Clinical/Community Division

Dr. Hunter's line of research is consistent with a focus in ethnic minority psychology and explores mental health and well-being in persons of African descent who reside in the U.S. Two key assumptions which inform her research are (1) the U.S. racial history has created a unique racial context with specific racial hierarchies and (2) racial minority status in the U.S. may hold psychological implications for persons of African descent with respect to observed ethnic group health disparities. Her research explores individual factors (resiliency and counter productive) such as racial and ethnic identity and cultural worldviews and its association with outcomes such as perceptions of racial discrimination and race-related stressors in African Americans and British Caribbean Americans. The inclusion of British Caribbean Americans (and Black immigrants in general) is unique and important because Black immigrants' migration into the U.S. racial context provides a unique opportunity to investigate identity and acculturation in a racial group that migrates to the U.S. without the psychological and social label "racial minority". It is her hope that this line of research will be utilized to inform culturally competent and culturally relevant service delivery thereby decreasing treatment and mental health disparities for persons of African descent who reside in the U.S.

Representative Publications:

• Hunter, C. D. (2008). Individualistic and collectivistic worldviews: Implications for understanding perceptions of racial discrimination in Black British Caribbean Americans and African Americans. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55, 321-332.
• Yeh, C. J. & Hunter, C. D. (2005), The socialization of self: Understanding shifting and multiple selves across cultures. In R. T. Carter (Ed.), Handbook of racial-cultural counseling and psychology: Vol. 1. Theory and research (pp.78-93). John Wiley & Sons.
• Yeh, C. J., Hunter, C. D., Madan-Bahel, A., Chiang, L., & Arora, A. K. (2004). Indigenous and interdependent perspectives of healing: Implications for counseling and research. Journal of Counseling and Development, 82, 410-419.
• Chiang, L., Hunter, C. D., & Yeh, C. J. (2004). Coping attitudes, sources, and practices among Black and Latino college students. Adolescence, 39, 793-815.
• Hunter, C. D., & Lewis, M. E. L. (2004). Coping with racism: Implications of a spirit-based psychological perspective for people of African descent. In J. L. Chin (Ed.), The psychology of prejudice and discrimination: Vol. 1. Racism in America (pp.207-222). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group.