Ethnic Validity, Ecology, and Psychotherapy: A Psychosocial Competence Model

349 Pages·1991·8.048 MB·English

by  Forrest B. Tyler, Deborah Ridley Brome, Janice E. Williams (auth.)

Ethnic Validity, Ecology,
and Psychotherapy
A Psychosocial Competence Model
APPLIED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Series Editors:
Alan S. Bellack, Medical College of Pennsylvania at EPPI, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
and Michel Hersen, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Current Volumes in this Series
ACTIVITY MEASUREMENT IN PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Warren W. Tryon
BEHAVIORAL CONSULTATION AND THERAPY
John R. Bergan and Thomas R. Kratochwill
BEHAVIORAL CONSULTATION IN APPLIED SETTINGS
An Individual Guide
Thomas R. Kratochwill and John R. Bergan
THE CHALLENGE OF COGNITIVE THERAPY
Applications to Nontraditional Populations
Edited by T. Michael Vallis, Janice L. Howes, and Philip C. Miller
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Historical and Research Foundations
Edited by C. Eugene Walker
ETHNIC VALIDITY, ECOLOGY, AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
A Psychosocial Competence Model
Forrest B. Tyler, Deborah Ridley Brome, and Janice E. Williams
HANDBOOK OF BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION WITH THE MENTALLY RETARDED
Second Edition
Edited by Johnny L. Matson
HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL BEHAVIOR THERAPY WITH THE ELDERLY CLIENT
Edited by Patricia A. Wisocki
PSYCHOLOGY
A Behavioral Overview
Alan Poling, Henry Schlinger, Stephen Starin, and Elbert Blakely
USING RATIONAL-EMOTIVE THERAPY EFFECTIVELY
A Practitioner's Guide
Edited by Michael E. Bernard
A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring
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Ethnic Validity, Ecology,
and Psychotherapy
A Psychosocial Competence Model
Forrest B. Tyler
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland
Deborah Ridley Brome
University of Massachusetts
Boston, Massachusetts
Janice E. Williams
Morehouse School of Medicine
Atlanta, Georgia
and
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, California
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tyler, Forrest B.
Ethnic validity, ecology, and psychotherapy : a psychosocial
competence model / Forrest B. Tyler, Deborah Ridley Brome, and
Janice E. Will1ams.
p. cm. — (Applied clinical psychology)
Includes bibliographical references and Index.
ISBN 978-1-4899-0605-2
1. Psychotherapist and patient—United States. 2. Race-
-Psychologlcal aspects. 3. Afro-Amerleans—Psychology. 4. Whites-
-United States—Psychology. 5. United States—Race relatlons-
-Psychologlcal aspects. I. Brome, Deborah Ridley. II. Williams,
Janice E. III. Title. IV. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Models, Psychological. 2. Professional-Patient
Relations. 3. Psychotherapy. 4. Race Relations—psychology. WM
62 T981el
RC480.8.T95 1991
616.89' 14—dc20
DNLM/DLC
for Library of Congress 91-21237
CIP
ISBN 978-1-4899-0605-2 ISBN 978-1-4899-0603-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-0603-8
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Publishing Corporation in 1991
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
Preface
This book has grown out of our individual experiences as well as our
shared ones; out of our differences as well as our commonalities; and out
of our conflicts as well as our convergences. Among us there are dif
ferences in gender; in individual, family, community, and racial histo
ries; in life experiences, identities, and career paths; and even in reasons
for writing this book. Of course there are also commonalities. We enjoy
one another's company; we enjoy working together; and we feel en
riched from our collaboration. We have written this book out of our
complete selves, not just our professional selves.
The original objective of our book was to present to practitioners of
psychotherapy, trainers of psychotherapists, and psychotherapy stu
dents a model of conducting psychotherapy that actively acknowledges
and builds upon the ethnic and racial heritage of both therapist and client.
