Date of Award

Summer 8-23-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education, Counseling Psychology

First Advisor

Jesse Owen

Second Advisor

Joshua Hook

Third Advisor

Trisha Raque

Fourth Advisor

Lisa Brownstone

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Counseling psychology, Cultural values, Cultural beliefs, Multicultural Orientation (MCO), Couple therapy

Abstract

Couples’ cultural values and beliefs are important to their relational connection. Cultural values and beliefs can be sources of strength in relationships, but they can also lead to impasses. As such, clinicians and researchers could benefit from a cultural framework to inform conceptualization and treatment when working with couples. The Multicultural Orientation (MCO) framework has three pillars: cultural humility, cultural comfort, and cultural opportunities. The MCO framework is empirically supported for use in individual and group psychotherapy but has not been applied to couple therapy. This dissertation includes two parts. First, we outline a conceptual framework for the application of MCO in couple therapy, including how cultural humility, cultural opportunities, and cultural comfort map on to the systemic processes between therapists and couples. Implications for research and practice are provided.

Second, we developed and tested the Multicultural Orientation Inventory – Couple Therapy (MCO-CT) version, a measure for practice and research. With a sample of 146 participants, results demonstrated strong reliability across the total (𝛼=.936) and subscales (𝛼 =.811-.929), as well as moderate to strong factor loadings (.442 to .852). The scale was significantly and positively correlated with important factors in couple therapy including systemic alliance (.687, p< .001), relationship satisfaction (.213, p< .001) and commitment (.351, p< .001). Importantly, the overall fit of the scale as measured by Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) goodness of fit index equaled .137 (acceptable levels lower than .08). Results indicated high cross factor correlations, indicating further statistical analysis of the factor structure is warranted. This is an important initial step towards translating the MCO framework into couple therapy.

Copyright Date

8-2025

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Jasmine R. Davis

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

109 pgs

File Size

731 KB

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