Desiderata:
Towards Indigenous Models of Career
Development and Vocational Psychology
Frederick T.L. Leong, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Director, Consortium for Multicultural
Psychology Research
Michigan State University, USA
Keynote Address
IAEVG Jiva Conference
Bangalore, India
October 8-10. 2010
Desiderata: Things needed
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and
remember what peace there may be in
silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on
good terms with all persons. Speak your truth
quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even
to the dull and the ignorant, they too have
their story. Avoid loud and aggressive
persons, they are vexations to the spirit.…..
Poem by Max Ehrmann
Overview
Desiderata for career development
models
Importance of culture
Barriers to multiculturalism
Culture and career theories
Towards Indigenous models
Human beings as cultural beings
““No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees
it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and
ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probings, he
cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the
true and the false will still have reference to his particular
traditional customs….. From the moment of his birth the
customs into which he is born shape his experience and
behavior. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of
his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part
in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs,
its impossibilities his impossibilities. …. There is no social
problem it is more incumbent upon us to understand than
this, the role of custom. Until we are intelligent at to its laws
and varieties, the main complicating facts of human life must
remain unintelligible."
From Ruth Benedict, 1934, in Patterns of Culture
Barriers to Multiculturalism
In a keynote address at the 1999 National Career
Development Association convention, I had used
Lewin’s concept of a force-field analysis to present a
model for examining the challenges of providing
career counseling in Asia in terms of prevailing and
countervailing forces (Leong, 2002).
The model also suggested a need to avoid a simple
importation of Western models of career counseling
which may not be an optimal fit for the Asian
cultural context.
Instead, the cultural accommodation approach was
offered as a viable alternative.
Kurt Lewin’s Model
Borrowing from Lewin’s famous formulation that
behavior is a function of the interaction between the
person and his or her environment (i.e., B=f (P,E),
(Lewin 1938, 1975), I proposed that some of his
conceptualizations can be extended and applied to
higher level phenomenon.
Whereas Lewin’s model was primarily interested in
an individual’s personality and behavior, his concepts
can be readily applied to social movements as well,
such as our present topic, the movement towards
multiculturalism in our society
Adapting Lewin’s Model
An Extension of Lewin’s Force Field Analysis to Social
Movements Such as the Multicultural Movement
Lewin’s Model of Personality
Proposed Model of Social Movements
Life-Space
B = f(P, E)
Personal typology
Psychic energies
Locomotion
Personal equilibrium
Personality dynamics
Forces and tensions
Driving forces
Restraining forces
Individual needs, valences, vectors
Social-Space
SM = f(P, C)
Social typology
Social energies
Expansion or constriction
Social equilibrium
Social dynamics
Forces and tensions
Prevailing forces
Countervailing forces
Individual needs, valences, vectors
Organizational level and institutional
dynamics
Prevailing and Countervailing Forces
Climbing the Multiculturalism Summit:
Lewinian Force Field Analysis
Prevailing and Countervailing Forces
Prevailing Forces: Globalization, Migration, Spread
of the Internet, 9-11, etc
But there are Countervailing Forces which serve as
the mechanisms that fuel resistance to change.
To successfully climb to the summit, I had proposed
that we need to identify and understand these
countervailing forces and how they serve as
mechanisms underlying resistance to change.
Countervailing Forces
Ethnocentricism…it is a natural human
tendency and it consist of using our own
culture as a standard for evaluating
others…which leads to prejudice and racism.
False consensus effect …it is the tendency to see
one's own behavior as typical, to assume that
under the same circumstances others would
have reacted the same way as one self.
Countervailing Forces
Psychological Reactance…. is a motivational force to
regain or restore lost freedoms or to counter threats
or attempts at reducing our freedoms.
To the extent that a change in how we think about
our work requires giving up the established and
familiar ways (i.e., monocultural versus
multicultural), multiculturalism serves as a threat to
this freedom of “business as usual”.
Thus, the multiculturalism movement is likely to
arouse this motivational force of psychological
reactance.
Countervailing Forces
Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) cycle.
According to Schneider (1987) organizations
develop a particular culture or climate
because they undergo a process he labelled as
the ASA cycle.
Through the processes of Attraction (who
chooses to join the organization), Selection
(who is admitted into the orgnization), and
Attrition (who chooses to leave the
organization), organizations eventually
develop a very distinctive character.
