Multicultural Appreciation Psych/535

Multicultural Appreciation
Brigitte Chaney
Psych/535
April 12, 2010
Dr. Gretchen Brandhorst

Multicultural Appreciation Multicultural psychology gives the concepts necessary to understand, perceive, and value diverse cultures. Cultures include the learned behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, and values of people from various societies. They are also considered the shared customs of a society. A professional working in today’s society should have an understanding that there is no one culture globally better or superior to another. The professional with a bias view of cultural diversity is said to be unaware of him or herself. Learning to accept cultural diversity is a journey every individual should travel to appreciate this multicultural
The interpretation of this parable means we know only what we think we see. We must have the knowledge of a phenomena to understand that phenomena. My perceptions regarding Cubans and Jamaicans cultures stems from what I thought I saw, when this reality was understood I change my judgment and made the decision to acquire the knowledge about these cultures. This new knowledge helped me change my view and live by these mottos; don’t judge a book by its cover and judge not so that you may not be judged. Cultural knowledge is important to society to avoid biases that lead to mistreatment. To gain the knowledge about a culture, I believe an understanding of the projective system is important. The projective system plainly says that at the core of each human being is something shared some basic values and attitudes (Segall, Dasen, Berry, & Poortinga, 1999.) After an understanding of the projective system, then the knowledge pertaining to cultural beliefs, attitudes, and values that were taught during child development, will come
I consider the knowledge I have about myself as strength. On my journey to self discovery I realized that humans, at the core, are the same, (projective system.) Learning the theory of Sigmund Freud in about the id, ego, and superego, also helped to change my views about diverse people. Sigmund Freud stated that man has three distinct personality structures, the id, ego, and superego. The id operates according to the pleasure principle, id pursues pleasure and avoids pain, and it has qualities of a spoiled child (selfish). To me the id is the personality structure of the flesh. The superego is the opposite of the id. Superego represents the moral branch of our being. It functions to control behavior according to moral and ethical rules, offering rewards (peace, self-love) for “good” behavior and punishments (guilt, feelings of inferiority) for “bad” behavior. To me the superego represents the spirit part of our being. Finally, the ego the third part of our structure, seeks reality. Its’ function is to learn about life and choose between the id and superego. To me the ego represents our soul. The knowledge of this personality structure I consider my strength, but I am weak when I give in to the principles of id. To avoid this weakness, I try to remain mindful of this struggle and look at diversities with an open