RAD 110 - Ch 10 Human Diversity - Key Terms

Assimilation:

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

Bias:

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

Biculturalism:

Being able to negotiate two or more different cultures competently, individual and mainstream

Cultural:

Of or relating to culture

Cultures:

All of the socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thoughts by particular classes, communities, or populations

Discrimination:

Actions involved in the unequal or prejudicial treatment of people because they belong to a certain category, group, or race. May also include disability, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Diverse:

Differing from one another; made up of distinct characteristics, qualities, or elements

Diversity:

Fact or quality of being diverse, different (all of the ways in which human beings are both similar and different)

Ethnic:

Designating any of the basic groups or divisions of humankind or of a heterogeneous population, as distinguished by customs, characteristics, language, and common history; national origin

Ethnicity:

Ethnic affiliation or classification

Ethnocentrism:

Tendency toward viewing the norms and values of the individual'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

Mental and Physical

Abilities:

Capacity to perform cognitive and psychomotor tasks

Race:

Population that differs from others in the relative frequency of some gene or genes; any of the different varieties of humankind, distinguished by type of hair, color of eyes and skin, stature, bodily proportions, or other characteristics

Racism:

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

Religion:

Belief in a divine or superhuman power or powers, to be obeyed and worshipped as the creator(s) and ruler(s) of the universe