Date of Award
2008
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
Department
Graduate Department of Clinical Psychology
First Advisor
Kathleen A. Gathercoal, PhD
Second Advisor
Patrick J. Stone, PhD
Third Advisor
Wayne V. Adams, PhD
Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to finalize a written version of the Native Self- Actualization Placement Assessment tool (NSA-PA) and to explore the content validity of the NSA-PA. Brown (1981) described an oral assessment tool for categorizing cultural identity among Native Americans. This tool was identified by Richard Dana ( 1993) as the preferred tool in assessment of urban Indian acculturation. The oral nature of Brown's ( 1981) instrument, however, limits its application and distribution. A Native Self-Actualization tool has been developed from the oral assessment standardized questions and expanded by four domains. This tool was designed to assess respondents' understandings of family, religion, recreation, and vocation. The expanded tool also assesses preferences for food, language, attachment to the culture and the concept of time. Responses to questions within these eight domains belong to one of four generational "worldview" categories on a worldview continuum, extending from traditional to fully identifying with the dominant contemporary culture. Content validity of the NSA-PA was explored by asking ten Native American psychologists and one Native and two non-Native psychometricians to detennine, for each of the I 28 questions, which of four generations a person would be if he or she endorsed the question. Thus, for each question the data were the number of participants who thought the question represented generation I, 2, 3, or 4. Chi Square was used to detennine whether responses were evenly distributed across generations or, alternatively, whether some questions best represented one generation. It was hypothesized that the NSA-PA questions would be consistently rated as representing only one of the four generational responses. Approximately one third of the questions were able to be consistently identified with one of the four generational placements. The majority of the questions were identified with the first (traditional) or fourth (contemporary) generations while very few items were identified with the second or third generations. Recommendations are made for refining the instrument and for future studies. It is hoped that extending the NSA-PA to a written format and documenting its psychometric properties will aid therapists and their clients as they seek to understand culturally- relevant treatment plans, improved diversity services and adequate career counseling for Native Americans.
Recommended Citation
Stone Brown, Sidney Ann, "Cultural Worldview Assessment Placement: Establishing the Validity of the Native Self Actualization Placement Assessment (NSA-PA)" (2008). Doctor of Psychology (PsyD). 571.
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/psyd/571