Relationships Between White Psychology Trainees’ Multicultural Competence and Racial Affect in the Pandemic

In this dissertation, I used an exploratory research approach to examine White psychology trainees’ affective responses to race-related material and how they relate to trainees’ self-perceived levels of multicultural competence amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Participants completed self-report instruments about their experiences and identities, their affective responses to racial content, and their grasp of facets of multicultural competence. Significant correlations were found between affective responses—specifically White guilt and negation—and multicultural competence. The relationship found between White guilt and multicultural competence may speak to the power of guilt to motivate trainees’ pursuit of insight and knowledge and may also reflect attunement to relevant issues given participants’ choice of profession and depth of training. Negation’s relationship to multicutural competence was also significant; the role that avoidance plays in negation may also lead trainees to avoid the implications of race in their multicultural training. I delve into other significant findings in the paper’s discussion. While statistically non-significant findings cannot yield definitive insights, I speculate about factors that possibly contribute to the weakness of some predicted associations. Relationships found in this study suggest the importance of exploring White guilt and negation during professional training, while non-findings offer opportunities for future studies on how racial affect may (or may not) relate to trainees’ grasp of material pertaining to their education and careers. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).