Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T15:17:48.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Culturally Competent Practice: Experiences of Students, Academics, and Alumni of Clinical Psychology Degrees in Singapore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2017

Lennie R.C. Geerlings ,
Claire L. Thompson  and
Gabriel Tan
Lennie R.C. Geerlings*
Affiliation:
James Cook University, Singapore, Singapore
Claire L. Thompson
Affiliation:
James Cook University, Townsville, Australia The Cairnmillar Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Gabriel Tan
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore, Singapore
*
address for correspondence: Lennie Geerlings, College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, Singapore, 149 Sims Drive, Singapore387380. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This is the first research in Singapore into preparation for culturally competent practice in professional clinical psychology training programmes. It analyses experiences of multicultural clinical psychology training and practice and asks how well current programmes are meeting the needs for cultural competency. These questions were explored with qualitative data from interviews about multicultural practice with five students, five academics and five alumni of clinical psychology. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis revealed four themes: highlighting the culture of clinical psychology, the cultural context of training and practice, cultural competencies, and pathways for developing cultural competency. These outcomes demonstrate that the training programmes are considered valuable for improving psychological service provision in Singapore, although improvements to these programmes are desired for cultural competency development. These findings point to the need for particular competencies to be developed, as well as at directions for further research that may benefit clinical psychology training.

