Understanding Human Diversity

A collection of flashcards focusing on key vocabulary related to human diversity, including assimilation, discrimination, and cultural competency.

Assimilation

The process by which people of diverse backgrounds slowly give up their original cultural language and identity to melt into another, usually larger, group.

Bias

Prejudice; thinking negatively of others without significant justification, generally a combination of stereotyped beliefs and negative attitudes.

Biculturalism

The ability to negotiate two or more different cultures competently, individual and mainstream.

Cultural Diversity

The variety of human societies and cultures and the examination of their similarities and differences.

Discrimination

Actions involved in the unequal or prejudicial treatment of people because they belong to a certain category, group, or race.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency toward viewing the norms and values of one's own culture as absolute and using them as a standard against which all other cultures are measured.

Gender

Chromosomal designation of female or male being.

Homophobia

Irrational fear of and hostility toward homosexuality.

LGBTQ+

An acronym used to describe individuals who identify as other than heterosexual, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual.

Racism

Belief in racial superiority, leading to discrimination and prejudice toward races considered inferior.

Cultural Competency

Possessing a set of attitudes, behaviors, and policies that enable effective interactions in a cross-cultural framework.

Age Discrimination in Employment Act

A U.S. law aimed at preventing discrimination against individuals based solely on age in hiring, promotion, job assignment, compensation, and termination.

Ethnicity

Ethnic affiliation or classification.

Race

Population that differs from others in the relative frequency of some gene or genes; varieties of humankind, distinguished by characteristics.

Diversity

The fact or quality of being diverse; all the ways in which human beings are both similar and different.

Generational Labels

Terms used to classify groups of people by birth years that reflect shared characteristics, such as Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z.

Cultural values

Socially shared ideas about what is good, moral, and right and what is bad, immoral, and wrong.