cultural Flashcards
Evaluate critical reflection and how it applies to the study and practice of psychology.
Achieving a balance between these approaches can be difficult and attempting to do so
involves additional factors, such as critical reflection.
critically reflective practice that they describe as an ongoing process, through which mental
health professionals develop a clearer understanding of their roles, the power relations
operating within their work and the range of strategies to address the issues and concerns
they are facing. In addition to examining one’s roles in relation to Indigenous Australian
people, for example, Walker and Sonn argue. pg 12
Define cultural competence and recognise how it is important to the study and practice of psychology.
Cultural competence refers to the demonstrable knowledge, behaviour and attitudes of
practitioners that assist and support their capacity to function in intercultural contexts.
Consider the concept of power in the helping relationship, and how this relates to cultural encapsulation.
Power derives from imbalances in the social exchange . . . In other words, one
interactant achieves power through the inability of the other to reciprocate.
This imbalance can place the latter in a position of dependence, where they must
comply in order to attain resources or service. Consider how your training over the coming
years might imbue you with power and how you might wield this power, once attained. What
does the possession of this power allow or require you to do?
Cultural encapsulation is the process of working with clients from an ethnocentric
perspective, where one does not effectively understand the worldview and culture of origin of
the client, nor integrate this knowledge into the counselling process. Cultural encapsulation is
problematic in therapy and can negatively affect the therapeutic alliance
Be able to describe ‘culture’.
Culture is a property of those identifiable groups of people who share common
understandings, rituals, social regulation, religions and place. It can be
described as ‘the shared way of life of a group of people. Culture refers
to explicit and implicit rules, social regulation, social structures, collective understandings,
and collective and interrelated interactions, emerging over time as a response to, and
influence of, the circumstances in which people find themselves. Geography and climate
have a lot to do with the forming of some cultural practices and, in this sense, culture, or
aspects of a culture, may be seen as responsive adaptations to, or reflective of, particular
environmental conditions
Differentiate between and give examples of enculturation, acculturation and cultural adaptation.
Enculturation involves implicit or tacit learning of cultural beliefs, values and traditions.
By modelling the behaviour of others, mastering the intricate nuances of pronunciation and
observing how rewards are distributed in everyday behaviour, people pick up the interesting
and important subtleties that help in the identification of an individual’s origins. The process of enculturation can occur in the process of migration. eg pg25.
Acculturation refers to the process of adapting to a new culture. Contact with members
of a new culture or with the physical characteristics of a new nation exposes the individual to
the new culture’s values, attitudes, expectancies and behaviours. Immigrants are usually able
to choose which of these to take as their own and which to reject as part of the acculturation.
However, there may be challenges in acculturating particular aspects
of a new culture, such as a new language, and these changes can have psychological, social
and economic consequences.
John Berry developed a model of cultural adaptation, or coping with migration. that adaptation to a new culture is possible while still maintaining one’s original culture.
. Integration is likely when the
migrant is able to keep aspects of their original culture and also adopt aspects of the host
culture. When migrants forgo their original culture and accept the host’s culture, this is
referred to as assimilation. Separation occurs when immigrants maintain their original
culture and do not adapt to the host culture. Finally, marginalisation occurs when the original
culture is not maintained and there is little engagement with the host culture. These patterns
of cultural adaptation can be seen across generations. Often, first-generation migrants
(migrants born overseas) attempt to retain aspects of their culture of origin. This can lead to
either integration, where they also accept aspects of the host culture, or separation, where
they resist adopting the host culture. For second-generation migrants, people who were born
in the host culture but have parents born overseas, there is likely to be greater acceptance of
the host culture as this is the culture within which they are educated. The differences in
cultural makeup between the parents and the children can lead to conflict pg 28
Explain the difference between race and culture.
Race is generally defined in terms
of phenotypical characteristics such as skin, eye and hair colour, and facial features. Many argue
for three races: Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid. Others have argued that there are more
than 10 times that number.
whereas,
Culture is a property of those identifiable groups of people who share common
understandings, rituals, social regulation, religions and place.
Evaluate if races really exist.
The concept of race has recently been systematically challenged by the results of the Human
Genome Project (HGP) and archaeological work using human DNA. These have changed
many of the assumptions at the heart of theories of so-called race and racial difference. The HGP was a 13-year project that began in 1990 with the aim of identifying all of the 20 000 to
25 000 genes in human DNA. The project was led by scientists in the US, but included
researchers from around the world, including Australia.
The researchers concluded that:
the human genome contains about 3.2 billion chemical nucleotide base pairs
the total number of genes is estimated to be up to 25 000, which is much fewer than had been predicted
the human genome is almost exactly the same for all people across the world. We share 99.9 per cent in common with all
other humans
there are more differences between people within specific countries than between countries.