Keywords

clinical psychology educationcultural competenceInterpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)professional psychologySingapore
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Tropical Psychology , Volume 7 , 2017 , e3
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychological Association (2008). Report of the task force on the implementation of the multicultural guidelines. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/about/policy/multicultural-report.pdf.Google Scholar
Burkard, A. W., & Knox, S. (2004). Effect of therapist color-blindness on empathy and attributions in cross-cultural counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 51 (4), 387–397. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.51.4.387 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campinha-Bacote, J. (2002). The process of cultural competence in the delivery of health care services. Transcultural CARE Associates. Retrieved from http://www.transculturalcare.net/cultural_competence_model.htm Google Scholar
Carney, C. G., & Kahn, K. B. (1984). Building competencies for effective cross-cultural counseling: A developmental view. The Counseling Psychologist, 12 (1), 111–119. doi:10.1177/0011000084121010 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castillo, L. G., Brossart, D. F., Reyes, C. J., Conoley, C. W., & Phoummarath, M. J. (2007). The influence of multicultural training on perceived multicultural counseling competencies and implicit racial prejudice. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 35 (4), 243–254. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1912.2007.tb00064 Google Scholar
Constantine, M. G. (2002). Predictors of satisfaction with counseling: Racial and ethnic minority clients’ attitudes toward counseling and ratings of their counselors’ general and multicultural counseling competence. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49 (2), 255–263. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.49.2.255 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, C. R., & Denner, J. (1998). Theories linking culture and psychology: Universal and community-specific processes. Annual Review of Psychology, 49 (1), 559–584. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.559 Google Scholar
Department of Statistics, Singapore Government (2015). Monthly digest of statistics Singapore, March 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.singstat.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/publications/publications_and_papers/reference/monthly_digest/mdsmar15.pdf Google Scholar
Fisher, P., & Lim, J. (2015). Seeing through the confusion. Dementia. In Lange, G. & Davison, J. (Eds.), Clinical Psychology in Singapore: An Asian Casebook (pp. 258–268). Singapore: NUS Press.Google Scholar
Foo, K.-H., Merrick, P. L., & Kazantzis, N. (2006). Counselling/psychotherapy with Chinese Singaporean clients. Asian Journal of Counselling, 13 (2), 271–293.Google Scholar
Geerlings, L. R. C., Thompson, C., & Lundberg, A. (2014). Psychology and culture: Exploring clinical psychology in Australia and the Malay Archipelago. Journal of Tropical Psychology, 4, 1–12. doi:10.1017/jtp.2014.4 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, L., D'Rozario, V., Goh, M., Sovereign, A., Brogger, M., & Skovholt, T. (2008). Psychotherapy expertise in Singapore: A qualitative investigation. Psychotherapy Research, 18 (5), 508–522. doi:10.1080/10503300802189782 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitaoka, S. K. (2005). Multicultural counseling competencies: Lessons from assessment. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 33, 37–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, G., & Davison, J. (2015a). Introduction. In Lange, G. & Davison, J. (Eds.), Clinical Psychology in Singapore: An Asian Casebook (pp. xiii–xxiv). Singapore: NUS Press.Google Scholar
Lange, G., & Davison, J. (2015b). Preface. In Lange, G. & Davison, J. (Eds.), Clinical Psychology in Singapore: An Asian Casebook (pp. vii–x). Singapore: NUS Press.Google Scholar
Larkin, M., Watts, S., & Clifton, E. (2006). Giving voice and making sense in interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2), 102–120. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp062oa Google Scholar
Lee, B. O. (2002). Psychotherapy in Chinese medicine: A theoretical review. In Tan, A. G. & Goh, M. (Eds.), Psychology in Singapore: Issues of an Emerging Discipline (pp. 124–146). Singapore: McGraw-Hill Education.Google Scholar
Moore, R. Q. (2000). Multiracialism and meritocracy: Singapore's approach to race and inequality. Review of Social Economy, 58 (3), 339–360. doi:10.1080/00346760050132364 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neville, H. A., Heppner, M. J., Louie, C. E., Thompson, C. E., Brooks, L., & Baker, C. E. (1996). The impact of multicultural training on white racial identity attitudes and therapy competencies. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 27 (1), 83–89. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.27.1.83 Google Scholar
Ong, G. X. J., & Yap, E. W. (2015). Oh no! I need a superhero! Generalized anxiety disorder. In Lange, G. & Davison, J. (Eds.), Clinical Psychology in Singapore: An Asian Casebook (pp. 72–86). Singapore: NUS Press.Google Scholar
Ow, R., & Osman, M. M. (2003). Issues and challenges of cross cultural counselling in Singapore. Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development, 13 (1), 81–98. doi:10.1080/21650993.2003.9755914 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prime Minister's Office, Singapore Government (2015). Transcript of speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at 66th anniversary of Inter-Religious Organisation on 12th May 2015 at Istana. Retrieved from: http://www.pmo.gov.sg/mediacentre/transcript-speech-prime-minister-lee-hsien-loong-66th-anniversary-inter-religious Google Scholar
Ridley, C. R., & Kleiner, A. J. (2003). Multicultural counseling competence: History, themes and issues. In Pope-Davis, D., Coleman, H. L. K., Liu, W. M., & Toporek, R. L. (Eds.), Handbook of Multicultural Competencies in Counseling and Psychology (pp. 3–20). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory, method and research. Singapore: Sage.Google Scholar
Sodowsky, G. R., Taffe, R. C., Gutkin, T. B., & Wise, S. L. (1994). Development of the Multicultural Counseling Inventory: A self-report measure of multicultural competencies. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 41 (2), 137–148. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.41.2.137 Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. (2002). Preface. In Tan, A. G. & Goh, M. (Eds.), Psychology in Singapore: Issues of an Emerging Discipline (pp. xi–xiii). Singapore: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Sue, D. W. (2001). Multidimensional facets of cultural competence. The Counseling Psychologist, 29 (6), 790–821. doi:10.1177/0011000001296002 Google Scholar
Sue, D. W., Arredondo, P., & McDavis, R. J. (1992). Multicultural counseling competencies and standards: A call to the profession. Journal of Counseling & Development, 70, 477–486. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.1992.tb01642.x Google Scholar
Sue, D. W., Bernier, J. E., Durran, A., Feinberg, L., Pedersen, P., Smith, E. J., & Vasquez-Nuttall, E. (1982). Position paper: Cross-cultural counseling competencies. The Counseling Psychologist, 10 (2), 45–52. doi:10.1177/0011000082102008 Google Scholar
Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2008). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Tan, A. G. (2002). An introduction to psychology in contexts. In Tan, A. G. & Law, L. C. (Eds.), Psychology in Contexts: A Perspective From the South East Asian Societies (pp. ix–xxxiv). Singapore: Lingzi Media.Google Scholar
Tan, A. G., & Goh, M. (Eds.). (2002). Psychology in Singapore: Issues of an emerging discipline. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Education.Google Scholar
Tan, E. (2009). Counseling in a multicultural context: The Singapore perspective. In Gernstein, L. H., Heppner, P. P., Aegisdóttir, S., Leung, S. M. A., & Norsworthy, K. L. (Eds.), International Handbook of Cross-Cultural Counseling: Cultural Assumptions and Practices Worldwide (pp. 209–220). Singapore: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Thompson, C. E., Worthington, R., & Atkinson, D. R. (1994). Counselor content orientation, counselor race, and black women's cultural mistrust and self-disclosures. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 41 (2), 155–161. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.41.2.155 Google Scholar
Worthington, R. L., Soth-McNett, A. M., & Moreno, M. V. (2007). Multicultural counseling competencies research: A 20-year content analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54 (4), 351–361. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.54.4.351 Google Scholar
Yeo, A. (1993). Counseling in Singapore: Development and trends. In Othman, A. H. & Awang, A. (Eds.), Counseling in the Asia-Pacific Region (pp. 27–40). Westport, CO: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar