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Cultural Bias in Psychological Tests
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Discusses the assertion that psychological tests are designed to define European-Americans as normal & ethnic groups as abnormal. Some alternatives are proposed.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Discusses the assertion that psychological tests are designed to define European-Americans as normal & ethnic groups as abnormal. Some alternatives are proposed.
Paper Introduction:
Cultural Bias in Psychological Tests
Introduction
While much of the focus in the media has been on cultural bias in standardized testing for cognitive skills, or for college entrance examinations, there has been little discussion of the potential problems of cultural bias in psychological testing. Yet this is a significant problem for minority populations who might be inappropriately assessed because of psychological tests not designed to be sensitive to minority populations.
According to Rogler et al. (1991), the problem is multi level. They note that there are inappropriate research methodologies, inadequate testing and treatment protocols, and over generalization of results. Thus, tests which have been designed for
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This is adifficult task. (1975). For example, in his discussion, Carter (1991) noted that counselingtheories, counseling education, and instruments utilized for both researchand treatment are all based on certain assumptions about the nature ofhuman beings. At that time, theconvergence of two factors led to a focus on the problems of traditionaltherapeutic modalities and services. The role of ethnic loyalty amongMexican immigrant women. Cultural and gender biases in definition ofmental and emotional health and illness. Critics contended that measures of mental health,and concepts of mental health, needed to be contextualized. Velasquez, R.J., Johnson, R. And Blumenthal, R.(1987). However, Ritchie (1994) also noted that it is very difficult to getanything changed in the measurement of psychological or emotional health.As he indicated: Once a trait is uncritically accepted as indicative of psychological health, measures of that trait are used to correlate and validate other measures of psychological health. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 11, 475-488. (199 )noted that there were differences according to both gender and ethnicity ina population of Hispanics in relationship to psychosocial stress andgeneralized distress. Although there is no clear one-way relationship between levels ofacculturation and either positive or negative mental health results, thereare various interrelationships. The intention in the following pages is to explore the problemsinvolved with cultural bias in psychological testing and to identify somepotential alternatives to those biased tests.Problems of Tests It was not until the late 196 s that the concept of culturallysensitive mental health services was developed. More recently Velasquez et al. The problems extend past these definitions to the DSM and thepsychological tests that locate people in the various diagnosticcategories. (1987b). Melville, M.B. According to Rogler et al. Sex Roles, 22, 441-453. Counseling the culturally different: theory andpractice. 11). (1991), the problem is multi-level. (1981). Acculturation and mental health status amongHispanics. In addition, client behaviors need tobe understood contextually, rather than out-of-context and in comparison toanother culture's values and norms. According to Velasquez et al. In addition, where there aremodalities already operating within non-dominant cultures that can beadapted for mental health purposes, these should be identified and workedwith. Independence is not as highly valued,in general, in these cultures. Theacculturative process needs to be taken into account for these clients,along with its particular stresses. Yet this is a significant problemfor minority populations who might be inappropriately assessed because ofpsychological tests not designed to be sensitive to minority populations. (1993). Ritchie, M. Rogler, L.H. Theynote that there are inappropriate research methodologies, inadequatetesting and treatment protocols, and over-generalization of results. For the most part, healthyindividuals are seen as independent, self-confident, assertive, and havingan internal locus of control. As notedearlier, characteristics and qualities that are seen as healthy andnormative for white males and females, may not be appropriate at all forethnic minority clients navigating in their own subcultures. For minoritygroups, the results of psychological testing were likely to be negative,confirming their status as less desirable, marginalized, others, ratherthan as normative and healthy mainstream Americans. Cultural values: A review of empirical researchand implications for counseling. Journal of Counseling and Development,7 , 164-173. (1991). These individuals may be seen asgenerally less psychologically healthy than other groups and this may beused against them socially and politically. For example, in the 197 s, Samuda (1975) provided an extensivediscussion of psychological testing of American minorities, noting that thetests were clearly biased against these sub-populations. Class distinctions werealso made, with notice being taken that some groups, such as lower-incomeAfrican-Americans, did not thrive with traditional talk therapies. 