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Psychology International ◦ DEC. 2015

Applying child psychology research on a global scale By Niels Peter Rygaard, DPA

Niels Peter Rygaard, DPA, authorized clinical child psychologist, is the co-founder of FairstartGlobal and consultant in private practice for Danish special needs institutions, schools, foster families, social workers and clinicians. He can be reached by email. For more information on his work, please visit the FairstartGlobal website and view his publications.

CONTENTS

COVER: Applying child psychology research on a global scale ……..1

COLLABORATE! Re-entry friction: Exploring the potential to maximize gains from international immersion learning ………..…….4

Raising Safe Kids Program in Brazil ……….……….….…..…….7

Reaching out with APA’s Memorandum of Understanding partners……………….………....10

The Colombian Congress of Psychology and the First Regional Latin American Conference of Psychology: Building Capacity for our Region …………..………….11

APA participates in 20th World Congress of the World Federation for Mental Health……………….14

UN MATTERS: United Nations Celebrates 70 Years and Uses Psychological Science to Confront World Challenges……..….…….15

Selected Review from PsycCRITIQUES ......................21

ANNOUNCEMENTS ................25

Volume 26, Number 4, December 2015 For an online version, visit: www.apa.org/international/pi

NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS | DEC. 2015

APA Office of International Affairs

PSYCHOLOGY INTERNATIONAL

How Fairstartglobal.com Began

During a visit to Peru, I was struck that an orphanage in Arequipa, with 36 girls and just a $10 daily budget was able to educate all their girls. Some of the girls continued into higher education and became academics. The operating principle was quite simple and consistent with current research: The basic needs of any child includes having a few committed long-term adult caregivers and being connected to a group of peers over a long period of time. There were only five caregivers working all year round for practically nothing, providing these girls with a secure base, which significantly outweighs some of their horrific past histories. This experience gave me the idea of creating a global care education organization, that provides governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and caregivers of children without parents with a practical instrument for training in quality care.

I have worked in Denmark with children and youth suffering from early deprivation, insecure attachment and behavior problems. In 2005 I wrote (Continued on page 2)

Local FairstartGlobal instructor training staff in one of 8000 Indonesian orphanages.

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"Severe Attachment Disorder — a Guide to Practical Therapy," which was published in 10 languages within a short time period. This book publication sent me on a world tour to lecture, and study systems addressing the needs of abandoned children in all continents. I learned during this experience that the poor outcomes for children of foster and institutional care can primarily be ascribed to two factors: underprivileged and overworked caregivers who are working from outdated principles of foster care (such as in Romania in the 1990’s), and limited knowledge of research or the practical application of basic principles of relations-based treatment. Mapping the Psychology Research Dimensions of ”Quality Care”

The first step in creating a global care education organization began with spending two years analyzing the global situation of children who have lost parental care and creating a volunteer international discussion network of child-at-risk researchers to map the basic competences of quality care. The dimensions that were examined to determine quality care included:

How does stimulation activate one’s genetic makeup and affect brain development?

How does work on attachment based relations affect the same?

How does separation trauma affect social and cognitive skills?

How can you help children resolve traumatic experiences? Group dynamic and organizational psychology dimensions were equally considered and questions explored focused on the following:

How can you create non-violent, secure child groups?

How do the mindsets of caregivers and leaders affect decisions about care interactions?

How do staff-and-leader relations in institutions and foster care systems affect the quality of staff-child relations?

How do isolation or local integration of caregiver units affect developmental outcomes? Many discussants were involved in step one of the process, in particular Robert McCall and Chris Groark at the Pittsburgh University Office of Child Development, Charles Zeanah and Mary Dozier, and many others, to whom the author extends special thanks.

The second step was to take the results from the process in the first step as the basis for the design of a blended online and on-the-spot training program for staff and leaders in institutions, and for foster carers and their managers.

The third step, which I was able to take with support from the Danish Psychologist Association in collaboration with the Danish School of Health and Social Work, was to start a European Union (EU) granted project, translating and implementing the programs with local partner organizations in 10 EU countries from 2008-13. It worked well, not only in terms of improved child development, but also in creating local professional competence systems, and improved cooperation between staff and their institution leaders.

Spreading From Europe to Developing Countries

At the end of the European project, people started asking for the program from many countries, including Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. I co-founded FairstartGlobal in 2012 with IT expert Morten Jac. Initially, we developed programs from current research, provided them online for free and trained locals. Local professionals, major NGOs and governments were able to translate and implement the programs (assisted by the NGO Translators Without Borders), and adapt them to the local cultural context and situation.

In the first two weeks of the newly created NGO, FairstartGlobal, child psychiatry professor Kamikado Kazuhiro visited us from Japan, stayed for three days, and subsequently spent two years translating all our programs into

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Japanese at the Nagano University. He set out to implement Fairstart in Japan because of the limited foster care provider education. A few days after he left, leaders of foster care and institutional care in Estonia visited, and are now implementing the Estonian version of the program. I have had wonderful experiences implementing various versions of Fairstart, including cooperating with the NGO ReAct Indonesia, training the first 350 leaders from over 8000 Indonesian orphanages. Saths Cooper, president of International Union of Psychological Science, recently suggested that our team apply and evaluate the Fairstart programs in South Africa. Additionally, SOSChildren’s Villages has asked us to develop community strenghtening programs for Cambodia. In fact, to date we have received eight program translations for which we have not had the time to develop the online training.

An Opportunity for Young APA Psychologists to Acquire Skills

We are now working to create an online instructor’s education program, to provide local users a group of trainers who have more in-depth theory and practice skills, in order to empower local care systems. It’s built on the Harvard/MIT education platform EdX in cooperation with Aarhus University. A modest price will finance more free language versions. When completed, European Federation of Psychology Students has shown an interest in giving young psychologists the option of acquiring clinical, relational and organizational experience, as instructors using Fairstart for training staff groups in institutions and foster care systems. Perhaps volunteering to train caregivers may also be interesting for student APA members? The Spanish version is right at hand.

Research in the Growing World Number of Abandoned Children

Psychology research is increasingly shifting from focusing on individual therapy and group therapy to a global understanding of how radical societal changes produce effects on children and parents worldwide. The increases in global urbanization and migration seem to produce more single and isolated urban parents, which often weaken the strength of family bonds and long term relations for children. Urbanization also seems to affect birth rates and has turned the age pyramid upside down.

So Far…

The FairstartGlobal site provides three free training programss: one for working with ages zero to 6, one for foster care systems for childhood to age 18, and another for group care (residential or institutional) up to leaving care. Instructors provide 13-15 three-hour training sessions. The first part of the training utilizes videos and texts to go through principles of research based care (for example: How to work with insecure attachment responses in children). In the second part of the training sessions, a framework for discussions between staff and leaders helps participants plan how they will practice the skills acquired over the next two weeks, designing practices adjusted to their culture and circumstances. The last session covers follow-up discussions on implementation challenges. Evaluations conducted at the end of the training sessions are utilized to further refine future instruction of the program. If funding allows, the next steps will include strengthening community child care programs and programs for parents at risk for abandoning their children.

It’s Amazing

I remain in awe of the amazing work donated to expand Fairstart — from researchers, professionals of many disciplines and caregivers often working under dire conditions. My admiration for program users is summed up by this brief email from someone in Myanmar: ”Dear Sir, I have orphanage, 25 children, no money, we live in dictatorship. Please send me texts for the education, and I’ll translate them”. We sent her the materials, she did the translations in three weeks, while also getting married and completing her PhD.

