Although professionals in psychiatry, psychology and medicine claim to endorse the biopsychosocial model as proposed by George L. Engel (1977), clinicians in all three fields still tend to underutilize it. Some academics have also criticized the model for its inadequate emphasis on cultural contextualization. To improve upon the model, I sought to empirically establish the relationship between culturally-specific social factors and psychological disorder, in this case depressive symptoms in Mexican-American adults. Eighty-six Mexican-American participants living on the US-Mexico border completed scales measuring depressive symptoms, bidirectional acculturation, living situation, diabetes, and health beliefs regarding the origins of diabetes. The results revealed that diabetes, acculturation, and gender were not associated with depressive symptoms in this population, even when controlling for mental health biases. This finding is in contrast to findings from other literature that associated diabetes, low acculturation and gender with depression in Hispanic adults. Extended family cohabitation was also not associated with lower numbers of depressive symptoms, despite the importance of familism and the extended family unit in Mexican-American culture. Unemployment was significantly related to number of depressive symptoms in both genders. There was no significant relationship between acculturation and health beliefs. These results indicate the importance of studying psychological disorders within the context of specific population groups that transcend vague censual terms. The discussion addresses methodological concerns and further directions for research concerning gender roles, chronic illness, depression and out-of-home employment in Mexican-American adults.

While there is much research around Latinos in higher education little is written on the experiences of Latinas alone. This thesis looks to fill that gap by analyzing the experiences of Latinas at a selective predominantly White liberal arts women’s college. This study is conducted through the personal analysis of the author’s experiences and looks to shed light on how institutions of higher education can create a better campus climate for Latinas.

Epidemiological studies have shown that disparities in mental health service utilization still exist among ethnic minority groups in the United States. This study looks specifically at the lay referral system and what factors influence the likelihood of an individual referring a friend to mental health services. Since college student populations have fewer barriers than most to seeking treatment, 60 Asian American and 49 White American college students were sampled for the purposes of this study. They evaluated one of four vignettes in which cultural competency of the potential therapist and type of symptoms being presented were manipulated. Though there was no significant interaction found, implications of the current findings and corrections to the methodology for future research are discussed.

Victim blaming is one of the most prevalent obstacles in the recovery of sexual assault victims, especially in cases of marital rape. Given the media coverage of the Delhi rape case of December 2012, there has been an increase in international discourse regarding the impact of ethnic differences on rape culture, victim blaming, and gender equality. Indians, Indian Americans, and European Americans completed an online questionnaire that aimed to identify the potential effect of ethnicity and several other predictors on the attribution of blame in cases of marital and non- marital rape. Indian Americans were studied in order to investigate the possible effect of bicultural identity on blame attribution in rape cases. As hypothesized, Indian Americans scored between Indians and European Americans in almost all predictors of perpetrator, victim, and circumstance blame. Also consistent with study hypotheses, there were ethnic differences in blame attribution such that Indians blamed the victim and circumstance the most and blamed the perpetrator the least. There were no significant differences in blame behavior between Indian Americans and European Americans except for in cases of victim blame. As hypothesized, individualism, collectivism, rape myth acceptance, and system justification were significant predictors of victim, perpetrator, and circumstance blame. Additionally, there were significant correlations between types of blame, rape myth acceptance (RMA), and sexism. Also consistent with the hypothesis, perpetrators were blamed more in cases of non- marital rape than in cases of marital rape.

LGBTQ+ individuals report disproportionately high rates of depression and suicidal behaviors compared to the general populations, particularly among queer youth. Certain depressive symptoms and symptom clusters, namely hopelessness and self-blame, are predictive of suicidal behavior and outcomes. In contrast, perceived social support may act as a buffer against suicide ideation. The disparity in the rate of queer suicidality may be predicted by higher rates of hopelessness and self-blame, as well as lower rates of perceived social support among depressed queer youth in comparison to depressed non-queer youth. The current study will test this hypothesis using a sample of depressed queer and non-queer college students (n=145). Results indicate that queer students and non-queer students do not experience significantly different rates of hopelessness, self-blame, or perceived social support. Despite this finding, queer students report significantly higher rates of suicide and self-harm ideation. This suggests that differences in the suicide rate for queer individuals cannot be explained by differences in perceived social support or the manifestation of suicide-related depression symptom clusters. Additionally, depression severity was found to be a weaker predictor of suicide ideation for queer students than for non-queer students. This indicates that suicidality among queer populations may be less connected to experiences of depressive symptoms than it is for cisgender and heterosexual populations. Further research is needed to examine possible suicide predictors and risk factor differences that are unique to queer populations to explain the disparity in suicide rates.

Research has consistently demonstrated the benefits of multicultural experiences for individual creativity (e.g. Çelik, Forthmann, & Storme, 2016; Saad, Damian, Martinez, Moons, & Robins, 2012). The present study will explore the interaction between framing and multiculturalism on creativity. Seven hundred and eighty eight participants who identify as multicultural will be randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups looking at framing (success/failure) and culture priming (present/not present). After being primed with an oral prompt, participants will complete the Alternative Uses Test to measure two aspects of creativity: originality and idea generation. Success framing is expected to be associated with higher creativity scores compared to failure framing. Presence of culture priming will be associated with higher creativity scores compared to no presence of culture. And success framing paired with presence of culture will have the highest creativity scores compared to other groups. Implications for creativity, identity and multicultural experiences are discussed.

This paper examines the educational acculturation experience of Latinos in the United States (U.S.) and the processes of identity formation. Through the historical Latino experience in the early 20th century, we can see the remaining influences of historical inequality (e.g. exploitation of labor, de jure segregation) through negative perceptions of Latinos. Negative stereotypes and incorrect assumptions presented in society (e.g. media, educational system, and justice system) perpetuate inferiority in comparison to White Americans. In the context of a school environment, Latino children begin to realize they are different. When non-native English speakers enter the classroom, immediate differences in language, cultural values, and peer interactions impact identity development and negatively influence self-perceptions. The Two-Way Immersion (TWI) approach to teaching will allow Latinos to develop their ethnic identity without interference from the dominant American culture through an integrative language approach of English and Spanish instruction. These are the beginning steps for creating stronger ethnic identity, biculturalism, and potential method to reverse institutionalized discrimination through education.

In South Africa, where a large portion of the population lives in townships, more often than not, the therapist and client do not share a similar cultural context. Cultural knowledge is therefore pertinent to generating a complex and thorough interpretation of any psychological assessments. This study aims to explore possible cultural narratives evoked in the responses to the Thematic Apperception Test so that cross-cultural use of the test would be more effective in the Mamelodi township. The research is done from a narrative point of view, where lived experience is understood by organising it into structured narratives or stories that repeat throughout a person’s life. The pictures of the TAT were viewed as a context that could elicit such life narratives from respondents. TAT stories from five adolescent residents in Mamelodi were thematically analysed as a method of identifying common stories that could reflect the cultural narratives that young persons in Mamelodi draw from to make sense of their world. The results indicated common narratives concerning the following: the experience of violence and danger, the experience of close relationships, dealing with challenges, and the role that clothes play. These findings, and possible findings from similar future research, might aid psychologists towards a better understanding of the TAT in the township context. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Psychology / unrestricted

Psychological aggression is present in as many as 89-97% of college women’s intimate relationships (Cercone, Beach, & Arias, 2005; Riggs & O’Leary, 1996). Victimization has been linked to negative physical and mental health consequences including depression, anxiety, and chronic pain (Coker, Smith, Bethea, King, & McKeown, 2000; Derrick, Testa, & Leonard, 2014; Pico-Alfonso et al., 2006). Psychological aggression also serves as a risk factor for future or continued physical intimate partner violence (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014), which can result in bruises, broken bones, or in extreme cases, even death. Parental modeling of appropriate relationship behaviors may be an important factor in young adult women’s learning how to behave in their own intimate relationships. Studies have produced mixed results when assessing the role of engendered cultural influences on this phenomenon, with many reporting that women holding traditional gender role beliefs are at an increased risk for experiencing relationship aggression (Brownridge, 2002; CDC, 2014; Eaton & Matamala, 2014; Fitzpatrick, Salgado, Suvak, King, & King, 2004). The current dissertation seeks to investigate the roles of traditional, culturally informed gender role beliefs in the intergenerational modeling of psychological aggression in Hispanic college women’s intimate relationships. A total of 687 students from a large Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the southeastern United States participated in this study. The results of Study 1 showed that parental use of psychological aggression and participants’ beliefs consistent with caballerismo influenced Hispanic college women’s victimization in their intimate relationships. The results of Study 2 indicated that parental use of psychological aggression, participants’ beliefs consistent with marianismo, and participants’ beliefs sanctioning their own use of psychological aggression toward their boyfriends significantly influenced Hispanic college women’s perpetration of this type of aggression in their intimate relationships. The findings from this dissertation are important as few studies have examined intimate partner violence or conflict strategies in Hispanic college populations, despite the fact that they constitute the largest group of ethnic minority women on campuses today (Fry, 2011). Further, they contribute to our ability to effectively critique traditional gender beliefs used to examine Hispanic women’s behavioral and psychological outcomes.

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