Relationship between White racial identity attitudes and self-reported multicultural counseling competencies.

Tested a multicultural competency training model's hypothesis that counseling students' White racial identity development strongly influences their attainment of multicultural counseling competencies (H. B. Sabnani et al; see record 1991-16743-001). 128 White counseling graduate students completed measures of White racial identity development and self-reported multicultural counseling competencies. Students' White racial identity development, educational level, and clinical experience demonstrated moderate correlations with multicultural competencies. Regression analyses indicated that racial identity attitudes explained variability in competencies beyond that accounted for by demographic, educational, and clinical variables. Results suggest that racial identity attitude development should be considered an integral component in the planning of multicultural counseling training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of multicultural training on White racial identity attitudes and therapy competencies.

This exploratory investigation assessed changes in perceived multicultural therapy competencies and level of White racial identity development following a multicultural course. Results indicate that completion of a diversity-related course appeared to increase trainees' multicultural therapy competencies and to facilitate the adoption of more sophisticated White racial identity ego statuses; these changes remained stable at a 1-year follow-up. Findings from the qualitative analyses underscore the importance of racially and ethnically diverse speakers and panels in promoting multicultural therapy competencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multicultural counseling competencies: Verbal content, counselor attributions, and social desirability.

This study investigated the validity of 2 instruments designed to measure the multicultural counseling competencies (MCC). Fifty-five counselors participated in a counseling simulation involving a videotaped portrayal of a female Mexican American client at a predominantly White university. Counselors made attributions about the causes of the client's problem and completed a self-report MCC scale and a social desirability scale. Independent judges evaluated counselors' verbal responses for multicultural content and observed MCC. Results indicate that (a) there was little relation between self- and other-rated MCC, in which only self-reported MCC knowledge was a predictor of observed MCC; (b) self-reported MCC was positively associated with social desirability; and (c) observed MCC was positively associated with sociocultural etiology attributions, external locus of the cause attributions, and multicultural verbal content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-report multicultural counseling competence scales: Their relation to social desirability attitudes and multicultural case conceptualization ability.

This study examined the relationship between 4 self-report multicultural counseling competence measures and a general index of social desirability. The authors also investigated the association between these 4 multicultural scales and multicultural case conceptualization ability. Results revealed significant positive relationships between 3 of the 4 multicultural counseling competence inventories and a measure of social desirability attitudes. Additionally, after controlling for social desirability, none of the self-report multicultural counseling competence scales were significantly related to multicultural case conceptualization ability. Limitations of self-report multicultural counseling competence measures are discussed, and implications of the findings for counseling training, practice, and research are delineated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race/ethnicity, color-blind racial attitudes, and multicultural counseling competence: The moderating effects of multicultural counseling training.

Increasing trainees' multicultural counseling competence (MCC) has been a hot topic in counseling. Scholars have identified predictors (e.g., race/ethnicity, color-blindness) of MCC, and educators provide multicultural training for trainees. Using a sample of 370 psychology trainees, this study examined whether multicultural training (a) moderated racial/ethnic differences on MCC and (b) changed the relationship between color-blindness and MCC. Results indicated a significant interaction effect of race/ethnicity (i.e., White vs. ethnic minority) and multicultural training on multicultural awareness, but not on multicultural knowledge. Specifically, at lower levels of training, racial/ethnic minority trainees had significantly higher multicultural awareness than their White counterparts; at higher levels of training, no significant difference was found. Described differently, more training significantly enhanced Whites' multicultural awareness, but did not enhance racial/ethnic minority trainees' awareness. Additionally, there was a significant interaction effect of color-blindness and multicultural training on multicultural knowledge, but not on multicultural awareness. The association between color-blindness and multicultural knowledge was stronger at higher levels of multicultural training than at lower levels of training. Alternatively, the effect of training on enhancing knowledge was stronger for those with lower color-blindness than for those with higher color-blindness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Locus of control and social desirability.

Hypothesized that there would be a negative correlation between the Edward's Social Desirability Scale and Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale. 102 army mental health clinic outpatients, 218 army stockade prisoners, 99 alcoholic inpatients, and 48 new careers participants were administered both tests. All correlations were negative, ranging from -.7 to -.29, and were significant at the .025 level or greater. It is suggested that since internalizers feel that they have some control over reinforcements, they may try to influence the dispensers of these reinforcers by behaving in socially acceptable ways, while externalizers, who feel they have no control over reinforcements, may not be so motivated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supervisee multicultural case conceptualization ability and self-reported multicultural competence as functions of supervisee racial identity and supervisor focus.

