The purpose of this investigation was to develop a conceptually grounded scale to assess cognitive aspects of color-blind racial attitudes. Five studies on the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) with over 1,100 observations provide initial reliability and validity data. Specifically, results from an exploratory factor analysis suggest a 3-factor solution: Unawareness of Racial Privilege, Institutional Discrimination, and Blatant Racial Issues. A confirmatory factor analysis suggests that the 3-factor model is a good fit of the data and is the best of the competing models. The CoBRAS was positively related to other indexes of racial attitudes as well as 2 measures of belief in a just world, indicating that greater endorsement of color-blind racial attitudes was related to greater levels of racial prejudice and a belief that society is just and fair. Self-reported CoBRAS attitudes were sensitive to diversity training.

Construction and Initial Validation of the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS)

Purpose The authors critically examined the quantitative measures of cultural competence most commonly used in medicine and in the health professions, to identify underlying assumptions about what constitutes competent practice across social and cultural diversity. Method A systematic review of approximately 20 years of literature listed in PubMed, the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Social Services Abstracts, and the Educational Resources Information Center identified the most frequently used cultural competence measures, which were then thematically analyzed following a structured analytic guide. Results Fifty-four instruments were identified; the 10 most widely used were analyzed closely, identifying six prominent assumptions embedded in the measures. In general, these instruments equate culture with ethnicity and race and conceptualize culture as an attribute possessed by the ethnic or racialized Other. Cultural incompetence is presumed to arise from a lack of exposure to and knowledge of the Other, and also from individual biases, prejudices, and acts of discrimination. Many instruments assume that practitioners are white and Western and that greater confidence and comfort among practitioners signify increased cultural competence. Conclusions Existing measures embed highly problematic assumptions about what constitutes cultural competence. They ignore the power relations of social inequality and assume that individual knowledge and self-confidence are sufficient for change. Developing measures that assess cultural humility and/or assess actual practice are needed if educators in the health professions and health professionals are to move forward in efforts to understand, teach, practice, and evaluate cultural competence. Acad Med. 2007; 82:548-557.

Measures of Cultural Competence: Examining Hidden Assumptions

This investigation reports on the development and initial validation of the Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW), which operationalizes the idea that racism has a host of psychosocial costs for White individuals. Data from 727 participants were collected in 3 interrelated studies that subjected the items to the rigors of both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Exploratory factor analysis results suggested a 16-item scale with 3 factors as follows: (a) White Empathic Reactions Toward Racism, (b) White Guilt, and (c) White Fear of Others. Results also indicated that participant responses were not simply reflections of socially desirable responding. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that the 3-factor model was a good fit for the data. Estimates of internal consistency, temporal stability, and construct validity are provided.

Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW): Construction and initial validation

Empathy and attributions of client responsibility for the cause of and solution to a problem were examined for 247 psychologists who were identified as having low, moderate, and high color-blind racial attitudes. Participants responded to 1 of 4 vignettes that controlled for client race (i.e., African American, European American) and client attributions regarding the cause (i.e., depression, discrimination) of a problem. Analyses revealed that the therapists’ level of color-blindness was directly related to their capacity for empathy and also to their attributions of responsibility for the solution to the problem with an African American client but not with a European American client. No relationship was found between therapist color-blindness and attributions of responsibility for cause of the problem. Implications of these results for counseling practice, training, and research are discussed.

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Effect of Therapist Color-Blindness on Empathy and Attributions in Cross-Cultural Counseling

http://www.wcwonline.org/pdf/paid/ren_48512d326f018WCW11.pdf

Critical Mass on Corporate Boards: Why Three or More Women Enhance Governance

A series of empirical studies was conducted to develop and validate the Quick Discrimination Index (QDI), a 30-item, Likert-type self-report inventory. The QDI measures attitudes toward racial dive...

Anne Dubuisson

Papers

Development and initial validation of the Quick Discrimination Index (QDI).