The authors of the HGP concluded that:
DNA studies do not indicate that separate classifiable subspecies (races) exist within
modern humans. While different genes for physical traits such as skin and hair color
can be identified between individuals, no consistent patterns of genes across the
human genome exist to distinguish one race from another. There also is no genetic
basis for divisions of human ethnicity. People who have lived in the same geographic
region for many generations may have some alleles [one form of two or more versions
of a gene or groups of genes] in common, but no allele will be found in all members of
one population and in no members of any other. (US Department of Energy Genome
Programs)
Define cultural psychology and explain the considerations involved in what cross‐cultural psychologists do.
Cross-cultural psychologists compare the similarities and differences in behaviour across
different societies or cultures
Cultural psychology involves examining a culture from within and using its own
terms, and cultural psychologists study the ways that people are affected by the culture in
which they live. This research tends to be qualitative in nature and grounded within the
culture in question.
Consider the cultural differences in communication and cultural differences across the world.
Language is an obvious site of cultural difference, both in form and meaning.
, in a broader context, a
shared system of communication is essential for a functioning society. Australia’s insistence
on English language proficiency among immigrants, for example, is indicative of the cultural
importance placed on adjusting to an Australian way of life—not only with English as the
national language, but for what and how it communicates about the requirements of
Australian citizenship.
Non-verbal cues are also an
important component. Tone of voice and facial expressions convey meaning and add potential
information about the message and the messenger. The same words can be changed
dramatically by a change in the facial expression or vocal tone of the messenger and this too
has been a site of cross-cultural research interest and, presumably, similar examples of
miscommunication and misunderstanding
pg 65
Evaluate the implications of working multiculturally on psychological practice and research.
When a professional psychologist deals with a client, all of these aspects of the person are
important. When both the professional and the client are part of the dominant culture, certain
assumptions are made. The therapist assumes that the person knows some things about
psychology and what therapy entails. Both the therapist and the client will assume that
therapy that has largely been developed in the US or Europe will be appropriate. There are
assumptions about the scheduling of the therapy (50 minutes, beginning on the hour). The
therapist might hold many sessions in the late afternoon and early evening. This is based on
the understanding that many clients work and this time is more convenient. There are
assumptions about payment for services. The payment is influenced by politicians and public
servants in Canberra and by the Australian Psychological Society in Melbourne.
What happens when the client does not have an understanding of the dominant
Australian model of psychological service? For example, many refugees to Australia
have been subject to torture and trauma at the hands of the governments in their homeland.
According to the United Nations 1951 Convention, ‘refugees are persons who have crossed
an international boundary; they are unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the protection
of their former country due to a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’ (
In general terms, it is assumed that professionals desire to provide the best service they can.
This means that they need to spend more time investigating and understanding the
client’s personal history, and circumstances, and to a greater or lesser extent depending on the
individual, their cultural background. We do not see this as an imposition on the professional,
but rather recognise that when the client and professional come from the dominant group,
there are assumptions that fall into place. The challenge for professionals is to ensure they
give the same quality of service to all clients and this may require some additional work to
challenge or examine these assumptions.
Explain what Indigenous psychology is, and the implications of this on the field of psychology generally.
Indigenous psychology refers to psychologies indigenous to a local sociocultural and
geographical reality.
y. In Australia, this
would cover Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, but each individual culture could have its own Indigenous
psychology.
The objectives of Indigenous psychology are to develop psychologies that are not
imposed; that are influenced by the cultural contexts in which people live; that are
developed from within the culture; and that result in locally relevant psychological
knowledge
Describe yarning, and link to some examples of how this research methodology may reflect some of the Indigenous philosophical underpinnings in knowledge production.
. Its value emerged from reflection on its use in different
cultural contexts. Yarning was used as a data-gathering tool with two Indigenous groups, one
in Australia and the other in Botswana. Through yarning , Indigenous people are able to
talk freely about their experiences, enabling the researcher to explore the topic in more depth,
resulting in information emerging that more formal research processes may not facilitate. Notably, yarning was used to not only collect information during research interviews but to establish a relationship with participants prior to gathering their narrative on
the respective research topics. Bessarab and Ng’andu articulate four types of yarning and the
ways in which they relate to the conduct of culturally appropriate research activity and
relationship formation and maintenance:
Social yarning: conversation that takes place before the research topic yarn is informal and often unstructured.
Social yarns can include gossip, news and humour and are part of developing trust and building the
relationship. Although the social yarn may follow a meandering course and incorporate topics that both people choose to
introduce to the discussion, the researcher is still accountable to the research participant.
Research topic yarning: the purpose of the research yarn is to gather information through the participant’s stories that are
related to the research topic. It is conversation with a purpose, with a defined beginning and end.
Collaborative yarning: an active engagement in sharing information about a research project or a discussion about ideas.
The sharing of findings can lead to new discoveries and understandings.
Therapeutic yarning: this kind of yarn can take place during the research conversation and involves the participant
disclosing information that is traumatic or intensely personal. The researcher may switch roles to that of a listener
supporting and affirming the participant to give voice to their story. This is not counselling per se, although the researcher
may provide input that assists the participant to rethink their understandings of their experience in new and different ways.
