This study investigated the validity of 2 instruments designed to measure the multicultural counseling competencies (MCC). Fifty-five counselors participated in a counseling simulation involving a videotaped portrayal of a female Mexican American client at a predominantly White university. Counselors made attributions about the causes of the client's problem and completed a self-report MCC scale and a social desirability scale. Independent judges evaluated counselors' verbal responses for multicultural content and observed MCC. Results indicate that (a) there was little relation between self-and other-rated MCC, in which only self-reported MCC knowledge was a predictor of observed MCC; (b) self-reported MCC was positively associated with social desirability; and (c) observed MCC was positively associated with sociocultural etiology attributions, external locus of the cause attributions, and multicultural verbal content.
Concern over the applicability of generic counseling methodshas become a critical focus of theory, training, and research inquiry over the past 20 years as counseling psychologists have prepared for rapid social changes in the cultural milieu of the United States. The Education and Training Committee of Division 17 of the American Psychological Association (Sue et al., 1982) established a set of cross-cultural counseling competencies they recommended as accreditation criteria for training programs in professional psychology. The original 10 cross-cultural counseling competencies were expanded by Sue, Arredondo, and Mc-
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