Footnote: Papers referred to in the text are compiled on the Academia website (https://independent.academia.edu/NielsRygaard/Papers), also in Spanish and Chinese versions. Interested readers are referred to the debate article ”Infant Mental Health in the Global Village.” Co-editing a special issue of Journal of Infant Mental Health with Robert McCall and Chris Groark, we try to map efficient intervention programs by asking researchers to describe how their intervention programs and results affect local child policies in

developing countries. Ψ

https://independent.academia.edu/NielsRygaard/Papers



Re-entry friction: Exploring the potential to maximize gains from international immersion learning

By Lynette H. Bikos, PhD, and Elizabeth C. Dykhouse, MS

There are deeply held beliefs suggesting that returnees from international immersion learning programs (IIL) experience re-entry (or reverse) culture shock. Over the years the phenomenon has gone by a variety of names including the “re-entry worm” (Pusch, 1998) and the ”S” or “W” curve (e.g., O’Berg, 1954). The largely cross-sectional data associated with IIL have provided an inconclusive profile, indicating positive, negative and neutral effects, across a spectrum of outcomes (Bikos, Yamamoto, Dykhouse & Sallee, in press). Given the degree of individual and institutional resources that are committed to ILL, it is critical that this high impact experience facilitates relevant student outcomes. Consequently, identifying and enhancing factors that promote growth and mitigate decline is a priority for study abroad researchers.

For the past seven years, members of Lynette Bikos' doctoral research team in the department of clinical psychology at Seattle Pacific University (SPU) have been collecting, analyzing and applying the findings from longitudinal data associated with IIL. As with much longitudinal research, data collection is slow and attrition has been high. At this point nearly 200 IIL students have completed between one and seven surveys that begin at predeparture and continue at re-entry intervals of two weeks, six weeks, and three, six, nine and 12 months. For 24 students, qualitative interviews accompanied the quantitative measures. Although we have been using the data for program development and evaluation at SPU, we are just now at the point where the data are sufficient to analyze and publish.

Our surveys assess global learning and psychosocial outcomes. The surveys also include a variety of potential predictors such as program length and type, degree of predeparture/re-entry preparation/support, team cohesiveness, previous travel and language fluency. For example, Elizabeth Dykhouse’s doctoral dissertation is exploring changes in psychological well-being as a function of predeparture, psychological well-being, sociocultural adaptation to the host country, and cultural distance as measured by an economic indicator (i.e., the World Bank’s Gini coefficient — an index of income inequality). Preliminary analyses suggest that a cubic function best explains the data. After re-entry, most experience a

statistically significant dip in psychological


COLLABORATE!

Members of Lynette Bikos’ doctoral research team at a re-entry debriefing retreat (Fall 2014): (left to right) Mari Yamamoto, Elizabeth Dykhouse, Lynette Bikos, Rebecca Kramer, Heather Rodney, Kaitlin Patton



well-being. The lowest period occurs between four and five months then returns to the predeparture baseline between nine and 10 months. This trend is parallel for individuals, irrespective of their predeparture psychological well-being level. Curiously, those who have stronger sociocultural adaptation to the host country experience a greater decline in psychological well-being and take a month or two longer to return to baseline. The Gini coefficient has shown no effect on psychological well-being. These findings are relevant because they are the first to map a curvilinear re-entry trajectory resembling the reverse culture shock notion. More specifically, they imply that those who had the strongest in-country affiliation may require greater re-entry support.

We discovered a similar re-entry wrinkle in the presence of and search for calling (i.e., the degree to which an individual perceives an external summons to work that is prosocially oriented and perceived as purposeful) in 74 undergraduate students who participated in faith-based international service learning (Bikos, Rodney, Gowen, Yamamoto & Dykhouse, in press). Specifically, calling levels peaked between three and four months before returning to baseline at around seven months. The presence of calling was strongest for those who were persistent in searching for calling and who reported consistently high levels of religious faith.

These early analyses suggest that returnees do experience re-entry friction, that is, a change in the trajectory of these personal variables. These changes are not lasting; rather, students generally return to their predeparture level of functioning. We are curious about the potential offered during this period of unsettledness. Our first impulse may be to try to mitigate what we perceive as negative outcomes, yet this period of disruption may offer the opportunity for significant personal growth. For example, in two separate

studies, Hirschi and Hermann (2012, 2013) suggested that a temporary boost in calling was motivating/activating and led to involvement in career planning and strengthened vocational identity. Thus, the key for maximizing the opportunity in growth likely lies in predeparture and re-entry programming. Now that we can predict re-entry valleys and peaks at three to four months, we may time re-entry interventions more strategically.

Psychologists and psychology departments have much to offer in the development and delivery of these services. On our own campus, we have offered information learned from our research to the campus-wide global initiative task force. Additionally, we have partnered with an international service-learning program to participate in predeparture preparation and re-entry processing in our roles as “re-entry debriefing coaches.” Our coaches (doctoral students in clinical psychology) are available to groups and individuals to process the IIL program and re-entry. When we work with small groups we typically use a series of prompts to facilitate reflection. Examples include: “Think about the hardest experience during your program. What did you learn about yourself?” “Are there aspects of transitioning home that were/are difficult? If so, what were/are they?” “How does your experience shape your personal goals?” When the coaches meet individually, they invite the returnee to talk about “anything related to your IIL program.” The most frequent conversations include:




1. Making sense of discrepancies (e.g., values, living conditions) between the international location and home;

2. Travel frustrations such as team conflict;

3. Making major/career choices that involve an international and/or service component).

In January 2016, APA Books® will be publishing an edited text that focuses on providing practical tools for incorporating study abroad and domestic learning opportunities into the undergraduate psychology curriculum. Numerous examples of resources and activities that can be used at predeparture, in the culturally dislocated context and after re-entry are included (Gross, Abrams & Enns, in press).

Psychologists and psychology faculty may also involve themselves in multidisciplinary efforts to enhance personal and global outcomes associated with IIL. Our campus has been host to the re-entry conference, "Lessons from Abroad (http://www.lessonsfromabroad.org/)." Since 2008 the organization has served more than 2000 students (with 250 volunteers) at nearly 30 conferences across the U.S. Returnees participate in a day of presentations, workshops and facilitated table discussions about what it means to be a returnee and how the experience fits into career and educational plans. Another resource is, "Life after Study Abroad (http://www.lifeafterstudyabroad.com/)," a magazine that:

1. supports students with stories (invited from the readers) about the immersion and return,

2. provides resources for planning subsequent opportunities, and

3. connects the study abroad experience with educational and career opportunities. The editors supplement the annual print copy with a website featuring returnee contributions and conversations. Among a variety of disciplines, psychology faculty are contributing to the research seminar (2015-17), "Integrating Global Learning with the University Experience: Higher-Impact Study Abroad and Off-Campus Domestic Study (http://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/global-learning/)," at the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University, North Carolina. The information gleaned from the multiple institutional research projects emerging from the seminar will likely have important application to IIL.

References Bikos, L.H., Rodney, H., Gowen, M., Yamamoto, Y. & Dykhouse, E.C. (scheduled for publication, December 2015).

