Counseling Psychology and Pedagogy Master Program PSD 437

1. "There is no better fertile ground for innovation
than a diversity of experience. And that diversity of
experience arises from a difference of cultures,
ethnicities, and life backgrounds.
A successful scientific endeavor is one that attracts
a diversity of experience, draws upon the breadth
and depth of that experience, and cultivates those
differences, acknowledging the creativity they
spark."
Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone

2.  Diversity represents all the ways we are different.
 Laws provide the first basis for diversity: equal employment
opportunity.
 Laws based on historical discrimination against certain groups
in our society: race, gender, color, religion, national origin,
disability, etc.
 Diversity includes all of the above concepts:
The recognition and valuing of differences between people.

3.  Forming a working culture and practices that
recognise, respect, value and harness
difference for the benefit of the
organisations, institutions and individual
patients.

4.  Future workforce will have huge
demographic variations (postmodern society)
 Institutions, organizations and companies
report competitive advantage as the key
driver of diversity efforts
 Diverse markets require diverse operatives
(consumerism).

5. Diversity does not pit one culture against
another for dominance; it only allows for
cultural differences to be a part of society.
Example: employed to solve business
challenges.
Diversity acknowledges and uses these
inherent differences to drive innovation as a
way of creating better organizational
performance and competitive advantage.

6.  Gender
 Age/generation
 Ethnicity
 Nationality
 Language/dialect
 Skin colour
 Religion
 Class Stratification
( wealth, family background)
 Region(N/S, urban/rural)
 Country/region of origin
 Country/region of residence
 Educational level
 Occupation
 Sexual orientation
 Political orientation
 Disability
 Culture (beliefs, expectations,
behaviours)

7. • 1- Primary Categories: Genetic characteristics that affect a
persons self-image and socialization, appear to be unlearned and are
difficult to modify
– Age, race, ethnicity, gender, physical abilities and
qualities, and sexual and affectional orientation
• 2- Secondary categories: Learned characteristics that a person
acquires and modifies throughout life
– Education, work experience, income, marital status,
religious beliefs, geographic location, parental status,
behavioral style

8.  1- Ethnic or Ethnicity
 2- Cultural
 3- Universal

9. The sense of
identification that
a cultural group
collectively has,
largely based on
the group’s
common heritage.

10. Genetic
inheritance
(‘Race’?)
Geographical
origin
Nationality
History/
Migration
Language
Culture
Religion
Ethnicity

11.  Factors inherent in human selfhood and the
"psyche"
 home
 family
 values
 relationship styles
 foundational beliefs holding a related group
of people together.

12.  Worldview issues entails:
 a common history
 customs
 sense of oneness
 social structures holding the related people
together

13.  An ethnic group is a group of human
individuals who share a common, unique
self-identity.
 An ethnic group is also called a “people” or a
“people group.”
 A common technical term for an ethnic
group is “ethnolinguistic.”

14. The “ethno” in “ethnolinguistic” refers
to other aspects of culture that make
up “ethnicity.”
Usually there is a common self-name
and a sense of common identity of
individuals identified with the group.

15.  Some other common ethnic factors that
define or distinguish a people are:
1. a common history,
2. customs,
3. family and clan identities,
4. marriage rules and practices,
5. age-grades and other obligation
covenants,
6. inheritance patterns and rules.

16. • Racial group:Racial group: inherited biological traits
Myths: racial superiority, racial purity
• Ethnic group:Ethnic group: shared cultural traits
• Minority groupMinority group:: shared distinctive identity,
treated unequally by dominant group
• Prejudice (attitude):Prejudice (attitude): rigid, often irrational,
generalization about an entire category of people
(can be positive or negative)

17.  Culture refers to the way of life of a people.
 Specifically, culture consists of the material
and nonmaterial forms that people from and
share with each other.
 Material culture :The tangible products
humans create, like houses, roads, clothes,
technologies, etc.
 Nonmaterial culture:The intangible
products that humans create, like beliefs,
values, ideas and norms.

18.  1. Adaptation to the environment
Our cultures reflect our efforts to adapt to the environment.
 2. Blueprint for living
Culture provides a ready-made blueprint for living.
 3. Symbiotic relationship
We form culture, and it forms us.
 4. It is learned
Culture is learned, not biologically transmitted.

19.  Most species rely on biologically transmitted
instincts to survive.
 Humans have few complex instincts and rely
instead on learned information.
 There are roughly thousands (7000) cultures
across the globe and there is great diversity
among them. However, this number is in decline
due to globalization forces.

20.  A. Nonmaterial components
 1. symbols
 2. language
 3. values and beliefs
 4. norms
 B. Material components
 The importance of technology
 All objects, buildings etc.

21.  Complex social phenomenon.
 Shared beliefs, values and attitudes that
guide behaviour of members.
 Dynamic concept - keeps changing.

22.  Culture Assimilation
 Acculturation.
 When minority groups living within the
dominant group loose the cultural
characteristics that make them different.
 Stereotyping – involves assigning
characteristics to a group of people without
considering specific individuality.

