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© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 52
CHAPTER 5
MULTICULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF HELPING
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, students will be able to:
5-1 Support the view that the population of the United States is multicultural.
5-2 Compare the three metaphors used to describe how individuals of different cultures
assimilate in the United States.
5-3 List the challenges that helpers and human service organizations face providing services
5-4 Describe the three-part approach to the development of multicultural competence and
helping.
5-5 Summarize the background and rationale of multicultural helping.
5-6 Tell how three of the Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals guide the
implementation of multicultural human services.
5-7 Relate the terms in the chapter as you believe they will influence your work with clients.
5-8 Define “multicultural.”
5-9 Distinguish between “culture,” “race,” “ethnicity,” “assimilation,” “acculturation,”
5-10 Define “power,” “oppression,” “discrimination,” and “white privilege.”
5-11 Illustrate terms related to power, oppression, and discrimination: “isms” related to
vulnerable populations; “in-groups” and “out-groups”; “self-fulfilling prophecy”;
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 53
5-12 Present the case for the importance of human service professionals understanding cultural
5-13 Identify the various cultural influences in your life.
5-14 Articulate the ways that culture, race, and ethnicity influence the various roles you
5-15 Apply chapter concepts and skills to real-world settings and list the ways to promote a
continued commitment to developing multicultural competence.
1. U.S. is becoming a “no-majority” nation
a. Increasing Latino population
2. Melting pot metaphor becomes salad-bowl metaphor.
3. Today, United States has kaleidoscope approach to diversity.
1. Language and culture may be barriers to obtaining services.
2. Models of delivery often reflect white, middle-class values.
3. Certain minorities are underrepresented among providers.
C. Enhancing Cultural Competence (Box 5.1)
1. Department of Health and Human Services encourages agencies to meet needs
2. Three aspects of multicultural helping include:
a. Cognitive: knowledge of own culture/biases and of other cultures
b. Behavioral: helping skills for diverse clients
1. In the 1990s, Paul Pederson developed multicultural helping.
2. Multicultural diversity is present both among groups and within groups.
3. Helpers should not take a color-blind position.
E. Ethical standards for professional practice
1. Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals provides guidance in
2. Basic value is respect for cultural diversity.
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 54
II. Concepts to help you build multicultural competence
1. Culture
a. Human universals include language, society, rituals, technology, etc.
2. Multicultural
a. Defined as relating to, or representing, many different cultures or
3. Race and ethnicity
a. Race describes shared physical characteristics and in today’s world also
describes dominant or nondominant status.
4. Assimilation and acculturation
a. Cultural assimilation is a two-way process wherein both the majority
and minority cultures change (a melting pot).
5. Cultural pluralism
a. A culture maintains its separateness, but respects laws of host country.
6. Multicultural human services
a. Helper tries to understand and respect the client and the client’s culture.
7. Worldview
a. Defined as the way a person senses and interprets the world
1. Power and hierarchy classify people into groups based on socioeconomic
conditions.
2. Social stratification can result in oppression and discrimination.
3. White privilege refers to the benefits Caucasians receive because they resemble
the people in power.
4. Terms describing vulnerable populations include: ableism, ageism, classism,
5. Oppression and discrimination result from the formation “in-groups” and “out-
groups.”
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 55
6. A self-fulfilling prophecy (incorporating the viewpoints of others into one’s
7. Prejudices (preconceived judgments) result in stereotypes.
III. Exploring your own identity to help build multicultural competence
1. Helpers should be aware of their own cultural self and identity to understand
that of the client.
1. Cultural self and identity are impacted by race and ethnicity.
2. Cultural influences on oneself include: personal characteristics, significant
others, childhood experiences, roles, education and work, groups, institutions, and
1. Helpers must make a lifelong commitment to developing multicultural
competence.
2. Helpers can develop competencies by:
a. exploring their own culture and learning about others
b. proactively learning from others
c. questioning clients
d. assuming a stance centered on social justice/client advocacy
CHAPTER SUMMARY
religions, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, thinking, artistic expressions, and social and
interpersonal relationships.” Culture can be collectivist or individualistic. It follows that
“multicultural” refers to many different cultures or cultural elements. Multicultural diversity is
present both among, and within, groups.
Today, the term “race” is used to describe both shared physical characteristics and
dominant or nondominant social/political status. Race does not mean much to the understanding
groups) are vulnerable to the “isms:” ableism, ageism, classism, ethnocentrism, genderism,
heterosexism, racism, and sexism.