Effects of searching, faith, and time on the presence of calling in international service learning returnees.

Journal of Psychology and Christianity.

Bikos, L.H., Yamamoto, M., Dykhouse, E., & Sallee, O. (scheduled for publication, January 2016). Integrating off-

campus international experience into on-campus coursework and research. In D. Gross, K. Abrams, & C. Enns

(Eds). Internationalizing the Undergraduate Psychology Curriculum: Practical Lessons Learned at Home and

Abroad. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Gross, D., Abrams, K., & Enns, C. (Eds.). (in press). Internationalizing the Undergraduate Psychology Curriculum:

Practical Lessons Learned at Home and Abroad. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Hirschi, A., & Herrmann, A. (2012). Vocational identity achievement as a mediator of presence of calling and life

satisfaction. Journal of Career Assessment, 20, 309-321. doi:10.1177/1069072711436158.

Hirschi, A., & Herrmann, A. (2013). Calling and career preparation: Investigating developmental patterns and temporal

precedence. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83, 51-60. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2013.02.008.

O'Berg, K. (1954). Culture shock. Report No. A-329. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.

Pusch, M.D. (1998). Going home: Styles of reentry. In D. Lynch, A. Pilbeam, & P. O'Connor (Eds.), Heritage and

Progress, Proceedings from SIETAR-Europa Conference, Bath, England. Ψ

http://www.lessonsfromabroad.org/

http://www.lifeafterstudyabroad.com/

http://www.lifeafterstudyabroad.com/

http://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/global-learning/

http://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/global-learning/



Raising Safe Kids Program in Brazil By Maria Beatriz Martins Linhares, Psy, PhD, Elisa Rachel Pisani Altafim, Psy, MSc, PhD Student, and Maria Eduarda André Pedro, Psy, MsC Student

The ACT Program is an important initiative of the American Psychological Association Violence Prevention Office. Developed by Julia da Silva, with assistance from expert advisors, the program aims to enhance positive parenting skills and practices that can prevent, reduce or eliminate violence against and maltreatment of young children. The program is being implemented in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil by a team of psychologists and graduate students at the University of São Paulo, School of Medicine under a memorandum of agreement between APA and the university. Two research projects have been developed to apply the ACT Program with mothers of children from 3 to 8 years old. The research projects are:

1. “Evaluating the efficacy of a preventive intervention on parenting education practices”, conducted by Elisa Rachel Pisani Altafim, Psy, MSc, a PhD student (Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto — Universidade de São Paulo);

2. “ACT Raising Safe Kids Program: Adaptation of the prevention program for parental educational practices in a Brazilian sample”, carried out by Maria Eduarda André Pedro, Psy, a master’s degree student (Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto — Universidade de São Paulo).

History Interest in the ACT Program began when Linhares met da Silva at the Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Psychological Society in 2010. In the following two years, a series of emails, conference calls and Linhares’ participation in the ACT Program Annual Seminar in Washington, D.C. resulted in a memorandum of

agreement between APA and The University of São Paulo to implement the program. The next step, was conducting the first workshop in Ribeirao Preto facilitated by da Silva to train a team of psychologists and graduate students from the University of São Paulo and an invited group from the University Federal at São Carlos, led by Lucia Williams.

The ACT Program has been implemented at family health centers, the Brazilian equivalent of public community health centers, and at public and private pre-schools. Parents participating in the program at

the family health centers include those with large psychosocial risk, low education level and low income, and therefore at greater risk of intra-familial violence, inadequate parenting practices and complaints of child behavior problems.

In 2013, we started the "efficacy study," a project with a Brazilian sample of mothers of children from 3 to 8 years old in educational and health settings to assess the efficacy of the ACT program. The study design includes a wait-list randomized controlled trial. In 2014, we implemented the "adaptation project" to evaluate the effectiveness of the ACT Raising Safe Kids Program, adapted for a sample of Brazilian parents


Both projects are supervised by Maria Beatriz Martins Linhares, Psy, PhD, associate professor in the department of neuroscience and behavior, University of São Paulo, School of Medicine at Ribeirão Preto.

ACT Program workshop participants.



differentiated by socio-economic status (medium and low level). Both studies have the financial support from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo — Foundation for the Support of Research in the State of São Paulo.

Results

At this time, a total of 78 mothers have completed the program. Participants reported enjoying the program, learning important skills and parenting practices, and reported improvement in the relationship with their children. This is what some of the mothers shared: “I learned that I can greatly improve my relationship with my daughter. My daughter has to live in a well-structured home, with peace, love, affection, attention, limits and union.” “I learned that to realize my dream of my son being a great man, happy and successful, I need to take care of him without violence, fear and frustrations, treating him well, in a safe environment, with love, affection and respect.” “I learned to discipline with rules, give examples, not use punishment, educate, be present and always think about ways to prevent inappropriate behavior.”

The preliminary results of the ACT Program effectiveness as reported by mothers, showed that after the ACT intervention, they perceived a decrease in their children’s behavioral problems (total difficulties, peer relationships and conduct problems), and an increase in more pro-social behaviors. In addition, mothers of both socio-economic status levels (low and medium) improved their educational parenting practices after the ACT Program.

Next steps include the following:

conclusion of the randomized controlled trial efficacy study,

implementation of a continuing education program on child development and child maltreatment prevention for health professionals, and

establishment of new partnerships with local governments and foundations. Designing new ACT projects to address other populations, including mothers of hospitalized children, and

mothers with children with behavior problems previously diagnosed. Ψ

Congress Theme

Diversity in Harmony: Insights from Psychology July 24-29, 2016, Yokohama, Japan



As part of its reciprocal partnerships with national psychology associations in 18 countries (http://www.apa.org/international/outreach/understanding-memorandum/partners.aspx), the American Psychological Association provides support to U.S. psychologists to attend selected annual conferences of memorandum of understanding partner associations. This year, there were two programs — four U.S. psychologists attended the combined meetings of the Colombian National Psychology Association and Regional Latin American Conference, and six attended the annual meeting of the Mexican Psychological Society. The conference exchange program developed in collaboration with APA’s Committee on International Relations in Psychology is based on the idea that the best way to foster collaboration is to get researchers with similar interests in the same place talking about their work — and what better place than a conference!

The program participants, selected from a pool of close to 60 applicants, included graduate students, early career and more senior psychologists who met program criteria specifying research focus and interests. The participants’ conference experiences included attending sessions, presenting their own work, interacting with global, regional and local psychologists and psychology students, and sampling local culture and cuisine. At the Colombian conference, participants also engaged in a preconference capacity development workshop (see article this issue).

In addition to expanding their knowledge and understanding of psychology in Latin America, program participants expanded their international collaborations. Here are some of their comments:

“[I made].. a number of new professional connections in Colombia, one of which developed into a collaboration on a research project at the Universidad de Los Andes… and a divisional invited symposium … on family therapy around the world. Overall… this experience enriched me both professionally and personally.” Kristina Gordon, University of Kentucky and President Division 43.


