Chapter 9

1. Career Counseling: A Holistic Approach Chapter 9 Vernon G. Zunker

2. Career Counseling for Special Populations • Career Counseling for Multicultural Groups • Culture as complex concept • Cultural differences in work-related activities • Five major culture groups-Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans • Skills for cultural competence • Strategies for dealing with multicultural influences • Mental health issues of cultural groups

3. A Global Society • By the mid 21st Century the US will be a true multicultural society • An increasingly diverse society will present significant challenges to all human service practitioners • Career counselors are intent on developing career counseling objectives and strategies that will assist individuals of various ethnic groups

4. What is Culture? • Researchers are in the early stages of studies to determine appropriate intervention strategies and assessment instruments for specific ethic groups • There are examples of many meanings of culture • Culture is a dynamic system of rules, explicit and implicit, established by groups in order to ensure their survival, involving attitudes, values, beliefs, norms and behaviors that are shared by a group • Culture is a learned behavior. You may share some values, attitudes, and so on but from different cultures.

5. Cultural Differences in Work Related Activities • Collective Cultures: Africa, Asia and Latin America (focus on the welfare of the group) • Individuals strive to build solidarity. • How different cultural groups view time and the importance of being on time • How different groups view human nature can be important • Personal Space and Privacy are cultural issues

6. Cultural Differences in Work Related Activities • Power Distance-relationship between boss and subordinate • Uncertainty Avoidance-how cultures deal with anxiety and stress • Individualism/Collectivism-how the culture fosters individualism rather than group tendencies. • Masculinity-fosters differences between sex • Culture has an important role in work related values

7. The Challenge of Becoming Culturally Competent • Counselors must develop appropriate services cross-culturally. • Understand one’s assumptions, values and biases • Understand the worldview of culturally different clients • Develop appropriate intervention strategies and techniques

8. Traits of the Culturally Effective Counselor • An ability to recognize which values and assumptions the counselor holds regarding the desirability or undesirability of human behavior • Awareness of the generic characteristics of counseling that cut across many schools of counseling theory • Understanding of th sociopolitical forces of oppression and racism that have influenced the identity and perspective of the culturally different

9. Traits of the Culturally Effective Counselor • An ability to share the worldview of his or her clients without negating its legitimacy • True electicism in his or her counseling

10. Five Major Cultural Groups • African American • Asian • Hispanic • Native American • White

11. Some Mental Health Issues of Cultural Groups • Anxiety Disorders-includes panic and fear • Depression or Mood Disorders-Depression is a constant among cultures. • Personality Disorders-Personalities are culturally unique. • Somatoform Disorders-imagined illnesses • Schizophrenia-occurs more in developing countries and is prevalent in Czechosloviakia, Denmark, England, India, and the Soviet Union.

12. Strategies for Dealing with Multicultural Issues • Ethnicity and Gender • Individualism and Collectivism • Helping Clients to live and work in a Culturally Diverse Society • Use role models and focus on individual potential.