Journal of Counseling Psychology 1998, Vol. 45, No. 3, 256-264
Copyright 1998 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. OO22-O167/98/S3.OO
Correlates of Self-Reported Multicultural Competencies: Counselor Multicultural Social Desirability, Race, Social Inadequacy, Locus of Control Racial Ideology, and Multicultural Training Gargi Roysircar Sodowsky, Phoebe Y. Kuo-Jackson, Melissa Frey Richardson, and Amy Tiongson Corey
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
University of Nebraska—Lincoln Self-reported multicultural counseling competencies (MCCs) of 176 university counseling center staff were assessed. A 1-model multiple regression analysis, using a 4-step forced-entry method, accounted for 34% of the variability in MCCs. As hypothesized, after the significant contributions of multicultural (MC) social desirability and race were taken into account, attitudes of feelings of social inadequacy and locus of control racial ideology overall and individually made significant contributions. Then, MC training variables overall and number of minority and international clients, MC research projects, and MC courses individually made significant contributions. Hispanics had significantly higher Multicultural Counseling Inventory scores than did Whites. Minority groups scored differently than Whites on the variables measured, and MCCs increased with training.
The multicultural model (Pedersen, 1991) recognizes extensive diversity in the United States and integrates theory and practice in multicultural counseling psychology. This model is used when considering multiple oppressions, the complexities of acculturation and ethnic identity, multiple heritages that have shaped the United States, and diverse effects of pluralism on individuals. Pedersen (1991) called the multicultural model the fourth theoretical force in psychology and is also currently proposing it as the only viable intergroup theory for the next century (personal communication, April 3, 1997). One way to provide validity to the multicultural model is to continue the empirical line of inquiry into multicultural counseling competencies (MCCs; e.g., D'Andrea, Daniels, & Heck, 1991; LaFromboise, Coleman, & Hernandez, 1991; Neville et al., 1996; Ottavi, Pope-Davis, & Dings, 1994; Ponterotto et al., 1996; Sodowsky, Taffe, Gutkin, & Wise, 1994). Briefly, MCCs have been characterized by D. W. Sue and colleagues (Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992; Sue et al., 1982) as counselor multicultural knowledge, skills, and awareness concerning experiences of racial and ethnic minorities and people culturally different from White Americans. Sodowsky (Sodowsky, 1996; Sodowsky, Kuo-Jackson, & Loya, 1997; Sodowsky et al., 1994; Sodowsky et al., 1998) added a fourth dimension, multicultural counseling relationship. In the present study, furthering the understanding of the associations of self-reported MCCs with counselor Gargi Roysircar Sodowsky, Phoebe Y. Kuo-Jackson, Melissa Frey Richardson, and Amy Tiongson Corey, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Nebraska—Lincoln. Jeffrey O'Dell, also from the counseling psychology program, is acknowledged for his participation in an initial study. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gargi Roysircar Sodowsky, Department of Educational Psychology, 116 Bancroft Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0345. Electronic mail may be sent to
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attitudes and multicultural training was considered critical to the continued development of clinical training of counseling psychologists. Counselor MCC responses might be distorted for several reasons. Liberal or conservative orthodoxy about issues of U.S. diversity might influence respondents to self-report socially desirable or undesirable multicultural attitudes. In addition, the purpose of self-report studies, such as the present one, may be transparent to the participants. Sodowsky (Sodowsky, 1996; Sodowsky, O'Dell, Hagemoser, Kwan, & Tonemah, 1993) argued that general social desirability or faking good or bad scales might not be useful in the measurement of MCCs because she found that the MarloweCrowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960), a predictor variable among others, made a nonsignificant contribution to the Multicultural Counseling Inventory (MCI), an MCC measure. Ponterotto et al. (1996) found a similar nonsignificant relationship with another MCC instrument, the Multicultural Counseling Awareness Scale (MCAS). Sodowsky (1996) thus recommended that a selfreport MCC instrument needs to be accompanied by a multicultural social desirability scale that has multicultural content and face validity. Multicultural social desirability refers to one professing that one personally and socially always interacts positively with minorities and that at the institutional level, one always favors government and educational policies that institute expanded MC diversity. In the present study, it was considered important to take into consideration the variability in MCCs that is due to multicultural social desirability, before studying the contributions of other variables of interest to the study. Next, because studies have shown significant effects of counselor self-assigned race for self-reported MCCs (Pope-Davis & Ottavi, 1994; Pope-Davis, Prieto, Whitaker, & Pope-Davis, 1993; Pope-Davis, Reynolds, Dings, & Nielson, 1995), the variability in MCCs that is due to racial self-designation needs to be taken into account