Twin Problems of Career Theories
and Research
Lack of Cultural Validity (Etic)… CV is
concerned with the validity of theories and
models across other cultures in terms of the
construct, concurrent, and predictive validity
of these models for culturally different
individuals
Lack of Cultural Specificity (Emic)…CS is
concerned with concepts, constructs, and
models that are specific to certain cultural
groups in terms of it's role in explaining and
predicting behavior
Cultural Gaps in Career Theories
Lack of CV and CS has created major
cultural gaps in our career theories &
research.
Therefore our career interventions are being
applied as “pseudo etics” or “imposed
etics”.
These interventions and their associated
assessment tools are often culturally
inappropriate and sometimes culturally
insensitive
Recommendation
Towards more complete and inclusive
theoretical models and formulations.
Culture, race, ethnicity accepted as
major moderator variables.
Research BOTH cultural validity of
western models and identify culture
specific variables that would provide
incremental validity
Educate psychologists to differentiate
between etic, emics, and imposed etics.
Formulations for Career Counseling
1. Personality Models
(e.g., Employee Selection Models)
2. Environmental Models
(e.g., Sociological, Organizational Culture)
3. Person X Environment Model.
Case example of “Imposed Etic”.
Dominant model but insufficiently
specified.
Formulations for Career Counseling
(a) Person X Environment = Match
= High Job Satisfaction;
= High Job Performance
(b) Person X Environment = Mismatch
= Low Job Satisfaction;
= Low Job Performance
Both the culture of the Person and the
Environment are ignored in this model.
Recommendation
Creating more complete models for
formulations in career counseling:
(a) Person X Environment = Match
= High Job Satisfaction;
= High Job Performance
(b) Person X Environment = Mismatch
= Low Job Satisfaction;
= Low Job Performance
(c) Person X Environment X P-Culture
X E-Culture
= Match = High JS & High JP
= Mismatch = Low JS & Low JP
Recommendation
New Formulations of Determinants of
Vocational Choice and Work Adjustment.
Old Formula:
Vocational Choice = Function (Individual’s
Interests + Ability + Values)
New Formula:
Vocational Choice = Function (Individual’s
Interests + Ability + Values) X (Family
Influences) X (Cultural Constraints) X
(Structural Inequalities)
Leong’s (1996) Integrative Model of
Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy
Leong’s (1996) multidimensional, integrative
model of cross-cultural psychotherapy found
its beginning in Kluckhohn and Murray’s
(1950) tripartite framework.
In their classic chapter, “Personality
Formation: The Determinants” Kluckhohn
and Murray (1950) introduced the tripartite
framework: “Every man is in certain respects:
a) like all other men, b) like some other men,
and c) like no other man” (p.35).
Leong’s (1996) Integrative Model
of Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy
Leong’s integrative model represented the
1950 model as consisting of three major
dimensions: Universal, Group, and
Individual.
He proposed that cross-cultural psychologists
and psychotherapists need to attend to all
three major dimensions of human
personality and identity to effectively assist
culturally diverse clients.
Leong’s (1996) Integrative
Model of Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy
Given the limitations of the three single-dimensional
models discussed above, Leong’s (1996) integrative
model of cross-cultural psychotherapy proposed that
individuals exist at all three levels, the Universal, the
Group, and the Individual.
What is required then is a model that integrates all
three dimensions and allows for dynamic and
complex interactions between psychotherapist and
client, as well as across dimensions.
As we have observed, the problem with many
psychotherapeutic models, especially current crosscultural models, is that they focus solely on one of
the three dimensions.
Leong’s (1996) Integrative
Model of Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy
Using the Hindustan parable of the elephant and the
ten blind men, Leong and Tang (2001) illustrated the
point that just as the ten blind men had to piece
together their individual knowledge to form the
whole elephant, we too need to put different
perspectives together.
By ignoring the relevance and importance of other
parts that exist, we limit ourselves from seeing the
whole picture and from complete solutions.
The Integrated Model can lead to better therapeutic
outcomes by providing a more complete and
complex and presumably more accurate picture of
the client.
Leong’s (1996) Integrative
Model of Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy
Leong (1996) further emphasized that effective crosscultural psychotherapy would need to appropriately
shift between dimensions as the psychotherapy
relationship develops.
The integrative model assumes that all three
dimensions are present in both the client and the
psychotherapist. Each dimension can serve as the
most salient factor in the psychotherapy relationship
at different times.
Moving Forward:
The Cultural Accommodation Model
The Cultural Accommodation Model (CAM)
is an extension of Leong’s (1996) Integrative
Model of cross-cultural psychotherapy
The goal of CAM is not to abandon current
theories and models and make new ones;
instead, the aim here is to identify variables
specific to cultural groups that can be
incorporated into the assessment and
formulations so that our psychotherapeutic
interventions are more effective and
culturally valid.
