...the traditional Christian upbringing from my family. My family has been the most important source of my major life decisions. I have made choices based on what I was taught, and how Christians are expected to live day to day. Not only do I try to do for others, but I push myself to be the best I can be in all aspects of life. My family, my neighborhood, and leaning to communicate are the major things that make me who I am today. My personal cultural background and upbringing was full of many experiences that I carry with me from day to day. I grew up with being the youngest child in a middle class setting. I have one older brother and was raised in a two parent household. We were afforded certain luxuries because both of my parents had stable jobs. My upbringing influenced many of my current habits. The amount of interaction or close association I have experienced with people whose cultural background is different from mines has also played a big role in how I perceive and look at things. The impact of this has greatly shaped my character and daily choices. I was raised in a diverse neighborhood in Price Georges County, Maryland. My neighborhood included Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Indian. One was not isolated due their race or religion because there was an even number of diverse individuals being raised in the neighborhood. I was fortunate to have peers from all walks of life. Therefore, I was exposed to numerous different cultural practices. I learned at a very...
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... Being Asian in the racially homogenous community of [small town], it was clear: I did not belong. When my father moved to South Korea after my 8th grade year, I was excited to spend summers there. I would finally belong. I was wrong. My excellent Korean language skills let me feign native status but my American mannerisms betrayed me. To Koreans, I was just American. At [university], a diverse community, I sought out Korean-Americans. But they questioned whether I truly understood the Asian-American experience due to my [predominantly white state] upbringing. To them, I was white. While these cultural rejections from my various communities were painful, I learned to recognize individuals as unique entities despite shared identity markers such as race. I vowed to always see the whole person; not just her external stereotypes. I have stayed true to this promise as a teacher in [New York City] and have seen the rewards in the form of fruitful relationships. I will continue to do the same with my patients. My struggles to belong taught me to work easily with a variety of people by adjusting my perspectives without sacrificing my values, and listening carefully to others. I built my own sense of belonging, which was more than my race. The extensive time I have spent in an array of communities and my experiences as an “outsider” gives me a unique outlook and cultural literacy, which will surely contribute to the development of culturally competent doctors at University of Michigan...
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...to education of the young generation. From an early age they pawned a sense of patriotism, love of country, respect for elders, support youth. The role of grandparents in the upbringing, which, pampering and loving grandchildren, telling them stories, legends, true story of the brave men, bis, and thus is born in them a sense of imitation, love of work empathy, responsibility, morality. A grandfather required knowledge by heart seven generations of ancestors, in order not to spoil the blood. People brought up children, gradually accustomed to labor, to the subsequent generation of grown-up have taken care of the elders. The environment also influenced the formation of the person, so the children were taught to choose the right friends. If there are not good friends, then parents try to save their child. And one of the important aspects in the education of every child is the desire to achieve the goal. Mistakes senior strictly pointed at them, but they are also gently guided to the right path. According to the articles which I have read I can divide authors’ opinions into several main topics such as Kazakh culture teaches children from the beginning to get a good marriage, secondly, it teaches healthy mind, respect elders, Kazakh nation is soft purity of conscience and also some changes in cultural events, traditions and cultures. The first...
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...“My Big Fat Greek Wedding” is a charming romantic comedy that explores cultural differences in a combination of adorable romance and cute humor. The story revolves around Toula, a thirty-year-old Greek American single woman, who lives with her family in the suburb of Chicago. Like many obedient Greek daughters, she works in her family’s business, a restaurant called “Dancing Zorba’s.” Toula belongs to a traditional collective upbringing where all good daughters are expected to marry from their ethnic background. However, she struggles with her father’s limited ambitions for her and she longs for something else in life. She enrolls in college and takes computer classes. With the computer diploma under her belt, a rebellious Toula emerges. She manages her aunt’s travel agency and starts dating Ian Miller, a white high school English teacher. They date secretly for a while, before she has the courage to introduce him to her family. Her father is livid over her dating a non-Greek. The climax of the story occurs when both sides try to adjust to each other. While Ian has to let go of his rigid white individualistic upbringing and learn to accept her collective big family and Greek traditions, Toula has to come to terms with her own identity. My Big Fat Greek Wedding not only exposes the cultural difference between the individualism of Ian and his family and the collectivism of Toula and her family, it also offers a wide array of misconceptions in interpersonal communication. Collectivism...
