MultiCult Persp in Hum Behav

Challenges for African Americans

Given the persistence of racism specifically directed at African Americans in U.S. society and its historical backdrop of slavery, describe psychological challenges African Americans face. What mechanisms of resilience and coping have these communities developed in response? Select any psychological service consistent with your program specialization, and comment on how these events might affect providing psychological services to African American clients.

Response Guidelines

Review the posts of your peers and respond to at least two. If possible, respond to peers who selected a similar psychological service and compare and contrast these responses to your own.

U4D-Khadejah Reply

Given the persistence of racism specifically directed at African Americans in U.S. society and its historical backdrop of slavery, describe psychological challenges African Americans face. What mechanisms of resilience and coping have these communities developed in response? Select any psychological service consistent with your program specialization, and comment on how these events might affect providing psychological services to African American clients.

African Americans face challenges of all sorts, including physical, mental and psychological disadvantages. Due to psychology standards being established through white world views only, the psychology methods have affected African American groups and other ethnic groups as well mentally. “Second, the strength of racial/cultural identity models lies in their potential diagnostic value. Premature termination rates among clients of color may be attributed to the inappropriateness of transactions that occur between the helping professionals and culturally diverse clients. Research suggests that reactions to counseling, the counseling process, and counselors are influenced by cultural/racial identity and are not simply linked to minority group membership. The high failure-to-return rate of many clients seems to be intimately connected to the mental health professional’s inability to assess the cultural identity of clients accurately (Sue and Sue, 2015).  One main challenge African Americans face is within the sociocultural view of receiving psychological services. In response to this, this ethnic group specifically has responded in different ways depending on the individual. Some rebelled feeling as if other cultures’ predominantly white counterparts cannot be trusted, while others may have been stuck in an identity crisis, adjusting to only the worldview ways and not knowing themselves at all.  In that case, these groups learned to handle situations on their own, to the point to where they don’t understand each other, and not themselves.

“The  acknowledgment of sociopolitical influences in shaping identity (à la the Sansei student). Early models of racial identity development all incorporated the effects of racism and prejudice (oppression) upon the identity transformation of their victims (Sue and Sue, 2015).” One issue that African Americans may face through the Behavioral Health Field is lack of multiculturalism within the field  of course. The Behavioral Health Doctoral program is a new program, since information or research was based solely off generic differences and prejudices motives within someone’s behavior research has to be conducted tos show the multicultural difficulties as well as environmental.

Resources

Sue, Derald Wing, and David Sue. Counseling the Culturally Diverse : Theory and Practice, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/capella/detail.action?docID=4189578.

Created from capella on 2020-08-06 09:22:44.

U4D- Amy Reply

Cultural competency includes the recognition of protective factors and strengths of African Americans that have allowed them to survive in an intolerant society (Sue & Sue, 2015). There are countless examples of racism and prejudice African Americans are challenged with. Despite these challenges, African American families are able to instill positive self-esteem. According to Harris et al. (2007), majority of students of a study reported experiencing at least one discriminatory event within the past 3 months. Parents have instilled coping of discriminatory events by discussing racism at home and instilling a strong racial and ethnic identity. Exposure to chronic violent experiences for urban African American children is a part of daily living. Coping for these children and positive effects of coping include kinship, community support and spirituality (Jones, 2007).

In a counseling session working with an African American youth who is unwillingly there might pose challenges. However, the multicultural counselor would discuss how counseling could be useful and beneficial to them. The multicultural counselor would also be mindful of the challenges and unequal opportunities in the life experiences of the client. The counselor will also be mindful and understand the power and privilege might affect the sessions. The counselor should assess positive assets of the client including the client’s ethnic and racial identities such as church, family relationships, and personal strengths. Per Sue and Sue (2015), the “Strong Black Woman” image includes self-reliance and pride in racial identity. The counselor might encourage this personal strength if applicable. Finally, the counselor should establish an egalitarian relationship. According to Sue and Sue (2015), many African Americans feel comfortable establishing a close relationship with the counselor.

References

Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2015). Counseling the culturally diverse : Theory and practice. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.library.capella.edu

Harris, B. A., Valrie, C. R., Kurtz, C. B., & Rowley, S. J. (2007). Perceived Racial Discrimination and Self-Esteem in African American Youth: Racial Socialization as a Protective Factor. Journal of Research on Adolescence (Wiley-Blackwell), 17(4), 669–682. https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00540.x

Jones, J. M. (2007). Exposure to Chronic Community Violence: Resilience in African American Children. Journal of Black Psychology, 33(2), 125–149. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798407299511

U4D2

Native Populations and Health Issues

The aftermath of the disenfranchisement of Native and First Nations peoples includes a high prevalence of public health problems—both physical and mental health. Taking what you have learned from the required readings assigned in this unit, outline a plan for psychological services consistent with your specialization that addresses in a culturally sensitive way one of the following: diabetes prevention, alcoholism and drug abuse, or adolescent suicide.

