Multicultural Psychology

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Research suggests that multicultural psychology emerged as a response to a growing sensitivity to racial issues, and the recognition of the diverse population in United States (Nagayama, 2005). A definition is provided for multicultural psychology as the study of the influences of multiple cultures in a single social context on human behavior (Hall & Barongan, 2002 as cited in Nagayama, 2005, p. 788). The underlying rationale of multicultural psychology is that socioeconomic factors, ethnocentric attitudes, discrimination, or stereotyping all operate to influence behavior. Thus, multicultural psychology addresses these factors by recognizing the interaction between them. Another rationale for establishing multicultural psychology, according to Nagayama & Gordon, clinical psychology has typically focused on the individual. Thus, multicultural psychology was established to fully understand human behavior in its context. Further, they assert that the need exists to address multicultural factors ...