Personal dimensions of identity and empirical research in APA journals

Race and Ethnicity in Empirical Counseling and Counseling Psychology Research

This article examined 796 empirical studies published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology, the Journal of Counseling and Development, and The Counseling Psychologist from 1990 to 1999 and found that only 457 (57%) reported racial and ethnic characteristics of research participants. From this data, an overall picture was generated of the racial and ethnic compositionof counselingand counseling psychology research participants: 78.2% White, 5.8% Asian American, 6.7% African American, 6.6% Hispanic, 0.9% Native American, and 0.1% multiracial. Compared to the overall U.S. population, Whites and Asian Americans were overrepresented, and African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans were underrepresented. There was limited information about how researchers gathered participants’ race and ethnicity information and on factors that might inform participants’experience as racial and ethnic beings (e.g., racial and ethnic identity, generation status, acculturation). Findings are compared and contrasted with previous reviews related to issues of race and ethnicity in counseling research.

Expanding Multicultural Competence through Social Justice Leadership

Social justice and multicultural competence have been inextricably linked for nearly four decades, influencing the development of multicultural competency standards and guidelines and organizational change in psychology. This response provides a historical perspective on the evolution of competencies and offers clarifications regarding their scope, actual counselor behavior, relationship to case conceptualization, and political implications. Advocacy strategies of social justice leaders such as César Chávez, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks are highlighted and recommended for incorporation in a counseling psychology social justice agenda.