Social and Cultural Diversity

Purple Book - Chapter 4

Multicultural

implies that we champion the idea of celebrating diversity

e.g., age, sexual orientation, religion, social class, country of origin, race, and health status

Cultural pluralism

a minority cultural group will keep their own unique cultural values, yet they still participate in the wider or dominant culture

Culture

customs shared by a group which distinguish it from others, values shared by a group that are learned from others in the group, attitudes, beliefs, art, and language which characterize members of a group often passed from generation to generation

Culture conflict

manifests itself whenever a person experiences conflicting thoughts, feelings, or behaviors due to divided cultural loyalties

describes the difficulties which arise when persons of different cultures live in the same geographical area

Macroculture or majority culture

refers to the dominant culture or the culture that is accepted by the majority of citizens in a given society

Privilege

refers to the fact that some individuals have an unearned advantage, giving that person dominance, access to resources, and therefore power

Cultural relativity

connotes that a behavior cannot be assessed as good or bad except within the context of a given culture, and the behavior must be evaluated relative to the culture

Culture-bound values

the counselor is bound to his or her own values and tries to impose them on clients

Material culture

books, paintings, homes, and tools (i.e., artificats)

Nonmaterial culture

customs, values, humor, social ideas, or traditions

Culture epoch theory

suggests that all culture — like children — pass through the same stages of development in terms of evolving and maturing

Race

the identification of individuals via distinct physical or bodily characteristics such as skin color or facial features, the assumption is made that a given race is based on genetic origin

Color blindness

you ignore the person’s race, culture, or color

National culture

the cultural patterns common to a given country

Ideal culture

the way individuals are supposed to behavior

Real culture

encompasses all behaviors within the culture, even those which are illicit or frowned upon

Counterculture

when a group of persons vehemently opposes the values of the culture

Social learning theory or observational learning

viewing a behavior and then imitating that behavior

Civil Rights Act of 1964

prohibited discrimination for reasons of gender, race, religion, or national origin was instrumental in terms of setting the stage for minority concerns

helped to popularize the multicultural counseling movement

Proximity

personal space, interpersonal distance, and territoriality

Propinquity

the tendency for people who are in close proximity to be attracted to each other

Studies on attractiveness

we generally end up with mates who are on our own level of attractiveness, voters prefer attractive candidates though they are unaware of their bias, attractive people fare better in legal altercations, more likely to receive help during a time of need, and are better able to sway the opinions of an audience

Reciprocity of attraction

suggests we are attracted to people who like us and find us attractive

Matching hypothesis

asserts we very often pick a partner who roughly matches our level or attractiveness

Contextualism

implies that behavior must be assessed in the context of the culture in which the behavior occurs

Worldview

a person’s perception of his or her relationship to the world as a whole

Prognosis

refers to the probability that one can recover from a condition

Stanford Prison Experiment

conducted by Philip Zimbardo; assigned roles of guards and prisoners in which social roles were conformed to and resulted in the experiment ending early due to severe harassment by the guards and anxiety and depression from prisoners

Frustration-aggression theory

associated with John Dollard and Neal Miller who asserted that frustration leads to aggression (AKA the Dollard/Miller hypothesis)

Cognitive dissonance

individuals are motivated to reduce tensions and discomfort, thus putting an end to the dissonance; people don’t like inconsistency in their thoughts or attitudes versus behavior

dissonance is often reduced using denial

Normative

implies that culture provides individuals with standards of conduct

Statistical norm

measures actual conduct

Cultural norm

measures how people are supposed to act

Mores

plural of mos; social beliefs and customs that develop as a given group decides what is good and bad for the welfare of the people

breaking these causes harm to others or threatens the existence of a group

Folkways

describe correct, normal, or habitual behavior

breaking these generally results in embarrassment

Ecological culture

implies that cultural norms are often the result of practical and survival behaviors related to the climate or the resources in a given physical or geological environment

Universal culture

we are all a part of this with similar or universal needs and requirements for food, water, air, and sleep regardless of our cultural affiliation

Ethnicity

that which pertains to a large group of individuals who are categorized by national, religious, linguistic, or cultural attributes

Foot in the door technique

asserts that when a person agrees to a less-repugnant request (step 1) then they will be more likely to comply with a request which is even more distasteful (step 2)

Third culture kid (TCK)

used to describe children raised primarily in a culture that is different than their parents’ culture during their formative years

Society

a self-perpetuating independent group which occupies a definitive territory; all members of a given society may not share the same culture but culture operates within society

Ethnocentrism

uses one’s own culture as a yardstick to measure all others; conveys the notion that one’s own group is superior

Acculturation

suggests that ethnic and racial minorities integrate or adopt cultural beliefs and customs from the majority or dominant culture

Assimilation

occurs when the individual has such a high level of acculturation that he or she becomes part of the dominant, macro, or majority culture

Modal personality

refers to a composite personality, which is the most typical profile of a group of people; the personality which is characteristic or typical of the group in question

Social exchange theory

assumes that rewards are things or factors we like, while costs are things we dislike; assumes that a positive relationship is characterized by “profit”

Complementarity theory

a relationship becomes stronger as the two people’s personality needs mesh

Balance theory

postulates a move from cognitive inconsistency to consistency and a tendency to achieve a balanced cognitive state

Terminal drop or terminal decline theory

postulates that a dramatic decrease in intellectual functioning does occur, but it only occurs during the final fie years of life and usually centers around verbal skills

Cultural approach to normality

suggests that the behavior of the majority of the people defines what is considered “normal”