23.  Cultural Imposition – the belief that everyone
should conform to the majority belief system.
 The tendency for health personnel to impose
their beliefs practices and values of other
cultures, because they believe that their ideas
are superior.
 Cultural conflict – when one ridicules others
beliefs and traditions in an effort to make
his or her own values more secure

24. • All cultures change.
• Industrial cultures are in perpetual rapid change.
• Sometimes one part of the cultural system may
change more quickly than another, which lags
behind.
– This is called cultural lag: inconsistencies within a
cultural system resulting from unequal rates of change
by the elements of the system.
– Example:Technology has made it possible to keep a brain dead
person technically alive, but our legal system has not yet caught
up with the rights of the patient

25.  Feelings an individual experiences when placed in a
different and often strange culture and may result in
psychological discomfort or disturbances.
Ethnocentrism: The belief that one’s
own ideas, beliefs and practices are the
best and superior.

26.  Identify factors that effect behavior by
cultural assessment
 Values, religion, dietary practices, family lines of
authority, family life patterns and beliefs and
practices related to health and illness

27. Politics:
left, green,
feminist,
internationalist
(Guardian reading)
Family
member
(another
slide?)
English
English
Not
English
Middle
class
Middle
aged
1960s
generation
Bradford
GP
Educator
Shipley
GP
White
Woman
Well
educated
Doctor

28. Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Language
Skin colour
Socio-economic status
Occupation
Sexual orientation
Political ideology
Disability and health
Cultural beliefs, expectations
Sea level

29.  Which cultural groups would others say you belong to
(top of iceberg)?
 Which other cultural groups do you feel you belong to
(bottom of iceberg)?
• Which aspects of culture are the most important for
you? What most defines you?
• How has your ethnicity and class background
provided strengths / challenges?
• How do cultural factors affect your behaviour and
communication styles at work and elsewhere?

30.  Involves the ability to recognize and embrace
similarities and differences among nations
and cultures and then approach key
organizational and strategic issues with an
open and curious mind.

31.  Culture = the dominant pattern of living,
thinking, and believing that is developed and
transmitted by people, consciously or
unconsciously, to subsequent generations
 Cultural values = those consciously and
subconsciously deeply held beliefs that
specify general preferences, behaviors, and
define what is right and wrong.

32.  Understand, appreciate, and use cultural
factors that can affect behavior.
 Appreciate the influence of work-related
values on decisions, preferences, and
practices.
 Understand and motivate employees with
different values and attitudes.

33.  Communicate in the local language.
 Deal effectively with extreme conditions in
foreign countries.
 Utilize a global mindset (use a worldwide
perspective to constantly assess threats or
opportunities).

34.  Universalism: A perspective that views people
from different cultures as largely the same.
 Observed cultural variability exists only at a
superficial level.
 Though there is much variability in the
languages people speak, this variability is
superficial.
 The majority of linguistic structures, such as
the use of grammar, are universal.

35. Cultural relativism arose from cultural
anthropology as people truly explored the
peoples of the world.
 Implies that there is no right or wrong answers
to any questions.
 We must “walk a mile in another man’s shoes”
in order to truly understand them.
 Behaviors are the result of the unique history
of the individual.

36.  Relativism: A perspective that maintains that cultural
diversity in ways of thinking reflects genuinely
different psychological processes and that culture and
thought are mutually constituted.
 Cultural practices lead to different ways of thinking.
 What we think influences what we do, but also, what we do
influences what we think.
 Assumes that differing cultural practices reflect
solutions to differing problems in differing contexts.

37.  People mistakenly believe that they must think
from either a culturally universal or culturally
relative framework.
 In truth there is a continuity between the
extremes of cultural universality and cultural
relativity.
 Personally, I believe the ideal thinking should
fall somewhere closer to relativity, but
definitely not at the extreme.

38.  People have a standard of behavior to
which they expect other people to adhere.
 This standard has been called Universal
Morality or Natural Law.
 All people know about this law and break it.
 There must be someone or something
behind such a universal set of principles.

39.  Across 30 cultures people were asked to assign
adjectives as belonging to males or females in their
culture.
 Many “universal” ratings appeared.
 Men were more…active, hardheaded, greedy, robust,
loud, obnoxious, etc.
 Women were more…affectionate, fickle, talkative,
touchy, pleasant, etc.
 Possibly based on universal differences between
genders?

40.  According to EvolutionaryTheory, physical
isolation of a population can lead to rapid
speciation due to different selective pressures from
different environments.
Different species arise as a reflection of the unique
environment and the pressures it exhibits.
Isolation of human populations has historically led to the
development of different cultures.
Different cultures arise as a result of having to solve
universal problems in a unique environment.

41.  Eating
 Cultures near water tend to eat seafood.
 Cultures in places with little rain might become
pastoral and focus on grazing animals.

42.  Shelter
 Local materials will be used to protect against
local climates.

43.  Law
 There is a need to impose a common morality
upon a group of people that interact.
▪ If we disagreed on what was acceptable
behavior, chaos might ensue.

44.  Humans have universal problems but….
 Each culture solves and expresses these problems
in unique ways.
 Is it our right to say one solution is “good” while
another solution is “bad”.
 While we say their solution is bad, they say our
solution is bad.
 Can we use universal thinking to make
statements about behaviors which might be
relative?