The relationship between personal growth group experiences in multicultural counseling courses and counseling students' ethnic identity development

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Paul Clay Rowell (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
James Benshoff

Abstract: " Much has been written in the counseling literature on the importance of training counselors to respond to the needs of culturally diverse individuals. The multicultural counseling education literature reflects a vast amount of work involving ethnic identity development. Many counselor education programs offer counselor students opportunities to raise self-awareness through reflection, introspection, and feedback. This process is considered particularly important in helping counseling students understand their own ethnic identity and its effects on counseling relationships. Counselor education is replete with methods of encouraging self-awareness and ethnic identity development. Furthermore, the advent of multicultural counseling competencies has provided counselor education programs with guidelines for training. Developing multicultural competence is complicated because counseling students must first face their own biases, prejudices, attitudes, and worldview perceptions. This process also involves raising awareness, increasing multicultural knowledge, and building a repertoire of counseling skills. Additionally, ethnic identity development has been correlated with multicultural counseling competency. Counselor education is replete with methods of encouraging self-awareness and ethnic identity development. Furthermore, the advent of multicultural counseling competencies has provided counselor education programs with guidelines for training. Developing multicultural competence is complicated because counseling students must first face their own biases, prejudices, attitudes, and worldview perceptions. This process also involves raising awareness, increasing multicultural knowledge, and building a repertoire of counseling skills. Additionally, ethnic identity development has been correlated with multicultural counseling competency. The use of group process as a method of promoting ethnic identity development is important as groups offer an interpersonal component to personal growth. Groups present an opportunity for counseling students to understand their relational problems and receive feedback from others. The use of groups as a means of promoting and supporting ethnic identity growth is a growing trend in counselor education. Personal growth groups seem particularly suited to stimulate this type of reflection, which may lead to positive ethnic identity development. A review of related literature found no study conducted on the efficacy of using personal growth groups in multicultural counseling courses to stimulate counseling students' ethnic identity development. This research was designed to examine the relationship between personal growth group experiences in multicultural counseling courses and counseling students' ethnic identity development. Differences in ethnic identity development between 83 counseling students involved in a personal growth group experience as part of a multicultural counseling course and 98 students not involved in such a group were compared. This study revealed that counseling students participating in personal growth groups as part of a multicultural counseling course experienced significantly greater ethnic identity development than did students not involved in such a group."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2005
Keywords
counseling, cultural diversity, ethnic identity, self awareness, multicultural counseling, multicultural competence, counselor education
Subjects
Counseling--Study and teaching.
Multiculturalism--Study and teaching
Group guidance in education
Ethnicity

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