Define the fundamental attribution error that your textbook author discusses.  Provide examples.

Fundamental attribution error: (from lecture #1)

generalizations made about someone’s problems as being personality flaws- i.e. incompetence, laziness, unmotivated, etc.

There is the tendency to over estimate the internal attributes of another person's actions.

Fundamental attribution is more common in individualistic cultures than collectivist cultures.

• people tend to underestimate the impact of external factors, especially with people they don’t like. They recognize these factors more easily in their friends. Example: The fact that Julia liked Luisa make it easier for her to reframe the problem.
• People who are depressed tend to accept their failures as their “real self”  and view their successes as aberrations.  Example:  a depressed student earning an “A” on an exam might say “it was an easy exam” or “She is an easy professor
   

*How does attribution error apply to SW’s need to assess context:   

We must be aware of the whole picture when assessing our client’s needs or we as therapists can do more harm than good. 

We need to recognize the culture/background of our client so we may know how they are viewing their specific issues.

Slattery mentions the fact that as most in helping professions tend to be more liberal, we may miss discriminations that others may experience. This could hamper the way we provide services to our client.

Attribution error in: Individualistic cultures example: (United states)

• -glorify or honor individual responsibility and autonomy.
• -you or I are/am at fault, not both are or could be at fault
• -fundamental attributions for problems
• - tend to ignore a person’s context

• -use situational explanations when describing stranger’s behavior

• -pay special attention to relationships and context

• -recognize that the fault may be both theirs and others
   

How does understanding context translate into success in therapy? (from lecture #1)

We need to recognize not everyone has the same values and viewpoints as we do.

Slattery states “we must question when our client’s approaches are either successful or problematic and when they automatically equate different with problem.

While assessing client matters, we must remember the importance of culture as a factor.

We need recognize the dominant culture and whether your client shares the same beliefs.

We can only help our clients if we have the whole picture, which includes being aware of their beliefs and cultures.

“Ignoring context and thus committing the fundamental attribution error is easy.  When context is ignored, people tend to ascribe negative and stable attributions to others and ascribe more positive and unstable attributions to themselves.  The shift in attributions seems to be dependent both upon ones attitudes toward another person’s group, and the amount of knowledge known about the person.”  (p31)

What are some areas that are sometimes overlooked when assessing context?      

1. The nature of the symptoms and their individual and familial meanings—PROBLEM (P14)

--current symptoms i.e. What symptoms does the person report?--beliefs about symptoms i.e. What are the client’s beliefs about what is wrong?--personal history of psychological disorders,  i.e Has the person experienced symptoms similar to or different from current symptoms at some time in the past?--family history of psychological disorders i.e. Does the person’s family have a history of psychological disorders or symptoms?

1. The individual and systemic context for symptoms—CURRENT CONTEXT (p14-15)

--recent events  i.e. What negative or positive events have occurred recently at home, work, school, and in important relationships?--physical condition i.e. Can any medical conditions account for the symptoms being reported?--drug and alcohol use i.e. Is the person taking any medicinal or recreational drugs that could be causing symptoms?--intellectual and cognitive functioning i.e. What are the client’s intellectual strengths and deficits?--coping style i.e. Is the person applying generally adaptive or maladaptive coping strategies?--self-concept i.e. What are the client’s beliefs about herself?--sociocultural background  i.e. In what culture was this person raised?--religion and spirituality i.e. Does she report a religious affiliation and is this important to her?

1. The individual and systemic resources and barriers to treatment—RESOURCES AND BARRIERS (p15)

--individual resources i.e. What does the person do particularly well?--social resources—friends, family, coworkers, classmates i.e. How supportive are these relationships?--community resources i.e. What agencies, if any, are involved?--mentors and models i.e. What real, historical, or metaphorical figures serve as pillars of support or spiritual guides?--obstacles and opportunities to change process i.e. What things might serve as potential obstacles or aids to the change process?--therapeutic relationship i.e. What sort of relationship do the client and therapist have?

“Because stepping outside of a cultural frame is difficult, three tools can highlight aspects of context—family relation—ships and functioning, community connections, and the cultural and historical contexts—that often get ignored.” (p16)

• Family genogram
• Community genogram
• Psychosocial history
• Timelines

visual means of identifying and organizing hypotheses about familial factors that may contribute to the problem - allows to see patterns within a family, gives a quick visual – can assist in assessing family composition and family functioning.   

