Multi Cultural Awareness

Study MULTI CULTURAL AWARENESS -by Distance Education (Online course also available)

• Develop your understanding of appropriate practices and procedures within Different Cultures.
• Some consider these differences to be of great significance in determining human behaviour and thinking, 
• Others view culture as just one of many factors that influence the behaviour of individuals and groups.

The fact is, however, that cultural differences (within which we can also include what used to be called racial and ethnic differences) have become one of the major factors in conflict between groups. So while human cultures do share some key elements, culture does have a significantimpact as a causative influence on the perceptions, interpretations and behaviours of human groups, and on the interactions between groups. For that reason alone, it behoves us to understand cultural diversity and find ways to reduce its potential for creating misunderstanding, and to reap its benefits, which are many. Yet keep in mind that even as you gain a deeper understanding of culture and cultural diversity, and learn more about specific cultures, you will probably also recognise what we have in common, the obvious and not-so-obvious universal aspects of human behaviour. This course will develop your sensitivity to skills in culture, diversity and multicultural society. It will also improve your capacity to deal with people on multicultural issues. 

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Cultural Diversity
   • Introduction
   • Defining culture
   • Elements of culture
   • Societal structures and processes
   • Subcultures
   • Key areas of cultural diversity
   • Cultural behaviour
   • Values
   • Social discourse
   • Ideology
   • Expectations
   • Problems ith culture
2. Cultural Self-Awareness
   • Introduction
   • Defining cultural self
   • Environmental influences
   • Family or social group
   • Definitions of selfPsychological influences
   • Human nature
   • Personal autonomy
   • Socio economic and political influences
   • Emphasis or minimisation of cultural diversity
   • Code switching
   • Physical environmental influences
3. Prejudice and Racism
   • Introduction
   • Ingroups or outgroups
   • Ethnocentrism
   • What is prejudice
   • Functions of prejudice
   • How we measure prejudice
   • Theoretical perspectives on prejudice
   • Stereotypes
   • Functions of stereotypes
   • Dangers of using stereotypes
   • Discrimination
   • Social discrimination
   • Racism
   • Institutional or structural racism
   • Perception
   • Perceptual change
   • Cognitive dissonance
   • Perceptual defence
   • Reducing prejudice
   • Changing stereotypes
   • Developing cultural sensitivity
   • Belonging to a dominant culture
4. Working with Culturally Different Clients
   • Introduction
   • Communicating across cultures
   • Principles of communication
   • Cultural differeces
   • Communicating intimate information
   • The culturally skilled worker
   • Conformity
   • Factors affecting conformity
5. Barriers to Effective Multi-Cultural Relationships
   • Abnormality
   • The counsellors culture
   • The clients culture
   • Individual differences
   • Cross cultural communication hurdles
   • Culture shock
   • Non verbal communication
   • Developing trust
   • Formal judgements
   • Culture and child development
   • Coping with change
6. Developing Cultural Competence
   • Introduction
   • Culturally competent service delivery
   • Culturally appropriate service
   • Culturally accessible service
   • Culturally acceptable service
   • Training for cultural change
   • Cross culture counselling in disaster situations
   • The role of family
   • Working with other cultures
7. Multicultural Mental Health Issues
   • Introduction
   • Problems with cultural difference in psychology
   • Cultural influences on mental health
   • Culture bound syndromes
   • Trance and possession disorder
   • Factors affecting grief and bereavement: social, psychological and cultural influences
8. Shortcomings of Contemporary Counselling Theories and Future Developments
   • Introduction
   • Culture shock
   • Stages in cultural shock and adjustment
   • Post traumatic stress disorder
   • Tratments for culture distress
   • Successful intercultural adjustment

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Develop an awareness and appreciation of cultural diversity;
• Explain the cultural awareness of the self through verbal and non-verbal means;
• Explain the origins and influences of prejudice and racism;
• Explain the impact of culture when working with culturally different clients;
• Explain bias toward and barriers against effective multi-cultural relationships;
• Explain the fundamentals of developing and implementing cultural competence;
• Develop an understanding of multi-cultural attitudes toward mental health issues.