We have found that to fulfill that objective we need also to acknowledge
and build upon the psychological ecology of the therapist and client; and
we also need to outline the kind of research necessary if we are to develop
and evaluate the perspectives presented here. Those perspectives are
embodied in what we have come to call the ethnic validity model (EVM) of
psychotherapy. This model serves as the organizing framework in this
book for providing a comprehensive view of (1) cross-ethnic/racial psy
chotherapy; (2) Tyler's psychosocial competence model, the framework
underlying the ethnic validity model; (3) the ethnic validity model itself,
and its applications to psychotherapy; and (4) a discussion of training,
supervision, and research issues. As we wrote this book, we realized that
the issues and concepts we presented have usefulness that extends
beyond their role in helping to understand the influence of race, ethnicity,
and culture in psychotherapy. Who we are and the salient aspects of who
we are-such as those based on religious preference, gender, physical
condition, and social class-affect our self-world relationships not only
in psychotherapy but in many other settings as well.
This book is designed to orient the therapist toward examining
v
vi PREFACE
human competencies and coping mechanisms, as well as human frailties
and dysfunctions, within a cultural context. It informs the therapist
about the various ways in which culture plays a significant role in deter
mining both client and therapist perspectives and levels of understand
ing. This book is directed to all psychotherapists, not just those who are
from a minority group or who plan to work with minority group clients.
This book is also directed to all students learning to do psycho
therapy, not just those who are from a minority group or who plan to
work with minority group clients. Our cultural identity as well as our
personal and professional identities are present, with their limitations as
well as their strengths, even when we are interacting with someone
from a similar background. The three of us are psychologists and build
from that disciplinary perspective. Even so, it seems to us that these
ideas are relevant to therapists and counselors across the range of help
ing professions. Two of us are black and one of us is white; we were all
born and reared in the United States. Even so, it seems to us that these
ideas are relevant to therapists, counselors, and clients from other racial,
ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.
We have chosen to focus primarily on black and white ethnic/racial
interactions in the United States. There are a number of reasons for that
choice. One is that black-white relations in our society have served as a
model, an exemplar, for other cross-ethnic/racial interactions. Sometimes
they have served as a framework for defining a newly encountered group
by inclusion, sometimes by contrast. In either case, black-white relations
have provided the framework for the interaction. Another reason is that
the unresolved nature of black-white relations constitutes the central
ethnic/racial issue in this society today, and seems likely to continue as
such into the distant future. Certainly there are distinctive elements to
Latino-white, Asian-white, Native American-white, Asian-Asian, Lat
ino-Native American, and similar relations, and we do not wish to
diminish their importance. There are also distinctive elements to interac
tions among and between individuals of different social classes, different
regions of any country, and disparate living contexts (i.e., urban, subur
ban, or rural). Unfortunately our time, space, and experience are limited.
We will refer to some of these dyads throughout the book, but we will not
try to do so in a comprehensive fashion. We encourage you to use these
examples as a guide to build on this framework and extend it on the basis
of your own experience, needs, and context.
Issues of gender are as important as and even more pervasive than
the ethnic/racial issues we are emphasizing here. We refer to them also.
They need to be explored in the depth and detail we have sought to
achieve in this book with regard to ethnic/racial issues, because they
PREFACE vii
raise an additional set of important questions. Each of us is either male
or female. To write a book that presumes to present a comprehensive
portrayal of gender issues requires a two-gender collaboration. Perhaps
our approach in this book to converging across racial and gender dif
ferences can serve as a guide to others wishing to undertake that task,
but it is beyond the scope of this book. Writing on gender will challenge
and extend existing perspectives in ways that will inform us all about
gender issues as well as the utility of the EVM perspective.