591)This is the basic question of those who criticize current psychologicaltesting instrument and find them culturally biased. Sue (1981) focused on counseling the culturally different, noting thatmethods should be appropriate to the individual's culture, while alsorecognizing the mainstream culture to which the individual belongs. In order to address some of these issues, attempts were made either toalter current instruments, or to devise new instruments that might betterserve minority populations. Factors associated withacculturative stress and depressive symptomatology among married Mexicanimmigrant women. Ritchie (1994) seconded that conclusion, noting that the inevitableresult of definitions and categories and instruments that are biased infavor of the characteristics of one group and against the characteristicsor qualities of another group is that individuals will be mislabelled,along with entire groups of people. (199 ).Gender and ethnic differences in psychosocial stress and generalizeddistress among Hispanics. (p. Thus,tests which have been designed for European-American populations are oftenapplied to many different sub-populations of Hispanics, without regard forthe specific cultural context of those groups. (1978). Thus, material like the counseling work bySue or the Latin American Stress Test should be sought out by those workingwith a client population culturally different from themselves and from thedominant culture. (1991). As a consequence, considerable effort has been devoted to developingmethods to work with ethnic minorities or the culturally different in orderto avoid doing harm to clients by using inappropriate tests or methods ininappropriate ways. In that model, which might be more appropriate to theAfrican-American and Hispanic-American communities, family members,friends, and others are brought in to the therapy situation with theindividual client to offer their perspectives on the situation, and theirsupport to the client. Much of the work that has been done on the Hispanic population hasemphasized the relationship between acculturation and measures of mentalhealth. (1994). Inorder to begin to address this problem, it is important for counselors andresearchers to begin by identifying their assumptions about human natureand psychologically healthy human behavior. As Rogler etal. However, Carter noted, those assumptions are generally theassumptions of the dominant culture of the time, and of the elite classesof the dominant culture. Usher (1989) noted that the assumptions regarding normal behavior arefrequently tied to cultural, or racial, bias. Rogler, L.H., Malgady, R.G., Costantino, G. However, these are qualities andcharacteristics that are primarily associated with white culture, and theymay be viewed as undesirable qualities within other cultures. Salgado de Snyder, V.N. Although considerable effort has been put forth in making theDSM-IV bias-free, there has been a long line of critiques of the manual ongrounds of both gender and cultural bias. For example, in Salgado de Snyder et al. And Padilla, A.M. (1987a). NY: Harper. (1993) have emphasized working with theDSM-III-R with ethnic minority clients in a more appropriate way. Cultural Bias in Psychological TestsIntroduction While much of the focus in the media has been on cultural bias instandardized testing for cognitive skills, or for college entranceexaminations, there has been little discussion of the potential problems ofcultural bias in psychological testing. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 15, 16-24. As a consequence, Pedersoncontended, our current psychological theories have racism, sexism, andcultural bias built into them. One example of this would be utilizing the curandero, a traditionalhealer within the Hispanic community, and the referral system to thecurandero, as a primary mental health service system. Mexican women adapt to migration.International Migration Review, 12, 225-235. In addition,Salgado de Snyder used the Latin American Stress Inventory for both of herstudies.Alternatives In designing culturally sensitive programs, Rogler et al. Salgado de Snyder, V.N. The curandero canwork with, and assist, more mainstream mental health practitioners whileproviding an important perspective on the Hispanic community and, perhaps,being better able to empathize with the worldview of the client. The authors noted thattheir are distinct cultural differences among Hispanics and that these needto be reflected in mental health assessment. There are a number of innovative models in use, such as the communitytherapy model. This is a model that perceives the self-in-relationas meaningful, rather than simply the self in isolation.Conclusion and Recommendations It seems that there is potentially considerable bias still remainingin psychological tests, along with counseling theories and techniques. Counselor Education andSupervision, June 1, 1994. Among other things, they noted that immigrants fromCentral America seemed