By Merry Bullock, PhD

Reaching out with APA’s Memorandum of Understanding partners

Conference Exchange Participants in Colombia: From left: Kameron Sheats, Kristina Gordon, Diana Leyva, Ryan Blucker. Conference Exchange participants and colleagues from the Mexican Psychological Society (SMP), From left: Luis Alfredo Padilla López, Sandra Carina Fulquez Castro, Rachel Casas (APA participant), Liz Ornelas (APA participant), Elizabeth Terrazas Carillo (APA participant), Blanca Cecilia Montañez, Shayna Perry (APA participant), Saskias Casanova (APA participant), Alejandro Zalce Aceves (President, SMP), Martín Placencia, Amanda Clinton (APA CIRP member), Lizzette Ojeda (APA participant), Paulina Arenas Land-grave, Quetzalcoatl Hernández.

http://preview.apa.org/international/outreach/understanding-memorandum/index.aspx



“I most benefitted from the opportunity to meet Latin American psychologists who have similar research, clinical and training interests …. Making personal contacts is the key to advancing collaboration, and attending international conferences fosters those relationships.” Ryan Blucker, University of Oklahoma.

“…The conference was a catalyst for professional collaborations that will strengthen the scope and impact of psychology across the globe.” Kameron Sheats, CDC.

“As a result of attending the conference, I was invited to write a comment on a recently published book chapter on child development, co-authored by three prestigious Colombian researchers. I very much enjoyed this rare opportunity to read and reflect on the research conducted in Latin America.” Diana Leyva Davidson College.

"Attending the Mexican [conference] was a wonderful and productive learning experience for me and my students. We made new friendships with colleagues from both the U.S. and Mexico and have forged some exciting new collaborative possibilities. We will be returning to Mexico to visit a colleague at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California Guadalupe Victoria in January, 2016 as a result of this meeting. Thanks so much for giving us this opportunity!” Rachel Casas, California Lutheran University.

The program for 2016 will be organized in collaboration with the Psychological Society of South Africa to

attend their annual meeting in September in Kempton Park, Gautang Province. Application materials will

be available online in February 2016.Ψ

RECENTLY PUBLISHED

Caribbean Psychology: Indigenous Contributions to a Global Discipline

Edited by Roopnarine, Jaipaul L.; Chadee, Derek

“This book seeks to promote a more unified Caribbean psychology that goes beyond a Euro-American perspective to meet the unique needs of the cul-turally diverse inhabitants of this region and the diaspora.” From APA Books®.

http://preview.apa.org/pubs/books/4317385.aspx

http://preview.apa.org/pubs/books/4317385.aspx



The Colombian Congress of Psychology and the First Regional Latin American Conference of Psychology: Building Capacity for our Region By Wilson López López, PhD, María Constanza Aguilar Bustamante, and Pablo Vera

Villaroel

Last September, a combined Colombian national and Latin American regional conference were held in Armenia, Colombia. The Colombian Congress of Psychology and the First Regional Latin American Conference of Psychology were hosted by the Colombian College of Psychologists, and the Colombian Association of Faculties of Psychology, with support from the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), the International Association of

Applied Psychology (IAAP) and the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP). This was a landmark event in the history of Colombian psychology. There were more than 2200 participants, and over 1000 presentations in an intense agenda that combined a national, regional and international focus.

The international schedule, linked to the regional conference, had the goal of creating a framework for future work in Latin America, aimed at building and strengthening the capacities of psychology as a discipline and as a profession in our countries.

The conference was attended by representatives of psychology organizations in Mexico, Guatemala, El

Salvador, Cuba, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay

and Argentina: 15 countries in Latin America. We also hosted representatives of organizations linked to IUPsyS, IAAP and others such as the Ibero-American Federation of Psychology (FIAP) and the Interamerican Society of Psychology. Other organizations, such as APA, were also participants and observers.

The capacity development proposal was carried out using the United Nations Development Program methodology (2009), which aims to go beyond the development of tasks to create sustainable, lasting attitudes. This methodology involves five steps:

1. Identifying actors

2. Assessing capacity assets and needs

3. Formulating a program

4. Implementing it

5. Evaluating development For our exercise, we identified and consulted with a number of regional leaders or people with leadership potential, assessed needs and then grouped them into the four proposed topics for the workgroups:

1. Organizations

2. Training

3. Social Impact

4. International presence of Latin American psychology We also collected the experiences of organizations and leaders in the region such as the Sinergia project. After discussion, the outcomes of workgroups’ work were presented to all the capacity development session attendants for comment. This resulted in a longer, consensually-achieved document and a declaration that is


Participants attending the combined Colombian national and

Latin American regional conference.



intended to direct our actions in the future. The work carried out by each group will be a permanent resource for Latin American psychology.

This declaration (see box) is relevant for the context of Latin American psychology. With close to one million degree-holding psychologists, thousands of training programs and a growing scientific output, psychology in Latin America is stronger than ever before. The Latin American scientific literature is supported by more than 80 open-access psychology journals that are edited in the region and are accessible through the Redalyc system (PDF available at http://www.apa.org/international/pi/2015/12/colombian-congress.aspx), a project that has been promoted and supported by the Ibero-American organization of psychology associations, FIAP. Every journal in the system has achieved a high value in over 60 quality criteria and publishes abstracts in English and Spanish. Latin American psychologists also continue to publish in international journals in growing numbers, as shown by an increase from 308 papers in 2000 to 2241 in 2014. The dynamics of Latin American scientific output in psychology are being actively discussed, for example in the special issue of Información Psicológica devoted to Ibero-American psychology, or papers recently published in Universitas Psychologica, and a special issue that will be published shortly in Psicologia: Reflexão e Critica. The “Psicologia Coopera” project combines the efforts of over 300 researchers from 16 countries, working to increase the visibility of our regional knowledge (http://psicologiacoopera.org/). Despite strong development, psychology in Latin America faces many challenges that are reflected in the conclusions reached by the workgroups. These challenges include:

A need to foster the emergence of strong leaders in the region

A need to strengthen our organizations

A need to achieve better synergies among local, regional and international entities

A need to promote more collaboration and cooperation in every level

A need to strengthen communication processes and training in psychology Another most important need is to increase our participation in public forums, addressing both public policies and

public opinion, to enable us to work toward a more socially-oriented psychology that can help the most vulnerable

groups in our societies. All these issues are reflected in the Armenia Declaration, signed at the end of the

conference.

Armenia Declaration

The psychologists present at the capacity building meeting, representing 16 countries of Latin America, gathering at the Latin American Regional Conference of Psychology 2015, recognize:

The fundamental role of psychological science in the well-being of our societies and especially of the most vulnerable individuals and populations.

The need to strengthen professional and scientific organizations of psychology in the region to accomplish their mission.

The importance of an effective cooperation among national organizations and search for synergy with regional and international organizations.

The importance of interdisciplinary cooperation, based on scientific and professional strengths of psychology.

The need to promote training and professional behavior with high ethical and quality standards, within the context of diverse societies and cultures.

The relevance to promote participation of psychology in public policy, its incidence in the quality of life, social well-being and sustainable development, as well as the societal recognition of the profession.

We agree to promote actions that contribute to the attainment of goals derived from the present declaration.

Signed by representatives from: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas and Venezuela.

We are certain that this declaration will direct our future work in the region and we anticipate continuing to count on the support of APA for the development of these actions, which will translate into the improvement of

our societies in Latin America.Ψ

http://preview.apa.org/international/pi/2015/12/redalyc-journals.pdf

http://psicologiacoopera.org/



APA participates in 20th World Congress of the World Federation for Mental Health By Merry Bullock, PhD

In October, APA President-elect Susan McDaniel, PhD, and APA staff Merry Bullock, PhD, attended the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) Congress, a pre-congress workshop on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Classification of Disease (ICD) field trials, and a post-congress visit to a local psychology department in Cairo, Egypt.

