Content specific elements of cultural assessment
Assessment and documentation of contextual factors that contribute to the client's presentation. For example:
- client's racial/ethnic/cultural identification
- levels of acculturation and assimilation
- socio-economic status and associated challenges
- extent to which client experiences racism/classism as stressors (e.g., historical trauma, microaggressions, stereotype threat, invisibility)
- access to educational/vocational resources and opportunities
- expected familial and gender roles
- verbal communication style (e.g., direct vs. indirect)
- emotional expression (e.g., controlled or highly emotive)
- approach to conflict resolution (e.g., direct or avoidant)
- locus of control (e.g., people shape their own fate or future determined by chance or luck)
- locus of responsibility (e.g., person's circumstances attributed to individual choice or to influence of system/environment)
- time orientation (e.g., value placed on past, present, or future)
- social orientation (e.g., individualistic or collective)
- human activity orientation (e.g., simply "being" is enough or "doing" is necessary)
- spirituality and culture (religious community participation/religious affiliation; important beliefs, values, traditions)
- Client's endorsement of and/or engagement in indigenous healing practices
- Client's stage of racial identity development (e.g., conformity, dissonance, resistance/immersion, introspective, integrative)
- Assessment of traumatic stress linked to war/conflict, political persecution, refugee/relocation experiences.