Esperanza and the Melancholy of Otherness: A Discussion of “A Country of Two: Race and Social Class in an Immigrant Therapeutic Dyad”

Santiago Delboy’s paper, “A Country of Two,” (this issue) focuses on race and class relations in an immigrant treatment dyad. In this discussion I will further examine racial tension from the perspective of the perverse pact, the main features of which are dissociation and amnesia, and the disavowal of hatred and hostility. The perverse pact is an essential feature of White colonial culture as well as of North American White identity and it can impact the dialogue in an interracial therapy duo. I will also comment on the melancholy of Otherness in the context of race, class as well as immigration.     

The Trauma of the Mother Tongue: A Discussion of “A Country of Two: Race and Social Class in an Immigrant Therapeutic Dyad”

The author responds to Delboy’s strong theorizing about race, class, and language (this issue). The argument is made that a psychoanalytic viewpoint can augment the intersectionality prism for understanding cultural identity. The clinical challenge is how to understand the rapid changes that took place for the patient in the context of a brief treatment and with a therapist that remained outside a mutually enacted silence.     

Prevalence of Counselor Self-Reference in the Therapeutic Dyad

Ninety-one male and female counselors completed a survey assessing the frequency of their use of self-referent statements (positive and negative self-disclosure and positive and negative self-involving responses) in individual counseling. As the researchers hypothesized, counselors reported using a significantly greater frequency of positive versus negative self-reference. Contrary to hypotheses, there were no significant differences due to either counselor gender or level of counseling experience alone. There was, however, an interaction for males such that as experience increased, self-reference decreased. Implications for training and research are discussed.     

The Problem of Thinking in Black and White: Race in the South African Clinical Dyad

Race, as it presents itself within the clinical dyad as an aspect of the relationship between therapist and patient, has scarcely been written about from an experience-near perspective within the South African context. This paper focuses on the difficulty of speaking and writing about race. It contends that race as a construct and as an aspect of subjectivity has the potential to interrupt the therapist’s capacity to think, in Bionian terms, and to prevent entry into the reverie that is crucial to the creation of an analytic third. Written through a relational psychoanalytic lens and drawing on the concepts of the normative unconscious and the anti-analytic third, the paper refers to clinical vignettes to illustrate the collapse in thinking and the progression to beginning to think, anew, about the race-nuanced, intersubjective space between patient and therapist.     

Social Dominance Orientation and John Henryism at the Intersection of Race and Class

Three studies were conducted to explore the relationship between social dominance orientation (SDO) and John Henryism (JH). Each study was framed using an intersectionality perspective which predicted that specific combinations of social identities would impact endorsement of SDO and JH in unique ways. We hypothesized that upper‐class non‐Whites would be higher in SDO and lower in JH than any other class/race identity combination. As predicted, a Class × Race interaction emerged for both SDO and JH in Study 1 (N = 387), with upper‐class non‐Whites displaying the highest levels of SDO and the lowest levels of JH. Study 2 (N = 340) replicated these findings and also explored the impact of context‐level class on SDO and JH. Using a qualitative method, in Study 3 (N = 23) we found that upper‐class non‐Whites described their social class positions in ways highly consistent with SDO, whereas middle/working‐class non‐Whites described their experiences in ways consistent with JH.     

Social Class, Race, and Ethnicity: Career Interventions for Women Domestic Violence Survivors

This story describes a community intervention study conducted with women domestic violence survivors and a research dilemma related to the complex interrelationships between women's social class, race and ethnicity, and career development needs and experiences. The author presents diversity and research dilemmas related to facilitating women's critical consciousness of power dynamics at work in their lives. The influence of community context, career intervention curricula, and research team members' values on research decisions are described. This story highlights the importance of researchers examining their values and how those values impact the communities that they serve.     

Reasoning About Race and Pedagogy in Two Preservice Science Teachers: A Critical Race Theory Analysis

This study describes the experiences of two preservice science teachers as they progress through their respective teacher education programs and uses critical race theory to examine the manner in which conceptions about race and its pedagogical implications change over time. Using a longitudinal case study method, participants' conceptual ecologies of race and pedagogy are mapped both before and after student teaching, and each case is analyzed for evidence of conceptual change in these areas. Findings show that conceptions about race and the pedagogical implications of race changed in ways that likely would have gone undetected in earlier studies because they did not result in wholesale changes in beliefs or teaching practice. This study suggests that the difficulty of fostering an understanding of structural racism and difference may often be underestimated, as revising one's model about race is mitigated strongly by learners' existing conceptual ecologies.     