Cultural Accommodation Model
(CAM)
As outlined earlier, Leong and Brown (1995) raised
the concern that the cultural validity of every
psychological construct or model must be examined
before applying it to a cultural population different
from the cultural population for it was originally
developed.
Cultural validity must be evaluated in order to
increase the effectiveness of cross-cultural extensions
and applications of such models without limitation.
The many models being developed and based upon
White middle-class persons are only culturally valid
for that specific population and may be culturally
invalid for cultural and racial/ethnic minorities in
the United States and populations in other cultures.
Cultural Accommodation Model
(CAM)
Major Western models of psychotherapy:
1) are based upon a restricted range of persons (e.g.
White middle-class population);
2) are based upon assumptions of limited scope (e.g.
little room for variance in the Group dimension
model);
3) they tend to ignore or address in a limited way the
socio-political, economic, social psychological, and
socio-cultural realities of minority individuals (e.g.
tending to focus usually on one dimension).
Cultural Accommodation Model
(CAM)
However, while we know that not all theories are
culturally valid for populations culturally different
from the dominant culture, we should not
automatically conclude that all models are invalid.
We must carefully evaluate each model to determine
its cultural validity for other cultural groups first
before making any such conclusions.
Indeed, given the Universal dimension, most theories
will be partially relevant to all clients if they tap into
some universal elements.
Cultural Accommodation Model
(CAM)
Through careful analysis, we find “cultural
gaps” that are missing the necessary
components for enhancing the theory to
become applicable to ethnic and cultural
diverse groups.
The essence of the CAM is to provide a more
relevant, valid and predictive paradigm on
the personality and behavior of culturally
diverse populations as compared to
unaccommodating models.
Cultural Accommodation Model
(CAM)
The cultural accommodation approach involves a
three-part process:
(1) identifying the cultural gaps or cultural blind
spots in an existing theory that restricts its cultural
validity,
(2) selecting current culturally specific concepts and
models from cross-cultural and ethnic minority
psychology to fill in these missing components and
increase its effective application to the group in
question, and
(3) testing the culturally accommodated theory to
determine if it has incremental validity above and
beyond the culturally un-accommodated theory.
The Cultural Accommodation
Process
Once Western models of psychotherapy have been
reviewed with regards to their cross-cultural validity
and degree of cultural loading, then culture-specific
constructs need to be identified in order to fill the
gaps.
This constitutes the second step in the cultural
accommodation model. It is essentially an
incremental validity model whereby the universal or
culture-general aspects of these Western models need
to be supplemented with culture-specific
information.
It is proposed that adding the culture-specific
elements to the Western models in order to
accommodate for the cultural dynamics of racial and
ethnic minority clients will produce a more effective
and relevant approach to psychotherapy with these
clients.
The Cultural Accommodation
Process
The question then becomes what cultural variables should be
used for this accommodation process. There are a myriad of
cultural variables that may be implicated in the cross-cultural
dyad that constitutes the cross-cultural psychotherapy
encounter.
Our proposal is to be guided by the Evidence-Based Practice
(EBP) approach. As suggested by Cochrane (1979), we need to
be guided by a critical summary of the best available scientific
evidence for how we approach our practice.
It should be no different in how we select cultural variables for
accommodation in the current model. Namely, we need to go to
the scientific literature to identify those culture-specific
variables that have been systematically studied to use in
modifying our approach to psychotherapy with racial and
ethnic minority clients.
Culture-specific variables to accommodate for
when working with Asian American clients
Cultural Identity and Acculturation
Self-Construal
High context communication style
Shame proneness and loss of face
Interpersonal harmony and conflict
avoidance
Self-restraint, conformity, and
subordination to authority
Cultural Specificity from
Indigenous Psychologies
Berry, Poortinga, Segall, & Dasen (2002) had
articulated that the second important goal of crosscultural psychology is to “explore in cultures in order
to discover psychological variations that are not
present in one’s own limited cultural experience”
(Berry et al., 2002, p. 3).
This is the stage of the indigenous psychology
studies that address culture-specific phenomena and
emphasize that Western theories and models may
not have a universal validity.
Indigenous psychology seeks a bottom-up and
culture-specific (typically non-western) approach to
the study of culture.