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...February 2, 2014 Responsible Youngster This is the moment my life changed forever; I became a teenage mother. Let me explain. As far back as I can remember, growing up as a child was full of sugar rushes, imaginary friends, and endless adventures. I was the only child in my mother's house for nine and a half years until my brother was born. I had every toy I asked for and every light up shoe I ever dreamed of. My parents both worked well paying jobs and practically gave me any and everything I wanted. Many people called me spoiled, but I considered myself loved. Over the years, receiving gifts turned into earning them. I recall my mother giving me a list of daily tasks and chores to complete throughout the week. If I completed each chore and kept my grades up in school I would earn an allowance. It didn’t take long for me to appreciate the value of money. When I was 12 I started saving my money in a purple shoe box that I kept under my bed. Each week I would ask my parents for additional chores so that I could make extra income. By the time I was 14 I decided to do something I loved while getting paid to do it; babysit. On my sixteenth birthday I had saved over $700 and my father took me to open a savings account at the local bank. I remember feeling accomplished and “grown”; not knowing that I would find out the true meaning of that word within a couple of months. As I entered the eleventh grade my uncle, who is two years younger than me, had a baby at fifteen...
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...Barriers to Cultural Competence Cultural Competence in nursing is “knowledge and understanding of another person's culture; adapting interventions and approaches to health care to the specific culture of the patient, family, and social group” (Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing, n.d.) Miami is a melting pot of many different cultures. In order for a nurse to be cultural competence she or he must be able to work successfully with patients from different cultural backgrounds, upbringings, and values. This is accomplished in many different ways, educating oneself in other cultures such as taking classes and talking to co-workers from different cultures. Am I Cultural Competence? It is my believe that I have yet to achieved full cultural competence. Even though after taking classes in different cultures and online courses I am more...
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...Multicultural Competency Paper Multicultural Psychology 535 Dr. Mary Ann Cejki, M.S., Ph.D. Multicultural Competency Guideline 1: Psychologists are encouraged to recognize that, as cultural beings, they may hold attitudes and beliefs that can detrimentally influence their perceptions of and interactions with individuals who are ethnically and racially different from themselves (American Psychological Association, 2003). I agree that psychologist can hold many different beliefs concerning others. The beliefs can sometimes hinder a person from growing emotionally, and cognitively. In my opinion it is important for the professional to be familiar with the diversity that may exist in their patients and remain professional in their attitude and beliefs. This can include cultural heritage, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status just to name a few. Sometimes, it is difficult to suppress those feelings but repeated “attempts at suppression lead to improvements in automatic biases” (Plant & Devine, 1998). Guideline 2: Psychologists are encouraged to recognize the importance of multicultural sensitivity/responsiveness to, knowledge of, and understanding about ethnically and racially different individuals (American Psychological Association, 2003). I believe this is a very true statement base on personal experience. I believe that it is important to have knowledge of multicultural sensitivity for a better understanding of the clients in the psychology field. It is necessary...
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...of rearing a child is valid or not when compared to another’s method of child upbringing. One of the biggest challenges of being a parent is the upbringing methods of a child. Child rearing methods have changed somewhat in the past several decades. Some will agree that it has since become more challenging as time goes on for every new generation. But what could be the cause of this change, and why would people agree that it has become more difficult to rear a child in this world now, than if it had been 50 years ago? The answer can be summed up in one word: technology. Times are changing they are. And as time goes by, new technologies are introduced into the world. Because of the advances in technologies, the world has become a more demanding and fast-paced place to live in. Economies have since been impacted through out these technological advances… And one can only presume that such technologies are what move our economies. For the most part, depending on what part of the world you live in, has an affect on how parents enforce their child rearing methods. To pin-point a more common ground on this subject, I will focus on child rearing in the United States. And what a better place to focus in on than the U.S. The U.S. is probably the most technologically advanced country in the world. But more importantly, it is also probably the most diverse as far as cultural and religion methods are concerned. This makes it more interesting to research...
