...of multicultural competencies in two American Counseling Association journals (Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development and Journal of Counseling Development), as well as the historic approval of multicultural competencies as American Psychological Association (APA; 2002) policy in August 2002, multicultural competencies has become one of the latest buzzwords in counseling and psychology. However, prior to the increased attention surrounding multicultural competencies, there was no definitive source that practitioners and scholars alike could refer to for guidance. Pope-Davis, Coleman, Liu, and Toporek (2003) responded to this void by producing a state-of-the-art text covering virtually every aspect imaginable of multicultural competence. The Handbook of Multicultural Competencies in Counseling and Psychology, a 650-page edited handbook, is divided into six sections and is the most comprehensive treatment to date of multicultural competencies.

SECTION I: CONCEPTS AND THEORIES

In chapter 1, Charles Ridley and Amy Kleiner review the historical development of multicultural counseling competencies. They trace its history back to the 1973 Vail Conference (sponsored by APA and held in Vail, Colorado), where it was declared that providing professional services to culturally diverse individuals is unethical if the counselor is not competent to provide them. Citing Sue, Arredondo, and McDavis (1992), Ridley and Kleiner identify the three components of multicultural counseling competence (MCC) as beliefs and attitudes, knowledge, and skills. They discuss the instruments designed to measure the multicultural competence of counselors and note some of the limitations of the instruments. They also discuss the unresolved issue of whether MCC is different from counseling competence and conclude that future scholarship should work toward developing a more universal understanding of MCC.

In chapter 2, Debra Mollen, Charles Ridley, and Carrie Hill evaluate the major and secondary models of multicultural counseling competence. Using a set of criteria, they highlight a number of problems concerning the utility of the models regarding their clarity, oversimplification, nondirectiveness, and ability to be evaluated.

In chapter 3, Hardin Coleman, Romana Norton, Gina Miranda, and Laurie McCubbin discuss how the development of an ecological perspective can address the limitations of cultural identity models such as racial identity development. They argue that identity development models are reflective of traditional positivist thinking and that philosophies outside of a positivist paradigm must be adopted. By using an ecological model, Coleman et al. discuss how cultural identity must be understood through multiple perspectives and across the various contexts of an individual's life.

In chapter 4, Sharon Bowman and Keisa King discuss the role and place of women of color in psychology's multicultural competence movement. They discuss the double bind women of color often face: fighting racism while subordinating feelings about sexism, or fighting sexism while subordinating feelings about racism.

In chapter 5, George Howard provides a philosophy of science for cross-cultural psychology. True to any philosophical discussion of the scientific enterprise,...

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