Analysis of the Buyer-Seller Dyad: The Social Relations Model

Research into the interaction of a salesperson with a buyer would seem to be relatively simple, but in fact there are a number of theoretical and methodological challenges. The author describes several of these challenges, particularly the nonindependence of observations and the existence of effects at both individual and dyadic levels. An analytical approach, the Social Relations Model, is presented which takes these phenomena into account. The model's application is illustrated with an investigation of the relationship between a salesperson's communication competence and performance.     

Home, School, and Community Partnerships: Integrating Issues of Race, Culture, and Social Class

The current review is an examination of home–school–community partnerships utilizing an ecological approach to understand the influences of race, culture, and social class. The ecological approach recognizes that families and schools are embedded in communities, and that these settings influence each other and the development of children. The roles of race, culture, and social class in the development of partnerships between the home, school, and community settings are explored. Race, culture, and social class may interact with parent and family attributes, teacher and school qualities, and community context. These factors are often misunderstood either through underinvestigation or lack of integration. The implications for future research, practice, and policy are discussed.     

A Road Map for an Emerging Psychology of Social Class

Though the scientific study of social class is over a century old, theories regarding how social class shapes psychological experience are in their infancy. In this review, we provide a road map for the empirical study of an emerging psychology of social class. Specifically, we outline key measurement issues in the study of social class – including the importance of both objective indicators and subjective perceptions of social class – as well as theoretical insights into the role of the social class context in influencing behavior. We then summarize why a psychology of social class is likely to be a fruitful area of research and propose that social class environments guide psychological experience because they shape fundamental aspects of the self and patterns of relating to others. Finally, we differentiate social class from other rank‐relevant states (e.g., power) and social categories (e.g., race/ethnicity), while also outlining potential avenues of future research.     

The Intersection of Race,Ethnicity, Gender,and Social Class in Counseling: Examining Selves in Cultural Contexts

The author discusses the importance of counselors considering the intersection of multiple cultural identities in working with clients. The article serves as the introduction to the special issue, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Social Class in Counseling, of the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development. La autora discute la importancia de considerar el cruce de las identidades culturales multiples de los clientes en la consejería. El artículo sirve como la introducción a la publicación especial, Raza, Etnicidad, y Clase Social, en la Consejería de la Revista de Consejería y Desarrollo Multicultural.     

The Social Ladder: A Rank-Based Perspective on Social Class

Scholars across the social sciences have studied social class for centuries. In this review, we suggest that social class is a fundamental means by which individuals are ranked on the social ladder of society. A rank-based perspective on social class shines light on several future areas of research: Specifically, understanding how social class ranks individuals vis-à-vis others leads to predictions about how class is signaled in interactions, influences social cognition and health, is shaped by global economic inequality trends, and changes across the life course. Importantly, our theory highlights the potential of experimental manipulations of social class rank for testing the causal role of social class in shaping basic patterns of cognition, emotion, and behavior. Future predictions regarding the channels of social class rank signals, along with how position on the social ladder shapes political attitudes and interacts with cultural values, are considered.     

Social Class and Educational Aspirations: A Weberian Analysis

Standard measures of social class are argued to be insufficient in predicting college attendance desires among high school students from similar social class backgrounds. An attitude scale was developed using 274 seniors from two suburban high schools. Chi-square analysis indicates that the attitude measure is a better predictor of college-going plans than is the education of either parent or the occupation of the father. The attitude scale appears to discriminate among students on a dimension similar to McClelland's desire for achievement. It is argued that traditionally static variables, such as social class, can be replaced by process variables in explanations of social phenomena.     