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...person’s personal values of diversity, in relation to how strongly they react when learning of discriminatory treatment of minorities. Triana et al. (2012), describe their findings by stating, “Through a field survey of 190 employees, we found that observers high in personal value for diversity have stronger negative reactions to the mistreatment of women and racial minorities than observers low in personal value for diversity.” Strengths and Limitations: The main strength of this study was that they surveyed a wide variety of participants, from different ethnic groups and backgrounds. It was also very evenly distributed among the two sexes. The main limitation that I observed was that the results of the study were fairly predictable. In my opinion, it only makes sense that people who have higher levels of personal value of diversity would have the strongest negative reactions to acts of discrimination against women and minorities. On the other side of the spectrum, people who have low personal values and opinions of diversity would be expected to not react very strongly to the mistreatment of minorities and women. Conclusion: In conclusion, I feel that this study proved a significant point about diversity and discrimination. As the results indicated, people who place a higher value on human diversity are the ones who are more strongly impacted by witnessing acts of discrimination against women and minorities. These people are also the ones who are more likely to stand up...
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...SOC/315 July 23, 2009 Introduction * The purpose of this paper is to discuss the different sources that have contributed to my cultural background. In addition, speculate on the extent to which my current identity has been molded by assimilation, acculturation, and climate of pluralism. Culturally Diverse Entity According to (Kottak & Kozaitis, 2003) Cultural diversity refers to variation in institutions, traditions, language, customs, rituals, beliefs, and values. All nations have such internal variation. Recent settlers of North America trace their origins to Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Within the United States and Canada many groups claim a particular heritage (e.g., ethnic roots) that distinguishes them from other such groups and from a mainstream, dominant national culture (Takaki 1993). Other kinds of groups are based on a common occupational status and identity. Still other expressions of diversity involve contrasts among rural, urban, and suburban lifestyles. When I think about diversity I think of people of different race, age, gender, and religion. Understanding the difference was the first step for me. I did not think that one person should be treated any differently than the next as I was taught in my upbringing; I soon learned it happens. In 1982, I experienced cultural diversity when I started my first job at the age of 18 at a printing company, as I begin to interact with people of different race, age , gender, religion and...
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...Influence of early attachment relationship on development Introduction: It is understood, through lifespan psychology, that the psychological development of an individual is a process that continues throughout an individual's life, this development consists of both internal and external dynamics. The well theorised theme of attachment forms the basis of this study. Attachment focuses on the formation of early relationships and their influence on later developmental outcomes. The social constructionist perspective explores "how knowledge about sex and gender has been constructed within particular historical and social contexts" (Wood et al 2007) this perspective assumes that the knowledge comes from social contexts and is evidenced predominately by an individual's use of language. This study explores the paradigm of attachment from the social constructionist perspective. The paradigm of attachment is concerned with a "strong, ongoing emotional bond between two people" (Wood et al 2007) and suggests that attachment is fundamental to emotional, social and cognitive progression. Bowlby, an attachment theorist purports that attachment is a survival instinct in infancy, and once established it remains relatively fixed throughout life. Positive attachments created in vertical relationships, that is an "attachment to someone who has greater knowledge or social power - a typical example is a child's relationship with a parent or a teacher" (Wood et al 2007) forms a secure foundation...
