alth services emphasized the fundamental Euro American centrism of those services. Research methodologies, research questions, and application of research had all been designed from a particular perspective. Critics contended that measures of mental health, and concepts of mental health, needed to be contextualized. As Rogler et al. (1991) put it:
How do we know we are addressing the major psychological distresses of Hispanics when we uniformly restrict our instrumentation to measures originating in the study of populations markedly different from them? (p. 591)
This is the basic question of those who criticize current psychological testing instrument and find them culturally biased.
For example, in his discussion, Carter (1991) noted that counseling theories, counseling education, and instruments utilized for both research and treatment are all based on certain assumptions about the nature of human beings. However, Carter noted, those assumptions are generally the assumptions of the dominant culture of the time, and of the elite classes of the dominant culture. Thus, those members of non dominant cultures may find themselves defined as outside of the mainstream on normative human behavior models, since those models are designed to describe the dominant culture.
Pederson (1987), too, addressed this issue, noting that the assumptions of psychology are primarily those of Western culture, and also of white, upper middle class culture. For the most part, those defining normative behavior, maturity, and other important concepts in psychology have been white, upper middle class males. As a consequence, Pederson contended, our current psychological theories have racism, sexism, and cultural bias built into them. They can be extremely detrimental when applied to those in the non dominant culture and used to stigmatize those individuals.
Usher (1989) noted that the assumptions regarding normal behavior are frequently tied ...