Teaching Multicultural Psychology as a Cultural Competence Intervention: An Empirical Evaluation of Course Components

Previous research has shown that a semester-long multicultural psychology course can effectively increase students’ cultural competence-related attitudes when students complete the class in-person and online. Cultural competence refers to the knowledge, awareness, and skills required to appreciate, recognize, and effectively work with members of other cultural groups. This dissertation examined several components of a multicultural psychology course: ethical grading, skill development, and intergroup contact. The first paper discussed techniques used to minimize grading bias and examined whether cultural competence shifts impacted grading. Students’ cultural competence scores did not relate to or predict their grades in the course, which supported the notion instructors can grade fairly and objectively regardless of students’ attitudes and values. The second paper highlighted the importance of social justice competence in addition to cultural competence, as well as the importance of targeting skill development in addition to knowledge and awareness. This study investigated the impact of adding a skills-focused Difficult Dialogues group assignment to the course on students’ shifts in cultural competence-related attitudes and social justice orientation and also discussed of implementation considerations for instructors. Results suggested that the Difficult Dialogues project had a particular impact on improving students’ social justice behavioral intentions. The third paper focused on the impact of intergroup contact with diverse others. The multicultural psychology course typically requires direct contact by attending at least three cultural events every semester. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this requirement was shifted to indirect contact activities. This study examined differential shifts on students’ cultural competence-related attitudes in sections where students were required to engage in direct intergroup contact versus students who were allowed to engage in indirect intergroup contact due to taking the course during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results suggest that indirect contact contributed to positive shifts in cultural competence equally as well as direct intergroup contact. These studies advance the evidence-based teaching of multicultural psychology by empirically examining specific course components. The manuscripts provide useful information for educators, administrators, advocates, and policymakers about the impact of multicultural education, the efficacy of cultural competence training, and feasibility of ethical implementation in the classroom

An investigation of the prevalence of disordered eating behaviors in dietetic students

Eating disorders are a debilitating mental illness that affects young people including those in the field of dietetics. Literature suggests that dietetic students have a higher prevalence of eating disorders than other students. Seventy-seven college student in Southern West Virginia enrolled in either dietetics or another major were included in a sample to determine if dietetic students have higher prevalence of disordered eating attitudes and behaviors. The participants completed a survey that included a general information section, a 26-item questionnaire concerning eating attitudes, and a behavioral information section. Upon completion of data collection, the survey was coded, and data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression. Results of the survey indicated that on the average students enrolled in dietetics scored about 8.8 points higher on the eating attitude test as compared to students in other majors, thus indicating a higher prevalence of disordered eating attitudes and behaviors

A Brief Online Acceptance and Commitment Training for Enhancing Outcomes of a Cultural Competence Intervention

In an increasingly diverse and multicultural society, there is a pressing and practical need for interventions to help professionals improve their cultural competence. Cultural competence trainings that target psychological flexibility in addition to knowledge, awareness, and skills may produce more efficacious results. The current study will examined the utility of targeting psychological flexibility (the ability to maintain contact the present moment and current internal experiences and to choose contextually appropriate, values-consistent behaviors, regardless of what one’s internal experiences are) as a process to enhance the impact of a cultural competence intervention with an Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT)-enhanced cultural competence intervention. Sixty-nine participants completed four-week online cultural competence trainings. Participants were randomly assigned to complete either a cultural competence as usual training (CCAU) or a cultural competence plus psychological flexibility training (CC+PF). Results from program engagement and program evaluation data suggest that the CC+PF condition was feasible and acceptable. Analysis of data between groups did not show statistically significant shifts in psychological flexibility, which may have been due to low power from a small sample size. Analysis of data did not show statistically different shifts in cultural competence between groups, however, there were significant improvements in cultural competence and ethnocultural empathy when the sample was examined as a whole. While the results of the present study suggest that adding techniques aimed at increasing psychological flexibility to a cultural competence intervention is feasible and acceptable to participants, future research with a larger dosage and a larger sample size is needed to examine the utility of ACT to enhance outcomes in tripartite cultural competence interventions

Removal of Bower Paint Reduces Mate Searching Females' Return Visitation to Male Bowers

The multifaceted courtship display of male satin bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) involves several elements that have been studied in detail. However, one of their most unusual behaviors, bower painting, has received little attention. Here, I propose two hypotheses for the function of paint and use multiple approaches to test predictions made by these hypotheses. First, I assessed how natural variation in paint quantity is related to other display traits, male mating success and male physical condition. Also, I used experimental methods including a paint removal and paint transfer experiment to investigate how birds responded to changes in the quantity and quality of bower paint. I found that males with more paint had better overall bower display quality and that fewer females returned to and copulated with males whose paint was removed. These results suggest that females may assess paint quantity during mate searching and demonstrate that paint influences male attractiveness

Risk and risk management through an immersive participatory and literate information lens: Empowering ethical delivery

