Perspectives on Cultural Diversity

Protocol for a scoping review of the collection, analysis and reporting of variables related to cultural and linguistic diversity in dementia clinical trials and cohort studies

Any cursory review of major psychological journals will reveal that there has been a paucity of coverage regarding effective and culturally relevant research methodologies and approaches with regard to populations of color. Over the past several decades, however, the sophistication of research designs and methodologies used in the field of racial and ethnic minority psychology has increased dramatically. The current special section was initiated in order to capture the nature and complexities of these methodologies as applied to populations of color, as a better understanding of the application of more sophisticated research methodologies will allow researchers to conduct more culturally sensitive and relevant research. More specifically, the purpose of this special section is to introduce a variety of research methods and approaches that have been used effectively with racial and ethnic minorities to produce usable and important information relevant to these populations. Although psychologists have long endorsed the concept of methodological pluralism, the field has been slow to explicate the nature and kinds of research methodologies it uses specifically with populations of color. In order for current and future investigators to conduct culturally appropriate psychological research with racial and ethnic minority populations, it is critical that we provide a useful and accessible resource to encourage this phenomenon. During the past several decades, major psychological journals have published stand-alone articles on methodological issues and advancements in the field of ethnic minority psychology. However, much of this literature is scattered and often difficult to locate. Therefore, the aim of this special section is to provide a current and systematic treatment of the topic within Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, which also will be readily available for future generations of researchers who wish to investigate people of color. The articles in this special section will document some of the major research methodologies and approaches used by both established and up-and-coming psychologists who have conducted vital investigations with people of color. The field of ethnic and racial minority psychology can only be enhanced by the increased use of research methodologies that have been used effectively with populations of color. In addition, this special section is also a call to psychology researchers to increase their dialogue over philosophy of science and methodological diversity as they pertain to racial and ethnic minority populations. This special section should be of interest to scholars and scientists, as well as students of history and of racial and ethnic minority psychology, and it could very well serve as a group of supplementary readings for courses in racial and ethnic minority psychology. To that end, we have invited some of the leading scholars and researchers in the field to share with us their experience and recommendations with regards to the meeting these methodological challenges in relation to conducting qualitative studies, using large national datasets, use of the internet to conduct research, treatment outcome research, and integrating cross-cultural psychology research methods into ethnic minority psychology. This special section began as a special issue which was being coedited by Madonna Constantine and I. It was approved by Gordon Nagayama Hall, Editor of Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and was scheduled to be published under Dr. Hall’s term as editor. The special issue was delayed considerably due to extenuating circumstances and Dr. Constantine’s withdrawal from the coeditorship of the special issue. Therefore, Dr. Constantine’s article was also withdrawn from the special issue. In the interim, Dr. Michael Zarate assumed Editorship of the journal and he reviewed a revised proposal for a special section. Dr. Zarate accepted the proposal and the special section is being published under his term as Editor. In the transition between editors, two of the papers for the special issue were inadvertently published during Dr. Hall’s term of office in the January 2009 issue. These two articles included: (a) Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, Fabricio Balcazar, and Tina Taylor-Ritzler’s article on “Using the Internet to Conduct Research with Culturally Diverse Populations: Challenges and Opportunities”, and (b) Derek Griffith, Harold Neighbors, and Jonetta Johnson’s article on “Using National Data Sets to Improve the Health and Mental Health of Black Americans: Challenges and Opportunities”. These two articles were integral to the special section and should be considered as part of the special issue in combination with the three current articles. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology © 2010 American Psychological Association 2010, Vol. 16, No. 4, 572 1099-9809/10/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0020006

The purpose of this survey was to examine the extent to which community psychology has committed itself to one of its original missions: to foster cultural relativity and diversity. Content analyses were conducted of all articles published in the American Journal of Community Psychology, Community Mental Health Journal, and the Journal of Community Psychology from the journals' inception through 1985. Of all articles published, 13% furthered the goals of cultural diversity, and 86% did not. Further breakdown revealed that 5.5% of the articles were on a single U.S. ethnic minority group, 5% compared an ethnic minority group(s) to Whites, 2% were on an international cultural group, and .5% compared two or more ethnic minority groups to each other. Compared to CMHJ, a higher proportion of articles published in AJCP and JCP were devoted to cultural diversity. Greater attention has been given to the study of Blacks and Hispanics/Puerto Ricans than to Asian Americans or Native Americans. For all journals combined, there was an overall increase in the proportion of articles devoted to cultural diversity and ethnicity over time. Still, 5% to 11% was considered short of the proportion of ethnic minorities in the United States (over 20%), leading the researchers to conclude that progress has been made, but more needs to be done.