Consonance

harmony between attitudes and behavior

Bystander effect

the number of people who will help a victim in distress decreases, and the time it takes to intervene increases, as the number of bystanders increases

Diffusion of responsibility

assuming somebody else will step in and take charge

Altruism

an unselfish concern for others

Therapeutic surrender

the client psychologically surrenders himself or herself to a counselor from a different culture and becomes open with feelings and thoughts

Flight to health defense mechanism variables

an analytic concept which asserts that the client has improved too rapidly and the real difficulty (i.e., unconscious conflicts) has not been resolved

Assimilation-contrast theory

a client will perceive a counselor’s statement that is somewhat like his or her own beliefs as even more similar and they would perceive any dissimilar attitudes as even more dissimilar

Assimilation error

perceiving similar attitudes as even more similar

Contrast error

perceiving any dissimilar attitudes as even more dissimilar

White privilege

the special advantages, privileges, and opportunities that nonwhites don’t have

Monolithic perspective

indicates that the counselor perceives all the people in a given group as being identical

Structure

indicates that the counselor will explain the role of the helper as well as the role of the helpee

helps to ward off embarrassment and further enhances the effectiveness of the counseling process

Connotation

applies to the emotional content of a word, which is different from the true or dictionary definition

Semantic differential

the tendency for words to convey different connotations

Bicultural

have familiarity with the culture of the counselor and the client

Brown v. Board of Education

outlawed public school segregation and was a prime factor in the history of multicultural counseling

Eclectic

selecting treatment intervention strategies from diverse counseling models

Emic

emphasizes that each client is an individual with individual differences

Etic

adheres to the theory that humans are humans regardless of background and culture, thus the same theories and techniques can be applied to any client the counselor helps

Autoplastic view

asserts that change comes from the self such as thoughts and behaviors

Alloplastic view

the client can cope best by changing or altering external factors in the environment

La belle indifference

they do not seem to be bothered or concerned by their condition

Malingering

occurs when a person fakes a physical or emotional illness to avoid work, military duty, or prison

Ambivalent transference

occurs when the client rapidly shifts his or her emotional attitude toward the counselor based on learning and experiences related to authority figures from the past

Personalism

implies that the counselor will make the best progress if he or she sees the client primarily as a person who has learned a set of survival skills rather than as a diseased patient

all people must adjust to environmental and geological demands

Contracting

keeps the counselor from shoving a dose of his or her own cultural values down the clients throat (i.e., the client has input before signing or agreeing with the contract)

Transactional analysis (TA)

illuminates cultural and ethnic injunctions

Cultural pluralism

occurs when persons of a cultural heritage retain their traditions and differences, yet cooperate in regard to social, political, and economic matters

suggests that certain categories of individuals often need special services

Social facilitation

the presence of other persons (e.g., coworker, other athletes, fellow students) improves an individual’s performance even when there is no verbal interaction

Sleeper effect

asserts that when you are attempting to change someone’s opinion the change may not occur immediately after the verbal exchange; when a counselor provides guidance to a client a delay may occur before the client accepts the message

the communication may have more impact after some time has passed

Affiliation

the need one has to associate with others

highest in firstborn and only children

Approach-approach

the individual is presented with two equally attractive options simultaneously; typically instills less anxiety than other types, easiest to help clients cope with because the client can attempt both options

Avoidance-avoidance

when an individual is faced with two negative choices; this usually results in the client daydreaming, fleeing from the situation, or regressing instead of confronting the choices

Aproach-avoidance

presents a positive factor with a negative factor at the same time

this is the toughest type of conflict for the client to tackle as it generates the highest level of frustration

Congruity theory

a client will accept suggestions more readily if the client likes the counselor

The melting pot concept

different cultures assimilate or melt into the dominant culture (this has been deemed a myth)

Ethnocentric position

holds that a given culture is the best or superior to others or the counselor falsely believes that the client views the world in the same manner as the helper

Salad bowl analogy

people are mixed together but they retain their unique cultural identity

Prejudice

we are negative or have rigid, inflexible attitude toward a given group of people and can often act on our unfavorable thoughts

Caste system

there are fixed layers of superiority and inferiority which you are born into and thus cannot escape

Racism

occurs when an assumption is made that some races are better than others

Sexism

one sex assumes that the other is inherently inferior

Theory of social comparison

people have a need to compare themselves with others to assess their own abilities and options; we will compare ourselves to others who are basically similar to us

Asch situation

people will conform to an obviously incorrect unanimous decision one third of the time, which includes individuals who are authoritarian and thus are heavily influenced by authority figures, people who are external approval seekers, and persons who feel that outside external factors control them

Emile Durkheim

one of the founders of modern sociology; principles were outlined in his 1895 work, Rules of Sociological Method

also known for his research into suicide and took group phenomena beyond the armchair-speculation stage into formal research

William McDougall

the father of hormic psychology (believed that individual and group behavior is the result of inherited tendencies to seek goals) and wrote Introduction to Social Psychology

Konrad Lorenz

believed in innate aggression theory due to observing certain tropical fish attacking an alternate target even when the actual target of aggression is removed

Albert Bandura

noted that children who viewed live or filmed aggression imitated the behavior; found that children who are abused by their parents are more likely to be abusers when they have children of their own and parents who do not tolerate or use aggression when raising children produce less-aggressive children

Daniel Levinson

proposed a controversial stage-crisis view theory with several major life transitions, which is now viewed as biased against women

a midlife crisis occurs for men 40-45 years old and women 5 years earlier

Leon Festinger

discovered that friendship and attraction were highest for apartment dwellers living next door to each other, established the theory of social comparison and cognitive dissonance