Effect of Therapist Color-Blindness on Empathy and Attributions in Cross-Cultural Counseling.

Empathy and attributions of client responsibility for the cause of and solution to a problem were examined for 247 psychologists who were identified as having low, moderate, and high color-blind racial attitudes. Participants responded to 1 of 4 vignettes that controlled for client race (i.e., African American, European American) and client attributions regarding the cause (i.e., depression, discrimination) of a problem. Analyses revealed that the therapists ’ level of color-blindness was directly related to their capacity for empathy and also to their attributions of responsibility for the solution to the problem with an African American client but not with a European American client. No relationship was found between therapist color-blindness and attributions of responsibility for cause of the problem. Implications of these results for counseling practice, training, and research are discussed. The original conceptualization of cross-cultural counseling competencies identified 11 specific competencies related to coun-selor awareness of her or his attitudes and beliefs, knowledge, and skills (D. W. Sue et al., 1982). Counselor awareness of racism and oppression in oneself and the effect of racism on others, for example, are considered fundamental to multicultural counseling