Against the backdrop of the Lisbon targets of ‘economic growth and cohesion’, cultural industries are high on the European Union's (EU) policy agenda. To unleash the ‘Lisbon potential’ of the cultural industries, the establishment of a customized European cultural industries policy is required. It will be difficult to develop such an overarching policy, which must accommodate both profit and non-profit organizations in different cultural sectors that were until recently covered by the member states’ cultural policies or that had evolved in the context of the common market. The cultural industries’ intertwined cultural and economic interests, absence of an accepted common description and the many general and sectoral EU rules that are applicable result in conflicting viewpoints that set the different EU institutions and their departments at odds with one another. Through in-depth policy analysis, this article provides a framework from which to initiate debate on the creation of a European cultural industries policy. It contains an overview of the status quo on the cultural industries (the debate, the definition and the regulations applicable) and an assessment of the situation (the contradictions). Forecasts are then drawn for possible future tendencies of an EU policy for cultural industries. Finally, it will be argued that the scope and hierarchy of the rules and agreements in force will be decisive for the EU's approach towards the cultural industries. The article concludes by arguing that despite the EU's rhetoric about ‘cultural diversity’, in the light of negotations within the World Trade Organization (WTO), a European cultural industries policy will be predominantly an employment policy instead of a cultural policy. It is primarily driven by economic growth and cohesion, making national cultural policy considerations subordinate to common-market objectives.

Advances in scientific knowledge must begin to address the significant health disparities that persist among ethnic and racial minority groups in the United States (Pinn, 2000; Ruffin, 2000). Exceedingly low participation rates of older ethnic minorities and women in health research have been well documented (Gavaghan, 1995). Policies encouraging involvement of underrepresented groups in health research have been in place at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since the mid 1980s (Roth, Pinn, Hartmuller, Bates, & Fanning, 2000), and, in 1994, NIH issued Guidelines on Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research mandating such inclusion. The NIH, and the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) in particular, have stressed the importance of recruiting women as research volunteers, especially those from diverse cultures and minority populations (Becker et al., 1992; NIH, ORWH, 1997). Policy and research efforts such as the Women’s Health Initiative are anticipated to address past discrepancies in many scientific areas (Hall, 1999). A recent Government Accounting Office (GAO) evaluation reported that NIH has made significant progress in increasing representation of women in clinical research (GAO, 2000). Nevertheless, the science of recruitment and retention of ethnic minorities is in its early stages, with models only recently being developed and evaluated (Ory, Lipman, Barr, Harden, & Stahl, 2000; Swanson & Ward, 1995). Although there are a few practical guides to assist investigators (for example, LaRosa, Seto, Caban, & Hayunga, 1995; NIH, ORWH, 1994), current information about effective approaches is quite limited. Barriers and facilitators to research participation among ethnic minorities of all ages are just beginning to be examined, with much of the literature focusing on cancer prevention (Giuliano et al., 2000; Underwood, 2000). Research on older adults has primarily addressed recruitment and retention in clinical trials for cancer (Moinpour et al., 2000; Zhu et al., 2000), osteoporosis (Unson, Dunbar, Curry, Kenyon, & Prestwood, 2001), Alzheimer’s disease (Gauthier & Clarke, 1999), mental health services (Arean & Gallagher-Thompson, 1996) and primary prevention studies such as dietary interventions and exercise trials (Coleman et al., 1997; Dennis & Neese, 2000; Lewis et al., 1998; Prohaska, Walcott-McQuigg, & Peters, 2000). Several themes emerge from this growing body of literature: (a) trust and connection with the community is central, (b) involvement of ethnic and racial minority researchers at all levels (lead investigator to data collector) is essential, and (c) barriers to recruitment can stem from research institutions as well as the minority community of interest (Levkoff, Levy, & Weitzmann, 2000). Despite recent progress, the need persists for development of theory-based, population-specific models of recruitment and retention, coupled with systematic evaluation of impact and cost-effectiveness (Ory et al., 2000). Against this backdrop, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) sponsored a preconference to The Gerontological Society of America’s 1999 Annual meeting, ‘‘Involving Older Ethnic Minorities in Health-Related Research.’’ The workshop faculty examined recruitment and retention of research Address correspondence to Leslie Curry, Braceland Center for Mental Health and Aging, The Institute of Living, Hartford Hospital Mental Health Network, 200 Retreat Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106. Email: lcurry@harthosp.org Braceland Center for Mental Health and Aging and University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Hartford. Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

