The Changing Face of School Psychology: Trends in Data and Projections for the Future.

Trends in data from the past to the present are described for demographic variables (gender, race and ethnicity, preparation levels, credentialing, age and experience) and ratio of students to school psychologists. School psychology in the United States will continue to be characterized as primarily Caucasian, specialist-level and female through 2020. Projections of personnel needs based on estimates of new school psychologists entering the field through graduation from university programs, as well as those exiting the field through estimates of retirement and attrition, indicate that there will be a severe shortage of school psychologists through 2010, with the shortage then continuing but declining through 2020. Implications are discussed and possible strategies and directions are offered for the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The assessment of credibility: An analysis of truth and deception in a multiethnic environment.

Credibility assessment involves the ability to distinguish a liar from a truthful person. In the traditional homogeneous societies, we can find some relatively strong consensus, as well as common learned indicators, that enable the participants in legal procedures to use more or less similar factors to assess the credibility of the testimonies given. Now, what about our current multiethnic societies where the different actors do not always have the same ethnic background and do not necessarily share the same cultural values? Can we find a similar consensus as well as common indicators? After examining what contemporary research tells us about the concept of credibility and its assessment, I will undertake to explain how truth and deception are distinguished in a multiethnic context, and I will look at the accuracy rates of such judgments. Are they better or worse than judgments made by people of the same ethnic background? What criteria are used? The same or different ones? In conclusion, it is suggested that familiarity with the specific aspects of different cultures can produce more adequate judgments of credibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of name and recipe on the perceived ethnicity and acceptability of selected Italian foods by British subjects

Tomato sauce, meat, cheese, and butter (recipe variable), and product names (name variable) from four pasta samples were manipulated to study their effects on the ratings of perceived ethnicity and acceptability by British subjects. The addition of an Italian name significantly increased perceived Italian ethnicity and lowered British ethnicity. Adding meat and/or cheese increased British ethnicity. Changing recipes was more effective than adding Italian names for increasing hedonic responses for these items. The development of a perceived ethnicity scale for use in studies of ethnic food identification is discussed.     

Self-concept,self-esteem,gender, race and information technology use

This research addressed two fundamental questions regarding self-concept, self-esteem, gender, race and information technology use. First, is technology use related to dimensions of self-concept and/or to self-esteem? Second, are there gender and/or race differences in self-concept, self-esteem and technology use? Approximately 500 youth, average age 12 years old, one-third of whom were African American and the remaining two-thirds were Caucasian American, completed multidimensional measures of self-concept, the Rosenberg (1965) self-esteem scale and measures of frequency of Internet use, Internet use for communication (email and instant messaging), videogame playing and cell phone use. Findings indicated that technology use predicted dimensions of selfconcept and self-esteem, with videogame playing having a negative influence, and Internet use having a positive influence on self-concept dimensions. Gender differences were observed on several self-concept dimensions but contrary to expectations not on the social self-concept dimension. Only one race difference was observed and this was in behavioral self-concept. Implications of the benefits and liabilities of youth’s current and future technology use are discussed.     

The influence of ethnicity on organizational commitment and merit pay of IT workers: the role of leader support

Projections of looming shortages in the supply of skilled IT workers, along with high employee replacement costs, make employee attraction, retention and support a pressing concern for organizations. One potential remedy for these shortages is to focus more attention on historically underrepresented groups. We explore ways organizations can support ethnic minority IT professionals to enhance their career success. Integrating affective, cognitive and social perspectives through affective events theory and social exchange theory, our objective is to explore the implications of ethnic minority status for the relationship between leader support (i.e., mentoring and leader–member exchange (LMX)) and subjective and objective indicators of career success (i.e., organizational commitment and merit pay) among IT workers. To test the model, we conducted a field study of 289 IT workers in a Fortune 500 company. Our results showed that LMX influenced organizational commitment for ethnic minorities, while career mentoring and LMX influenced organizational commitment for majorities. Psychosocial mentoring influenced merit pay for ethnic minorities, while neither LMX nor mentoring influenced merit pay for majorities. Our study contributes to the literature on IT personnel issues by exploring how and why these leader support mechanisms enhance organizational commitment and merit pay for IT workers. Moreover, we demonstrate that ethnicity is an important consideration for researchers studying organizational commitment, merit pay, mentoring and LMX. Our findings suggest that managers can boost organizational commitment among IT workers by focusing on LMX and career mentoring. Moreover, they may want to place particular emphasis on psychosocial mentoring and interventions to enhance LMX for their ethnic minority IT workers.     

On being a Latina healer: Voice, consciousness, and identity.

A Latina psychotherapist relates her journey of becoming a healer. I discuss how my diversity status impacts on my life and on my approach to psychotherapy. My story offers clinical suggestions for therapists working with multicultural clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnic matching and treatment outcome with Hispanic and Anglo substance-abusing adolescents in family therapy.

This study examined treatment outcomes of 86 highly acculturated Hispanic and Anglo substance-abusing adolescents in functional family therapy, testing the hypothesis that ethnic matching of therapist and client is related to better treatment outcomes for clients. Adolescents reported on their substance use pre- and posttreatment on a timeline follow-back interview. Ethnically matched Hispanic adolescents demonstrated greater decreases in their substance use compared with Hispanic adolescents with Anglo therapists. Ethnic match status was not related to treatment outcome for Anglo clients. Thus, the matching hypothesis was supported for Hispanic clients only. The results underscore the importance of greater ethnic diversity among therapists and better cultural competency training for Anglo therapists. More research is needed on individual differences in the effects of ethnic matching. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

College diversity courses and cognitive development among students from privileged and marginalized groups.

Previous research has suggested that diversity courses generally have positive effects on college students’ cognitive development. However, it is unclear how many courses students need to take to maximize their cognitive gains, or whether some groups of students benefit more from taking these courses. Within a longitudinal sample of over 3,000 first-year students at 19 institutions, students who take at least one diversity course have greater gains in their general interest in ideas and effortful thinking than those who take no courses; however, taking more than one course is not associated with greater benefits than taking a single course. In addition, the number of diversity courses taken is virtually unrelated to gains in critical thinking and moral reasoning. Further analyses reveal that students from middle- or lower-income families and White students experience the greatest cognitive growth from taking diversity courses. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)