What You Will Do

• Learn what is meant by the term ‘culture’, and different cultural groups;
• Discuss ‘cultural diversity’ and identify problems associated with it;
• Discuss ‘intra-cultural’ and ‘inter-cultural’ contact to managing cultural diversity;
• Identify reasons that people and groups make intercultural contact;
• Explore how we communicate non-verbally;
• Identify ways (verbal and non-verbal) that we communicate our identification to a cultural group;
• In what ways a minority culture influence a dominant culture;
• Ways that people and groups adapt to other cultures;
• Explain the term ‘individualism-collectivism’;
• Define
  • ‘ethnocentrism’
  • ‘prejudice’
  • ‘racism’
  • ‘stereotype’
  • ‘discrimination’;
• Discuss how prejudice and/or racism help a group or person feel more comfortable about other cultures;
• Explore the role of stereotyping by a dominant culture in perceived discrimination by an immigrant community;
• Define ‘culture shock’;
• Identify barriers to communication that exist in intercultural communication situations;
• Identify strategies to ensure effective communication with a person from another culture;
• Explore the influence of culture differences when providing helping or counselling services to clients;
• Explore ways that people from different cultures deal with psychological or communication problems such as conflict, depression, mental health etc.

 Some Sample Course Notes

Elements of Culture

Culture can be characterised by the following four elements:

• Cultural traits– how the group communicates symbolically through its products, rituals, laws, social structures, economic systems etc.
• Cultural patterns– wider, interrelated patterns of behaviour and interaction in which cultural traits may take on different meanings. An example is the pattern of grieving, which may involve such traits as certain behaviours, dress, foods eaten and not eaten, ways of communicating and use of space, in ways specific to grief situations.
• Transmission of knowledge– how the group teaches its young culturally approved and valued ways of behaving, thinking and perceiving. This is a key factor in the continuation of culture, for it gives cultural shape and form to human activity. The simplest example is the learning of language. All human beings have an innate capacity and tendency to learn language, but the form in which that capacity develops, the language, tone and rhythm of a person’s communication are learned.
• Societal structures and processes – how a group regulates, orders and limits group actions to maintain group cohesion and function. Societies represent culture in action, the everyday application of cultural traits, patterns and knowledge of a group through the group’s institutions, systems and norms. These can include family structures, appropriate dress and behaviour (manners), educational processes and institutions, processes of communication (media, censorship), how a society manages the health, activities or discourses of its members, how status is defined, gained or lost, legal and economic systems, enforcement, who can marry whom, age groups and a host of other factors.

Group cohesion relies on the transmission and assimilation of knowledge of social structures and processes, and of the norms and expectations that underlie them. The process by which the individual is acculturated (learns the patterns of his/her culture) is also called socialisation. Socialisation is largely carried out by the family, upon whom the child models much of its adult behaviour, but it also occurs as an effect of the individual’s wider social interactions in which the individual which behaviours are is rewarded (with approval, acceptance, inclusion, status, access to opportunities etc.) and which meet with social disapproval (punishment, ridicule, exclusion, low status, marginalisation, limited access etc.). Socialisation ensures the individual’s acceptance in the group and conformity to certain social expectations, which in turn ensures that social systems and norms are maintained.

Want to Learn More?

If you would like to see our range of psychology books, please visit - http://www.acsbookshop.com/books_productcategory.aspx?id=14

For more information on the range of careers available in psychology, have a look at - http://www.thecareersguide.com/articles.aspx?category=14

We have some interesting articles on psychology and counseling at - http://www.acs.edu.au/psychol/

If you’re not sure about jumping straight into a diploma, why not consider taking an individual module, such as –

Abnormal Psychology - http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/product.aspx?id=513

Or

Introduction to Psychology - http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/product.aspx?id=359

OR

Animal Behaviour http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/product.aspx?id=462