The Use of the Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model to Understand a Vietnamese American: A Research Case Study

This article presents the sociohistorical experiences of Vietnamese Americans that contextualize the therapeutic relationship. Using a case study approach, researchers illustrate the use of the Racial/Cultural Identity Development model (D. W. Sue & D. Sue, 2003) in the analysis of an interview with a young, adult, Vietnamese immigrant. Este artículo muestra las experiencias histórico‐sociales de Americanos Vietnamitas que contextualizan la relación terapéutica. Empleando la aproximación de un estudio de caso, investigadores ilustran el uso del modelo de Desarrollo de Identidad Racial/Cultural por sus siglas en inglés, de D.W. Sue & D. Sue, 2003, en el análisis de una entrevista con un inmigrante Vietnamita adulto y joven.     

The Obama effect: An experimental test

Past research on stereotype threat and role model effects, as well as a recent quasi-experiment (Marx, Ho, & Freidman, this issue) suggested the possibility of an “Obama effect” on African American’s standardized test performance, whereby the salience of Barack Obama’s stereotype defying success could positively impact performance. We tested this reasoning in a randomized experiment with a broad sample of college students from across the country. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that students prompted to think about Barack Obama prior to taking a difficult standardized verbal test would improve their performance relative to white students, and to African American students in control conditions that were not prompted to think about Obama. Our results did not support this hypothesis. Test scores were unaffected by prompts to think about Obama and no relationship was found between test performance and positive thoughts about Obama, a disconfirmation of both the findings and conclusions of the Marx, Ho, and Freidman study.