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CORRELATES OF MULTICULTURAL COMPETENCIES
before studying the relative contributions of counselor attitudes and multicultural training. In ideological or symbolic racism, there is subtle expression of negative feelings toward minority groups. For instance, some believe that there is no longer any serious discrimination in U.S. society, that affirmative action policies should be terminated, and that continuing patterns of inequity and indignity experienced by minorities are the fault of minority groups themselves. The values of self-determination and personal accountability defended in ideological racism are questioned by theorists of MC identity models that consider the operation of racism. For instance, D. W. Sue and D. Sue's (1990) sociopolitical model of worldviews hypothesizes that nonWhite Americans have an external locus of control in coping with their minority status. Atkinson, Morten, and Sue (1993) have a general conceptual model of oppression that proposes that an oppressed-group identity is held by various minority groups who are socialized under similar conditions of racial discrimination. Helms (1996) said that racial and ethnic identity models have "in common the underlying assumption that an in-group racial or ethnic identity [is] formed by contrasting oneself and one's socially ascribed racial or ethnic group against the dominant White group if one [is] a Person of Color, or the Black group if one [is] White" (p. 144). In contrast, the belief system in ideological racism is that the responsibility for improving societal conditions for Blacks rests on individual Blacks themselves. Thus, the study examined the relationship of an internal locus of control racial ideology with self-reported MCCs. Pedersen (1987) identified sociability as a key personality variable of an MC counselor. For instance, an MC counselor steps out of the safety of mainstream practice to meet the challenges of working with people who are different. Such initiative reflects counselor feelings of social adequacy. Thus the relationship of a lack of self-assurance in a social context with self-reported MCCs was studied. In a series of studies, Pope-Davis and colleagues (Ottavi et al., 1994; Pope-Davis & Dings, 1995; Pope-Davis, Eliason, & Ottavi, 1994; Pope-Davis & Nielson, 1996; Pope-Davis et al., 1993; Pope-Davis et al,, 1995) reported that MC didactic and experiential training consistently explained significant variance for MC awareness, MC counseling knowledge, and MC counseling skills (in that order). Neville et al. (1996) found that counselor trainees reported that multiple exposure to various peoples and their cultures by means of different classroom presentations helped to promote MCCs. The present study advanced these previous findings by investigating the specific relative contributions of select multicultural training activities to self-reported MCC. Research Hypotheses The following research hypotheses were made. After the significant relationships of multicultural social desirability and race, each, with self-reported MCCs were taken into account, respondents' locus of control racial ideology and feelings of social inadequacy would overall and individually
significantly predict self-reported MCCs, and respondents' multicultural training activities would overall and individually significantly predict self-reported MCCs. Method
Participants General demographics. The respondents (N = 224) were staff from APA-approved university counseling centers across the nation, with 114 from the midwestem and mountain states and 110 from the eastern, western, and southern states. There were 39% (n = 87) doctoral psychologists, 23% (n = 51) predoctoral interns, 14% (n = 31) master's level counselors, 13% (n = 30) doctoral practicum students, 9% (n = 21) master's practicum students, and 2% (n — 4) bachelor's level counselors. There were 63% women and 37% men, ranging in age from 22 to 66 years. Fifty-three percent of the respondents were married. Of the 47% who were single, 11% were in heterosexual relationships, 8% were divorced, and 7% were in gay or lesbian relationships. Regarding their specialty areas, 63% were from counseling psychology, 21% were from clinical psychology, 8% were from counseling and guidance, and 8% were from social work. Forty-one percent were state licensed. The respondents' median annual income was $30,000, with 17% earning less than $10,000 and 12% earning more than $50,000. Multicultural characteristics. The sample consisted of 71% White, 11% Asian, 7% Black, and 6% Hispanic, approximating the racial and ethnic composition of the 1994 U.S. Census data (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1994). Two percent were interracial, and there was 1 Native American participant. Whereas 44% were familiar only with English, 56% were familiar with diverse languages, with Spanish being cited most frequently, followed by French, Chinese, German, Japanese (in that order), and then by various languages from Southeast and South Asia. Participants reported a median of 11% of racial and ethnic current minority clients in their typical client load, with the distribution being positively skewed; 8% had never counseled a racial or ethnic minority client. Median percentage of international clients in the typical client load was 3%, with the distribution being positively skewed; 30% reported that they had never counseled an international client. Slightly more than half the respondents had taken multicultural courses, and 25% had taken two or more courses. In addition, 32% had done multicultural counseling research, and 1% had done more than one research project. A content analysis (Altheide, 1957) of the 85 reported research projects, indicating an interrater agreement rate of 90%, revealed that 23 involved the study of multicultural counseling training, 18 the study of specific racial, ethnic, and cross-cultural populations, 11 acculturation and ethnic identity, 10 multicultural assessment, 8 worldviews and cultural values, 8 multicultural education, 4 racial identity, and 3 effects of counselor race and ethnicity. Participants were asked to list additional multicultural experiences. A content analysis (Altheide, 1957) of 313 listed multicultural experiences, indicating an interrater agreement rate of 85%, revealed that 99 were foreign travel and work experiences, 55 work with American racial and ethnic minorities, 40 work or experience in inner-city schools, 24 minority group membership and acculturation experiences, 19 personal multicultural and cross-cultural relationships, 16 student exchange experience, 15 indigenous cultural or work experiences, 12 Peace Corps work, 11 involvement in disability service, 11 involvement with gays and lesbians, and 11 work with international students. Attendance of multicultural counseling workshops showed the
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SODOWSKY, KUO-JACKSON, RICHARDSON, AND COREY
least variability among the training variables, with 77% of the participants having attended workshops. Of those, 58% had attended one, and 19% had attended two to six. The nature of the workshops, as determined by raters showing a 75% agreement rate, was generally for consciousness-raising (55%) about White privilege, racism, and cultural differences and knowledge (25%) about the beliefs of specific racial and ethnic minority groups. The workshops were less specific than the listed research topics and MC experiences.
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Instruments Multicultural Counseling Inventory (Sodowsky et al, 1994). The MCI centers on how counselors can potentially become culturally skilled: by understanding the different experiences of various U.S. racial and ethnic minority groups, understanding the barriers that exist owing to these differences between traditionally trained counselors and minority groups, and possessing a specific set of treatment and relational abilities to work with minority clients. In using the word multicultural, the emphasis is not on any specific minority group differences, but rather on dealing with differences that exist among people in the United States owing to national origins, acculturation, sociopolitical conditions, socioeconomic status, minority identity, worldview orientations, language, and so on. The MCI was developed "in order to operationalize some of the proposed constructs of multicultural counseling competencies" (Sodowsky et al., 1994, p. 139) through exploratory factor analyses, confirmatory factor analysis, and tests of internal consistency. The full MCI scale has shown a mean Cronbach's alpha of .87 (Pope-Davis & Dings, 1994; Sodowsky et al., 1994; Sodowsky et al,, 1998). The mean Cronbach's alpha for Multicultural Counseling Skills (11 items) is .80; for Multicultural Awareness (10 items) .78; for Multicultural Counseling Relationship (8 items) .68; and MC Counseling Knowledge (11 items) .77 (Ottavi et al., 1994; Pope-Davis & Dings, 1994; Pope-Davis et al., 1994; Pope-Davis & Ottavi, 1994; Pope-Davis et al., 1993; Pope-Davis et al., 1995; Sodowsky et al., 1994; Sodowsky et al., 1998). Mean interscale correlations are shown to be .34 for Multicultural Skills, .30 for Multicultural Awareness, .27 for Multicultural Relationship, and .32 for Multicultural Knowledge (Pope-Davis & Dings, 1994; Sodowsky et al., 1994). Self-reported MCI statements, such as "I use the natural support system of minorities in a differentiated and specific manner," are rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from very inaccurate (1) to very accurate (4), with 1 indicating low multicultural competence and 4 indicating high multicultural competence. Because the study's design did not include subscale analyses, their operational definitions are not provided, but these can be found in the instrument development and other previous work on the MCI (e.g., Pope-Davis & Dings, 1995; Sodowsky, 1996; Sodowsky, Kuo-Jackson, & Loya, 1997; Sodowsky, Taffe, et al., 1994). Multicultural Social Desirability Scale (Sodowsky et al., 1993). The Multicultural Social Desirability Scale measures a preference to make a good impression on others by self-reporting that one is very responsive in all personal and social interactions with minorities and that one always favors institutional policies for diversity. Such extreme affinity for minority concerns is not realistic in the context of U.S. racial relations. The Multicultural Social Desirability Scale in its original form had 40 items, which were reduced to 26 items through the study of item-to-total scale correlations (Sodowsky, 1996; Sodowsky et al., 1993). The reduced 26-item form had average item-to-total correlations of .32 and .35 and Cronbach's alphas of .75 and .80, respectively, which compared well with similar internal consistency reliabilities reported on much longer social desirability scales
