Asian American Mental Health: Assessment Theories and Methods

by Karen Kurasaki (Editor), Sumie Okazaki (Editor), Stanley Sue (Editor)

Overview

Asian American Mental Health is a state-of-the-art compendium of the conceptual issues, empirical literature, methodological approaches, and practice guidelines for conducting culturally informed assessments of Asian Americans, and for assessing provider cultural competency within individuals and systems. It is the first of its kind on Asian Americans. This volume draws upon the expertise of many of the leading experts in Asian American and multicultural mental health to provide a much needed resource for students and professionals in a wide range of disciplines including clinical psychology, medical anthropology, psychiatry, cross-cultural psychology, multicultural counseling, ethnic minority psychology, sociology, social work, counselor education, counseling psychology, and more.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461507352
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	12/06/2012
Series:	International and Cultural Psychology
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- Section I: Cultural Relevance of Diagnostic Categories: A Conceptual Discussion.- 2. Understanding the Rates and Distribution of Mental Disorders.- 3. Examining the Usefulness of DSM-IV.- 4. Toward a New Paradigm: A Cultural Systems Approach.- 5. Challenging the Myth of a Culture Free Nosological System.- Section II: Theories of Relevant Sociocultural Variables.- 6. Assessing Acculturation and Cultural Variables.- 7. Models of Cultural Orientation: Differences Between American-born and Overseas-born Asians.- 8. Cultural Variations in Self-Construal as a Mediator of Distress and Well-being.- 9. The Use of Culturally-Based Variables in Assessment: Studies on Loss of Face.- Section III: Issues of Psychometric Equivalence Across Cultures.- 10. Universal and Indigenous Dimensions of Chinese Personality.- 11. Interpreting Cultural Variations in Cognitive Profiles.- 12. The Conception of Depression in Chinese Americans.- 13. Assessing Asian and Asian American Parenting: A Review of the Literature.- Section IV: Culturally Informed Assessment, Research, and Practice.- 14. Assessing Psychiatric Prevalence Rates Among Asian Americans.- 15. The Place of Ethnographic Understanding in the Assessment of 219 Asian American Mental Health.- 16. The Clinical Assessment of Asian American Children.- 17. Examining the Role of Culture in Educational Assessment.- 18. A Cultural Accommodation Approach to Career Assessment with Asian Americans.- 19. Theory and Method of Multicultural Counseling Competency Assessment.- 20. Assessment of Cultural Competence in Mental Health Systems of Care for Asian Americans.- Section V: Conclusions.- 21. Advances in the Scientific Study of Asian Americans.- Author Index.

Editorial Reviews

5 Stars! from Doody

Reviewer: Gary B Kaniuk, PsyD (Cermak Health Services)
Description: This book was conceived from a conference in 1998 that focused on the current state of knowledge and challenges facing Asian American mental health assessment. It includes research findings, conceptual issues, sociocultural variables, and practice guidelines.
Purpose: According to the editors, "the book was compiled to respond to the gap in the available literature with cutting-edge guidelines and thorough analyses of the critical issues relating to assessing Asian American mental health." These are worthy objectives, which the book meets.
Audience: The book is intended for "students and professionals alike in a wide range of disciplines including clinical psychology, medical anthropology, psychiatry, cross-cultural psychology, multicultural counseling, ethnic minority psychology, sociology, social work, counselor education, counseling psychology, and more," according to the editors. I agree that the book is pertinent for a wide audience. The contributors are known experts in the field.
Features: The book focuses on assessment theories and methods of Asian American mental health. It specifically includes discussion of conceptual issues, relevant sociocultural variables, psychometric concerns, practice guidelines, and assessment of multicultural counseling competency. The book is good because it covers a wide variety of topics. Though the book talks about Asian-Americans in general, it seems to emphasize research and issues relevant to Chinese-Americans.
Assessment: The book is extremely useful because it discusses many assessment issues relevant to Asian Americans. I especially enjoyed the chapters on assessing multicultural competency.

Doody's Review Service

"The book will be most useful to researchers in psychology and psychiatry who wish to use psychometric measures with patients, but it will also be useful to trainees and training directors who need to review the literature on the assessment of Asian Americans as well as to graduate students learning about multicultural issues in assessment. ...useful for understanding how measures that were developed for Western patients need to be adapted for use with Asian Americans... I enjoyed Asian American Mental Health very much, as the overall tone is to explain the research that has already been conducted on many topics, to explore the limitations of this research, and to suggest directions for further research."

(Psychiatric Services, 54:8 (2003)

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