The 20th World Congress of the WFMH brought together a broad, multidisciplinary mix of researchers, practitioners (primarily psychiatrists, but also family doctors, social workers, nurses and psychologists), patients and patient advocates to address the promotion of mental health and prevention and treatment of mental disease. There were several sessions on global mental health, child and adolescent mental health, and human rights and mental health/forensics. Given the location, many of the presentations focused on mental health in the Middle East and North Africa, including an historical overview. Local issues included stigma in mental health care; war, conflict and mental health, with some emphasis on Syrian refugees and how to serve them; what the refugees themselves say they need; and the many challenges that strain already-taxed national infrastructures in countries in the region. There were also sessions on female genital mutilation, and on the genetics and epigenetics of mental disease. McDaniel participated on a panel/roundtable on Dignity in Mental Health, the theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day (http://www.who.int/mental_health/world-mental-health-day/2015/en/), and gave a well-attended plenary talk on integrated primary care.

On the day before the congress, APA participated as observers at a workshop on the ICD field trials with colleagues from the Arab region. The workshop was led by Geoffrey Reed PhD, senior officer from WHO, who is leading the ICD revision process; Brigitte Khoury PhD, from Lebanon, who is part of the ICD review structure; and Kathleen Pike PhD, from Columbia University in the U.S., who will be housing the field trial data sets. Participants included leaders from clinics and hospitals in the Middle East region who will be participating in the field trials. In these trials, clinicians will provide data of the use of ICD-11 — these data will be collated and serve as an important resource for refining the ICD-11 and developing guidance material. The data will also provide an important research resource on clinical intervention.

During their stay in Cairo, McDaniel and Bullock also visited with local psychologists, including colleagues and students at the American University in Cairo (AUC), in a visit arranged by Mona Amer, PhD, a faculty member, and at dinner with other Egyptian psychologists. At AUC, psychology students and faculty joined in a roundtable discussion — topics addressed included principles, strategies and challenges in adapting psychology to serve local culture and needs, a topic that is especially relevant at a university like AUC, which uses a U.S.-based


McDaniel and Bullock meet with students and faculty at the American University

Cairo.



curriculum with an Egyptian student body, that will be providing services to the Egyptian population. They also noted the difficulties that arise when trying to develop a robust profession in a milieu in which there are strong political challenges, making it difficult to advocate for the regulation of the title of psychologist or for the practice of psychology.

Although Egypt has a long history of psychology in its universities and departments, psychology at present is not recognized as a health care profession. Bullock and McDaniel did learn of recent attempts to bolster the development and position of psychology through strengthening organized psychology — whether through a coalition of organizations or a single association.

Attending the four days of meetings in Egypt reinforced the importance of adopting a global view on mental health challenges, and mental health promotion, as well as the crisis situations faced by many in many countries

around the world.Ψ

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UN MATTERS

United Nations Celebrates 70 Years and Uses Psychological Science to Confront World Challenges By Juneau Gary, PsyD, Neal S. Rubin, PhD, ABPP, and Rashmi Jaipal, PhD

Juneau Gary, PsyD, (APA main representative to DPI) is a professor in the department of counselor education at Kean University

in New Jersey. Neal S. Rubin, PhD, ABPP (APA representative to DPI) is a professor at the Illinois School of Professional Psycholo-

gy of Argosy University in Chicago. Both are APA NGO representatives to the United Nations Department of Public Information

and are coeditors of this column. Rashmi Jaipal, PhD, is a cross-cultural psychologist with the Center for Cultures and Communi-

cation at Bloomfield College, an NGO representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for the Ameri-

can Psychological Association

This fall, the United Nations (U.N.) celebrated its 70th anniversary. At the celebration held at the U.N. on Oct. 24, 2015, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remarked, "The 70th anniversary of the United Nations is an opportunity to reflect — to look back on the U.N.’s history and take stock of its enduring achievements” (Strong U.N. Better World, 2015a). At this historic anniversary, we would like to take the lead of the Secretary-General and reflect on both the history of the engagement of psychologists at the U.N. and to provide a glimpse into the experience of serving as an APA representative at this world body. As we reflect on the priorities and accomplishments of the U.N., using a psychological lens, we are cognizant of how many of its objectives and interventions may be informed by psychological science and theory.

Psychology’s Influence at the U.N.

On Oct. 24, 2015, the Secretary-General continued, “Every day, the United Nations makes a positive difference for millions of people: vaccinating children; distributing food aid; sheltering refugees; deploying peacekeepers; protecting the environment; seeking the peaceful resolution of disputes and supporting democratic elections, gender equality, human rights and the rule of law” (Secretary-General’s Message, 2015b).

The traditional psychological view at the U.N. might be described as having a foundation in Maslow’s (1970, 1943) “hierarchy of needs” theory. Maslow postulated that people’s needs play a major role in motivating their behavior. People are motivated to fulfill basic needs first, before advanced needs are fulfilled. The two most basic needs include physiological needs followed by safety needs. Based on the Secretary-General’s remarks, many U.N. initiatives intervene at Maslow’s two basic levels of need. For instance, “distributing food aid” addresses physiological need while “vaccinating children” and “sheltering refugees” address safety need.

As we analyze the Secretary-General’s remarks further, we note that many of APA’s divisions’ knowledge base and expertise have the potential to inform these and other U.N. initiatives. For example:

1. Div. 34 (Society for Environmental, Population and Conservation Psychology) for “protecting the environment”;




2. Divs. 9 (Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues), 48 (Peace Psychology) and 52

(International Psychology) for “seeking the peaceful resolution of disputes”; 3. Div. 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) for “gender equality”;

4. Div. 52 (International Psychology) for “human rights and the rule of law.” A problem has been that as long as this traditional view of basic needs vs. psychological needs has been accepted, the promise of psychology’s principles and science seldom, if ever, received public recognition at the U.N.

Together with representatives of Member States, U.N. agencies, and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), psychologists have been updating Maslow’s model to emphasize how health and well-being are integral to the realization of addressing physiological and safety needs. In other words, today we advocate for a perspective that basic needs are a part of well-being and that there are deleterious and traumatic impacts, for example, when people live in insecure circumstances. Additionally, there is an interaction between these variables as psychological trauma reciprocally impacts the inherent resilience of individuals and communities to respond effectively to their insecurity. Currently, this more highly integrated view of the relationship between basic needs and psychological well-being is gaining acceptance in the human rights community for appreciating this complex interaction between security and well-being as essential to engendering sustainable development.

Within the past two decades, psychology organizations, including APA, have become increasingly active in forwarding this awareness at the U.N. APA was granted special consultative status as an NGO at the U.N. in 2000, accredited at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Department of Public Information (DPI). Currently, other psychological organizations with NGO status at the U.N. work together to support the awareness and influence of psychological science. They include the Association for Trauma Outreach and Prevention, International Association for Applied Psychology, International Council of Psychologists, International Union of Psychological Science, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. In the last few years, many of these organizations have collaborated to form the Psychological Coalition of NGOs Accredited at the U.N. (PCUN). This unity strengthens the awareness of the impact of psychological science for U.N. initiatives. The psychological organizations, through PCUN, have been successful in increasing awareness about psychology and exerting its influence.