(e.g., the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale) and faking good or bad scales (e.g., in the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire). The instrument-refinement process (Sodowsky, 1996; Sodowsky et al., 1993) in the initial studies also involved correlating the Multicultural Social Desirability Scale with the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, showing interscale correlations of .32 and .48, respectively. Thus, the two social desirability scales appeared moderately independent. Multicultural Social Desirability items include such self-reports as never hesitating to help a racial minority person in trouble or believing that equal opportunity cannot be realized without colorsensitive policies. Examples of items are "I have been annoyed when minority people have expressed ideas very different from mine" and "I believe there should be laws against racist or hate speech." Like most faking good or bad scales, the Multicultural Social Desirability Scale has a forced-choice format of true or false. A high score (e.g., 25-26 points) indicates that one is claiming favorable attitudes toward minorities all of the time on all personal, social, and institutional issues, and a low score (e.g., 5-6 points) indicates that one does not care about appearing unsympathetic to minority concerns. According to the initial studies, a mean score of 16 appears to balance the two perspectives, showing both positive and negative reactions to minority concerns, which is considered realistic intergroup attitudes. Locus of control Race Ideology factor (Gurin, Gurin, Lao, & Beattie, 1969). The Race Ideology factor from Gurin et al.'s (1969) Multidimensional Internal-External Control Scale (Multi IE Scale) taps beliefs about the operation of personal and external forces in the context of the race situation in the United States. Gurin et al. (1969) showed through factor analysis that for Black students from predominantly Black colleges, four factors could be identified, one of which was the Race Ideology factor. Around the time of its development, the Multi IE Scale was shown to have convergent validity (Forward & Williams, 1970; Hayes & Page, 1979; Lao, 1970; Savage, Stearns, & Friedman, 1979). More recently, Trimble and Richardson (1982) used the Race Ideology factor to study Native Americans, showing a separation between personal control and race-ideological control. Information pertaining to reliability (homogeneity) is absent from the literature perhaps because of the brevity of the Multi IE subscales. The 12-item Race Ideology factor has an ipsative scoring format, an example of which is given below: 1. A. The best way to handle problems of discrimination is for each individual African American to make sure he/she gets the best training possible for what he/she wants to do. (personal control) B. Only if African Americans pull together in civil rights groups and activities can anything really be done about discrimination, (external forces) One of the two options must be chosen. A high score (near the maximum possible score of 12) indicates a belief in exercising personal, internal control on racism, and a low score (near the minimum possible score of zero) indicates a belief in exercising external, societal control on racism. Revised Janis—Field Feelings of [Social] Inadequacy Scale (Eagly, 1967). This is a measure of social self-esteem, which has been used to study one's susceptibility to favorable or unfavorable information and social influence and one's improvisation and attitude change as an effect of situational variables (Eagly, 1967, 1969). With regard to homogeneity, Eagly presented split-half reliabilities of .72 (1967) and .88 (1969) and a correlation of .54 between positively and negatively stated items that balance for acquiescence. The original form was widely used by Janis and others in early persuasibility research, showing considerable con-
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Description of Score Differences by Multicultural Training and Race Data from 176 completed surveys were analyzed. Means and standard deviations for counselor race and MC training groups on the measures used are reported in Table 1. Because participants reported the number of MC courses, research projects, and workshops they had participated in, they could be statistically assigned to three groupings of multicultural training: those with no multicultural training, either through course work, research, or workshop (MCT0,
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