Monday, June 17, 2019

What is an example of multicultural psychology?

According to this article from the University of Rhode Island, multicultural psychology is a field of psychology that attempts to address how culture impacts "the way people feel, think and act." Globalization has come with increased diversification of communities, a result of factors such as increased immigration across countries and intermarriages between cultures. Thus, people from different cultures are able to mingle on a day-to-day basis at places of work, schools, or other social places, such as marketplaces, restaurants, concert halls, and the like. It is therefore important to have an area of study that looks at the interplay between culture and the individual’s mind, which is what multicultural psychology does.
One example of an emerging issue in the field of multicultural psychology is the difference between races and cultures. The common races of the world are White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American. Each of these races is made up of people from different communities or tribal groupings, most of which can be distinguished on the basis of their cultures. For instance, the Black race comprises of numerous ethnicities in various parts of Africa and the rest of the world, such as the Zulu of South Africa, the Luo of Kenya, the Maasai of Tanzania, the Hutu of Rwanda, etc. Though similarities might exist across the cultures of these varying tribes, each tribe will most likely have its distinct set of beliefs and values. Thus, it would be inaccurate to assume that all Blacks share the same cultural system the world over. The same could be said of the other races. For example, a White person from Germany will most likely have a value system completely different from, say, a White person from the United States of America. In addressing the differences between races and culture, multicultural psychology aims to improve cultural competency so as to avoid the problem of stereotypes.

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