Some of that influence is reflected in the way that representatives communicate, in a range of venues, the applicability of psychological science to fundamental human rights concerns. In so doing, the role of psychology organizations at the U.N. is to inform and educate the U.N. community about the policy implications and varied practical applications of the field of psychology to the many initiatives carried out by Member States and U.N. agencies. A representative, but not exhaustive, list of these issues has included the following:

1. Articulation of communication skills for peace building and principles of conflict resolution in the field of international relations;

2. Best practices in skills training and cultural sensitivity for humanitarian work in developing countries;

3. Intervention models to respond to refugee adjustment and mental health concerns;

4. Organizational psychology perspectives on good governance issues such as enhancing motivation and morale in the workplace;

5. Developmental psychology perspectives in family life, child care and education;

6. Advances in neuroscience and cognition integrated with medical care;

7. Social policy development to utilize behavioral analysis, for example, as implemented today in the White House.




The longstanding efforts of psychologists to impact the human rights vision of the U.N. have culminated in a series of recent seminal events. Some of these major accomplishments include the following:

1. Annually, U.N. psychology NGOs co-sponsor “Psychology Day at the United Nations.” This event, entering its ninth year, has focused on psychology’s role in, for example, mitigating health inequities and global violence as well as in promoting universal access to education;

2. In 2014, a panel of psychologists from several psychology NGOs addressed the U.N. about diverse aspects of global violence;

3. In 2014, in response to the Ebola crisis, psychologists organized a briefing on the psychosocial impact of the spread of Ebola in western Africa;

4. In 2015, a panel of APA psychology interns, representing the perspectives of youth at the U.N., addressed the U.N. NGO community about their interests and initiatives in international mental health that they plan to pursue as future psychologists;

5. In a 2015 culminating achievement, U.N. representatives approved, for the first time, the inclusion of the concepts of “mental health” and “well-being” into the U.N.’s sustainable development goals, the guiding force for U.N. initiatives and individual country initiatives for the next 15 years (Sustainable Development Goals, 2015c).

While these events represent the culmination of years of determined service by our psychology colleagues, we also wish to provide a picture of some of the daily experiences for one psychologist consulting at the U.N. For the remainder of this column, Rashmi Jaipal, PhD, a representative of APA’s U.N. NGO team and guest co-editor, shares her reflections about volunteering at the U.N.

A Week at the U.N.

Every September, there is a bustle of excitement at the U.N. The bustle is connected to the opening session of the U.N. General Assembly, which launches the work agenda for the world governments for the following year. For two weeks while the heads of state convene in New York City to present their statements to Member States of the General Assembly, the east side of Manhattan, where the U.N. is located, becomes jammed with traffic and is often perceived as a nuisance for people residing or working in the area. For residents and workers, it is hard to tell from the outside what is happening inside the U.N., and what it feels like when leaders of the 193 countries of the U.N. convene and consult. Therefore, I want to share some reflections regarding my wonderful experiences of being a representative of the APA NGO at the U.N. during the opening week of the General Assembly in September 2015.

Sustainable Development Goals and Inclusion of Psychological Principles

This year was particularly exciting because Pope Francis opened a special high level summit of the General Assembly to formally adopt the post-2015 agenda for sustainable development goals. This is a 15 year agenda for development worldwide. Its agenda is based on a paradigm shift from previous concepts of development. Now, in order for countries to be sustainable, development cannot be focused on economic development alone, but must be based on three interlinking pillars of sustainability:

1. Social

2. Environmental

3. Economic This agenda charts the steps required to build economically viable and peaceful societies, based not on separate targets, such as disease or poverty eradication, but on the interlinked goals of social justice, physical and mental health, economic well-being and protection of the environment.




A U.N. Open Working Group for Sustainable Development, consisting of representatives of Member States, was assigned the task of formulating this agenda. Country representatives worked with members of civil society to research current findings and best practices in a variety of disciplines. For psychologists at the U.N., it has been an exciting time. In past agendas, mental health has been a low priority for development, or not perceived as relevant at all. Therefore, it was a challenging process for representatives of various psychology NGOs to advocate for this inclusion. A coalition of psychology NGO representatives advocated for two years at the open working group meetings and achieved an unprecedented victory by getting the concepts of “mental health” and “well-being” included in the framework, alongside physical health. For the first time, psychologists were able to successfully call attention to the importance of psychological principles and psychological well-being for social development and they demonstrated how these concepts contribute to sustainability.

I have attended the open working group during the last two years while they compiled voluminous research from multiple sources to formulate goals. I witnessed some of the debates, tensions, conflicts and sticking points in the intergovernmental negotiations, such as how to implement:

1. Rule of law

2. Good governance

3. Peaceful societies

4. Reproductive rights These topics had to be intensely negotiated before an agreement could be reached. Moreover, the role of a “world government,” in which all countries have an equal voice, including the small island developing countries, the least developed countries, and the low and middle income countries, is critical. They are some of the most progressive voices. This collaboration cannot be underestimated, especially since the alternative of “no world government,” does not bear comprehension.

In discussions with critics, many believe the sustainable development agenda conceals structural inequalities, human rights violations, international power imbalances, and the transnational corporations’ unprecedented reach and influence, which are the real drivers of unsustainable development. These may all be valid observations and yet the process of 193 countries agreeing about the future course of global sustainable development is a monumental achievement that cannot be dismissed as yet another meaningless political agreement, after which it will return to business as usual and nothing has changed.

The spirit of the process has been amazing. People who attended the open working groups expressed a feeling that something special was happening. The energy, despite setbacks and conflicts, was positive with the debating of and engaging with ideas, and a genuine striving for cooperation. The level of excitement, enthusiasm and commitment for the boldness and audacity of this endeavor has been building, in spite of the initial skepticism and cynicism, as well as doubts about the ability to implement such a large program of 17 goals and 169 targets. I observed country representatives grappling with how to finance programs and initiatives to achieve the goals; how to implement the goals; how to monitor their implementation; how to gather outcome data and share knowledge and experience; and how to cooperate with each other in multilateral ways.

In 2010, in preparation for the post-2015 agenda, a U.N. conference on development was convened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The outcome of this conference led to the "World We Want" initiative (A Million Voices, 2013). Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an open and inclusive dialogue to shape this initiative, resulting in an unprecedented global conversation, involving more than one million people from around the world, via surveys, focus groups and consultations. Many leaders of countries exerted special efforts to reach out to marginalized and disadvantaged groups of all ages and ethnicities, for collaboration with the dialogue. These voices have traditionally been poorly or under-represented in the discussion on current and future development agendas.




This led to a major shift in paradigm from an emphasis on economic development as a solution to social problems, to a holistic model of sustainable development based on an understanding of the complexity and interconnections among issues. It is a move from the local to the global, or from grassroots concerns and input from around the world to shape a global platform of sustainable development goals. It is the most important thing happening in the world right now, directing the future of the planet and giving us the possibility of creating the "world we want."