Cultural Specificity from
Indigenous Psychologies
A quote from Durganand Sinha (1993) in his chapter on
indigenous psychology in India serves as an excellent example
of this motivational force behind the movement:
“When modern scientific psychology, based on the empirical,
mechanistic, and materialistic orientations of the West, was
imported into India as part of the general transfer knowledge, it
came in as a ready made intellectual package in the first decade
of the century. It tended to sweep away the traditional
psychology, at least among those who had been involved in
modern Western education. In fact, this transfer in a way
constituted an element of the political domination of the West
over the third world countries in the general process of
modernization and Westernization. The domination was so
great that for almost three decades until about the time India
achieved independence in 1947, psychology remained tied to
the apron strings of the West and did not show any signs of
maturing…….
Cultural Specificity from
Indigenous Psychologies
…….Very little originality was displayed, Indian
research added hardly anything to psychological
theory or knowledge, and was seldom related to
problems of the country. Research conducted was by
and large repetitive and replicative in character, the
object been to supplement studies done in the West
by further experimentation or to examine some of
their aspects from a new angle. Thus, the discipline
remained at best a pale copy of Western psychology,
rightly designated as a Euro-American product with
very little concern with social reality as it prevailed in
India. (p. 31).
Indigenous Psychologies
The movement to create local indigenous
psychologies in non-Western countries is a
reaction to Euro-American dominance, the
most salient aspect of which is the limited
attention in cross-cultural psychology to
issues that are relevant to the majority world,
like poverty, illiteracy, and so on.
In a sense, indigenous psychology was
developed in reaction to the increasing
monopoly and dominance of western models.
Indigenous Psychologies
Another important argument, of
concern, is theoretical: namely that
psychology by nature is culture-bound
and that each cultural population needs
to develop its own psychology (hence
our preference for the plural –
indigenous psychologies).
Three Approaches to Culture
Three separate culture-related
psychologies have arisen:
Cross-cultural psychology
Cultural psychology, and
Indigenous psychologies
Each has its own intellectual ancestors
and traditions and a unique history of
development
Indigenous Psychologies
As pointed out by Enriquez (1989, 1990), Kim and
Berry (1993b), Sinha (1993,1997), and Yang (1993,
1999), indigenization of psychological research has
become an academic movement among psychologists
and scholars in related disciplines in several
developing and developed societies (especially nonWestern ones).
This indigenization movement, which reflects a
worldwide concern for making psychological
knowledge culturally appropriate (Sinha, 1997), is a
direct reaction to the domination of Western
(especially American) mainstream psychology and of
Western-oriented cross-cultural psychology as applied
to non-Western societies.
Indigenous Psychologies
It represents non-Western psychologists’ selfreflective realization that they have been
completely wrong in regarding NorthAmerican psychology, which Berry et al.
(1992) and Triandis (1997) considered an
indigenous psychology, as the universal
human psychology.
In this respect, Triandis (1997) is right when
he says that the current (world) psychology is
one of the indigenous psychologies – the one
from the West.
Indigenous Psychologies
Various theorists have defined indigenous
psychology in different ways. Enriquez
(1990) regarded indigenous psychology as a
system of psychological thought and practice
rooted in a particular cultural tradition.
Kim and Berry (1993a) defined indigenous
psychology as ‘‘the scientific study of human
behavior (or mind) that is native, that is not
transported from other regions, and that is
designed for its people’’ (p. 2).
For Berry et al. (1992), it is ‘‘a behavioral
science that matches the sociocultural
realities of one’s own society’’ (p. 381).
Indigenous Psychologies
Ho (1998) viewed indigenous
psychology as ‘‘the study of human
behavior and mental processes
within a cultural context that relies
on values, concepts, belief systems,
methodologies, and other resources
indigenous to the specific ethnic or
cultural group under investigation’’
(p. 93).
Indigenous Psychologies
Yang (1993, 1997b) defined it as an evolving
system of psychological knowledge based on
scientific research that is sufficiently
compatible with the studied phenomena and
their ecological, economic, social, cultural,
and historical contexts.
No matter how these psychologists define
indigenous psychology, the definitions all
express the same basic goal of developing a
scientific knowledge system that effectively
reflects, describes, explains, or understands
the psychological and behavioral activities in
their native contexts in terms of culturally
relevant frames of reference and culturally
derived categories and theories.
Indigenous Psychologies
The primary goal of indigenous approaches is to
construct a specific indigenous psychology for each
society with a given population or a distinctive
culture.
After that, the specific knowledge system and its
various research findings may be used to develop the
indigenous psychologies of progressively larger
populations defined in terms of regional, national,
ethnic, linguistic, religious, or geographical
considerations.
Finally, the highest indigenous psychology, a
universal, or more properly a global, psychology for
all human beings on the earth will be formed by
integrating lower-level indigenous psychologies.
