McDonald, Kathie June (2009) Developing Cultural Competence in First-Year Undergraduate Psychology Students. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
As societies become more diverse and health care disparities emerge, cultural competence is increasingly proposed as a key component of effective health care delivery. Recent changes to psychology-specific accreditation criteria, registration mandates, ethical codes and guidelines, and national standards for practice, reflect the realisation of this paradigm shift and the necessity for a culturally competent psychological workforce. Together these factors mean that psychology educators can no longer ignore the importance of developing cultural competence in students. Although the theoretical and empirical conceptualisation of cultural competence continues, cultural knowledge, cultural skills, and cultural awareness, consistently appear as important components. Most commonly, the development of cultural competence is measured by self-reports used in studies of practising psychologists and counsellors. There is a dearth of research quantitatively evaluating the development of cultural knowledge, cultural skills, and cultural awareness in undergraduate psychology students, especially in Australia. As well as this, despite claims made about the positive or negative influences of specific factors on cultural competence, research has often failed to support these claims with evidence. Therefore, using an on-line survey, the present study aimed to examine how selfreported cultural competence in 198 first-year psychology undergraduates at the University of Southern Queensland was related to cross-cultural course completion, the study mode of students, whether students had direct contact with Indigenous staff or speakers, and the number of languages spoken by students. Cultural knowledge and cultural skills were significantly higher in students who had completed the course, which indicated that the course was effective in developing cultural competence in psychology students. Mode of study, direct contact with Indigenous staff, and the number of languages spoken, did not significantly increase cultural competence development in the present sample as was hypothesised. These findings imply that accreditation criteria espousing equality of standards across study modes are being met, and that course curricula need not necessarily consider Indigenous guest speaker lectures or linguistic competence, as barriers to, or facilitators of, cultural competence. It is recommended that future longitudinal studies replicate these findings and incorporate measures of personality, self-efficacy, and guilt, so that these conclusions can be more confidently drawn. Aligning the cultural course learning objectives and assessments more directly with the recently revised ethics and psychology-specific mandates is also recommended. This would allow for the empirical and objective evaluation of cultural knowledge, cultural skills, and cultural awareness, via assessment results.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Albion, Majella |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Psychology) |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Jan 2026 05:17 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Jan 2026 05:17 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52554 |
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