This study establishes and empirically explores the relationship between knowledge, cultural diversity and various entrepreneurial outcomes across European cities in 2008–2010. We demonstrate that the mechanism of knowledge spillover entrepreneurship is contextual and contend that cultural diversity and knowledge have differential impact on entrepreneurial outcomes across cities and countries. Cities with high cultural diversity provide more opportunities for entrepreneurship in sectors where technology and knowledge play more important role. While in technology-based sectors, we observe a decline in employment, in cities where cultural diversity is moderately high, this effect is counteracted by an increase in demand for skilful labour that is more concentrated in culturally diverse contexts. Implications for regional and national policy makers and international entrepreneurs are offered.

The purpose of this study was to identify where the most work on cross-cultural and ethnic minority psychology is being published and who the most productive authors are. The journals that published the most articles on cross-cultural and ethnic minority issues from 1993 to 1999 and the most prolific authors on these issues were identified by PsycINFO. Cross-cultural research is cross-national, whereas ethnic minority research involves groups of color within the United States. The citation impact of these journals and authors was determined from the 1997 Social Sciences Citation Index. The results suggest that there is very limited overlap between the literatures in cross-cultural and ethnic minority psychology. Most of the research in these areas is published in specialty journals, and there is a paucity of this research in prestigious journals. Perceived or actual barriers to publication in prestigious journals may cause some to seek specialty journals as outlets for research on cultural diversity. The top scholars in cross-cultural psychology are primarily men of European ancestry, whereas most of the top scholars in ethnic minority psychology are ethnic minority men and women. Strategies to increase the prominence of cultural diversity in the psychology literature include combining cross-cultural and ethnic minority psychology, increasing the number of editorial board members of prestigious journals having expertise in cultural diversity, and increasing the quality of specialty journals. Psychology will remain ill-equipped to face the challenges of the new millennium without increased attention to cultural diversity.

Dreaming Diversity: Second Generation Australians and the Reimagining of Multicultural Australia

All argumentation starts from dissent, but needs common ground to build on. Such common ground is ideally provided by a common cognitive or cultural environment that is shared by the arguers. But in cases of radical cognitive or cultural diversity there is little or no such common ground. In such cases only polemic argument (but not argumentation) will be possible. Polemic argument, characterized by cantankerousness and gainsaying rather than veritable argumentationinforms much of our present argument culture, particularly so in TV talk shows, in political debate, and even in academic dispute. Robert Fogelin introduces the notion of “deep disagreement” characterized by “a clash of framework propositions” (Inform Logic 7:1–8, 1985), and Marc Angenot identifies “cognitive breaks” that result in a futile, yet nonetheless persistent “dialogue of the deaf” (Dialogues des sourds. Traite de rhetorique antilogique. Mille et une nuits, Paris, 2008). Angenot suggests that rhetoric may fail as an art of persuasion when arguments are dominated by mere antagonism of ideologies, and are marked by mutual misunderstandings and fallacies. As a remedy, he advocates a revival of the ‘antilogic’ of doxa and probability constitutive of rhetorical argumentation. Fogelin’s and Angenot’s models can be used to describe the background of polemic argument. One of the major factors that account for fundamental diversity of belief systems between arguers, and hence for deep disagreements, is the cultural environments of the arguers. If culture is defined as the set of norms, values and beliefs, symbols and narratives a community adheres to, any argument that in its premises or structures touches these norms and values will be sensitive to such cultural differences that can affect forms, functions, evaluations, and contents of arguments. In today’s pluralistic societies, various groups with divergent cultural backgrounds and different cultures of argument share the same living space, but often cannot even acknowledge the rationality of each other’s arguments. On the other hand, although polemic argument is generally condemned as futile or fallacious, the free expression of antagonist views, and thus conflict and polemics are basic to our Western democratic political culture. The paper uses the concept of antilogical reasoning as developed by the ancient Greek sophists, as well as approaches from rhetoric and discourse analysis, in an effort to establish the underlying logic and rhetoric of polemic argument and to delineate conditions under which it can be reconciled with the standard of a rational and critical discussion. As a result, it turns out that while in polemic argument both contending parties are mutually blocked and cannot reach any common ground to resolve their deep disagreement, it can be useful for clarifying and better defining the issue at stake for the benefit of a third party, namely the body of people (assembly, jury, electorate, general public) who will ultimately decide the issue pragmatically by ballot.