Indigenous Psychologies
Kim and Berry (1993a) have pointed out that
the indigenous approach is not opposed to
scientific (including experimental) methods
and that it does not preclude the use of any
particular method.
They have also asserted that the indigenous
approach does not assume the inherent
superiority of one particular theoretical
perspective over another on a priori grounds.
Indigenous Psychologies
Yang (1993, 1999) has recommended that
the principle of multiple paradigms be
adopted.
Under the principle, different indigenous
psychologists in the same society may be
encouraged to apply different or even
conflicting paradigms to their own
research.
This rule has been actually practiced
among indigenous psychologists in Chinese
societies (Taiwan, Hong Kong, and
mainland China) for some years.
Some examples
Hardin, E. E., Leong, F.T.L. & Osipow, S.H. (2001). Cultural
relativity in the conceptualization of career maturity. Journal of
Vocational Behavior,58,1-17
Pek, J.C.X. & Leong, F.T.L. (2003). Sex-related Self-Concepts,
Cognitive Styles, and Cultural Values of TraditionalityModernity as Predictors of General and Domain-specific
Sexism. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 6, 31-49.
Cheung, F.M., Cheung, S.F., Leung, K., Ward, C., & Leong,
F.T.L. (2003). The English version of the Chinese Personality
Assessment Inventory. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology,34,
433-452.
Chang, L.C., Arkin, R.M., Leong, F.T.L., Chan, D., & Leung,
K. (2004).Subjective Overachievement in American and
Chinese College Students. Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology, 35, 152-173.
Towards Indigenous Models
Desiderata: To question and challenge the cultural
validity and cultural specificity of the Western
models of career development and vocational
psychology which are currently using.
To use the Cultural Accommodation Model (CAM)
of career counseling and accommodate for culture
specific elements.
To join in the Indigenous Psychologies movement
and begin investigating indigenous constructs to
enrich our models and make them more culturally
appropriate and culturally relevant for our clients.
Therefore, I come to you today not with these
Indigenous models already developed but instead
with an invitation and call to join me in the journey.
Ways forward…. Speak your truth
quietly and clearly; Listen to others...
Fanny Cheung, Fons van deVijver, and I have a
paper on a combined etic-emic approach to
personality assessment across cultures. Our paper
ends with the following recommendation which is
relevant here:
“Given the complexity of the undertaking, it would
be most helpful use a team approach and to ensure
that both the etic and emic perspectives are
represented on that team. If possible, it would also
be desirable to have team members from multiple
cultures or at least a member of the target culture
who is familiar with indigenous psychology
constructs and approaches to ensure that the
indigenous perspective is represented.
Ways forward…. Speak your truth
quietly and clearly; Listen to others...
“To avoid “imposing an etic”, the research team
should invest time in evaluating measurement
equivalence of the measure at different stages as
outlined above. Members of this research team
should have knowledge of target cultures and of
methods to acquire this knowledge. At the same time,
researchers with knowledge of qualitative,
ethnographic methods, such as interviewing and
content analysis, as well as quantitative analyses and
cross-cultural methodology, should be sought out for
the team (Byrne et al., 2009).
Conclusion: Many Ways to be Human
For many years, Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of
moral development dominated the field.
Then in 1982, Carol Gilligan published “In a
Different Voice” as a more accurate description of
the moral and psychological development of women
and a critique of Kohlberg’s theory.
Kohlberg’s theory, like many other theories of that
time was both androcentric and eurocentric.
Like Gilligan, those of us at the forefront of crosscultural psychology need to challenge the existing
theories and the status quo.
Conclusion: Many Ways to be Human
Forrest Tyler, one of my professors at the University
of Maryland, put it succinctly when he observed
that..“there are many ways to be human”.
As cross-cultural psychologists, I believe that we
need to explore and research these “many and
different ways of being human” to counter our
natural tendency to view one way as superior and
those of others as inferior.
In recognition that there are many cultures in this
world and that each culture is inherently worthwhile,
we need to study these “cultural ways” in the myriad
forms and functions around the world.
Closing Thought:
On the need to infuse cultural diversity
into our theories and our practices
“What sets the world in motion is the interplay of
differences, their attractions and repulsions. Life is
plurality, death is uniformity. By suppressing
differences and pecularities, by eliminating different
civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and
favors death. The ideal of a single civilization for
everyone, implicit in the cult of progress and
technique, impoverishes and mutilates us. Every
view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture
that disappears, diminishes the possibility of life”
From: Otavio Paz,1967, in The Labyrinth of Solitude