Reflections

Significant events at the U.N. often get reported in the news and analyzed without the true flavor of the events or without providing their full context. Since the post-2015 agenda was approved, there has been an atmosphere of relief, celebration and pride at this significant accomplishment. There were many events to commemorate the occasion. For example, I attended a panel discussion on the topic of rural development, as it relates to the “economic” pillar of sustainable development, with five heads of state, including South Korea, Rwanda, Peru, Laos and Vietnam, along with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. A unique rural development program that propelled South Korea from extreme poverty to a developed country was discussed. It was wonderful to see these heads of state exchanging ideas and sharing their knowledge and experiences regarding rural development in their countries and what could work in other contexts. I attended other panel discussions related to sustainable development and other pressing matters. The president of Albania, the Jordanian foreign minister and an archbishop of the Holy See discussed promoting social harmony and religious tolerance in an interfaith dialogue, as they relate to the “social” pillar. A panel discussion about sustainable energy, as it relates to the “environmental” pillar, included representatives from Iceland, Norway, Germany and the private sector Ikea group. They discussed the use and development of renewable energy. Finally, a panel discussion with heads of state from Costa Rica, Estonia, Norway and Finland, discussing U.N. reforms, was informative.

The above examples are one of the things I love about being at the U.N. I observe leaders of various countries working together to help each other and offer viable solutions, which are rarely reported in the news. I learn about various successful programs and how government leaders tackle and overcome challenges. I tend to be fairly cynical and to disbelieve the positive success stories about a country’s programs, but I have been surprised to observe genuine engagement, commitment, and positive energy to tackle global and local problems. Sadly, the general public is unaware of positive events and initiatives such as these because they seldom get widely reported in the news.

It has been amazing to observe country representatives entering into the spirit of the endeavor, working collaboratively, and engaging with the process of formulating sustainable development goals. It is unprecedented in world history, in which leaders of countries, with all their conflicts, disagreements and differences; big and small; rich and poor; and powerful and fragile, have actually agreed on an incredibly ambitious, complex and progressive agenda for the future of the world. Moreover, their collaborations were inclusive as for the first time they sought the voices, knowledge and active participation of civil society, NGOs and grassroots organizations from all over the world.

Conclusion

We should therefore make a note of Sept. 25, 2015. This date marks the formal adoption of the post-2015 agenda and signifies the historic paradigm shift that is taking place in "transforming our world," the motto of the sustainable development goals (Transforming Our World, 2015d).

This positive and constructive "spirit of peace" energy followed me home from the opening week at the U.N. Locals were loving and kind to each other on the New York City subway — couples, families, a man and his pet dog. This is an example of what the world could be like if the sustainable development goals (and Pope Francis)




have their way. Thanks to the U.N., something very good is happening in our world at a not-so-subterranean level. It will eventually start rising to the surface to be experienced by everyone — a kind and peaceful world. I want to mark this historic and momentous occasion, and raise it as a bulwark against the tide of conflict, violence and suffering being reported on a daily basis by the media.

The U.N. feels like home, in which all of the world's people come together to put their best foot forward. Its role is only going to grow in the future and become more important as the sustainable development goals start to be implemented, and hopefully power shifts away from a few super powers and corporations to the U.N. Member States — the people of the world and their world government.

References

Maslow, A.H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-396. doi: 10.1037/h0054346.

Maslow, A.H. (1970). Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Row.

United Nations. (2013). Secretary-General’s remarks at press conference to launch “A Million Voices: The World We Want.” Retrieved from http://www.un.org/sg/offthecuff/index.asp?nid=2981.

United Nations. (2015a). Strong U.N. Better world. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/un70/en.

United Nations. (2015b). Secretary-General's message regarding the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/un70/en/content/sgmessage.

United Nations. (2015c). Sustainable development goals. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/.

United Nations. (2015d). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Retrieved from http://

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International Book Review: Selected Review from PsycCRITIQUES The book review reprinted here is courtesy of PsycCRITIQUES editor Danny Wedding. PsycCRITIQUES is an online journal that

provides reviews of books, monographs, films, and other productions in psychology stretching back to 1956. Readers can also access selected

reviews and discuss books important to the science and profession of psychology by visiting the PsycCRITIQUES blog at

psyccritiquesblog.apa.org. For more information see www.apa.org/psyccritiques. If you are interested in reviewing, please contact editor

Danny Wedding at [email protected].

Understanding multicultural identities and experience: A

collection of views and approaches

A review of

The Oxford Handbook of Multicultural Identity

By Verónica Benet-Martínez and Ying-yi Hong (Eds.)

London and New York: Oxford University Press, 2014 560 pp.

ISBN: 9780199796694. $185.00

Reviewed by Bernardo M. Ferdman, PhD

PsycCRITIQUES CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY: APA REVIEW OF BOOKS American Psychological Association

The coexistence of people from many cultural traditions and backgrounds is part and parcel of contemporary communities and societies around the world. Indeed, although intercultural contact has been part of human experience since prehistoric times, globalization together with other factors has accelerated its occurrence as a common facet of everyday life for more and more people in more and more places. As members of two or more groups differing in both identity and culture come together in one social setting — whether an organization, a community or a society — to create multicultural spaces, they must find ways, both individually and collectively, to manage their coexistence and their differences (Ferdman, 1992; Ferdman & Deane, 2014). Multiculturalism has to do with this concurrence, combination, and mutual influence of identities and cultures.

In that context, a key issue for psychologists involves describing and understanding the interplay of multicultural influences within individuals — for example as they form and express an identity or as they engage within or across cultural or other boundaries — together with the antecedents and consequences of this process in its various manifestations. Because individuals in multicultural settings are exposed to multiple cultural influences, or have backgrounds in more than one cultural group, they may develop and manifest identities that reflect and even combine more than one source. Similarly, multicultural experience may be manifested in other ways, including the


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ways in which cultures are expressed or changed and in the relationships of people to each other.

There are many psychological questions about multicultural identities, including the following illustrative examples:

What exactly is a multicultural identity?

How do people combine more than one background in forming an identity?

How do they do it in ways that are healthy?

How are identities, in general, formed in multicultural settings? Psychological exploration of multiculturalism also involves deepening our understanding of multicultural experiences and their implications. Some questions in this context include the following:

How do people make sense of and/or combine multiple cultural influences?

Which cultural influences predominate for different types of individuals under different conditions and given different types of intergroup relations or organizational and societal approaches to handling cultural diversity?

What are the implications of multiple cultural influences and various ways of handling them for people’s development, adjustment and other psychological and social processes?

Filling a Gap in Multicultural Psychology

Having been interested in and focused on the psychology of multiculturalism and on issues of diversity, cultural identity and intercultural contact throughout my career, I was eager and excited to receive and read The Oxford Handbook of Multicultural Identity, in which editors Verónica Benet-Martínez and Ying-yi Hong bring together a distinguished and impressive set of 47 authors in 22 chapters to address focal aspects of multicultural identity and experience. Although multicultural psychology — which according to Leong (2014) combines racial and ethnic minority psychology, cross-cultural psychology and cultural psychology, and which Hall (2009) described as “the study of the influences of multiple cultures in a single context on human behavior” (quoted in Hall, 2014, p. 3) — has made and continues to make rich, expanding and much-needed contributions, I believe that it has not yet sufficiently addressed — especially in a focused, systematic and integrated fashion — the particular issues, perspectives, identities and experiences of individuals who themselves integrate multiple cultural influences. With some exceptions, including prior work by authors represented in The Oxford Handbook of Multicultural Identity, multicultural psychology has not fully grappled, for example, with multiplicity in identity as it is manifested within one individual. Thus, I heartily welcomed the effort by Benet-Martínez, Hong, and the contributors to their book to address this gap and, as they claim in Chapter 1, “provide the first comprehensive review of the scholarly empirical and theoretical work on the psychology of multicultural identities and experiences (and related topics) . . . and address some important basic . . . and applied issues . . . that have yet to receive the necessary attention” (p. 3).