This book draws on several themes and priority issues within the framework of Euro-Asian, Australian and American international research. Importantly, it seeks to identify the successes and failures of integrating cultural, linguistic and religious diversity; to examine an evolving national identity and social values; and to assess the way contemporary Western democracies view themselves and respond to the challenges of diversity from non-Western cultures with a special focus on the Muslim immigrant communities. Several migrant communities, such as Muslims, as a group have had less success compared to other religious or ethnic minorities, like Jews or African Americans, in opening “a window on the multidimensionality of what can be called cultural ecology.” A complex picture emerges — a kind of multi-layered tapestry of the way migrants and nationals alike project attitudes towards cultural diversity, national values, cultural fragmentation and social cohesion in the Western world.

Reports an error in "Ethnic minorities' racial attitudes and contact experiences with white people" by J. Nicole Shelton and Jennifer A. Richeson (Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 2006[Jan], Vol 12[1], 149-164). In this research report, there was an error in the Method section of Study 1. The third paragraph should have read, "FRIENDSHIP QUESTIONNAIRE. Participants answered several questions about the quality of their interactions with a White ( n = 49) or Black (n = 59), same-sex friend with whom they had spent the most time, and had the closest, most intimate friendship. Specifically, participants completed three questions regarding the amount of contact they have with this friend (e.g., How often do you spend leisure time with this friend?). Participants indicated their responses on scales that ranged from 1 (never) to 7 (often). Scores on the three items were combined to form one composite score ( α = .76). In addition, participants completed 8 questions regarding the quality of their relationship with their friend. These items tapped into how satisfied participants were with their friendship and how positively they perceived their interactions (i.e., Relative to all your other friendships, how close are you to this person? Relative to what you know about other people's friendships, how close do you feel to this person? How much do you admire this friend? How much do you like this friend? How often does this friend help you with your problems? How often does this friend do favors for you? How often do you help this friend with his/her problems? How often do you do favors for this friend?). All questions were answered on 7-point scales and combined such that higher numbers reflect positive contact experiences ( α = .94)." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2006-03818-011.) In this article, the authors examine the relationship between ethnic minorities' racial attitudes and their intergroup contact experiences with White people. In Studies 1 and 2, the authors demonstrate that the more negative the racial attitudes held by ethnic minorities, the less positive their interactions are with White friends and roommates. With a daily report methodology, Study 2 revealed that ethnic minorities' racial attitudes predicted the decline in the quality of their intergroup contact experiences over a 3-week period. In Study 3, the authors examined a possible mechanism underlying the relationship between racial attitudes and intergroup contact, as well as the influence of ethnic minorities' racial attitudes on White participants' experiences in intergroup contact settings. The authors discuss the findings in terms of the importance of examining ethnic minorities' attitudes in research on intergroup relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

This article presents recent arguments about the need for sensitivity to diversity issues in psychological practice, and for training programs to attend to these issues. The results of a survey related to the extent and nature of diversity training in Canadian clinical psychology programs are presented, in which diversity was defined broadly as reflecting the vast number of possible individual differences (e.g., culture, nationality, ethnicity, colour, race, gender, religion, sexual preference, disability, economic disadvantage) that can affect clinical psychology knowledge, research, and practice. Directors of Clinical Training (DCrs) at all Canadian clinical psychology programs were asked about the extent to which various aspects of diversity training were deemed important or essential to their program, what training activities were required, and how effective different methods of training were viewed. The results revealed that DCTs varied widely in their opinion of how important diversity materials were, and that few programs require many different methods of training related to diversity. Further, the training methods more commonly adopted did not generally relate well with those that were seen as being most effective. Implications of the survey for training in clinical psychology are provided. [Reference] References [Reference] Abney, V.D. (1996). Cultural competency in the field of child maltreatment. InJ. Briere, L. Berliner,J.A. Bulkley, C. Jenny, & T. Reid (Eds.), The APSAC handbook on child maltreatment (pp. 408-419). London: Sage. American Psychological Association. (1991). Guidelines for providers of psychological services to ethnic, linguistic, and culturally diverse populations. In H.F. Myers, P. Wohlford, L.P. Guzman, & RJ. Echemendia (Eds.), Ethnic minority perspectives on clinical training and services in psychology. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. [Reference] Aponte,J.F., & Clifford,J. (1995). Education and training issues for intervention with ethnic groups. InJ.F. Aponte, RY. Rivers, &J. Wohl (Eds.), Psychological interventions and cultural diversity (pp. 283-300). Needham Heights, NY: Allyn & Bacon. Arean, P.A., & Gallagher-Thompson, D. (1996). Issues and recommendations for the recruitment and retention of older ethnic minority adults into clinical research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 875-880. Bernal, M.E., & Castro, F.G. (1994). Are clinical psychologists prepared for service and research with ethnic minorities? Report of a decade of progress. American Psychologist, 49, 797-805. Canadian Psychological Association. (1991). Canadian code of ethics for psychologists. Ottawa: Author. Cheatham, H.E. (1994). A response. The Counseling Psychologist, 22, 290-295. Dana, R.H. (1995). Impact of the use of standard psychological assessment on the diagnosis and treatment of ethnic minorities. In J.F. Aponte, RY Rivers, and J. Wahl (Eds.), Psychological interventions and cultural diversity (pp. 57-73). Needham Heights, NY: Allyn Bacon. Esses, V.M. & Gardner, R.C. (1996). Multiculturalism in [Reference] Canada: Context and current status. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 28, 145-152. Fineman, N. (1991). The social construction of noncompliance: Implications for cross-cultural geriatric practice. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 6, 219-227. Gray-Little, B. (1995). The assessment of psychopathology in racial and ethnic minorities. InJ.N. Butcher (Ed.), Clinical personality assessment: Practical approaches (pp. 140-157). New York: Oxford. Hall, C.C.I. (1997). Cultural malpractice: The growing obsolescence of psychology with the changing II.S. population. American Psychologist, 52, 642-651. [Reference] Harre, R. …

