What is multiculturalism?

Multiculturalism has become the fourth ideological trend that affects psychology after psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanism. Therefore, multicultural consultation under the guidance of multiculturalism has become the fastest-growing field in the United States in recent years. The United States is a multi-ethnic immigrant country. In recent years, the non-white population has increased rapidly. A population survey shows that from 1999 to 2000, the proportion of non-Hispanic whites in the total population in the United States decreased from 75% to 69. 1%, and the proportion of Hispanic population in the total population increased from 9.3% to 1.5%. Almost half of the largest cities in America 100 have more ethnic minorities than whites. Despite the rapid economic development in the past decade, the gap between races has not been eliminated. On the contrary, the gap between the rich and the poor between races intensifies the conflict between different races, cultures and values. In the 1990s, racism resurfaced in the United States, and a series of incidents occurred, such as burning colored churches, racial discrimination and vendetta. Therefore, multicultural research has always been the core topic of American society. From the theory and practice of psychological counseling, no matter what kind of counseling or treatment relationship, cultural differences between different races, and differences in social and cultural characteristics such as gender, age, education, occupation, religion and values of visitors are all problems that psychological counselors must solve. Because various popular psychological counseling theories and treatment techniques are deeply influenced by American mainstream culture, these theories and methods often cannot effectively meet the needs of different visitors. As pueraria said, western psychology is largely the product of western culture in a certain period ... everything is branded with western cultural traditions. Peterson also pointed out that in many consulting factions, the emphasis on individualism, especially on individual independence, are two quite common cultural prejudices. Obviously, in the United States, a multi-ethnic country with increasing immigrants, the importance attached to multicultural issues will directly affect the effect of psychological counseling and treatment. But in fact, quite a few consultants can't meet the needs of visitors in terms of multicultural ability. A survey of members of the American Psychological Association (who have obtained doctorates in clinical, counseling or school psychology) shows that few of them think they have the confidence and ability to provide counseling services for ethnic minorities. Therefore, it is urgent to train more "cultural skill consultants" who know and understand the languages, cultures, traditions and ethics of ethnic minorities.

Considering the increasing demand for multicultural counselors in American society, it is expected that multicultural counseling should and can play a role in solving racial conflicts, alleviating cultural conflicts and providing high-quality services for visitors from different cultural backgrounds. AACD has established its affiliated multicultural consulting and development association. At the same time, more and more American colleges and universities begin to offer multicultural education courses for students majoring in psychological counseling, and its growth rate is much higher than any other type of courses. In addition, in order to emphasize the value and function of multicultural consultation, many scholars suggest that professional academic groups formulate relevant measures and requirements to promote the growth of multicultural consultation ability of professional psychological counselors. At present, the American Psychological Association has issued the Guide for Psychological Service Providers of People with Different Race, Language and Culture, and the newly published Code of Ethics of the American Consulting Association has also added an independent chapter emphasizing respect for multiculturalism. The "multicultural ability" and "culture-centered" have been well known to professionals. These positive changes are promoting the development of multicultural consultation in the United States.

In the theoretical construction of multicultural consultation, counselors pay more attention to the influence and adjustment of culture as a powerful factor on people's psychology and behavior, which is a great progress from the past practice of taking cultural factors as the background of consultation. In clinical practice, the encouraging development is that counselors try to explore and integrate some theories and methods according to the characteristics of different nationalities and cultures. For example, some ancient theories about physical and mental health and treatment in eastern culture have become more and more popular in the United States in recent years; Some counselors began to combine the theories and methods of traditional Chinese medicine, Yijing and Zen in China with western psychological counseling and treatment, and achieved good results in clinical practice. Practice has proved that theories and methods born in different cultural backgrounds can be organically integrated and applied. The research and exploration of counseling and treatment methods in different cultures is also beneficial for consultants to learn nutrition from other cultures and enrich their own theories and practices.