Hispanic Psychology

How can psychology contribute to our understanding of Hispanics in the United States? Edited by Amado M. Padilla, Hispanic Psychology offers students, researchers, and practitioners the most contemporary and complete view of psychological writings available today. The topics tackled by a team of social scientists include adaptation to a new culture in the United States, the role of the family in acculturation, ethnic identification for Hispanics, health and mental health service and research needs of Hispanics, and changing gender roles in Hispanic culture. This volume examines such complex subjects as Chicano male gang members, homeless female AIDS victims, and educational resiliency of students with authority and perceptivity. This book brings together diverse psychological issues that will spark an interest in anyone wishing to have a current perspective on the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. "Libraries serving graduate students in the areas of psychology, education, child development, or Latino studies should find this book helpful." --Choice "The growing presence and relevance of ethnic and cultural issues in many mental health disciplines has a cogent demonstration in this handsome volume. The strength of this volume is in its well-conceived and realized research studies. Indeed, the "new scholarship" of conceptual models, measurement instruments, and interpretive approaches, drawing heavily on the social context in which Hispanics live, gives this book a prominent place among its peers. This volume will become a landmark in the task of defining the realities and the fate of Hispanics in the United States of the twenty-first century." --Renato D. Alacrón in Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review

This book offers both a comprehensive overview of the relevant issues and concerns and a practical set of clinical tools for neuropsychologists assessing and treating Hispanic patients.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived

Emphasizing the importance of cultural sensitivity and competence in research and intervention approaches, this handbook offers unrivalled coverage of the psychology of all Latino groups in the United States.

This book focuses on diversity, culture, and ethnicity as they relate to psychological assessment of Hispanics. It is a how-to guide for clinicians, researchers, and instructors working with Hispanic clients. Each chapter contains an overview of cultural considerations needed for assessing the Hispanic client followed by a specific exploration of the assessment measures available and the research that has been conducted on these measures with Hispanic participants. An exploration of the strengths and limitations of each assessment measure is included. Considering that ethnocultural minority individuals who are of Hispanic/Latino origin make up the largest ethnocultural minority group in the United States, guidelines for working with this population are a must. Given that a large subset of this percentage is composed of immigrants many of whom do not speak English or who have learned English as a second language, special considerations for effective psychological assessment are neccessary.This book fills a gap in the scientific literature by consolidating the research on psychological assessment with Hispanic samples into one comprehensive volume and providing simple recommendations for the psychological assessment of Hispanic clients. An exploration of the general psychological assessment domains (e.g., personality, intelligence) is included with references to research on the major assessment measures used in the field. A more specific exploration of psychodiagnostic assessment measures follows, including the assessment of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, sexual dysfunction, psychosis, etc. Several chapters are dedicated to specialized assessment, including neuropsychological assessment, forensic assessment, and school-based assessment, overall creating the most comprehensive, up-to-date, research-based compendium of psychological assessment measures for use with Hispanic clients.

Curandero: Ethno-Psychotherapy & Curanderismo Hispanic Mental Health in the 21st Century, is the product of more than 50 years of the study of curanderismo and Hispanic mental health. In this book, Dr. Zavaleta examines curanderismo and the folk beliefs carried by immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. In the United States, the Hispanic population is notoriously underserved in both physical and mental health care. In Curandero, Dr. Zavaleta reviews the history of curanderismo, beginning with pre-Columbian populations, and traces the development of curanderismo over the past 500 years. He also examines the history and practice of psychiatry and the emergence of ethno-psychotherapy as well as psychiatry’s historic failure to incorporate culture in the treatment of the mental health of Hispanic populations. Dr. Zavaleta seeks to introduce curanderismo to psychiatry with the intention of incorporating its important aspects in the treatment of Hispanic mental health.

In this book, twelve eminent Latina Psychologists illustrate how they practice gender- and culture-sensitive psychotherapy, counseling, research, pedagogy, social justice, and mentoring. They share how they create their own path in the midst of oppression – by becoming aware of the connection between their lives and their gendered, cultural, social, and political circumstances – and how they liberate themselves and those who seek their psychological services. Based on lived experiences, they reveal how they integrate a borderlands theory, a testimonio method, and an embodiment analysis into a Latina Feminist Psychology. More importantly, these Latina Psychologists offer easy-to-follow advice to help readers thrive while living in the cultural borderlands.

Providing in-depth coverage of the Mexican American population from social, cultural, and psychological (clinical) perspectives, this book promotes the understanding of cultural practices and sociological characteristics of this important ethnic group. There are now more than 32 million Mexican Americans living in the United States. As a result, the odds that a clinician will work with a member of this population—one of the fastest-growing minority groups in the United States—is extremely high. Understanding the culture, society, psyche, acculturation, assimilation, and linguistics specific to Mexican Americans, as well as their crises and appropriate interventions, is imperative to provide counseling/therapy services and culturally sensitive assessments. In this book, author Mario Tovar explains how Mexican American history and society affects the needs of this group and how services to Mexican Americans require adjustments as a result. Tovar documents significant differences among Mexican Americans depending on whether they are documented or undocumented immigrants, and on their place of origin—rural versus urban areas of Mexico, and northern versus southern Mexico, for example. Readers will understand how the region of the United States in which Mexican Americans settle can influence the development of certain traits for them and learn about mental and physical health care practices common to Mexican Americans, including folk medicine and "healers" who often include grandmothers and elder neighbors.

This compilation of conference proceedings consists of 44 separate "chapters" or selections that are spread over about ten sections. The sections deals with such topics as historical and epistemological factors, cognitive and intellectual perspectives, and clinical and mental health.

In America's increasingly diverse society, it is imperative that mental health providers prioritize the development of their cultural competence to assure that they are equipped to meet the needs of their clients. Cultural Considerations in Latino American Mental Health offers a broad array of perspectives from clinicians and researchers actively working with racially and ethnically diverse populations. This book addresses psychosocial cultural issues that impact the mental health of the growing Latino American population. Topics discussed include relevant socio-demographic variables for Latinos and the implications of the steadily increasing Latino population in the United States; cultural values, acculturation, and acculturative stress in the lives of Latino adolescents; culturally responsive intervention of depression in Latino adolescents; depression across the lifespan; and cultural factors in the development of substance abuse issues in the Latino adolescent population. This book is a must-read for mental health clinicians, students, community workers, school counselors, and nurses who work with diverse populations.