• such as alliances, enmeshments, strained, and cut-off relationships
• how family members relationships are with each other, such as distant, intimate, frequent, and rare

• like family genograms, only focused on the client's relationship to the community
• can be drawn in a therapy session
•  helps clarify what would otherwise be overwhelming amount of information
• can help client recognize obstacles to change, areas to be strengthened, an available resources

--we can assess the nature of the connection with self, others in the community, and the culture

--we can help the client recognize obstacles to change--we can help the client find areas that can be strengthened

--help the client use available resources 

*frequently presented in written form, but the connections can be illustrated using many of the same identifiers as in a family genogram   

Stereotype:

Stereotypes:

* He is a tall, black man, therefore he would be able to play basket ball.

* He is japanese, therefore he is very good in math and technologies.

Prejudice:

Prejudice: a negative attitude and feeling toward a group.

Ex. All military members believe war is the only way to resolve a problem. 

Discrimination: (p.64)

Discrimination:
·      refers to behaviors that block opportunities based on group membership.
·      Not hiring a person who's husband is in the military based on the assumption that they will not stay employed with the company for a long time.

Define Oppression:

Oppression: can be defined as the political and social inequities that marginalize or exclude groups of people. An example of this would be that single women who would like help with childcare must be working for one month to qualify for the help. This is oppressive, because many will not be able to afford to pay for the first month of childcare, thus making it impossible hold a job.

This means that everyone wants to believe that they have earned their successes in life, that they are responsible for getting ahead. Whereas, to believe this, one must also believe that other’s failures are fair as well.

It can help us recognize that some people’s misfortune is by no fault of their own. It also helps us become aware of covert and overt means of discrimination.  Privilege that accrues from class, age, race, gender, and affectional orientation makes life easier and simpler for the privileged group, and it often does so in ways that are readily overlooked, as in "That's just the way it's supposed to be".

 For example: The privilege that is granted to heterosexuals (see Table 4.2) should be applied across the board rather than being offered only to select groups.  Everyone deserves to belong, to be seen as "normal" and "okay," to be expected to do well, to be evaluated on the basis of their work, to be given the benefit of the doubt in questionable situations, and to have their sexual orientation – as well as their gender, race, and class – made irrelevant when it comes to decisions about personal or professional competence.

• Therapist may want to consider situational and cultural factors.
• Consider where locus of responsibility is viewed. Having an external locus of responsibility is healthy.
• Clients can learn with therapeutic intervention to recognize their internal locus of control.
• Help to identify environmental stressors, prejudice, and discrimination, as well as to distinguish between benign environments and those that are more malignant and oppressive.
• Therapist must also challenge a client’s own involvement in their re-victimization and stigmatization.

 There are seven dimensions of Worldview that are relevant to counseling (according to our textbook). What are these? Define each.

OMG TRAC (TO HELP US REMEMBER) 

1. Ontology

2. Mutability

3. Trust

4. Authority

5. Group

6. Responsibility

7. Control

Explanations of Phenomena 

Does the universe have a spiritual dimension or is the best description of reality based upon events with a material and rational explanation.

Obstacles to Change 

Can people change or is their behavior due to a permanent part of the such as a trait. Believing we can change influences our ability to actually change.

• Our beliefs about our ability to change
• Change is faster when we believe change is possible than when we see the behavior as a central and unchangeable part of ourselves
• People who see behavior as immutable are more likely to use stabilizing language when talking about the problem
• In contrast, clients who see discontinuities, exceptions, and environmental causes and those who believe that they have identified the problem and are hopeful about their ability to overcome it, are more likely to be able to change rapidly in therapy

The Nature of Human Relationships 

Are other people trustworthy or can you expect that they will hurt you either intentionally or unintentionally? Trust facilitate or interferes with relationships. Trust underlies and colors the course of most interactions with others.

 The Nature of Helping Relationships

Is it more natural to relate to people in an authoritarian or an egalitarian manner?

• General belief is that when clients’ expectations are accurate, clients are more likely to be happy with the therapeutic process and more likely to return
• Clients from different cultural groups have different expectations and goals for therapy

 Autonomy, Individualism, and Relationships

which comes first: What I want (individualism) or what my reference group wants (collectivism)?

