Thesis (M.A. (Counselling Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 146-155).

Exploring the Relationships Between Individualism and Collectivism and Attitudes Towards Counselling Among Ethnic Chinese, Australian, and American University Students Compensating for reduced public funding, Australian and American universities actively recruit full-fee paying East Asian international students. University staff, aware of international students having difficulties coping with cultural and emotional issues, often encourage them to seek university counselling services. However, East Asian international students under-utilise Western universities’ counselling services. It has been argued that the Western concept of counselling reflects Western cultural values, in particular individualism. Thus the reluctance of international students from more collectivistic cultures to seek counselling services may in part be due to a clash of cultural values. Over a decade ago, Draguns hypothesised the existence of a relationship between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity, and their influence on individuals’ attitudes towards psychopathology and treatment modalities. The current study sought to offer empirical support for Draguns’ hypothesis as it related to individualism and power distance, and to attitudes towards counselling. In place of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, this study used the Triandis cultural concepts of vertical and horizontal individualism and collectivism. Using the Triandis Individualism Collectivism Scale (ICS) and the Tinsley Expectations about Counseling-Brief Form (EAC-B)questionnaire, the current study explores the relationship between levels of vertical and horizontal individualism and collectivism, and attitudes towards the roles of counsellors, the roles of clients, and the process and goals of counselling. The research is based on data collected from three cultural groups: ethnic Chinese international students attending Australian universities, and Australian and American university students enrolled in their home countries. This study is unusual in cross-cultural research owing to its use of the Rasch extended logistic model of modern item response theory (IRT) as a means of validating the data prior to standard statistical analysis. Whereas classical test theory emphasises the model fitting the data, the Rasch model of IRT requires that the data fit the model to be considered valid. Psychometric analysis of the ICS found its four scales separately fit the Rasch model quite well, as did three modified scales of the EAC-B. The IRT analysis also provided a means of identifying differential item functioning (DIF), that is, items functioning differently (demonstrating bias) among the three cultural groups. Using the EAC-B to collect pre and post-intervention data, the current study assessed the effectiveness of a videotape intervention as a means of changing within and between-group attitudes towards counselling. It was anticipated that ethnic Chinese participants, representing the group with the least familiarity with counselling, would show the greatest change in counselling attitudes as a result of the intervention. Americans were expected to show the least change, and Australian participants to be in the middle position. Based on the findings, the intervention did not significantly alter the participants’ attitudes towards counselling regardless of their cultural background. Overall, the intervention served to strengthen existing attitudes. Lastly as a means of gaining a deeper understanding of the quantitative findings, the study collected qualitative data from the participants and from university counsellors. These findings indicated that there was a general lack of knowledge about university counselling services even among those participants who were familiar with counselling as a concept. Participants, in general, expressed reservations about seeking counselling due to concerns of being seen by friends. This was particularly true for the Chinese. Chinese participants also expressed scepticism towards a non-Chinese counsellor’s ability to understand their problems. In reference to Draguns’ hypothesis, overall the findings from this study supported his model. The findings indicated that individuals endorsing collectivistic attitudes expressed a strong preference for counsellors who were direct, expert-like, and helped clients seek concrete solutions to their problems. The study also found that an individual’s expressions of cultural dimensions, such as vertical collectivism, were better predictors of counsellor preference than an individual’s cultural background. These findings have implications for university policy makers who are responsible for ensuring the existence of an infrastructure capable of meeting the needs of the international students they so actively recruit. This would include appropriate funding for an adequate and diverse counselling staff extending itself to the university community. There are also implications for counsellor education programs in recognising the link between cultural variables and client expectations.

