Cultural Implications

what is culture?

• way of life

• basis of some common purpose, need, or similarity of background

• totality of learned, socially transmitted beliefs, values & behaviors

what is acculturation?

• socialization process

• learning & adoption of selective aspects of dominant culture

what is cultural identity?

set of cultural beliefs as standards of behavior

what is linguistic competence?

ability to communicate & convey information to a diverse audience for easy understanding

what is a minority?

• groups characterized by their own cultural, ethnic, or religious identity, which differs from that of the majority population

• less political and social power

• may have gender inequalities within the group

what is race?

• social definitions based on biology, anthropology, and, more recently, genetics

• racial and national origins, and sociocultural groups

• people who identify as biracial or multiracial

what is ethnicity?

• people with common heritage and history

• may share same beliefs of how the world works and how people should act towards one another

• may identify as people who have multiple heritage e.g., biracial, multiracial, bi-ethnic, and multi-ethnic individual, and do not identify in terms of a single race or ethnicity

what does disease indicate in indigenous cultures?

lack of harmony between individual and environment

what does disease indicate in eastern cultures?

fluctuations in opposing forces

what does disease indicate in western cultures?

measurable cause, and treatment is aimed at the cause

what is cultural syndrome?

• clusters of symptoms within a cultural group

• understood by the group

cultural idioms of distress

how culture express sickness/disease

what is neurasthenia?

• outdated medical term

• condition of chronic fatigue, bodily weakness, and nervous exhaustion