FACTORS RELATING TO MULTICULTURAL COMPETENCE IN BEGINNING PSYCHOLOGY INTERNS

Abstract

There is a paucity of research on the multicultural competence of the psychology intern population. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine counseling and clinical psychology interns' multicultural training experience and competence prior to beginning internship. Examining psychology interns' pre-internship multicultural experience, childhood, adolescent, and adult multicultural experience, their universal-diverse orientation, their graduate program multicultural emphasis, their choice of internship site, and their individual characteristics provided insight into the current readiness of graduate students to work with different populations while on internship. Beginning interns from clinical and counseling doctoral psychology programs were administered surveys to assess for multicultural personality, universal-diverse orientation, multicultural social desirability, multicultural competence, and various individual factors. Results displayed support for the contention that multicultural life experiences have significant predictive value for the multicultural competence of beginning interns. Results also confirmed that there is a positive relationship between multicultural personality and multicultural competence as well as between multicultural personality and universal-diverse orientation.