For decades, risk management has been developed as a set of systematic tools enabling seemingly logical navigation through uncertainty. Often these tools have sought to aid the mitigation of negative outcomes, as in the health and safety field or regulatory spaces. However, in their more holistic forms, these tools have also created risk frameworks that allow for the seizing of opportunities in other words ‘to dare’ (risicare in Italian). The route to systems that offer a better controlled state of known outcomes has been mapped through lenses that link into organisational, societal, cultural, professional, communities of practice and personality states (Hillson, 2016). The seeming roadmaps to success have often been deemed to have similarities to those lenses adopted in the change management literature whereby steps are modelled, as in Hiatt’s ADKAR model, or organisational and emotional journeys are traced as in Bridge’s, Kessler’s, Kotter’s and Kubler-Ross’ models respectively (Lomas, 2020). Within each of these models are beliefs in the inherent benefits of change. Within contexts of change, uncertainty and crisis the key component to these mappings has been the construction of shared narratives around the importance of the right risk choices. However, it is to be noted that there are often central powerful actors that lead the discourse and rarely are bottom-up approaches seen. These ideas have been seen most recently in the fight for public opinion and action during shifting pandemic restrictions (Lloyd & Hicks, 2021). Whilst risk management is understood to contain complex networks of factors and events, there has been limited learning from disciplines that have sought to build immersive and participatory frameworks to mediate uncertainty and risk, thereby rethinking how we build risk knowledge. These approaches have the potential to reframe risk management and to ensure better outcomes for a wide range of actors, stakeholders, organisational and ultimately societal benefits. This paper employs an information lens to extend current risk and risk management discourse, considering how concepts of immersion, participation, and risk information literacies open and reframe understandings of ethical decision making. Working from the premise that immersion within both the lived experiences and consequences of choice will empower stakeholders by extending the critical actors, this paper also argues that a sociocultural understanding of risk literacy, including related to the role that information plays in shaping risk perception, understanding and management, will facilitate more useful understandings of how risk is informed. These ideas will be explored through discussion of work that each author has undertaken navigating macro uncertainties from an information and technological perspective during Brexit shifts, COVID-19 lockdowns, and the advancement of AI. The presentation will also introduce work focusing on micro contexts such as the use of risk immersion techniques to facilitate information rights and subject access requests for care experienced people and those experiencing wider legal marginalisation through digital inequalities

Rayleigh-Taylor Unstable Flames: the Coupled Effect of Multiple Perturbations

The Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability is important in the fields of aerospace engineering, nuclear physics, and astrophysical research, particularly in studies of Type Ia supernovae. In some applications, the RT instability is complicated by a reaction at the unstable interface. In this paper, we show how this reaction changes the behavior of the RT instability. Using 2D direct numerical simulations (DNS) of Boussinesq premixed flames with a model reaction rate, we show how the flame responds to three types of perturbation: a large amplitude single mode primary perturbation, a smaller amplitude single mode secondary perturbation, and a numerically generated system perturbation with both single mode and multimode components. Early on, the evolution of the flame is dominated by the primary perturbation and, differently from single mode nonreacting RT, the flame propagates as a metastable traveling wave in the form of bubbles separated by cusp-like spikes. However, the lifetime of this traveling wave depends on the properties of the secondary and system perturbations and on the strength of gravity. Once the traveling wave is destabilized, the flame front bubbles rapidly grow to large scales. We identify five distinct flame growth solution types, with the symmetry and properties of each depending on the balance and interactions between the three types of perturbation. In particular, we show that the primary and secondary modes can couple to generate a tertiary mode which ultimately dominates the flow. Depending on the wavenumber of the tertiary mode, the flame may stall, develop coherent pulsations, or even become a metastable traveling wave again, behaviors not seen in nonreacting RT.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures; Submitted to: Physical Review Fluids; Code and Data Release: see https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.834691

An Integrative Review of Out-Patient Teaching for Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is most prevalent in children. Symptoms include inappropriate levels of hyperactivity, impulsive behavior, and lack of attention. 3-9% of children suffer from the symptoms of ADHD. Treatments of ADHD vary: pharmacological therapy includes stimulants and non-stimulants, whereas non-pharmacological treatments include restriction diet, nutrient supplements, and psychosocial interventions. Psycho-stimulant treatment is not beneficial for 20-30% of children with ADHD. The purpose of this study is to determine if diet/nutrition and parent training treatments are effective in managing the symptoms of children with ADHD

Pilot Evaluation of the Stop, Breathe & Think Mindfulness App for Student Clients on a College Counseling Center Waitlist

Objectives: College counseling centers face significant challenges meeting the mental health needs of their students and waitlists are common. Mobile apps offer a promising solution to increase access to resources while students wait for services. Methods: This pilot randomized controlled trial evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of a publicly available mindfulness app. Students on a counseling center waitlist (n=23) were randomized to use the app or not, with assessments completed over four weeks. Results: Recruitment over three semesters was slow, leading to an underpowered trial. Participants reported high satisfaction and moderate app usage. Very preliminary support was found for potential app efficacy relative to the control condition, particularly for depression, anxiety, and overall distress. Weaker, mixed effects were found for mindfulness and values processes. Conclusions: Overall, these results provide mixed findings suggesting the potential benefits, but also challenges in using a mindfulness app for students waiting to receive counseling services