Date of Award

January 2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Justin "Doug" McDonald

Abstract

A time in American history existed when Native Americans were not allowed to express, much less retain their traditions, culture, language, and livelihood. Today, Natives are thriving in various fields at many different professional levels and have not only mastered majority culture’s ways, but have integrated them, on their own terms, into their lives. Warfare was declared upon Native Americans in the educational arena beginning in the late 1800’s, resulting in many indigenous individuals not only meeting the educational challenge posed to them, but excelled beyond expectation. Thus, in contemporary society, many Native Americans have retained their traditional ways and obtained a higher education, as well as Native Americans who have had to reject their culture and acclimate to dominant society for survival, and those that fall all along this spectrum. A detailed discussion on these topics will be further explored in the body of this dissertation research project.

Native American cultural identification exists at various levels for indigenous individuals. Hence, it is critical to conduct valid cultural assessments to assist in areas of adversity confronting present day Native Americans. The majority of psychometric tools assessing the cultural identity of Native Americans were not developed by Native American scientists. There exists a dearth of clinical psychology literature and studies pertaining to Native American developed assessments tools for Native Americans clients.

Three hundred thirty adult participants from various Pueblo tribes participated in the development of the American Indian Biculturalism Inventory – Pueblo (AIBI-Pueblo), a new psychometric assessment of Pueblo cultural identification. A demographic questionnaire and The Satisfaction with Life Scale were also used. Results showed American Indian Cultural Identification and European American Cultural Identification are consistent predictors of satisfaction of life.

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