Toward this end, Benet-Martínez and Hong’s volume brings together primarily social psychological perspectives, with additional contributions from counseling psychology, developmental psychology, communication, education, marketing, organizational behavior and speech-language communication. Chapter authors represent institutions in ten different countries (with some authors simultaneously based in two or three countries): Of the 47 authors, 28 are based in the United States, six in the Netherlands (with one also in Australia and South Africa), five in Singapore (with two also in China), three in Canada, two in

United Kingdom, one in Spain and one in Norway. The handbook is part of the Oxford Library of Psychology, an impressive set of dozens of volumes providing thorough and systematic coverage across psychology.

Overall, the handbook is a very useful and much-needed resource. It provides, in one place, access to thorough and thoughtful reviews of key topics in the psychology of multiculturalism, serving as a one-stop location for overviews of notable current perspectives, research programs and theoretical frameworks. For example, in




Chapter 4, Schwartz, Vignoles, Brown and Zagefka, in an account grounded in social identity theories and constructed through the lenses of intergroup and intragroup processes, provide a broad-ranging and dynamic perspective on how identity connects to both acculturation and multiculturalism. This chapter is in part one of the volume, which covers "Definitional Issues and Basic Processes," and also includes the intersection of social cognition and cultural neuroscience in relation to multiculturalism (Hong and Khei, Chapter 2), and bilingualism and its cognitive, speech-language, personality and emotional correlates (Ramírez-Esparza and García-Sierra). Part two, with five chapters, focuses on "The Social-Psychological Context" of multiculturalism and addresses the dynamics of multicultural identities in their social and societal contexts. Berry and Sam (Chapter 5), for example, discuss a powerful and integrative model of the interplay of cultural, social and linguistic components of multiculturalism policies as these relate to policy goals. This section also includes reviews of the interplay of identity and intergroup relations (Deaux and Verkuyten, Chapter 6), the antecedents and outcomes of “identity denial” (Sanchez, Shih, and Wilton, Chapter 7), intersectionality (Settles and Buchanan, Chapter 8) and globalization (Leung, Qui, and Chiu, Chapter 9). In part three, which focuses on measurement and validity, Celenk and van de Vijver (Chapter 10) provide a very useful list of publicly available acculturation measures — a resource I can anticipate frequently revisiting. Parts four, five and six venture beyond social psychology to address individual differences; development, education and counseling; and additional applications in organizations, marketing, diversity policy and conflict management. For example, van der Zee and van Oudenhoven (Chapter 12) provide a thorough and thoughtful review of the connection between Big Five personality traits and success in intercultural situations (though focused most on immigrants), Banks (Chapter 17) discusses the role of education in the context of cultural identity development and globalization, and Brannen and Lee (Chapter 19) bridge the literatures in psychology and organizational behavior to assess the role of biculturals in the workplace.

Given its comprehensive coverage and its singular configuration, Benet-Martínez and Hong’s contribution fills a unique gap in the field and will most likely be a much-used resource. I have already assigned some of the chapters in more than one of my graduate-level courses, and I will come back to the book for quick references and overviews of many of the subjects it covers. I suspect that some professors will also construct thorough courses on multicultural identity and experience centered on the handbook. And the juxtaposition in the volume of so many key perspectives and frameworks related to multicultural identity and experience in itself may help to drive more advanced and integrated work on these topics.

In light of the volume’s merits, Benet-Martínez and Hong received the 2015 Ursula Gielen Global Psychology Book Award from Div. 52 (International Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, which annually recognizes a book making the greatest contribution to psychology as an international discipline and profession. Indeed, I believe that Benet-Martínez and Hong have provided a very valuable service in conceiving and creating this collection.

Where Is the Integrative Framework for Multicultural Identity and Experience?

Yet, in spite of the book’s many merits, I found myself disappointed. My disillusionment was primarily rooted in the lack of an apparent conceptual framework to integrate and connect the chapters. The book includes a brief and mostly descriptive introductory chapter, and no integrative or concluding chapter. Additionally, chapter authors are left to provide their own, often disparate views of the many other core foundational concepts on which the volume presumably builds: multiculturalism, identity, culture, and their relationships. Although there are some cross-references across chapters, there is no coherent definition of or framework for multiculturalism, multicultural identity, or multicultural experience that cuts across the book, nor any attempt to compare or integrate chapter authors’ multiple perspectives. Admittedly, it may not be possible at this point to construct such a unifying view, but the book’s readers are left to sort out the similarities and differences and to construct an overarching framework on their own, which could be particularly daunting to anyone starting out in this field, trying to discover its core insights, or simply seeking to find out what, if any, is the consensus among its key




scholars. As I read, I found myself wishing that the editors had done more to ask their contributors to remove extraneous details, add more details where necessary, and provide additional connections to key themes and issues in the book.

In Chapter 13, for example, Cheng, Lee, Benet-Martínez and Huynh define “multiculturalism as a psychological process, defined by an individual’s subjective sense of belonging to more than one cultural group” (p. 277); yet in various other chapters, multiculturalism is framed in terms of exposure to multiple cultures and its implications. Also, Cheng et al.’s definition does not encompass questions about how identities are constructed in a multicultural space, which in my view is a core issue in the psychology of multicultural identity. Even in addressing the issue of multicultural people — described as individuals who combine two heritages — many of the chapters seem to reinforce a fixed and somewhat reified view of culture. I would have preferred a more dynamic view of culture — especially apt and realistic in the context of transitions and multicultural contact (e.g., Ferdman & Horenczyk, 2000). In general, more focus and clarity on concept of culture itself — at the individual, group or societal levels and particularly as viewed from a multicultural lens — would have greatly enriched the volume. Similarly, various authors seem to conflate identity with culture, immigration status and various other overlapping but distinct concepts, in spite of prior arguments for the importance of differentiating among these (see, e.g., Ferdman, 1990, 1992, 1995, on identity vs. culture and cultural identity). Too many of the chapters focus primarily on immigrants, and others seem to equate minority status with being multicultural, both approaches that constrain the possibility of looking at multiculturalism in a more contemporary and future-oriented perspective, one that more focally takes into account the ways in which intercultural contact and cultural mixing are becoming much more globally normative, and that in most cases also applies to dominant populations.

Ultimately, a stronger editorial presence, perhaps in each chapter, but certainly in providing an integrative framework and perspective, would have been likelier to have produced a more cohesive and forward-looking contribution. (Related to this, perhaps, I was quite surprised to encounter many errors in spelling, formatting, names — including that of the first name of the president of the United States — and other details that should have been attended to in the editorial process.)

Ultimately, The Oxford Handbook of Multicultural Identity is an important and necessary collection providing both wide-ranging and deep access to key issues, perspectives, theory and research on multicultural identities and experiences in their societal and social psychological contexts. At the same time, it leaves for the future the

development of a comprehensive framework that cuts across and integrates the contributions to this area. Ψ

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