Biography
Professor of Psychology, Chair of the Department of Psychology; received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Arkansas. His current research focus is on the effects of multicultural variables like client-therapist ethnic match, client acculturation and ethnic identity, and provider cultural competence, on clinical outcomes for community mental health clients. Additional areas of specialization and research include memory and cognition, conversational memory, and univariate and multivariate statistical and methodological issues. Dr. Gamst is designated as core doctoral faculty.
Interests
My current research interests focus on how cultural factors impact mental health service delivery to diverse consumer populations.
Toward this end, I have been examining, with students and colleagues, the role of client-practitioner ethnic/racial match, client acculturation status, client ethnic/racial identity, and practitioner cultural competence on mental health consumers’ clinical outcomes.
Colleagues and I have developed a new self-report scale that measures therapist cultural competence. This scale is called the California Brief Multicultural Competence Scale (CBMCS). The CBMCS is currently being used across the United States. Additionally, we have developed a 32-hour multicultural training program that flows directly from the CBMCS. This training program has been sponsored by the California Department of Mental Health, and is currently being used in various California county community mental health settings and states across the U.S.
Recently, we have developed new scales that measure African American and Latina American womens’ shifting or self-altering behaviors. These scales are known as the African American Women’s Shifting Scale (AAWSS), and the Latina American Shifting Scale (LASS), respectively. Research that examines correlates of these instruments is currently underway.
Additionally, colleagues and I have developed a scale, the American Dream Scale (ADS) that measures the small business orientation, or petty bourgeois mentality of college students and other adults. Additional research is planned to examine this new construct.
Colleagues, students, and I are currently developing a new self-report scale to measure Asian American women’s shifting phenomena.
In my “spare time”, when I am not teaching undergraduate or graduate courses, doing administrative chores, or engaging in my multicultural research program, I pursue other intellectual interests. For example, I recently co-authored several graduate-level statistics textbooks Analysis of Variance Design (Gamst, Meyers, & Guarino, 2008); Applied Multivariate Research, 3rd ed. (Meyers, Gamst, & Guarino, 2017); Data Analysis using SAS Enterprise Guide (Meyers, Gamst, & Guarino, 2009); Performing Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS (Meyers, Gamst, & Guarino, 2013), all of which are used in our doctoral statistics sequence.
I also enjoy spending time with my family, reading, rooting for the Los Angeles Rams, and working on my 1956 Chevy Nomad.
Dr. Gamst’s scholarly work can be found at Google Scholar.