Stanley Sue

Bio: Stanley Sue is an academic researcher from University of California, Davis. The author has contributed to research in topics: Mental health & Ethnic group. The author has an hindex of 61, co-authored 128 publications receiving 14952 citations. Previous affiliations of Stanley Sue include University of California & University of Washington.

Community Mental Health Services for Ethnic Minority Groups: A Test of the Cultural Responsiveness Hypothesis.

Abstract: This study investigated services received, length of treatment, and outcomes of thousands of Asian-American, African-American, Mexican-American, and White clients using outpatient services in the Los Angeles County mental health system. It tested the hypothesis that therapist-client matches in ethnicity and language are beneficial to clients. Results indicate that Asian Americans and Mexican Americans underutilized, whereas African Americans overutilized, services. African Americans also exhibited less positive treatment outcomes. Furthermore, ethnic match was related to length of treatment for all groups. It was associated with treatment outcomes for Mexican Americans. Among clients who did not speak English as a primary language, ethnic and language match was a predictor of length and outcome of treatment. Thus, the cultural responsiveness hypothesis was partially supported.

Asian-American educational achievements: A phenomenon in search of an explanation.

Abstract: Considerable attention has been paid to the academic achievements of Asian Americans because there is convergent evidence that this population has attained high educational mobility. In trying to explain the achievement patterns, researchers have largely limited their investigations to one of two contrasting hypotheses involving (a) hereditary differences in intelligence between Asians and Whites and (b) Asian cultural values that promote educational endeavors. Research findings have cast serious doubt over the validity of the genetic hypothesis. Yet, there has been a failure to find strong empirical support for alternative hypothesis concerning cultural values. It is proposed, under the concept of relative functionalism, that Asian Americans perceive, and have experienced, restrictions in upward mobility in careers or jobs that are unrelated to education. Consequently, education assumes importance, above and beyond what can be predicted from cultural values. Research and policy implications of this view are noted.

The role of culture and cultural techniques in psychotherapy. A critique and reformulation.

Abstract: This article examines the role of cultural knowledge and culture-specific techniques in the psychotherapeutic treatment of ethnic minority-group clients. Recommendations that admonish therapists to be culturally sensitive and to know the culture of the client have not been very helpful. Such recommendations often fail to specify treatment procedures and to consider within-group heterogeneity among ethnic clients. Similarly, specific techniques based on the presumed cultural values of a client are often applied regardless of their appropriateness to a particular ethnic client. It is suggested that cultural knowledge and culture-consistent strategies be linked to two basic processes— credibility and giving. Analysis of these processes can provide a meaningful method of viewing the role of culture in psychotherapy and also provides suggestions for improving psychotherapy practices, training, and research for ethnic-minority populations.

Use of Mental Health-Related Services Among Immigrant and US-Born Asian Americans: Results From the National Latino and Asian American Study

Abstract: Objectives. We examined rates of mental health–related service use (i.e., any, general medical, and specialty mental health services) as well as subjective satisfaction with and perceived helpfulness of care in a national sample of Asian Americans, with a particular focus on immigration-related factors.Methods. Data were derived from the National Latino and Asian American Study (2002–2003).Results. About 8.6% of the total sample (n=2095) sought any mental health–related services; 34.1% of individuals who had a probable diagnosis sought any services. Rates of mental health–related service use, subjective satisfaction, and perceived helpfulness varied by birthplace and by generation. US-born Asian Americans demonstrated higher rates of service use than did their immigrant counterparts. Third-generation or later individuals who had a probable diagnosis had high (62.6%) rates of service use in the previous 12 months.Conclusions. Asian Americans demonstrated lower rates of any type of mental health–related ser...

Considering context, place and culture: the National Latino and Asian American Study

Abstract: This paper provides a rationale for, and overview of, procedures used to develop the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). The NLAAS is nationally representative community household survey that estimates the prevalence of mental disorders and rates of mental health service utilization by Latinos and Asian Americans in the US. The central aims of the NLAAS are to: 1) describe the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders and the rates of mental health services use for Latino and Asian American populations using nationwide representative samples of Latinos and Asian Americans, 2) assess the associations among social position, environmental context, and psychosocial factors with the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and utilization rates of mental health services, and 3) compare the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders, and utilization of mental health services of Latinos and Asian Americans with national representative samples of non-Latino whites (from the National Comorbidity Study-Replication) (NCS-R) and African Americans (from the National Survey of American Life) (NSAL). This paper presents new concepts and methods utilized in the development of the NLAAS to capture and investigate ethnic, cultural and environmental considerations that are often ignored in mental health research.

The WEIRDest People in the World

Abstract: Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior in the world's top journals based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Researchers - often implicitly - assume that either there is little variation across human populations, or that these "standard subjects" are as representative of the species as any other population. Are these assumptions justified? Here, our review of the comparative database from across the behavioral sciences suggests both that there is substantial variability in experimental results across populations and that WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual compared with the rest of the species - frequent outliers. The domains reviewed include visual perception, fairness, cooperation, spatial reasoning, categorization and inferential induction, moral reasoning, reasoning styles, self-concepts and related motivations, and the heritability of IQ. The findings suggest that members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans. Many of these findings involve domains that are associated with fundamental aspects of psychology, motivation, and behavior - hence, there are no obvious a priori grounds for claiming that a particular behavioral phenomenon is universal based on sampling from a single subpopulation. Overall, these empirical patterns suggests that we need to be less cavalier in addressing questions of human nature on the basis of data drawn from this particularly thin, and rather unusual, slice of humanity. We close by proposing ways to structurally re-organize the behavioral sciences to best tackle these challenges.

A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition.

Abstract: Stereotype research emphasizes systematic processes over seemingly arbitrary contents, but content also may prove systematic. On the basis of stereotypes' intergroup functions, the stereotype content model hypothesizes that (a) 2 primary dimensions are competence and warmth, (b) frequent mixed clusters combine high warmth with low competence (paternalistic) or high competence with low warmth (envious), and (c) distinct emotions (pity, envy, admiration, contempt) differentiate the 4 competence-warmth combinations. Stereotypically, (d) status predicts high competence, and competition predicts low warmth. Nine varied samples rated gender, ethnicity, race, class, age, and disability out-groups. Contrary to antipathy models, 2 dimensions mattered, and many stereotypes were mixed, either pitying (low competence, high warmth subordinates) or envying (high competence, low warmth competitors). Stereotypically, status predicted competence, and competition predicted low warmth.

Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice.

Abstract: Racial microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color. Perpetrators of microaggressions are often unaware that they engage in such communications when they interact with racial/ethnic minorities. A taxonomy of racial microaggressions in everyday life was created through a review of the social psychological literature on aversive racism, from formulations regarding the manifestation and impact of everyday racism, and from reading numerous personal narratives of counselors (both White and those of color) on their racial/cultural awakening. Microaggressions seem to appear in three forms: microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation. Almost all interracial encounters are prone to microaggressions; this article uses the White counselor--client of color counseling dyad to illustrate how they impair the development of a therapeutic alliance. Suggestions regarding education and training and research in the helping professions are discussed.

Social and Psychological Resources and Adaptation

Abstract: Psychology has increasingly turned to the study of psychosocial resources in the examination of well-being. How resources are being studied and resource models that have been proffered are consider...