Culture+Sensitive+Assessment+Lit+Review

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 Assessments are often utilized in the counseling setting for a variety of purposes. In the [|career counseling] field, assessments are utilized to determine a client's interests, skills, and career goals. The instruments can be beneficial to both counselors and clients as they provide insight and direction. The key in appropriately utilizing assessments is to take into account all aspects of the client's life and personality, including their cultural background. While the concept of taking another person's cultural background into consideration seems simple, the execution may be more difficult. It is important for a counselor to develop a distinct plan for understanding cultural differences and have sense of self-awareness in order to develop one's cultural competence in assessment.  The [|American Counseling Association] (ACA) [|Code of Ethics] (2005) outlines the importance of being culturally aware when utilizing assessment instruments. It states in Standard E.8 that “Counselors use with caution assessment techniques that were normed on populations other than that of the client. Counselors recognize the effects of age, color, culture, disability, ethnic group, gender, race, language preference, religion, spirituality, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status on test administration and interpretation, and place test results in proper perspective with other relevant factors.” (ACA, 2005) Ethically, it is a counselor’s responsibility to provide a culturally appropriate assessment to clients. However, there may be some barriers to doing so.  Given that the scenario presented is focused on career counseling, it seemed imperative to examine pertinent aspects of career counseling. There are some underlying values associated with career counseling which include individualism, affluence, opportunity to all, and linearity of the career counseling process. (Anderson, Peila-Shuster, & Aragon, 2012) Furthermore, upon examining the history of career assessment tools, it becomes clear that most of these tools were developed from the perspective of a white male and used the same directions, questions, and interpretations for all people regardless of culture or gender. While some of these assessment tools have been reviewed and edited to become more inclusive, it is important to be aware of this origin (Harrington & Long, 2013). If assessments are given solely to determine if a person meets all of these criteria, it may be less of an indication of their skills or interests and more of an indication that they do not fit into the mold of the dominant culture. In career counseling and in the typical counseling setting, counselors should approach clients first as a cultural entity before using any assessment instruments. The instruments that are chosen should be multisource, multilevel and multimethod approaches to determine a client’s capabilities, potential, and limitations. (Ibrahim & Arredondo, 1986)  [|Braun, Fine, Greif, and Devenny (2010)] suggest that the best way to provide a multisource, multilevel, and multimethod approach is through a more [|holistic] approach, which addresses the client’s needs through nine comprehensive steps. The nine steps include increasing self-awareness of the counselor, accounting for a client’s multiple identifications, forming a working hypothesis before administering assessment instruments, establishing a client’s base rate, considering sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts, incorporating a client’s unique qualities, determining if physical factors are influencing a client’s situation, investigating co-occurring psychological conditions and/or stressors, and observing that multiple identities can shift over time. Braun et al. (2010) suggest that if these steps are followed, it will provide a well-rounded picture of the client. Ultimately, this methodology places the client as a person before the results of an assessment and can enhance the quality of care to clients.  The most important tool in effectively embracing multi-cultural assessment is the counselor. Anderson et al. (2012) suggest that counselors develop an integrated approach to developing their sense of cultural awareness. They suggest that the counselor examine their own culture and privilege and come to terms with their own values and biases. They further outline the importance of understanding the ethical standards set forth by the ACA that address multicultural assessment, which encourage the development of skills and instruments that encompass a variety of cultures. Utilizing an integrated approach allows the counselor to maintain personal ethics and values while concurrently adopting those of the profession. Harrington and Long (2013) state that the most effective components of [|cross-cultural counseling] are the people who provide it. They go on to say that “positive orientation, flexibility, competence, good mental health, and the ability to work creatively with clients are not only helpful, but critical assets for all practitioners within the field” (Harrington & Long, 2013 p. 89-90)  While it is clear that it is an ethical mandate to provide culturally appropriate assessments to clients, this may prove to be difficult due to a number of assessments being normed primarily on dominant cultures. However, with self-awareness on the part of the counselor and the desire to develop a well-rounded picture of the client, it is possible to do.