to have higher levels of depression than those fromMexico, even when other factors are considered. For example,Asian-American and Hispanic-American sub-populations tends to view thehuman being as more interdependent and interwoven with family, and this asdesirable and morally appropriate. In the meantime, counselors can benefit from the suggestions of Rogleret al. Salgado de Snyder, V.N., Cervantes, R.C. There is also material available that is culturally-sensitive, even ifit is more difficult to locate. NY: Wiley. Bibliography Carter, R.T. This could conceivably create the false impression that certain traits are valid measures of mental and emotional health because of the number of tests or outcome studies using those traits (p. Teachingcounselors to use the DSM-III-R with ethnic minority clients: A paradigm.Counselor Education and Supervision, 32, 323-331. (1991) put it: How do we know we are addressing the major psychological distresses of Hispanics when we uniformly restrict our instrumentation to measures originating in the study of populations markedly different from them? And Brown-Cheatham, M. This would provide a check on mainstream theories andtests, another perspective. Later critiques of mental health services emphasized the fundamentalEuro-American-centrism of those services. Samuda, R.J. What do culturally sensitive mental health services mean?American Psychologist, 42(6), 565-57 . 565). Cultural bias incounseling. (1987). Pederson (1987), too, addressed this issue, noting that theassumptions of psychology are primarily those of Western culture, and alsoof white, upper-middle class culture. Thus, those members of non-dominant cultures mayfind themselves defined as outside of the mainstream on normative humanbehavior models, since those models are designed to describe the dominantculture. Research methodologies, researchquestions, and application of research had all been designed from aparticular perspective. (1987) notedthat there are three basic approaches to this work: First, rendering traditional treatments more accessible to Hispanics; second, selecting an available therapeutic modality according to the perceived features of Hispanic culture; and third, extracting elements from Hispanic culture and using them to modify traditional treatments or as an innovative treatment tool (p. Each of these studies also used moreinductive methods of deriving results, emphasizing learning the directexperience of the women in order to make their assessments. Sue, D.W. In early discussions, the focus was on the inappropriateness of talktherapies for cultures which did not emphasize verbal facility and verbalsharing as much as European-American culture did. For example, the Spanish Mental HealthResearch Center at the University of California, Los Angeles designed theLatin American Stress Inventory specifically for the Hispanic population.This was designed to address some of the issues specific to thosepopulations, including refugee status, lack of appropriate documentation,flight from violence and oppression, cultures of violence, acculturationstress, and other issues that did not impact the general population in thesame way.Studies In looking at the current instruments in order to determine theiradequacy for different minority populations, there have been a few studies,both on the applicability of instruments in general and applicability todifferent sub-populations. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 9, 287-298. Ten frequent assumptions. For the most part, those definingnormative behavior, maturity, and other important concepts in psychologyhave been white, upper-middle class males. For example, in their work with Mexican-American women, both Melville(1978) and Salgado de Snyder (1987a, 1987b) noted that less acculturatedwomen who spoke more Spanish and little English had tendencies to feel morepowerless, be more depressed, experience more acculturative stress, andhave lower levels of self-esteem. The civil rights movement emphasizedthe distinctiveness of minority groups, while the community mental healthmovement spread to regions of the city which had not previously beencovered, and which included large numbers of minorities (Rogler et al.,1987). Psychological testing of American minorities:Issues and consequences. (1987) in making services more accessible to non-dominant cultures,while at the same time modifying those services to be appropriate to valuesand assumptions of the non-dominant culture. (1993), the result of the cultural biasimplicit in the DSM and in psychological testing instruments is thatcertain individuals and specific groups are disproportionately labeled ashaving specific disorders within the DSM because of their culture, notbecause they have actual mental or emotional disorders. American Psychologist, 46(6), 585-597. They can be extremely detrimental whenapplied to those in the non-dominant culture and used to stigmatize thoseindividuals. These need to be tested inorder to determine whether they simply represent descriptions of the eliteclasses in the dominant culture, or whether they can be conceptualized inother ways as representing psychologically healthy behavior. Pederson, P.
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