The research aims to investigate the relationship between 'cultural diversity' and 'cultural intelligence'. The current status of the studies on cultural values usually focuses on the diversity of national characteristics. One of the newly emerging topics on the agenda is the cultural intelligence and its possible impacts on the integration of different cultural environments. So this new agenda and its uncovered aspects motivate us to conduct such a research. Within this frame, we examined the hypotheses related to the effect of four dimensions of culture on four dimensions of cultural intelligence. We find that the value of individualism/collectivism, among the dimensions of culture, causes a differentiation on the values of metacognitive intelligence, cognitive intelligence and motivational intelligence but not on behavioural cultural intelligence. The value of power distance cause a change on all dimensions of cultural intelligence except for the metacognitive intelligence, while the value of uncertainty avoidance cause a change on all dimensions of cultural intelligence except for the cognitive intelligence. On the other hand, the femininity/masculinity dimension of culture has an impact only on cognitive intelligence. The results of the research may have contributions both to the academics and practitioners of intelligence and culture areas.

The article considers multiculturalism as a social phenomenon, describes various aspects of its manifestation through the concept of "cultural diversity". It has been argued that the doctrine of multiculturalism proclaims the equality of cultural forms, the primacy of "cultural diversity" over ethnocultural homogeneity of states, and creates for multicultural societies a number of problems related to the plurality and cultural heterogeneity of communities. Based on the active discussion of the global multiplicity of cultures and their penetration into the value and normatively separated socio-cultural spaces, it is established that the multicultural world does not impose a single vision of reality, on the contrary, offers a field of alternative choices. The peculiarities of the functioning of multiculturalism and the policy of translinguism in modern Poland are analyzed. It is stated that an important feature of Polish multiculturalism and translinguism is the participation of national and ethnic minorities in the life of Polish society, which is realized through institutionalization of minority life, creation of various institutions and organizations designed to support their culture, traditions and language. Recognition of cultural diversity is also manifested in the field of education: the study of minority languages ​​is introduced in primary and secondary schools, and bilingual schools or classes are opened. The possibility of applying the positive Polish experience in the formation of multicultural policy in Ukraine is proved.

This chapter reflects on the notion of community as part of the efforts to advance teacher education provision on cultural diversity. It reviews recent policy recommendations relating to the presence of ethnically diverse learners in Hong Kong classrooms. Taking these recommendations as a backdrop, this chapter draws on community-engaged scholarship to outline a blueprint for university learning and teaching, and collaboration with community sectors (e.g., nongovernment organizations, ethnically diverse community organizations, and parent groups) in a context without multicultural policy. The model highlights the role of: (1) interdisciplinary research on cultural diversity – not just “ethnic minorities” or “non-Chinese speaking” students; (2) teacher education curriculum structures in promoting equity by eliminating (implicit) disadvantages against minoritized students; and (3) community dialogues as a means to facilitate the development of multicultural awareness and standards. The discussion posits the need to develop a contextualized understanding of what developing knowledge bases on cultural diversity might mean in the local teacher workforce and the role of teacher education in it.