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...The Civil War was fought to free thousands of slaves, followed by the long and arduous battle for civil rights. Women waged a fight for voting rights and in 1973, the Supreme Court handed down one of the most important decisions of the 20th century, Roe v. Wade, which gave woman control over their reproduction rights. I was born in 1966, and it has often crossed my mind that had I been conceived a few years later, would I have been put up for adoption, or never been born at all? Nevertheless, I am one of many who are being deprived of one of the most basic human rights of all. In explanation, I am adopted, and because of archaic laws, created in some cases over 100 years ago, the right I am being denied is my birthright. This birthright is being withheld from an estimated six million adult adoptees in the United States. The basic right to know where you came from, to know who you look like, to know who gave birth to you, and, ultimately, to know why you were given away. I was blessed to have been adopted by incredibly loving parents, and even though I had a wonderful upbringing, I always wondered who I look like, my biological mother? Father? Just as the United States has moved forward with regard to race relations, single, unmarried women having children has also become increasingly accepted. The “Age of Secrecy” and original adoption laws reflected conditions of years ago. In early society, to be an unwed mother was something shameful, and to be an illegitimate bastard was...
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...Is the conscience in the reality simply your own selfish desires rationalised? In my opinion, I do believe that this could be the case as in definition, the conscience is said to be “an aptitude, faculty, intuition or judgment of the intellect that distinguishes right from wrong.” I believe that our conscience is formed from our life experiences and the way we are brought up, often with religious influences. My reasoning for this is because a person’s upbringing can be predicted by the way they behave, and often people who commit crimes come from poor backgrounds, distorting their moral conscience. Most Christians believe that our conscience comes from God, they believe that this is what separates humans from other animals. They believe that to assist us, God has given us both the capacity and inclination to judge our own behaviour on the basis of His standard of right and wrong made known to us through His Word. Conscience aids us in discerning what is right and good from what is inferior, wrong, bad. It encourages decisions that are acceptable in His sight and where there is a conflict, it attempts to persuade us to follow God’s prescribed way of righteousness. Moral consciousness is characterised by a sense of responsibility. When its urgings are ignored, we feel guilt, a complex experience that includes a sense of judgment, unworthiness, self-depreciation and estrangement from God, others and our self. This feeling can only be relieved by forgiveness extended to us by God...
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...Thinking About Diversity and Inclusion Wesley J Ackerman Soc 315-Cultural Diversity September 14, 2011 Ernest Hernandez Thinking About Diversity and Inclusion What are the dimensions of cultural diversity? Identify and briefly explain the dimensions by referencing both textbooks. The dimensions of cultural diversity are measured through similarities and differences between items in a group. A broad or macro look into a group helps to discover similarities between items while a detailed or micro look is helpful when looking for differences. According to the reading, the primary dimensions that are looked at when dealing with diversity are age, gender, race, mental and physical ability, sexual orientation and ethnicity (Pg. 47 “Understanding and Managing Diversity”). With age comes certain connotation. Native American and Asian cultures hold their elders in revere for their years of wisdom, youth is often more appreciated in the global workforce for their energetic drive. While the number of women in the workplace continues to grow and they prove capable of holding positions of responsibility, when dealing with gender it is still often thought that men make decisions based on business while women tend to bring emotion into their decision making. Ethnicity and Race usually go hand in hand unless working within a very particular group. Amongst a workplace with a broad business, a person may be acknowledged only by their race, such as Hispanic or Latino. Now if the business...
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...Racism in Childhood Upbringing Racism is an issue that has existed throughout human history. Caused by people who believe that a person has predisposed stereotypes based solely on the color of their skin, it is an issue that is difficult to eradicate. Although there are many people who are racist, I was having a difficult time figuring out why this was. There are many different factors as to why a person could become intolerant of people with different skin colors, but the one that I felt was the most prominent factor contributing to this social disorder had to do with interference from a young age. I believe that childhood upbringing is a major contributing factor in the roots of racism. When children are young, they are extremely moldable. While some parents choose to allow their children the freedom of learning and exploring to create their own opinions, others do not. They take advantage of the naivety of young kids and shape their minds into what they believe is right, which includes racist thoughts. By forcing their opinions onto a child, it leaves no room for personal interpretation, thus continuing the never-ending cycle of intolerance. There are several reasons why I believe this happens. First, familial beliefs have a lot to do with the promotion of racism, because if a parent is very opinionated they are less likely to allow their children to make their own judgments. I also believe this occurs because some adults cannot get their own points across to others...
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