Date of Award

1990

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department Not Listed

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effect of five weeks(45 hours)of multicultural counseling training on the multicultural sensitivity of graduate level students.The treatment group(12 students) received five weeks of intensive training designed to increase their awareness of multicultural issues and personal biases and limitations.The control groups(13 students)did not receive multicultural training,but did receive experiential training,related to leadership roles,in small groups.The Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory(potential for cross-cultural effectiveness,Inventory of Cross-Cultural Sensitivity)(level of cross-cultural sensitivity and experience) and 10 selected difficult critical incidents (ability to perceive cross-cultural interactions from a more open point of view) were administered pre and post-test.The Multicultural Counseling Survey(knowledge of special therapy needs and general cultural information about Blacks,Native Americans,Asians-Americans,and Hispanics) was administered post-test only.Two-tailed t tests were used to determine whether differences between treatment and control group means were statistically significant at the .05 confidence level.No differences were found between the treatment and control groups on ability to perceive cross-cultural interactions from a more open point of view,in levels of cross-cultural sensitivity and experience,or potential for cross-cultural effectiveness.The treatment group was found to have more knowledge of special therapy needs and general cultural information about Blacks,Native Americans,Asian Americans and Hispanics.It was concluded that a longer period of training may be necessary for behavioral manifestations of attitude change to become apparent and that useful information focusing on ethnic/minority groups can be conveyed to trainees systematically and in a relatively short period of time.

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