Developing measurable cultural competence and cultural humility: An application of the cultural formulation

Training professional psychologists in a time of increasingly complex diversity-related issues requires innovative approaches to teaching cultural competency and cultural humility at the doctoral level. However, there is currently little empirical evidence to support effective teaching techniques in cultural competency training. To address this pedagogical need, the authors implemented and tested the utility of a 2-stage, developmental approach to using cultural formulation (CF) assignments. Students in a doctoral-level course on cultural competency were given a CF assignment at the course midpoint and a second assignment at the end of the academic term. Students were given extensive feedback after CF1, with the goal of providing direction for improvement of their cultural considerations in CF2. Using a thematic content analysis approach, each set of CF assignments were coded into themes demonstrating core competencies for cultural competence and cultural humility, and tallied to assess improvement in levels of competency across the 2 assignments. Results demonstrated several emergent themes: perspective taking, acknowledging intersections of identity, cultural self-awareness, scientific mindedness, and unsupported cultural statements. Related tallies reflect an overall improvement between the 2 assignments. This article therefore provides support for the use of 2-stage CF assignments as a tool for developing and measuring dimensions of cultural competence and cultural humility. Limitations and implications of the findings for clinical training are discussed.