encounters information discordant with previous beliefs in
the conformity stage.
 Dominant-held views of minority strengths and weaknesses
begin to be questioned.
 Begins to realize that attempts to assimilate or acculturate
may not be fully allowed by larger society.
DISSONANCE
 There is now a growing sense of personal
awareness that racism does exist, that not all
aspects of the minority or majority culture
are good or bad, and that one cannot escape
one’s cultural heritage.
 Feelings of shame and pride are mixed in the
individual and a sense of conflict develops.
PHASE 3 – RESISTANCE AND
IMMERSION
 “Why should I feel ashamed of who and what I am?”
 Begins to understand social-psychological forces associated
with prejudice and discrimination.
 Extreme anger at perceived cultural oppression.
 May be an active rejection of the dominant society and
culture.
 Members of the dominant group viewed with suspicion.
RESISTANCE AND
IMMERSION
 The minority individual at this stage is oriented toward self-discovery of
one’s own history and culture. There is an active seeking out of
information and artifacts that enhance that person’s sense of identity and
worth.
 Cultural and racial characteristics that once elicited feelings of shame
and disgust become symbols of pride and honor. The individual moves
into this stage primarily because he or she asks the question, “Why
should I be ashamed of who and what I am?”
 Phrases such as “Black is beautiful,” represent a symbolic relabeling of
identity for many Blacks. Racial self-hatred becomes something actively
rejected in favor of the other extreme, which is unbridled racial pride.
RESISTANCE AND
IMMERSION
 There is a feeling of connectedness with other members of
the racial and cultural group and a strengthening of new
identity begins to occur. Members of one’s group are
admired, respected, and often viewed now as the new
reference group or ideal. Cultural values of the minority
group are accepted without question.
 As indicated, the pendulum swings drastically from original
identification with White ways to identification in an
unquestioning manner with the minority-group’s ways.
Persons in this stage, are likely to restrict their interactions
as much as possible to members of their own group.
RESISTANCE AND
IMMERSION
 There is also considerable anger and hostility directed
toward White society. There is a feeling of distrust and
dislike for all members of the dominant group in an almost
global anti-White demonstration and feeling.
 White people, for example, are not to be trusted for they are
the oppressors or enemies. In extreme form, members may
advocate complete destruction of the institutions and
structures that have been characteristic of White society.
PHASE 4 - INTROSPECTION
 Increased discomfort with rigidly help group views (i.e., all
Whites are bad).
 Too much energies directed at White society and diverted
from more positive exploration of identity questions.
 Conflict ensures between notions of responsibility and
allegiance to one’s minority group, and notions of personal
autonomy.
 Attempts to understand one’s cultural heritage and to
develop an integrated identity.
INTROSPECTION
 The conflict now becomes quite great in terms of
responsibility and allegiance to one’s own minority
group versus notions of personal independence and
autonomy.
 The person begins to spend greater and greater time
and energy trying to sort out these aspects of selfidentity and begins to increasingly demand
individual autonomy.
PHASE 5 – INTEGRATIVE
AWARENESS
 Develop inner sense of security as conflicts between new
and old identities are resolved.
 Global anti-White feelings subside as person becomes more
flexible, tolerant and multicultural.
 White and minority cultures are not seen as necessarily
conflictual.
 Able to own and accept those aspects of U.S. culture (seen
as healthy) and oppose those that are toxic (racism and
oppression).
INTEGRATIVE AWARENESS
 Develops a positive self-image and experiences a strong sense of selfworth and confidence.
 Not only is there an integrated self-concept that involves racial pride in
identity and culture, but the person develops a high sense of autonomy.
 Becomes bicultural or multicultural without a sense of having “sold out
one’s integrity.”
 In other words, the person begins to perceive his or her self as an
autonomous individual who is unique (individual level of identity), a
member of one’s own racial-cultural group (group level of identity), a
member of a larger society, and a member of the human race (universal
level of identity).
Implications for Clinical
Practice
 Be aware that the R/CID model should be viewed as
dynamic, not static.
 Do not fall victim to stereotyping in using these models
 Know that minority development models are conceptual aids
and that human development is much more complex
 Know that identity development models begin at a point that
involves interaction with an oppressive society
Implications for Clinical
Practice
 Be careful of the implied value judgment given in almost all
development models
 Be aware that racial/cultural identity development models
seriously lack an adequate integration of gender, class,
sexual orientation, and other sociodemographic group
identities
 Know that racial/cultural identity is not a simple, global
concept
 Begin to look more closely at the possible therapist and
client stage combinations