The purpose of this investigation was to test the hypothesis that supervisees' multicultural case conceptualization ability and self-reported multicultural competence are functions of their racial identity and their supervisors' instruction to focus on multicultural issues. Results from 116 supervisees, both Persons of Color and White persons, indicated that their racial identity was significantly related to self-reported multicultural competence. However, racial identity for both groups was not significantly related to multicultural case conceptualization ability. Furthermore, self-reported multicultural competence was not found to be significantly related to multicultural case conceptualization ability. However, supervisors' instruction to focus on multicultural issues was significantly related to conceptualizations of a multicultural treatment strategy. Theoretical, empirical, and practical implications for multicultural counselor supervision are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remembering race: White racial identity attitudes and two aspects of social memory.

This study investigated whether the White racial identity statuses proposed by J. E. Helms (1984, 1990, 1995) could explain individual differences in how racial stereotypes influence memory for race-related information as measured by memory sensitivity and response bias on a recognition memory task. Participants were 197 White undergraduate and graduate students who read 3 stimulus paragraphs embedded with Black and White stereotypical items. The race of the target character in the stimulus was randomly reported to be Black or White. After a 1-week interval, participants completed a measure of recognition memory, as well as a measure of White racial identity attitudes. Results offer support for the hypothesis that the White racial identity statuses influence how racial stereotypes affect information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-appraisal, personal desirability, and perceived social desirability of personality traits.

200 college sophomores took the MMPI 3 times. Analysis showed the following results: (1) Variation of order or time of testing in the personal or social condition seemed to make no difference. (2) Intercorrelations between the 3 forms were low enough to show that the 3 tasks were different. (3) Variance on all 3 forms was lower than in the standardization of the MMPI. (4) The mean profiles were highly similar in all 3 groups. (5) The clinical scales were in general highest on self, as were the Si, A, and obvious scales. The L, K, and subtle scales were in general lowest on self. (6) Results based on analysis of item discrepancies rather than scale comparisons showed that the discrepancies tended to be very sizable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy with Black clients' racial identity and locus of control.

Describes various stages of Black consciousness development and dimensions of multidimensional internal–external control and presents ways in which they interface. J. Milliones's (1980) 4 stages of Black consciousness (preconscious, confrontation, internalization, integration) are summarized, and issues with regard to traditional and multidimensional internal–external control are discussed. The psychotherapeutic implications of racial-identity development level and locus of control orientation are also addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hopelessness, social desirability, and construct validity.

M. M. Linehan and S. L. Nielsen (see record 1982-01443-001) questioned the construct validity of the Hopelessness Scale on the basis of its covariation with the Edwards Social Desirability Scale. The present author suggests that social desirability (SD) should not be invoked as a potential confound unless the obtained covariation is theoretically inconsistent or is so overlapping as to make the respective scales redundant with respect to factorial content. It is argued that the "sacred cow" status of SD as a potential confound to the interpretability of psychological tests should be reexamined. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Person perception, marriage adjustment, and social desirability.

Extended B. Murstein's (see record 1971-26678-001) stimulus-value-role theory to account for the relationship of person perception scores to marital adjustment. The hypotheses predicted that (a) similarity, self-acceptance, accuracy of predicting other's responses, and role compatibility would be correlated with marital adjustment; (b) when the perceptual target was the man, the correlation with marital adjustment would be higher than when it was a woman; (c) women would show a higher self-acceptance-marital-adjustment correlation than men; and (d) intraperceptions would be more highly correlated with marital adjustment than interperceptions. 60 young married middle-class couples took a 20 adjective bipolar checklist under 8 different "sets" (self, ideal self, spouse, ideal spouse, and predictions of these 4 sets for the partner). Results generally support the hypotheses. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social-learning theory, social desirability, and the MMPI.

Recent factor analytic interpretations of the MMPI have emphasized response sets as sources of variance, and the tendency to answer items in socially desirable or undesirable ways has been interpreted as the primary factor. It is contended that the primary factor is better interpreted as degree of psychopathology and both social-learning theory and empirical data are presented to support this view. In brief, socially desirable behaviors are typically those which conform to group standards, and the deviant behaviors which define psychopathology are usually socially undesirable. Accordingly, the tendency for MMPI scales to load inversely to social desirability on the primary factor is a consequent of the actual inverse relationship between deviancy and social acceptability of behavior. (61 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimenter approval, social desirability, and statements of self-reference.

Using 40 undergraduate Ss high or low on a social desirability scale, a verbal conditioning attempt was made to alter the relative frequency of self-referent statements that were either positive or negative. Before reinforcement, high and low social desirability Ss responded very similarly, and used more positive than negative self-references. High social desirability Ss responded to reinforcement by increasing equally the frequency of both positive and negative self-referent statements. Low social desirability Ss did not condition, but continued to make more positive than negative self-references. Although high and low social desirability Ss both have the need to impress others favorably, the high social desirability person is apparently more dependent on the overt, evaluative behavior of others, and for this reason he can be manipulated more easily than low social desirability Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Customer incivility as a social stressor: The role of race and racial identity for service employees.

