Table Of ContentTo Rossina, Bella Rose, and my mother
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Liu, William Ming.
Social class and classism in the helping professions : research, theory, and practice / William
M. Liu.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4129-7250-5 (cloth) — ISBN 978-1-4129-7251-2 (pbk.)
1. Cross-cultural counseling. 2. Social classes. 3. Classism. 4. Mental health—Social
aspects. 5. Social service—Sociological aspects. I. Title.
BF636.7.C76L58 2011
158’.30862—dc22
2010009452
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
10 11 12 13 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xvii
1. Introduction 1
Definitions and Focus 4
The Importance of Social Class in the Helping Professions 5
Research 7
The Helping Profession’s Poor Understanding
of Social Class and Classism 9
Sociology’s Impact on the Helping Profession 16
Social Class, Socioeconomic Status, Social Status,
and Classism 17
Social Class and Classism Multicultural Competencies 20
Conclusion and Summary 22
2. Social Class, Classism, and Mental and Physical Health 23
The Context of Social Class and Classism 25
The Social Class Health Gradient 29
Sense of Control 30
Environmental Toxicity, Health, and Social Class 32
Social Class, Malnutrition, Obesity, and Health 34
Social Class and Mental Health 39
Implications for Practice 43
Conclusions and Summary 44
3. Problems in Social Class Measurement and Research 46
Problems With Current Methods for Understanding
Social Class 48
Categorizing Social Class 52
How Is Categorizing Accomplished? 53
Income 54
Occupation 57
Education 59
Wealth 60
Summary 61
Moving Toward Subjectivity of Social Class and Classism 62
Implications for Practice 67
Conclusion 67
4. The Social Class Worldview Model 75
The Context of Economic Cultures 79
Human Capital 81
Social Capital 82
Cultural Capital 82
The Worldview 83
Classisms 86
Social Class and Classism Consciousness 87
How the Worldview Operates 95
SCWM–R Example 95
Implications for Practice 97
Conclusion 98
5. Social Class and Psychotherapy, Counseling,
and Career-Related Issues 100
Counseling, Psychotherapy, and Helping Professionals 101
Social Class and Classism to Inform Our Work With Clients 102
Empirically Validated and Supported Treatments
and Common Factors 108
Understanding Our Own Biases and Social Class Experiences 109
Career Counseling 111
Using Social Class–Based Interventions in Counseling 113
Participants 114
Procedure 115
Measures 115
Results and Discussion 117
Implications for Practice 121
Conclusion 122
6. The Impact of Social Class and Classism on
Healthy Psychological Development 134
Social Class and Classism and Psychological Development 136
Quality of Child Care 139
Sleep Habits 140
Parent and Child Relationships 141
Impact of Media and Television 142
Social Class and Classism Traumas 145
Into Adulthood 148
Implications for Practice 152
Conclusion 154
7. Greed, Materialism, and Affluence and Mental Health:
The Rich Are Not Immune 155
Greed, Materialism, and Affluence 157
Consumption and Being Healthy 158
Materialism and Consumerism 165
Other Forms of Commodification and Consumerism 169
Consumerism 170
Affluence and Mental Health 173
Implications for Practice 176
Conclusion 177
8. Classism, Inequalities, and Poverty 178
How People Make Meaning of Poverty and Inequality 180
Racism 186
Economic Resources, Economic Privilege,
Economic Entitlement 190
The Psychology of Privilege and Entitlement 195
Classisms 199
White Trashism 202
Implications for Practice 203
Conclusion 205
9. Integrating Social Class and Classism Into Training,
Education, and Supervision 207
Training and Education 208
Upward Mobility Bias 213
Becoming Social Class and Classism Competent 216
Using the Social Class Worldview Model (SCWM-R)
as a Training Tool 218
Training Experiences and Supervision 226
Privilege and Power 228
Conclusion 230
10. Social Class, Classism, Advocacy, and Social Justice 235
Definitions and Contexts of Social Justice, Advocacy, and
Empowerment Work 237
Definitions 239
Social Justice and Social Class and Classism 241
Advocacy 245
Empowerment 247
Conclusion 250
References 251
Index 285
About the Author 299
Preface
In my counseling courses, I tell my students that clients, and most people
for that matter, have predictable narratives of their lives. In a circular
motion I move my hands and I suggest that clients have a set narrative, a
standard story, about their lives to which they come back. They may try to
change that narrative, but without a thorough understanding and integra-
tion of how the clients got to where they are now, those changes are unlikely
to last. I advise students, “Don’t worry about getting certain information
about a client now; they’ll come back to it.” I liken the counseling process
to the stories we tell our partners, spouses, and significant others and how
we often tell the same stories, but we may revisit the same experience with
different perspectives. I concluded this from my work with clients, but I had
not fully realized the same concept applied to my life and writing as well.
