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Shawnte Dillard posted Jun 20, 2022 4:22 PM

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Multiculturalism has many different definitions depending on what is observed. It’s overall meaning would be the equal attention given to individuals of different backgrounds within the same region or country. This impacts services and policies that are rendered within the psychology community.

Ethics and principles detailed by the APA state: “Psychologists recognize that fairness and justice entitle all persons to access to and benefit from the contributions of psychology and to equal quality in the processes, procedures, and services being conducted by psychologists. Psychologists exercise reasonable judgment and take precautions to ensure that their potential biases, the boundaries of their competence, and the limitations of their expertise do not lead to or condone unjust practices” (APA, 2017).

This also fall in line with Principal E: Respect for Peoples Rights and Dignity. It is a psychologists duty to be aware of differences between themselves and others and between patients to be able to seek and implement the correct treatment plans, this also means that bias and personal options must be disregarded. Multiculturalism is important to psychology for the acquisition of knowledge. This helps have an array of opinions and practice style to cater to the many different individuals they serve.

For example, within child psychology I am a registered behavioral technician and I provide services for autistic clients. Multiculturalism shows itself in the diversity of my clients. I receive clients within a specific geographic location but they range in age, race/ethnicity, and sex. Each family is different as well as the behaviors of the children themselves which means I render services based on the client and their family. I recognize the differences in culture and the clients themselves to give the best treatment during their services.

References

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Melissa Brown posted Jun 20, 2022 3:19 PM

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Hello All,

This assignment is a continuation of the central theme for the discussion assignments regarding your interests in psychology. For this week, we will discuss both the diversity that is part of our culture and the social norms, and then relate it to your interests in psychology. For this week answer the following question:

What is the impact of multiculturalism in psychology?

The impact of multiculturalism in psychology as it pertains to abnormal psychology in the field of clinical psychology includes the individuals that have unique identities that relate to their environment in which they live. It renders people uninterested in or that may be sensitive to the ideas or feelings of other people's cultures that are different from theirs because it is harder to understand a different culture that is not our own. Some cultures have stronger beliefs than others and may be offended more easily for reasons that one person of a different culture may not understand. For example, if someone takes a photo of another who is of Amish religion without consent the Amish get offended because it is against their religion to have photos taken. Multiculturalism means that all cultures should respect each other so in turn the Amish may not believe in having their picture taken but it is in our culture to take pictures of multiple things.

When it comes to multiculturalism effecting abnormal psychology in the field of clinical psychology it may seem that looking at the different ethnic groups living within the US may have a higher risk of mental health due to higher amounts of stressors from possible discrimination and isolation (Park-Taylor, 2009). Yet, there are some other factors of all types of ethnic and native backgrounds of people that suffer from these same discriminations because of their sexual orientation or gender. In the world of psychology being able to treat anyone who comes in for help would be beneficial for both the psychologist and the client. Understanding that each culture has its own ideas of living, raising a family, and religion would help as well. To help alleviate the issue of understanding the differences in ethnic backgrounds multicultural competence training can be issued among mental health professionals (Park-Taylor, 2009). The training I feel should be adaptive to the mental health professional's community as well.

Melissa Brown

Reference:

Park-Taylor, J., Kim, G. S., Budianto, L., Pfeifer, G., Laidlaw, P., Sakurai, M., & Pfeifer, J. (2009). Toward reflective practice: A multicultural competence training model from a community mental health center.

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice,