Multicultural Competency Paper

Multicultural Competency Paper

Psychologists are encouraged to be knowledgeable of a vast array of different cultures, lifestyles, origins and regions and changing of the times. This way they are not culturally bias when treating or counseling their clients or patients. There are specific guidelines put into place that all psychologists must follow. These guidelines protect us from any sort of discrimination or statistical overview. This paper will show how I relate my personal life and workplace to guidelines 1 and 2.

Based upon my life long observations of many different cultures I believe that most other cultures are more prawn to have a negative perception of African Americans. This is because a lot of different groups get their perception from the media. African Americans in the media in the past and present have been historically misrepresented. They have been casted in a negative light in many ways. As sub servant, of lesser intelligence, and mischievous. Shows like the classics..."The Little Rascals", "Amos and Andy", "Roots". Shows like this gave many people a very polarized view of who African Americans were. So if you had a limited exposure of African Americans you had a much skewed view of who they really are. As a result many people upon first meeting African Americans typically already have a perception that in a lot of cases were not willing to rise from that unrealistic context.

In a similar fashion we formulate our perception in a similar way. We are also influenced negative influences. When we see someone from Mexico we assume that they eat tacos, when we see someone from the Middle East we assume that they have camels. We form a perception from old stories that people tell, our environment, our parents and media. Even in cartoons, if you look at the bugs bunny show those different ethnicities were over exaggerated. This causes individuals to feel unsure and careful. I personally do not want to make assumptions. It causes me more apt to be open to receive that person as they are, as an individual and not as a specific culture or race.

There are so many different cultures in the world that very few people know enough. It is almost impossible to fully understand all of them. But I do know enough to be fair, reasonable and nonjudgmental in my dealing with everyone that I come in contact with. This allows me to have a good working relationship with almost any person from any culture. I do agree that it is necessary to know as much as possible about different cultures in the world. Conventional methods of education are not sufficient enough. They are not the best source for knowledge of other cultures. You find this out more and more when you deal with an actual person of a different culture. Take into consideration the holiday "Thanksgiving". Most history books provide us with the story of a lovely meal shared by two different cultures.