This book provides the basic conceptual frameworks for understanding people of other cultures and working effectively with them. Perspectives from anthropology, communication, psychology, sociology, cross-cultural medicine and education are integrated to provide guidelines for engaging in the processes of self-assessment and personal development necessary to be culturally competent.

This text is designed to help move the individual from cultural embeddedness – a normal ethnocentrism – towards appreciation of the importance of understanding and working with the perspectives of people from other cultures. The self-assessments, exercises and text material are designed to set you on a course of moving towards cultural awareness, developing cultural sensitivity, and understanding the bases from which you may develop cross-cultural competence. The information is a general cultural orientation about the nature of cross-cultural differences and the successful approaches for developing cross-cultural competence.

Chapter 1, “Cultural Competence in the Helping Professions”, explains why practitioners in social service, health, educational and other helping professions must address the roles culture and ethnicity play in their work. The cultural competencies required of helping professionals are illustrated through a review of the knowledge base required.

Chapter 2, “Race and Ethnicity,” addresses the concepts of race, ethnicity and culture, showing the inadequacy of race as a biological or scientific construct and its inability to explain intergroup differences. The concept of ethnicity, focused upon cultural identity, provides a better perspective for addressing the variable nature of groups and intergroup relations. Different forms of ethnic identity adaptation in multicultural contexts are illustrated.

Chapter 3, “The Psychocultural Model” illustrates some of the basic relationships between culture and human behavior, examining the relationship of culture to human biology and needs. This chapter introduces the concept of culture and the socialization processes that impose its effects on human biology.

Chapter 4, “Cultural Systems Models” examines the applications of cultural systems models in the helping professions, with a focus on: infrastructure, the material aspects of work and economic systems; structure, the social organization established by family and kinship; intergroup dynamics, particularly ethnic stratification; and ideological influences found in language, values, religion and expressive culture.

Chapter 5, “Process Dynamics of Intergroup Relations,” examines the structural and process dynamics of intergroup relations, the regular patterns resulting from interaction between cultures. These include cultural conflict and shock; ethnocentrism and other in-vs. out-group dynamics; prejudice and discrimination; attribution processes; segregation and integration; and acculturation, assimilation and amalgamation.

Chapter 6, “Cross-Cultural Awareness, Sensitivity and Competence,” addresses the general dynamics of cross-cultural development in the context of cultural competence. These developments require relinquishing ethnocentric perspectives and developing perspectives of ethnorelativism that enable better understanding of other cultures.

Chapter 7, “Developing Cross-Cultural Competence,” provides guidelines for developing cross-cultural perspectives and competence through skills, perspectives and strategies such as developing self cultural awareness; managing emotional reactions, including culture shock; cross-cultural conflict and problem solving; overcoming emotional and personal resistance to change; developing personal and social relations; and developing a multicultural self.

Chapter 8, “Cross-Cultural Work in the Helping Professions,” provides an overview of the many areas in which the helping professional must address cultural factors to carry out professional responsibilities.