 The causation of past behavior and problems

Who got me where I am today: me (internal locus of responsibility) or forces outside of me (external locus of responsibility)? Are the forces outside of me benevolent, malevolent, or mere chance?

The ability to intervene in the present and future

Is the power to control what happens to me within me (internal locus of control) or is what happens to me a matter or luck, destiny, or other forces  such as prejudice (external locus of control)?

With issues of Group, what is the difference between collectivist cultures and individualistic cultures?

Individualist cultures assume that the needs of the group will be satisfied when individual needs are met.

Collectivist cultures take the opposite stance and assume that individual happiness follow group happiness. 

Locus of Responsibility refers to:

the causation of past behavior and problems. This is when the client is interested in why and their want to know whether or not a problem is their fault, someone else’s fault, a result of change or bad luck or related to external circumstances.  

where the responsibility for the problem is assumed to reside within the person. P. 100 

ex. It’s all my fault, I made it happen. 

• Perceives emotions are having an external cause.
• Example: “He made me depressed.”

• Events are somewhat or entirely caused or controlled by internal factors.
• Example: “He’s unfair, but I can study differently next time.”

Without a breath of understanding, therapists can too easily overlook the range of factors that influence their clients, such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, age, religion, affectional orientation, and ability. 

By acknowledging the range, however, their understanding will become significantly more complex and realistic. 

Without a broad view, people can become divided, and they can ignore issues faced by groups outside of the traditional, racial, and ethnic minorities.

 Culture:
·      Can be defined as all the behaviors, ways of life, arts, beliefs, and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation.
·      Includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior, such as law and morality, and systems of belief, as well as the arts and specific foods

 Race:
·      Is not determined by belief or choice to belong to a group, but rather we are all born into our race.
·      Is a local, geographic, or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics.

Ethnicity:
·      An ethnic group can be a group of people sharing a common religion, national heritage, or even a common cultural tradition.

Effects of culture

Culture directly contributes to people’s habits, communication patterns, family structure, values, norms, and expectations…different foods, celebrate different holidays….. Perceive (adolescence), sex, sexuality, and their bodies differently. 

Effects of culture

Without being directly taught – people within a culture learn about how they should:

• Speak
• Personal space
• Eye contact
• Dress
• (what other subtle teachings of behavior?)
• Time management (end of class behavior by students)
• Independence
• Autonomy
• Intimacy
• Achievement

• Two cultures may be only slightly different on a particular dimension
• There may be larger WITHIN group differences that can be greater than the differences BETWEEN groups. 
• Example: Men and women are statistically different in their mathematical abilities on standardized tests, the ability to identify the gender of the test taker based on math scores alone is quite poor until the very high end of the distribution. However, people tend to sharpen these differences so that differences between the two groups appear larger than they really are. Even with numerous predictor variables such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, and the ability to predict accurately rarely reaches 100% because of very tall and physically aggressive women and short and non-aggressive men

• Culture can be useful as a predictor variable, but there are limitations:
• Demographic characteristics are not = to cultural or socioracial background indicators
• Biracial or multiracial or adopted from another race:
• Can become discriminated against based on the physical traits – seen only as a racial being;
• Can identify as being part of a group that is not the stereotypical
• Assessing only race or ethnicity can lend toward relying on stereotypes.

What are the major challenges of a therapist who has different worldviews than a Client’s?

•  
  • For example, pg. 113.  “When we tend to identify values, beliefs, and behaviors that differ from our own as ‘problematic’, we will be more likely to have trouble working with culturally different clients. More accurately, we will have difficulty working with people outside our cultural understanding, which may include other cultures.  These problems will be especially marked when we miss seeing the behavior’s context or underestimate its impact.
• ·         Finding consistency is another challenge for therapists who have different worldviews.  When this happens, cognitive dissonance, an awareness of the differences between dissimilar worldviews, exists. This is more apt to happen when the other party is more attractive or powerful or if one person’s self-esteem is low.  Power is a frequent component of therapy.  (Pg. 115)  *table 6.1 

  • “Maintaining two opposing views side by side (agreeing to disagree) is difficult but under special conditions, it can be possible.