Tertiary institutions in South Africa have become culturally diverse and the question of the counseling services available to students from diverse cultural backgrounds is inevitable. The study investigated the views of different stakeholders of the University of KwaZulu–Natal (UKZN) on the incorporation of traditional healing into student counseling services. In-depth, open ended interviews and focus group discussions were held with purposefully-chosen students, psychologists, a traditional healer and deans of student services. Data were analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. The participants highlighted the potential usefulness of traditional healing especially in dealing with culture-bound syndromes and students’ identity issues. The logistics of having traditional healing services in spaces modeled along Western influences, as well as ethical issues were identified as the main challenges. The findings are discussed in relation to indigenous knowledge systems and the constitutional imperatives on cultural diversity. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.A.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

CPE is Western in origin, it can be transplanted and adapted to the Igbo soil and be fedb with the local nutrients. In the view of the researcher, this can bring about a new CPE model which is called the "Family/Community-Based CPE Model." The above mentioned model puts the family and community at the center of the CPE program. The CPE center will be located in a community-based setting that will enable the CPE students to visit different families and experience community life and to learn how the people respond to different events in their lives. The students can also visit ceremonies that give meaning to the people's lives such as marriage, naming, funerals and other events through which the people express their communal life. Inter-professional collaboration can take place between the CPE center and different professionals, as well as the local practitioners. All these experiences will form part of the verbatim reports and reflections during the program. The already existing actionreflection- action model of CPE will be remodeled to be theory-observation-action-reflection. It is this CPE model that the researcher proposes for the Igbo society. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

This study presents how Indian counsellors in urban India work with Western counselling methods with Indian clients. The study is categorised as part of the cross-cultural counselling research field where a major assumption is that counselling methods are part universal, part contextual. This study explores how counsellors in Bangalore culturally adapt Western methods. The method used is qualitative semi-structured interviews with seven counsellors at Parivarthan Counselling, Training and Research Centre in Bangalore. The theoretical framework in this study is based on New Institutional Theory, with constructs such as Glocalisation, Translation, and finally Cultural Preparedness to understand the context of the counselling profession in Bangalore. Results show that the Bangalore counsellors meet clients that are culturally prepared for short-term and advice-oriented counselling. The clients are part of a context where family and spirituality are of great importance. The counsellors use Western counselling methods only but adapt their approach and language with indigenous elements and emphasise the individuality of each client. They use a person-centred and an integrative approach, in which they are informed by several Western counselling methods, but do not use them dogmatically. The individuals’ needs and the relationship between counsellor and client is emphasised. Parivarthan Counselling, Training and Research Centre is part of a complex organisational field with influences from India, the East as well as from the West.

The mimicry of Europe and United States of America (US) in South African psychology in the early 1900s and the continual presence of Euroamericanised psychology continues to marginalise Black, poor, and working-class people. In this dissertation, I investigated the misalignment of counselling and clinical psychologists’ professional training, specifically the first-year Masters psychology training programme with the South African socio-political context. To counter the usual reliance on hegemonic Euroamerican-centric approaches I elaborated on an Africa(n)-centred perspective so as to make sense of the training of counselling and clinical psychologists in the South African context. I argued that the Africa(n)-centred perspective was pluriversal (accepting of multiple epistemologies), endogenous (developing from within), and focuses on Africans not as the excluded Other but rather as the Subject at the centre of their lifeworlds. I elucidated curriculum practices within the professional training programmes as part of the investigation into the intransigence of Euroamerican-centric epistemologies in the professional training curriculum. I conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 23 people, 8 of whom were course coordinators and 15 intern psychologists. The participants were from 5 universities falling into the 4 generic categories: Historically Black University (HBU), Historically White Afrikaans-speaking University (HWASU), merged university (MU), and Historically White English-speaking University (HWESU). For my analysis, I employed what I termed an Africa(n)-centred critical discourse analysis, which builds on the discursive turn in psychology, taking seriously the talk of people in the reproduction of socially unjust practices. All the interviews with the course coordinators and intern psychologists were dominated by talk of race and the Professional Board for Psychology. The interviews yielded a number of discourses, namely: 1) meritocracy, 2) diversity (which referenced issues of race, gender, and curriculum), 3) access, exclusion and privilege as related to language, 4) class, and 5) relevance (including social, market, and cultural relevance, with cultural relevance spoken about in relation to the curriculum). I conclude the dissertation by gesturing towards a constructive engagement (by which I mean a building) of an Africa(n)-centred professional training of counselling and clinical psychologists. / Psychology / Ph. D. (Psychology)