For example, clinical and counseling learners might talk about a treatment program, industrial and organizational learners might talk about an organizational consultation for a prevention service, school or education psychology learners might choose to describe interventions within the school system, and so on. Be sure that your plan incorporates relevant organizational, local, cultural, and legal standards.

Response Guidelines

Review the posts of your peers and respond to at least two. Summarize the points of similarity and differences between each post and your own. Discuss how each post has contributed to or facilitated your knowledge of the discussion topic.

U4D- Mina Reply

The American Indian and Alaska Native population is 3.8 million, representing 1.2 percent of the total us population (Sue & Sue, 2015). Young Native American Indians want to be able to define themselves and are aware of the harmful effects and stereotypes that have been portrayed about Native Americans. These young American Indians who have been affected by the negative and harmful stereotyping around them report higher levels of depression, lower-self-esteem, and decreased feelings of community worth (Sue & Sue, 2015).

Sue & Sue (2015) discuss how there is a gab in education which is a contributing factor to the high suicide rate among American Indian adolescents. The education gap is believed to continue the cycle of poverty in reducing opportunities for young adolescents. According to Sue & Sue (2015) compared to the general population, Native American individuals between the ages of 15 to 34 years have a 250 percent of suicide and is the second leading cause of death.

It is important to understand Native American Cultures and to be culturally sensitive, many Native American Indians believe that mental health issues are due to unbalances spiritual relationship (Sue & Sue, 2015). It is essential to create community activities for individuals who live in a reservation or a tribe, it can help to focus on reducing suicidal ideation, promoting resilience in youth, or to help create opportunities. Sue & Sue (2015) discuss a program that was implemented at a high school, which included things such as role-playing, building self-esteem, identifying emotions and stressors, as well as recognizing and eliminating negative thoughts and or emotions, and help setting personal and community goals. The program was effective in helping the students reduce their feelings of hopelessness and the suicidal probability rating was lowered.

References

Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2015). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice

U4D-Maybeline Reply

The aftermath of the disenfranchisement of Native and First Nations peoples includes a high prevalence of public health problems—both physical and mental health. Taking what you have learned from the required readings assigned in this unit, outline a plan for psychological services consistent with your specialization that addresses in a culturally sensitive way one of the following: diabetes prevention, alcoholism and drug abuse, or adolescent suicide.

For example, clinical and counseling learners might talk about a treatment program, industrial and organizational learners might talk about an organizational consultation for a prevention service, school or education psychology learners might choose to describe interventions within the school system, and so on. Be sure that your plan incorporates relevant organizational, local, cultural, and legal standards.

Great involvements in the development of one’s persona involve the love and attention from parents and other peers as well as the influence that evolves their environment. Adolescence tends to be the most difficult stage within the lifespan due to experimenting and influences that young adults are intaking to develop their personalities and find out their strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. Social construction and social desirability have tended to increase their impacts in every individuals’ life with time and the more we tend to lose whom we really are and what makes us truly happy. Mental health problems are as highly complicated and effective as physical health problems can get. Emotional behaviors and acts from a very young age can highly welcome depression into a later age. The emotion regulations usually are absorbed from many aspects, such as, cultural manners, observation of society and close individuals like parents and friends, parenting styles such as negative and positive reinforcements, and the type of attention and communication from parents to their children. According to Horowitz and Garber (2006), “Selective interventions target individuals at elevated risk for depression as a function of family factors such as divorce (Gwynn & Brantley, 1987; Wolchik et al., 1993), parental death (Sandler et al., 1992), parental depression (Beardslee et al., 1997), or parental alcoholism (Roosa et al., 1989), environmental factors such as poverty (Cardemil, Reivich, & Seligman, 2002), or personal characteristics such as a negative cognitive style (Seligman et al., 1999). Because selective samples tend to be diverse, the interventions have been more varied than universal or indicated prevention programs, and they typically target multiple outcomes in addition to reducing depression. Still, there is some similarity across studies in that most have used some form of cognitive–behavioral techniques” (Page 401-2). It is important that within the counseling field, the appropriate sources are provided and available especially for adolescence that are highly exposed to bullying and other persuasion leading towards suicide. Counselors must be prepared to provide the appropriate services and techniques utilized in this case and provide the appropriate prevention source such as the Suicide Hotline (n.d.).

Reference:

Horowitz, J. L., & Garber, J. (2006). The prevention of depressive symptoms in children and       adolescents: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical          Psychology,74(3), 401-415. doi:10.1037/0022-006x.74.3.401

Suicide Hotline. (n.d.). Retrieved August 02, 2020, from https://www.nbcc.org/Assets/Suicide-Hotline.pdf.

Maybelline Canela

Clinical Psychology