It was always there in my research and my personal and clinical interests,
but I had always made an effort to consider social class and classism to be
an “objective” research consideration without much connection to my per-
sonal life and experiences. I had not completely considered that my research
was, in part, me-search.
Me-search has sometimes been the description of research agendas that
revolve around the researcher’s personal experiences and identity. In con-
trast, I suppose, real research is supposed to focus on only those things on
the outside of one’s life that are objective and have no relevance to one’s
personal life. Yet we are all connected to our research interests. The HIV/
AIDS researcher, the cancer researcher, or the depression researcher all have
been touched by their topics. But perhaps the label of me-search prevails
around multicultural research because the researchers often “are” the top-
ics they research. In my case, the three major areas have been masculin-
ity, Asian American culture, and the focus of this book, social class and
classism. I think it is interesting that the derogation of researchers who
investigate psychological phenomena that reflect their lives is a relatively
new critique—a critique that has mostly occurred since the ascension and
ix
x Social Class and Classism in the Helping Professions
prominence of multicultural research. I am inclined to feel that the labeling
of me-search is a form of marginalizing and is an attempt to diminish the
importance of multiculturalism and the necessity for clinicians, counselors,
psychologists, researchers, and other helping professionals to fully compre-
hend how the self impacts and inflects all that we do. But as a psychological
researcher and a practitioner within the helping professions, my focus is on
understanding the client and the individual, the experience-near phenomena
of the person. It would make sense, then, that I should also plumb my own
personal experiences and use my own worldview as a gauge to understand
the world. Research in the helping professions should start with some con-
ceptualization and acknowledgment of our own experiences, biases, and
worldviews and how these have been infused throughout our clinical and
research work. Here, I am providing such a personal audit as a preface to
how and why this topic is of such importance to me.
My father was a relatively rich man in Taiwan, where he owned his own
business. From stories, I gathered that my parents were wealthy and had
status in their community. When he and my mother moved to the United
States, with me in tow as a young boy, this wealth did not transfer. He
and my mother found themselves, like many other immigrants, in busi-
ness and other work that did not fit the education, lifestyle, or worldview
they were used to before they left. I never did understand how my parents
owned a coffee shop serving coffee, pancakes, and burgers. Here we were
making basic Americana foods. To this day, my comfort foods still revolve
around meatloaf and mashed potatoes—not typically expected of a Chinese
American. But I knew they worked hard, long workdays, every day of the
week. My brothers and I worked hard, long days, almost every day of the
week, too. We knew every aspect of the restaurant business, and when my
parents would find some time for themselves, we could run the operation
single-handedly. Running to take an order, provide drinks, cook, and then
deliver the order to the table was normal for us. Our parents sold the busi-
ness and believed their lives would become easier—but their lives did not.
The business deal fell through, and consequently, the stress and strain from
these daily financial problems and conflicts grew. And looking back, we all
grew apart. For my father, though, soon the shame of losing his role as the
breadwinner was too much and our family was irrevocably changed.
Looking back, I know now that my father, mother, brothers, and I saw
our social class world differently. We were all in the same objective condi-
tion, yet we were all seeing and processing aspects of our social class world
in personally relevant ways. Classism also impacted our lives, but we all
quietly coped and managed our experiences differently. It had not fully
occurred to me that some of my interest and passion for social class lay
in these early experiences and were founded in my family. I recall the
