Lisa Tsoi Hoshmand’s research while affiliated with Lesley University and other places

This is a call for community psychologists to engage in research, consultation, and program development and evaluation in supporting military families and communities. Barriers to such involvement are identified and discussed. It is argued that the needs of military families and communities cannot be ignored when military and civilian communities alike are affected by changes in the geopolitical situation and the effects of increased deployment. Examples of previous work related to military families and communities that have implications for policy and practice are presented in relation to concepts and practices in community psychology. Specific research and community approaches are suggested for future needs assessment and program development in enhancing community capacity and family resilience. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This chapter is premised on the assumption that the definition of trauma entails the cultural and ecological systems that mediate human experience and provide resources for coping and meaning making. Furthermore, the detection of traumatic stress disorder implies that the stressful event has overtaxed personal and, in some cases, community capacities. It follows that in considering cultural and ecological factors in the understanding of trauma and trauma recovery, both community resources for resilience and personal resources for coping that are appropriated from culture should be assessed. This emphasis on the cultural and the ecological is in response to the limitations of individually focused western conceptions of trauma and concerns about medicalized approaches to trauma intervention that insufficiently account for contextual factors in trauma recovery (Argenti-Pullen, 2000; Burstow, 2003; Summerfield, 2004).

This special double issue was borne out of a desire to bring together examples of current approaches to cultural theorizing in the field of psychology. These articles represent different ontological and epistemological positions from which one can consider the integration of culture and psychology. We see the first three articles as attempting to deepen our understanding of culture with conceptual framing and philosophical grounding that articulate the relationship of the cultural and the personal. These articles are committed to moving beyond subject-object dualism towards a non-dualistic ontology. A second set of articles honors the existing work in the scientific tradition while proposing to bridge it with the interpretive approaches, creating metatheories as a result, and calling for methodological pluralism. One theme common to these articles is that bringing culture into psychology requires not only a broadening of theoretical perspectives, but also a greater inclusiveness in our epistemological and methodological commitments. Though we have tried to be inclusive, this present collection of articles is far from comprehensive in terms of the range of possible theoretical perspectives on culture. We invite future authors to turn the critical cultural lens on the theoretical efforts featured in this special issue, and to present other approaches that are not represented here. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

T o explore the relationship between culture and psychotherapy and counseling, I would like to begin by offering some ways of "thinking through culture(s)," a phrase I borrow from Shweder's (1991) book on cul-tural psychology. I ask students of psychology and practitioners and teachers of psychotherapy and counseling to consider the cultural realm in the broad-est terms, and to think deeply about issues that may not be an ordinary part of their professional training and discourse. I invite readers to join me in con-sidering the existential meanings and significance of culture at a time when a great deal is at stake in our understanding and views of culture(s). To set a framework for understanding culture, I refer to the fields of anthropology and cross-cultural psychology and the more recent develop-ment of cultural psychology. From these points of departure I hope to bring attention to the cultural underpinnings of psychological theory and practice, including the cultural appropriation of identity and views of psychological and social well-being. I will consider the contributions of cross-cultural psy-chology, transcultural psychiatry, and social constructionism to a cultural view of psychotherapy and counseling. My overall goal in this book is to examine along with the contributing authors the professional and societal implications of viewing psychological practice from a cultural perspective. With the help of cultural theories and critical perspectives, and a growing awareness of the politics of culture, I argue that for the therapeutic practi-tioner as well as the public, being able to think through culture(s) is a matter of great urgency. We are in a time of immense cultural change and cultural 1 01-4733-Hosmand.qxd 5/31/2005 2:25 PM Page 1 conflict. This is not to imply that cultural understanding was any less important in history. For as long as there has been human society, culture has provided prescriptions for living, and both symbolic and material means of being and interacting with the other. We can only know culture from our experience of participating in social living. Thus, cultural understanding is simultane-ously a reflexive or self-referencing effort and an empathic or other-directed endeavor. In the therapeutic context, this ability to stay on both the personal and the social plane requires the practitioner to integrate the personal with the professional in thought and action. For this reason, I have asked the con-tributing authors to be transparent about their beliefs and values, and to share how they have integrated their personal worldviews with their profes-sional worldviews in working within the cultural realm. Following are several ways of thinking about culture that have implica-tions for theory and practice in the psychotherapy and counseling field as well as psychology in general.

This article addresses issues related to international adoption, with China as an illustrative case. It describes the context of international adoption and how China has come to be a leading source of transnational adoption especially for the West. Policy, theory, and research related to transnational and transracial adoption are examined in relation to Chinese adoptees and their adoptive families. Based on the theoretical and research literature as well as clinical experience, a framework for psychoeducation is presented together with resources that can serve adoptive families and professionals who work with mental health, child development, and family issues related to adoption. Further implications for counseling training and practice as well as systemic issues of policy, social justice, and cultural pluralism are discussed.

Narratological research is defined in relation to narrative theory and a cultural psychology perspective. Narrative concepts and methodology are explained, including the configural mode of understanding and principles of narrative analysis. Examples of application in psychological and counseling research are presented, with a discussion of issues of validity and voice. Suggestions are made on how narrative studies are to be evaluated. It is concluded that narratological research, with its focus on meanings and the storied nature of human life, can be especially useful in discovery research on identity development and the experience of counseling and life transitions.

Presents a call for papers for a special issue about theorizing on the "cultural" in psychology and related disciplines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)

Transformative learning and development in adult education, as defined in humanistic and critical perspectives, are examined. The transformative potential of counseling education is explored in terms of (a) program philosophy, (b) pedagogy and curricular features, and (c) student outcomes. Challenges for a transformative approach to counseling education are discussed.