Analysis of Racial and ethnic identity assessment measures in psychology literature

Poignant Reflection

Alleged Diversity

The fourth chapter of the work of literature edited by Suzuki and Ponterro, "Cultural identity, racial identity, and the multicultural personality" alludes to the fact that ethnic and racial difference pertain a lot to the development of identity for an individual. It was somewhat surprising, however, to learn of the polarization of the concept of race considered within this chapter. The authors discuss developments and instruments relating to African-Americans, Caucasians, and those who embrace a multicultural conception of themselves. It is surprising to see such a simplified dichotomy when these categories leave out a variety of other different types of races including Asians, Latinos, Islanders, Native Americans, and various hybrids (although the multicultural identity can be applied to hybrids). I sincerely hope that the research of identity formation as related to race within the field of psychology has additional measures and concerns for other races and ethnicities; perhaps the limitations in this chapter were due to space constraints. However, the way the chapter reads there is a severe shortage in research conducted on the majority of races which currently populate the planet, as well as on the impact of their formation of identity for individuals constituting these various races.

Multicultural

Of equal suspect plausibility is the majority of the chapter, which focuses on a "multicultural personality" (Burkard and Ponterroto, 2000, p. 59). The very notion seems a little silly, frankly -- that there are certain people who have personality characteristics that are predisposed to getting along with individuals of myriad ethnicities and cultures and there are others that are not. I believe the authors are overlooking the fact that such dispositions have less to do with innate personality traits than they do with personal experience dealing with someone of a specific culture. That experience will influence an individual's perception of dealing with additional people of that culture. In this sense, it appears as though the focus of empirical evidence and psychology seems a little misplaced. The intentions of the authors and of the individuals who have determined these theories based on this premise seem earnest, since the U.S. is projected to be over 50% ethnically diverse by the year 2050 (Burkard and Ponterroto, 2000, p. 58). However, it just seems that psychologists should spend greater effort analyzing the effects of experience on multicultural interaction other than personality characteristics.

Diverse Populations

One of the most salient things covered in the tenth chapter of the book Suzuki edited (which was written by Mary Fabri) is that the entire field of psychology and the perception of mental health definitely vary according to culture. This fact is compounded by other sociological problems such as instances of war and natural disasters which create situations in which refugees are prevalent. A number of people coming from these situations have entered and will continue to enter the U.S., which is why it is excellent to see that major psychological entities in this country -- most notably the American Psychological Association) have devoted conscious effort and resources to delivering care to these people (Fabri, 2000 p. 198) who are not quintessential American patients. It was a little surprising to see that there was such effort on the part of these entities, which are under no obligations to adjust the models of their care and have seemingly done so for the benefit of patients and to increase the efficacy of their services.

Trauma Victims

At the forefront of dealing with diverse populations who may have undergone negative events in the past that had a detrimental effect on their mental health is the issue of trauma. Trauma is never easy to deal with, even when a clinician is working with a patient from an ideal living situation in his or her native country. Trauma victims from foreign cultures present even more difficulties for clinicians for a variety of reasons -- many of which I had never given conscious thought to before. Some of these directly relate to the issue of an interpreter, which is "commonplace in the field of refugee mental health and torture treatment services" (Fari, 2000, p. 200). I would have thought that someone who can speak the same language as a refugee would have been a welcome relief to a foreign mental health patient, but there are a number of concerns pertaining to trust and whether or not the interpreter may report the results of the session to people from that homeland that certainly exacerbate working with this type of patient.

Additionally, I found it fairly revealing that it is not enough for an interpreter to merely speak the same language as a foreign patient who has been the victim of trauma. There are also a host of other considerations to account for, such as the specific connotations of words in the context of slang, for instance. Also, the way people say words can fluctuate the particular meaning of those words, which also should be taken into consideration when working with these patients. As such, what the translator is actually doing is not merely decoding one language and transferring it into another, he or she is really decoding the cultural values of the victim and translating those -- which may contain a number of intangibles -- into another language for an individual who may not have the same appreciation for those values.

The overall effect of this chapter is that it made me realize how difficult it is to treat foreigners in mental health. Those difficulties primarily stem from cultural differences. In fact, pondering some of the issues discussed in this chapter made me wonder if it is even prudent to make such an attempt.