Experiencing frequent incivility from customers is a noted social stressor linked with job burnout. Race (as a surface-level characteristic and as a deep-level identity) is proposed to explain emotional exhaustion, the primary burnout dimension, for service employees. The authors did not find that "microaggressions" were more likely toward racial minorities, nor any difference in job-related exhaustion between racial minority (primarily African American) and nonminority (White) retail employees. However, the centrality of minority employees' racial identity strengthened the association of customer incivility with emotional exhaustion because of increased stress appraisals, consistent with the Group Identity Lens Model. Proposals for future research on workforce racial diversity are made. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes toward instructors, social desirability, and behavioral intentions.

Examined whether student attitude toward instructors was related to subsequent behavior, such as the behavioral intention to take further courses with that instructor, and whether social desirability affected this relationship. 158 undergraduates completed instructor ratings, and a short form of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Principal components analysis and varimax rotation isolated 6 instructor rating factors. Ss also participated in a mock preregistration procedure assessing their intention to reregister for the same or different instructors. Results indicate that the 1st instructor rating factor, Instructor Skill, correlated .72 with intention to take further courses with that instructor. No other relationships or interactions were significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Will the real social desirability please stand up? Hopelessness, depression, social desirability, and the prediction of suicidal behavior.

Articles by the 2nd author and S. Nielsen (see PA, Vols 67:1443 and 69:12939) and J. Nevid (see record 1983-11675-001) have examined and debated the clinical significance of the negative relationship between the Hopelessness Scale and the social desirability (SD) response style. K. Petrie and K. Chamberlain (see record 1983-32939-001) found that the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale had no influence on the prediction of suicidal behavior. The present authors argue that this study did not address the question of SD response set in self-reported hopelessness, as the Marlowe-Crowne scale is factorially distinct from existing SD scales. The clinical utility of including SD assessment in the risk assessment and prediction of suicidal behavior was analyzed using both a general population sample (n?=?197) of Ss in a previous study by the 2nd author and Nielsen (1981) and a psychiatric sample (n?=?96) who participated in a study by the 2nd author et al (1983). Results indicate that prediction accuracy was enhanced by including SD assessment, particularly among psychiatric patients and when historical reports of suicidal behavior were involved. Nevertheless, using only hopelessness, depression, and SD assessments in suicide risk prediction still produced a dangerously high level of false negative cases in both general population and psychiatric samples. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suicide, hopelessness, and social desirability: A test of an interactive model.

We examined the relationships among suicidal indices, hopelessness, and social desirability. Both hopelessness and a measure of social desirability that reflected a sense of general capability were significant indicators of suicidal manifestations. In particular, hierarchical multiple regression procedures demonstrated that hopelessness and social desirability interacted in the prediction of suicide variables. Results generalized across various clinical diagnostic subgroups of psychiatric patients and a sample of prisoners and across different clinically evaluated and self-reported indices of suicidal behavior. Findings are interpreted to mean that a sense of general capability buffers the link of hopelessness to suicidal behavior. Implications for understanding the cognitions associated with suicide and for improving prediction of persons at risk are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselor race and power base: Effects on attitudes and behavior.

Assessed the effects of expert and referent power bases and counselor race on Ss' attitude and behavior change. 32 White undergraduates who identified themselves as having procrastination and career-planning problems were divided into internal or external groups on the basis of their scores on Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale. Four female interviewers, 2 Black and 2 White, portrayed either an expert or referent role and attempted to influence Ss to use a problem-solving process and perform a career-planning activity. Dependent variables included a measure of attitude change, a measure assessing knowledge of the problem-solving process, and 2 behavioral measures. Results show that (a) the roles were perceived as intended, (b) Ss of expert interviewers recalled more of the problem-solving process, and (c) significant interactions of race and role were obtained such that Black-expert and White-referent interviewers were most influential both in attitude and behavior change. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of the Multicultural Counseling Inventory: A self-report measure of multicultural competencies.

Presents the Multicultural Counseling Inventory (MCI), a self-report instrument that measures multicultural counseling competencies. Study 1 comprised 604 psychology students, psychologists, and counselors in a midwestern state. In Study 2, respondents were a national random sample of 320 university counselors. Instrument analysis included exploratory principal-axis factor analysis with oblique rotation, assessment of factor congruence between the factor structures of the 2 samples, LISREL confirmatory factor analysis to test the relative goodness of fit of 6 competing factor models of the MCI, and tests of internal consistency reliabilities. Results indicate that the MCI has 4 factors: Multicultural Counseling Skills, Multicultural Awareness, Multicultural Counseling Relationship, and Multicultural Counseling Knowledge. A higher order, more general multicultural counseling factor is also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)