Multicultural human service requires the helper to respectfully determine the degree to
which race, ethnicity, and culture influence the client’s sense of self and worldview. To build
multicultural competence, helpers must explore their own cultural identity by reviewing the
impact that personal characteristics, significant others, childhood experiences, roles, education
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 57
Finally, human service professionals must make a lifelong commitment to developing
1. To introduce the concept of multicultural helping and explain its importance.
2. To facilitate the development of multicultural competence by providing a description of basic
terms and by explaining its relationship to power, oppression, and discrimination.
3. To provide tools that help examination of one’s own cultural identity and its influence on
4. To present ways a human serve professional can continue to develop multicultural
competencies.
1. Tell students to choose one of the three multicultural vignettes in the chapter. Then have them
create a list of at least five ways in which the human service professional could learn more about
the specific cultural situation. Divide the class into small groups, based on vignette choice, and
2. Ask students to think about multicultural context by looking in the news. Have each student
select a news story that reflects a multicultural situation and address the following questions:
a. What are the multicultural issues in this news story?
b. What role do culture, race, and ethnicity play in the story?
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 58
c. Does the story illustrate issues of power, oppression, and/or discrimination? If so,
how?
d. How does your cultural self and your cultural identity affect your understanding of this
3. Help students understand the meanings behind key multicultural terms related to social justice.
Ask students to write down their definitions of the words “power,” “oppression,”
“discrimination,” “racism,” “stereotype,” and/or “prejudice.” Divide the students into small
4. Have students explore their individual cultural identities by asking them to choose one group
to which they are affiliated and think about how their culture, race, and ethnicity influence their
group membership. Then have students pair up with someone they do not know, preferably with
1. Why is the United States on its way to becoming a “no-majority” nation?
2. Discuss why human service professionals should not take a color-blind position.
3. How would you define culture?
4. What determines whether migrants successfully, or stressfully, adapt to their new home
countries?
5. Why must a helper determine the degree to which race, ethnicity, and culture influence a
client’s sense of self?
6. Explain the links between power, oppression, and discrimination.
7. How do race and ethnicity affect your cultural self and identity?
8. Why is the development of multicultural competence a lifelong activity?
KEY TERMS
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 60
Kaleidoscope approach: A way to think about diversity that acknowledges the changes of both
1. Compare and contrast the melting pot, salad bowl, and kaleidoscope metaphors used to
describe assimilation in the United States.
2. Describe the challenges human service professionals face in delivering service to diverse
3. List and describe the three aspects of multicultural helping in Calzada and Suarez-Balcazar’s
contextual model of cultural competence.
4. Define culture and multiculturalism.
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 61
5. Distinguish between collectivist and individualist cultures.
6. Compare and contrast the place of the family among cultures.
7. Who are fictive kin?
8. How are race and ethnicity different?
9. Compare and contrast cultural assimilation and acculturation.
10. What is cultural pluralism? Give three examples of communities that are culturally plural.
11. How are power, oppression, and discrimination related?
12. What is meant by white privilege?
13. Analyze a self-fulfilling prophecy as a form of internalized oppression.
14. What are in-groups and out-groups? Give an example of each.
15. List and define three “isms” that describe vulnerable populations.
16. What three facets comprise one’s cultural identity?
17. What influences one’s cultural self and identity?
18. What are three ways in which a helper can continue to develop multicultural competencies?
The following questions will help students in their review of the chapter.
1. Explain how professional views of multicultural helping have changed in the last 50 years.
2. Explain how multicultural diversity is present both among groups and within groups.
3. Why is it important to understand the difference between race and ethnicity as they pertain to
the study of culture?
4. What is cultural assimilation? How does it differ from acculturation? How do acculturation
and assimilation differ from cultural pluralism?
5. Define worldview. On what is it based? How does worldview affect helpers and clients?
6. How are in-groups and out-groups related to power, oppression, and discrimination?
© 2019 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, 62
7. Name eight influences on one’s cultural self and identity. How are these influences embedded
in race and ethnicity?
8. Why must a human service professional commit to a lifelong development of multicultural
competence?
The following exercises allow students to apply what they have learned from the chapter.
1. Choose one role you assume in your life. Write a short paragraph describing how your culture,
2. Reread the case of Almeada and baby Anne in Chapter 1 and apply the key terms from this
chapter to that case study. What advice would you give to Barbara LaRosa?
LO/STANDARD CORRELATION TABLE
The Challenges of a Multicultural
5-1
5-2
11
12, 19
6
Background and Rationale
5-4
5-5
7, 11, 34
11, 12, 19,
20
6
Ethical Standards for Professional
Terms
5-8
5-9
7, 11, 34
12, 19, 20
6
Examining Your Own Cultural
Self and Identity
5-12
5-13
5-14
7, 11, 34, 35, 36
12, 13, 19,
20
6
