Multicultural Psychology

LeLaina Romero & Marie L. Miville

Multiculturalism has been called the “fourth force” of psychology by Paul B. Pedersen, Pius K. Essandoh, and others (following psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and humanism as schools of thought). Multicultural psychology is a major influence in contemporary psychology and includes such broad topic areas as racial identity development, acculturation, prejudice and stereotyping, and multicultural competence. Research focused on multicultural psychology differs from other schools of thought in psychology because, in addition to a focus on individual and intrapsychic factors, the cultural context is considered an important aspect of the lives of individuals and groups. Some important questions in multicultural psychology are the following: How do factors in the cultural context impact individual differences, and how do psychological phenomena vary across cultures? Although the terms multicultural and cross-cultural are often used interchangeably, they differ slightly in meaning. Multicultural psychology considers the influence of contextual variables (e.g., race or ethnicity) on human functioning The ...

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