We have sought to use nonsexist language. In fact, that task has
seemed easy compared to the task of choosing nonracist words to refer
to ethnic/racial groupings. In particular, the decision about whether to
speak of African Americans or blacks has important political implica
tions to many people. We have chosen to use the terms black and white
uncapitalized as descriptive terms. We have not capitalized them as they
are not proper names as are Asian, Latin, and so forth. We have chosen
them rather than Caucasian or African American because they are the
comprehensive terms in use. We hope that as a reader you will accept
our choice as a good faith one to highlight the importance and complex
ity of racial/ethnic issues, not as an effort to assert a particular position
on how they should be viewed. Also, the people we describe in this
book, as is true of everyone, have a multifaceted heritage. We have
described them first in each instance in terms of the aspect of that
heritage that has seemed the most salient, whether that be race, eth
nicity, place of origin, or some other characteristic. It has not been our
intent to imply that any of these characteristics is inherently more signif
icant than the others.
We are aware that the examples we cite are taken primarily from
work with people in outpatient settings. It has not been our intention to
ignore those more severely dysfunctional individuals who require inpa
tient care. Rather, we have included examples in which it is easier to
illustrate the issues of ethnic validity. The underlying life issues that
have contributed to the current state of severely dysfunctional persons
are no different from those in the lives of less dysfunctional individuals.
They may well have been harsher and more traumatic. Responding to
the effects of those traumas requires sensitivity to the issues we are
seeking to emphasize. Helping those individuals to attain more mean
ingful lives may be a more difficult task; it is not a task that can be
accomplished by being insensitive to ethnic validity issues.
We want to call attention to one more aspect of our collaborative
approach. To us it has been of seminal importance in developing a
shared sense of the meaning of the concepts and perspectives we have
sought to present. Specifically, we have written the chapters of this book
viii PREFACE
separately and together. We have critiqued one another's work and
probed one another's biases as well as insights. We have demanded that
each of us write from the others' perspectives, present that material for
review, and revise it until it was not only acceptable, but meaningful to
each of us. We have not assumed that only people who are black can
write about the black experience, that only people who are white can
write about the white experience. On the contrary, we have said that our
white author must write about black experiences in ways that have valid
ity for our black authors. We have also said that our black authors must
write about white experiences in ways that have validity for our white
author. As you read, check your perspectives of us and our ideas against
our perspectives of you and yours. As you try out these ideas, check
your perspectives of them and of yourself against the perspectives of the
people with whom you are trying out those ideas. We take full responsi
bility for points that are less than clear and for any errors we have made
in translating the realities of others.
Acknowledgments
There are far more people who have contributed to this book than it is
possible to acknowledge. We can note only a few of those who seem
particularly important to mention. First and foremost are the clients who
have trusted us enough to share their struggles and to suffer with us,
even tell us, when we are blind to them. Much the same is true of
students. They also must struggle against our limits as well as their
own. Both clients and students take far more risks with far fewer protec
tions than we do as therapists or teachers.
Each of us has had particular sources of support. Those are ac
knowledged in the following paragraphs.
I, Forrest Tyler, have been provided the basic institutional support
needed for writing this book by the University of Maryland, especially
the Department of Psychology. Further, without the assistance of the
University Counseling Center staff I would never have been able to try
out and develop many of the ideas that are central to the themes pre
sented here. My graduate student research teams and students in my
classes have helped incalculably by taking careful pains to help me un
derstand my ideas and express them more clearly. Corinne Meijer and
Dominicus So have also provided particularly invaluable editorial as
sistance. My colleagues Kenneth Pargament and Marianne Celano have
read the manuscript carefully and encouraged us to struggle to express
our ideas as clearly as possible. I also want to thank my parents, who
gave me opportunities they never had. My work can most honor their
memory by contributing to greater understanding of and more benign
concern for people like them, those less favored. My wife, Sandy, has
been both supportive and understanding in ways that have made this
task easier, more enjoyable, and certainly better than it would otherwise
have been.
I, Deborah Brome, would like to express my love and appreciation
to my husband, Henderson, and my daughter, Leah, for their support
and patience. This book and the work that it has demanded have always
ix