A critical analysis of the personal and professional development of majority and minority group clinical psychologists: power, difference and identities

Men and black and minority ethnic (BME) clinical psychologists represent distinct minorities in a majority white and female profession. The literature on these minority and majority groups in professions was reviewed, and consequences of minority-majority power relations for personal and professional development (PPD) and identities were considered. Critical theory was used to conceptualise links between individual, professional and societal processes and to develop a method of narrative inquiry exploring those connections.

The PPD of clinical psychologists has not previously been investigated. Interviews were conducted with six white British clinical psycholotgists (four women and two men) and four BME clinical psychologists (all women). No BME men were recruited. Interview transcripts were subjected to critical narrative analysis on an individual case basis. Constant comparison methods were then used to produce group analyses.

Wider societal power relations were inscribed in the PPD narratives of all participants. White participants' identities were largely congruent with PPD discourses, characterised by integration and individual development. BME PPD narratives were cyclical, based on repeated discrimination and conflicts between personal/ethnic and professional identities. Gender patterns were ambiguous though white men's PPD was majority-discoursed. Class interacted with other minority-majority effects. Recommendations for more critical PPD were made.