Culture and Gender Self-Assessment: ADDRESSING Model
Nine dimensions, four questions, and a second part that has to reflect back on the first. The question about contributing to oppression is where honesty is graded.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 16, 2026
ADDRESSING gives you nine dimensions and four questions
The ADDRESSING model gives you nine dimensions and the paper is structured by them: age and generational influences, developmental or acquired disability, religion and spiritual orientation, ethnic and racial identity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, indigenous heritage, national origin, and gender. Its point is not that you have nine identities but that each dimension carries either privilege or marginalisation in a particular society at a particular time, and that most people hold some of each. Work through them rather than picking the two you find easiest. Then answer the first question properly: which is most salient and which least, with reasons. The most useful observation available here is that the dimensions on which you hold privilege are usually the least salient ones, precisely because privilege does not announce itself — being able to say that about yourself is the difference between a description and a self-assessment.
This is Part 2, so the reflective spine is comparison. What has changed since Part 1, and what changed it — a reading, an exercise, a comment from a classmate, a client encounter? Name the specific thing rather than reporting a general growth in awareness. The fourth question is the one that decides the grade: have you contributed to discrimination or oppression as part of this group, and have you been a victim of it. The prompt says honesty is expected and will not be penalised, and that is not a formality — an answer of no to the first half is almost never true and reads as avoidance. Contribution includes the passive kind: the assumption not questioned, the joke not challenged, the benefit accepted without noticing. Write it in the first person, keep the respectful tone, and connect it back to practice. Name one thing you will now notice in a client that you would previously have missed.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Apply all nine ADDRESSING dimensions to your own identity.
- 02Recognise privilege as the dimensions that feel least salient.
- 03Reflect comparatively against an earlier self-assessment.
- 04Answer honestly about contribution to discrimination, including passively.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
Important information for writing discussion questions and participation Hi Class, Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts. Contact me if you have any questions. Important information on Writing a Discussion Question Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references) There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article. Include in-text citations in your response Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information Follow APA-7th edition Points will be deducted if the above is not followed Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week. Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references) Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count. Follow APA 7th edition Points will be deducted if the above is not followed Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points. Here are some helpful links Student paper example Citing Sources The Writing Center is a great resource Welcome to class Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to. I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you. Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted. If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations. Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements. Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week. I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01A self-assessment across the ADDRESSING dimensions.
- 02The most and least salient identities, with reasons.
- 03What membership means personally and societally.
- 04Formative experiences and whether feelings have changed.
- 05An honest answer on contributing to and experiencing discrimination.
- 06Explicit reflection back on Part 1, in the first person.
Most salient, least salient, then what changed
The nine dimensions, applied
Work through each dimension as it applies to you.
Most salient
Identify the dimension most present in daily life and explain why.
Least salient, and why that matters
Connect low salience to unexamined privilege.
What membership means
Distinguish personal meaning from societal positioning.
Formative experiences
Recount specific interactions that shaped your identity.
Contribution and victimhood
Answer both halves of the fourth question honestly.
What changed since Part 1
Name the specific course experiences that shifted your view.
Using the model rather than describing it
Recommended databases
- The attached Hays ADDRESSING materials
- Your graded Part 1
- PsycINFO
- American Counseling Association
Search sequence
- 1.Reread Part 1 before writing anything, since the comparison is the assignment.
- 2.Use the attached model materials rather than a summary of them.
- 3.Check the assignment's source restriction before adding outside references.
- 4.Note the specific course activities that changed your thinking, with dates if you can.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
Diversity and Discrimination in Health Care - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf
StatPearls Publishing, via NCBI Bookshelf · 2024
Diversity and discrimination in health care, for the societal half of the second question.
- 02
Counseling Ethics
American Counseling Association · 2024
The professional expectation of multicultural competence that this exercise serves.
- 03
12.1 Sex, Gender, Identity, and Expression - Introduction to Sociology 3e | OpenStax
OpenStax, Rice University · 2021
Gender identity and expression as a dimension, defined.
- 04
22.3 Cultural Assessment
OpenStax, Population Health for Nurses · 2024
Structured cultural assessment, for comparison with the model you are applying.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Covering two or three dimensions and ignoring the rest.
- Treating least salient as least important rather than as a marker of privilege.
- Answering no to the contribution question, which reads as avoidance.
- Writing Part 2 without ever referring back to Part 1.
Submission checklist
- Have you worked through all nine dimensions?
- Did you say why the least salient one is least salient?
- Is the contribution question answered honestly and specifically?
- Does the paper compare explicitly with Part 1?
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.