Ethnic Bias in Judgments about Prognosis and Appropriateness of Goals.

The literature on stereotyping from a social-cognitive perspective has important implications for the mental health treatment of minority-group members since it suggests that the unavoidable cognitive process of categorization is implicated in intergroup biases and discriminatory behaviors. This study tested for ethnic bias against Hispanic females among licensed mental health professionals. It examined how ingroup-outgroup status of the practitioner affected this bias. A 2 (ethnicity of client) x 2 (ethnicity of subject) x 2 (gender of subject) design was used. Dade County, Florida licensed psychologists, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, and clinical social workers were recruited to serve as subjects (N=99). An ethnic bias against the Hispanic client (limited to non-Hispanic therapists) was found in the prognosis rating. No ethnic bias was found in the ratings of the appropriateness of gender-stereotyped goals, although significant effects were found for sex of subject and ethnicity of subject. Overall, no systematic bias was found against the Hispanic client. The bias was limited to non-Hispanics but they made up 83% of the professionals. Future studies on ethnic bias should examine how culture is related to symptomatology and therapy issues. (Author/ABL)