Cultural responsivity in clinical psychology graduate students: A developmental approach to the prediction of learning

This study used a mixed-method approach to examine students' experiences in multicultural training and their opinions about various aspects of their course(s). A developmental model of learning was employed to analyze results. More specifically, this study explored the relationship between clinical psychology doctoral students' self-reported Multicultural Counseling Inventory (MCI) scores, and their perceptions of learning in the corresponding domains of knowledge, skills, awareness, and overall Cultural Responsivity. The multiple regression analyses for skills and awareness suggest there is a predictive, U-shaped relationship between ratings of multicultural skills and awareness, and perceived learning in their corresponding domain. As student MCI ratings of their skills and awareness increased, their ratings of skills and awareness learning in their courses increased systematically, to a point. After this point, learning ratings declined systematically. Therefore, students ranking themselves as significantly lower or significantly higher in skills and awareness learned less than their peers who ranked themselves more moderately. A developmental approach, whereby courses recognize and address the differences in these groups' learning needs, might result in increased course satisfaction as well as ensuring that all students are being trained, to the greatest extent possible, to work with diverse clients.;Other results suggest that heterosexual students and students without disabilities need help in acknowledging the privilege associated being in these majorities to ensure that unacknowledged privilege isn't a barrier to clinical work with these populations. Student MCI rankings also indicated that male, non-disabled, and heterosexual students ranked themselves lower than female participants, participants with disabilities, and non-heterosexual participants on various aspects of multicultural abilities. Qualitative analyses revealed that skills training was perceived as nearly absent in participants' multicultural courses, while focus on awareness was most central. Additionally, students tended to feel that courses focused mainly on race and ethnicity, and insufficiently to other diverse groups, most notably disability and age. As a general rule, student commentary regarding course satisfaction tended to be more negative than positive. Reasons for dissatisfaction often related to instructors, and the model of using two instructors was questioned. Specific implications for future research are suggested, and alternative multicultural course structure is explored.