A New Framework to Understand Social Class in Counseling: The Social Class Worldview Model and Modern Classism Theory

Because social class and classism remain elusive constructs in psychology, this 2‐part article first lays the foundation for the Social Class Worldview Model and then the Modern Classism Theory. A case example is used for illustration. The authors also provide counseling applications and recommendations for future research. Debido a que la clase social y el clasismo continuan siendo unos conceptos evasivos en la psicología, este artículo de 2 partes establece una fundación para el Modelo de Cosmovisión de Clase Social y la Teoría Moderna del Clasismo. Se utiliza un caso de ejemplo para su ilustración. Los autores también proporcionan aplicaciones para la consejería y recomendaciones para investigaciónes futuras.     

Race,Class, and Gender: A Constellation of Positionalities With Implications for Counseling

Race, class, and gender are social, political, economic, and cultural constructs that describe the positionalities of people. How these constructs are defined depends on the status occupied by individuals and the individual, institutional, and societal status of the individuals who have the power to construct hierarchies. The authors examine the intersection of race, class, and gender and the dimensions of oppression and discrimination in counseling. Historical and contemporary dimensions of racism, misogyny, and classism are presented. La Raza, clase social, y el género son construcciones sociales, políticas, económicas, y culturales que describen las posicionalidades de la gente. La definición de éstas construcciones depende de la posición social ocupada por los individuos e instituciones que tienen el poder de construir estas jerarquías. Los autores examinan el cruce de la raza, la clase, y el género y las dimensiones de la opresión y la discriminación en la consejería. Las dimensiones históricas y contemporáneas del racismo, la misoginia, y el clasismo se presentan.     

Gender, Race, and Class in Organizational Contexts

Creating settings that support diversity has been a long-standing concern of community psychology. In this paper, I propose two qualities as important aspects of organizational contexts that support the meaningful participation of diverse groups:(a) a culture of connection and (b) recognition of multiple realities. For each theme, I first examine countervailing values that can undermine meaningful participation of nondominant groups. I suggest that organizational values for independence and a press for sameness can contribute to settings where members of traditionally oppressed groups will be prevented from meaningful participation. I also suggest that fostering a culture of connectedness that actively legitimizes multiple realities is a constructive alternative. To illustrate these points, I share observations based on experiences in manufacturing, educational, and community-based settings. Then, I explore two dynamics that are important when confronting the countervailing values and building more inclusive contexts: (a) accountability for impact and (b) privilege dynamics. Last, I turn to some possibilities for change through a stance of connected disruption.     

A Social Constructionist Model of Therapeutic Factors

Evidentiary support for the efficacy of therapeutic models has been a contentious issue since the professionalization of psychology. Despite advances in evidence-based practices in psychology and common factors research, discontent still exists among postmodern psychotherapists in that evidence is mainly defined in modernist/positivistic terms, thereby excluding therapeutic models based on alternative nonpositivistic epistemologies. I proposes a model, which is based on social constructionist theories, for investigating the therapeutic efficacy of various approaches. This article evaluates and differentiates between two models for viewing the efficacy of psychotherapy, namely outcome versus process efficacy. A social constructionist model of therapeutic factors is proposed as a means to incorporate therapeutic factors into psychotherapy processes that are consistent with a social constructionist theory of change. Three main therapeutic elements, which are identified as central to an effective psychotherapy process, are outlined in the model. The proposed model may be useful as a guide to efficacious psychotherapy and as a means for investigating the efficacy of social constructionist therapies.     

Engaging Diversity's Underbelly: A Story from an Immigrant Parish Community

: This story explores an intervention conducted in a Catholic parish community in New York City. The intervention, conducted by the author and a Jesuit priest, focused on issues of unity and diversity among the various Chinese immigrant subgroups in the parish (primarily Cantonese- and Mandarin-speakers). Issues of class, power, and a history of colonialism in the Catholic Church are explored as central to the relations among culturally diverse Chinese American community members and between the members and the practitioners and the church authority. The author especially focuses on how the dynamics that played out in the intervention reflected wider issues of economics, labor practices, and political elitism in the wider Chinatown community. A central part of the author's argument is about power relationships between this parish community and Chinatown and how these power relationships are embedded within broader racial and economic oppression within the United States.     

Studying Immigrant Integration Through Self-Reported Life Satisfaction in the Country of Residence

Applied Research in Quality of Life - Aim of this paper is to measure the effect of demographic, human capital and ‘immigration’ variables on the self-reported life satisfaction of...