Week 6.1

Question 1

People who don’t fit the norm…

Answer 1

People who don’t fit the norm are by definition, abnormal

Question 2

What is the norm/standard (especially in psychology)

Answer 2

Norm/standard - white, European

Question 3

Whiteness theory

Answer 3

Whiteness theory sees race as a social construct (not biological)

Question 4

Whiteness is… (6)

Answer 4

• Witness is centric in European cultures and thus central to the profession of psychology - psychology theories of Europeans
• Whiteness is seen as the default - that is, the normative standard to which racial minorities are compared - others are judged as different (generally less)
• Whiteness creates a binary system that classifies a person’s culture as either white or other
• Whiteness creates stereotypical expectancies of behaviour (both psychology and the other)
• Whiteness is invisible to those who possess it
• Whiteness creates a colour blindness to a set of cultural privileges and thus Whiteness creates privilege

Question 5

Privilege exists due to…

Answer 5

Privilege exists due to the distribution of institutional power over minorities

Question 6

Privilege allows the psychology profession…

Answer 6

Privilege allows the psychology profession to refute the existence of individual psychologist’s personal racism

Question 7

Privilege is reinforced by and allows…

Answer 7

Privilege, reinforced by the perceived lack of discrimination allows the profession to pathologise the other that is, attribute the other’s disadvantage to themselves (a deficit within them)

Question 8

Conclusion

Answer 8

Conclusion - because of whiteness, most European Australians do not feel advantaged, do not feel responsible for Indigenous disadvantage, do not feel the need to apologise

Question 9

Implication

Answer 9

Implication - professional psychologists experiencing whiteness are unlikely to be effective when working with Indigenous Australians

Question 10

Ethnocentrism

Answer 10

Judging another culture by one’s own cultural standards – these are attitudes/beliefs about own (in-group) cultural norms and becomes a problem when it leads to [discriminative] behaviour toward another (out-group) culture – eg eye contact

Question 11

Cultural relativism

Answer 11

Judging a culture by its own cultural standards – contextualize/understand behaviour within each culture - but does that make all behaviours acceptable - consider infanticide and male/female circumcision

(Want to understand this culture, doing it as part of the culture and should accept, e.g. polygamy are those things right for some cultures)

Question 12

Cultural universals

Answer 12

Aspects of culture common to all human cultures – these are norms of behaviour that are reality for people world-wide

Question 13

Cultural universals include…

Answer 13

ETIC

EMIC

Question 14

ETIC

Answer 14

what all cultures have in common

Question 15

EMIC

Answer 15

what is specific to each culture