Conducting Culturally Sensitive Psychosocial Research
Course #66594 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
The reality is that practitioners, including nurses, social workers, counselors, psychologists, and mental health workers, observe and interact with a variety of social problems and generally have questions about: the magnitude of the problem; the psychosocial ramifications on individuals, families, communities, neighborhoods, and society; its relationship to other factors; and effective interventions. Psychosocial research provides the vehicle to answer these questions. Conducting empirical research can offer the opportunity for practitioners to sharpen and refine their clinical skills. This course will first review basic research concepts and research philosophies that guide research methods. Then, it will move to discussing each of the steps of the research process and ensuring that they are culturally sensitive and relevant.
- INTRODUCTION
- REVIEW OF RESEARCH CONCEPTS AND RESEARCH PHILOSOPHIES
- REASONS FOR CONDUCTING CULTURALLY SENSITIVE AND RELEVANT PSYCHOSOCIAL RESEARCH
- CULTURALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH PROCESSES
- CULTURALLY SENSITIVE SAMPLING DESIGNS
- CULTURALLY SENSITIVE INSTRUMENTS AND MEASUREMENT
- CULTURALLY SENSITIVE DATA COLLECTION AND RECRUITMENT PROCEDURES
- BARRIERS TO ETHNIC MINORITY RESEARCH PARTICIPATION
- CULTURALLY SENSITIVE DISSEMINATION OF RESEARCH FINDINGS
- ETHICS AND CULTURALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH
- INTERPROFESSIONAL RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS
- CONCLUSION
- Works Cited
This introductory course is designed for psychologists who work in a clinical practice setting and who are currently conducting psychosocial research with ethnic minorities.
The purpose of this course is to provide skills and competencies to equip psychologists conducting or analyzing psychosocial research, to ensure that it is culturally sensitive and relevant throughout all stages of the research process.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Outline the reasons healthcare professionals should have a working knowledge of research designs and concepts.
- Identify the tenets of basic and applied research.
- Discuss the parallels between research and clinical practice.
- Review different sources of knowledge, characteristics of empirical knowledge, and various research traditions.
- List concerns and support for conducting culturally sensitive psychosocial research.
- Define dimensions of culturally sensitive research.
- Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various research and sampling designs and their application in research with ethnic minority participants.
- Discuss instrument- or measurement-related issues when conducting research with ethnic minority participants, including different translation methods.
- Discuss data collection, recruitment issues, and barriers to participation when conducting research with ethnic minority participants.
- Outline the appropriate data analysis and dissemination of research findings when conducting culturally sensitive research.
Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW, received her Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University, School of Social Work. She has clinical experience in mental health in correctional settings, psychiatric hospitals, and community health centers. In 1997, she received her PhD from UCLA, School of Public Policy and Social Research. Dr. Yick Flanagan completed a year-long post-doctoral fellowship at Hunter College, School of Social Work in 1999. In that year she taught the course Research Methods and Violence Against Women to Masters degree students, as well as conducting qualitative research studies on death and dying in Chinese American families.
Previously acting as a faculty member at Capella University and Northcentral University, Dr. Yick Flanagan is currently a contributing faculty member at Walden University, School of Social Work, and a dissertation chair at Grand Canyon University, College of Doctoral Studies, working with Industrial Organizational Psychology doctoral students. She also serves as a consultant/subject matter expert for the New York City Board of Education and publishing companies for online curriculum development, developing practice MCAT questions in the area of psychology and sociology. Her research focus is on the area of culture and mental health in ethnic minority communities.
Contributing faculty, Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Margaret Donohue, PhD
The division planner has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.