What is considered, “a problem”, has a lot to do with context and the observer’s values and beliefs.  When there is a greater disparity between the client’s and therapist’s culture and values, the greater the problems can be. This is, in part, because we equate “different” with “bad”.  If therapists make these types of faulty assumptions about clients and cultural groups, therapy will be negatively impacted. (p. 122)

Our values also affect what we see as treatment goals.  Labeling something as dysfunctional is a value-laden decision that is influenced by our imperfect observations and our own culturally based inferences about what we observed. (123-124)

• Dichotomous thinking
• Failure to listen
• Historical Factors-
• Power
• Beliefs
• Frustration

We make work against others’ viewpoints when we feel we aren’t being listened to or understood.

We may have personal or cultural histories that lead us to expect that we will not be heard by others in general or, more specifically, by people or groups in power.

We may be afraid of giving up power in order to listen to and validate someone else’s viewpoint. This may include giving up control over events or outcomes of relative importance.

We may believe that an authoritarian and directive stance is more successful in our dealings with employees and consumers- believing that things will be smoother or more productive- and may not be aware of any other kind of model.

The frustration within the system and lack of coordination may reflect the client’s or family’s frustration.

• Racism or prejudice-
• Colorblindness-
• Paternalism-
• Unquestioning acceptance of client’s perspective-
• Acknowledge and challenge to accept appropriate control-

Racism or prejudice-

Colorblindness-

Colorblindness- All people are alike, and color doesn’t matter. Often, interventions are applied without considering the effects of environment, racism, or prejudice. Assessments may ignore important racial and cultural factors, and therapists may collude with clients in ignoring these.

All problems are attributed to racism and discrimination. Intrapsychic factors are ignored. Rather than encouraging responsibility and independent responses to problems, the paternalistic therapist may unknowingly encourage dependence.

A variation of paternalism, this view encourages clients to act out their anger and frustration about racism against others without considering other’s viewpoints or rights.

This view encourages acknowledgement of real problems and oppression, while also encouraging change of situational or individual issues that can be changed or controlled. Other’s rights and viewpoints are considered without excusing discrimination.

Clients can contribute to problems my having “cultural mistrust.” This means that they may not trust a therapist of another race and believe that the therapist cannot help them. The client can also be “resistant” to the therapy/therapist. These may cause the client to: expect less from therapy, terminates therapy early, and disclose less to the therapist. While cultural mistrust and resistance can be maladaptive in therapy they may have stemmed adaptively from coping with racism and environmental stressors.

Conformity- attempt to conform to dominate group or to group stereotypes, ignoring contributions made by their own group

Dissonance- aware of group history and status and think it “unfair,” uncomfortable accepting their cultural group as valuable

Immersion- uncritical of own group, super critical of group in power, dichotomous thinking about racial groups and direct anger at dominant group

Emersion- group solidarity and pride of own group, positive connection to people with similar attitudes, uncritical of own group

Internalization- have positive feelings and connections to own group, try to see members of other groups objectively instead of saying they’re all bad

Integrative Awareness- have the capacity to value the collective identity as well as to empathize and collaborate with members of oppressed groups, self esteem is good because individual and cultural strengths are accepted.

Contact- oblivious to effects of race on their own life and lives of others

Disintegration- confused about race-related problems, is acting in a non-racist way worth the benefits?, belief that “life is fair” is being challenged

Reintegration- idealize own group, info about out-group members is distorted, believe “this is just the way it is”

Pseudo-Independence- members of other groups are tolerated if the conform to white standards, racism is superficially recognized and thought to be the out-groups responsibility

Immersion- whites are searching for understanding of own race, racist behaviors, racist attitudes, and ideas of privilege, “re-education”

Emersion- becoming secure in their racial identity, connecting with others to minimize use of privilege and oppression

Autonomy- An internalized, positive connection to other groups has developed. People at this status have developed a flexible and analytical approach to seeing themselves and are capable of relinquishing privilege and racist attitudes and behaviors. They may or may not choose an activist stance, but they are likely to attempt to avoid oppression in all of its forms

Therapists can do the following things outside of therapy:

• deal with guilt about privilege,
• volunteer to stop feeling guilty,
• get supervision,
• confront their own problems, and learn about cultural differences.

• In therapy therapists can:
• focus on the strengths of clients,
• find ways to empower clients,
• be aware that everyone has a culture to avoid being “colorblind.”