Human Diversity

Gender
Gender refers to the socially
constructed perceptions of what
it means to be male or female in
our society and how those
genders may be reflected and
interpreted by society.
Gender is not just a demographic
category, but it also influences gender
norms.
As socially constructed concept, gender
has magnified the perceived differences
between females and males leading to
unfair distribution of power and resources,
limitations in attitudes, roles and
opportunities. Example
Feminine Psychology- Karen Horney
Psychic differences between men and women are
not the result of anatomy but rather of cultural and
social expectations.
Men who dominate and rule women, and women
who degrade or envy men do so because of the
neurotic competitiveness found in many societies.
Many women possess a masculine protest; that
is, they have a pathological belief that men are
superior to women
In part because all qualities or privileges in our
culture are regarded as masculine”.
The basic anxiety is at the core of men’s
need to subjugate women, and women’s
wish to humiliate men.
It is the culture and society are responsible
for psychological differences between
women and men.
Horney believed that we all should stop
bothering about what is feminine and what
is not, because such concerns only
undermine our potential
It is the culture and society are responsible
for psychological differences between
women and men.
Horney believed that we all should stop
bothering about what is feminine and what
is not, because such concerns only
undermine our potential.
Standards of masculinity and femininity are
artificial standards. All that we definitely
know at present about sex differences is
that we do not know what they are.
Scientific differences between the two
sexes certainly exist, but we shall never
be able to discover what they are until we
have first developed our potentialities as
human beings.
For those who live outside of these
traditional expectations for gender, the
experience can be challenging.
Community psychologists are making
efforts to conduct more research on the
various gender identities on the gender
spectrum, but more research are needed
to continue in this area.
Age
Community Psychology’s emphasis
on context has also included aging,
or the developmental changes and
transitions that come with being a
child, adolescent, or adult.
Power dynamics, relationships,
physical and psychological health
concerns, community participation,
https://www.youtube.com/
life satisfaction, and so forth can all watch?v=BNPIpbbb2DU
vary for these different age groups.
Recent researchers searched for
publications on older adults in major
Community Psychology journals and
found that this segment of the population
has been neglected.
Although the skills, values, and training of
community psychologists would likely
make a difference in the lives of older
adults, the attitudes within our profession
and society are current barriers.
The term, “ageism” refers to
stereotypes, prejudice and
discrimination towards people
based on their age.
Discrimination arises when
age is used to categorize and
divide people in ways that can
cause harm, disadvantage
and injustice.
The consequences and effects
of agism
There are serious consequences for the
health, well-being and rights and dignity of
the human person; reduced quality of life,
social isolation, shorter life expectancy,
poverty, denial of certain medical
procedures or treatments, and financial
insecurity.
In which ways can agism manifest?
Social Class
Social class is socially
constructed and can affect our
choices and opportunities.
Social class and culture can
shape a person’s worldview or
understanding of the world;
influencing how they think, feel,
act, and fit in; impacting the
types of schools they attend,
access to health care, or jobs
they work at throughout life.
This dimension can include a person’s
income or material wealth, educational
status, occupational status to define where a
person belongs in society and indicate
differences in power, privilege, economic
opportunities and resources.
The differences in norms, values, beliefs and
practices between lower and upper social
classes can also have impacts on well-being
and health outcomes. "Circumcision/ FGM’
Social class and its intersection with other
components of one’s identity are important
for community psychologists to understand.
Disability
Disabilities refer to visible or hidden,
temporary or permanent conditions that
lead to barriers or challenges, and impact
individuals of every age and social group.
Traditional views of disability follow a
medical model, primarily explaining
diagnoses and treatment models from a
pathological perspective.
Community Psychology follows a social
model of ability in which diagnoses are
viewed from a social and environmental
perspective and consider multiple
ecological levels.
For example, cultural differences in the
assessment of “typical” development have
impacted the diagnosis of Autism
Spectrum Disorders in different countries,
diagnoses or symptoms can be culturally-
specific, and culture may influence how
symptoms are communicated.
The experience of culture can significantly
impact lived experience for individuals
diagnosed with a disability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=7s1WQzuZIcA
It is important to consider how
intersectionality impacts the experience of
disability.
For example, students of color and other
underserved groups have a higher rate of
diagnosis of learning disabilities, emotional
and behavioral disabilities, and intellectual
disabilities, which may be due to economic,
historical, and social factors.
.
Identifying who has a disability or health
condition can also be a challenge and can
have real, tangible consequences for an
affected group.
If prevalence research suggests that a
particular disability or health condition is
relatively rare, it is possible that few federal
and state resources will be devoted to those
individuals, but if the methodology for selecting
individuals is flawed, then the prevalence rates
will be inaccurate and potentially biased.
This is what occurred with the health condition
known as chronic fatigue syndrome, now also
known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, as
indicated in the following Case
Case Study 8.2
How Flawed Research Can Lead to More Stigma
When the Centers for Disease Control tried to estimate
the prevalence of those with this illness, they concluded
that only about 20,000 people had this condition in the US,
and most with this illness tended to be white, middle-class
women, which is what led to the stigmatizing label “Yuppie
Flu disease.” However, the way the investigators
conducted this research was flawed; they asked health
care personnel to identify individuals with this illness, but
as many health care professionals did not believe that this
was a real or legitimate, they tended to refer few
individuals to the study.
In addition, as many individuals with a chronic health condition
do not have access to the healthcare system, many
individuals with this illness were not able to be brought into the
prevalence study. However, when a group of community
psychologists used better research methods that involved
deriving their sample from randomly contacting people in the
community, without depending on referrals from physicians,
they estimated that about a million individuals had ME/CFS.
In addition, those identified tended to be from lower
socioeconomic status groups and communities of color (just
the opposite of what led to the characterization of Yuppie Flu).
The findings from this study were widely disseminated and led
to reductions in some of the bias and stigmatization that has
been directed to those with this illness.
Religion & Spirituality
Religion typically include
shared systems of beliefs,
values, symbols, feelings,
actions, experiences, and a
source of community unity.
Religion emphasizes beliefs
and practices, relationships with
the divine “God”
Religion is an important predictor for
well-being, satisfaction and the
importance of spiritual institutions and
communities.
Religion has been neglected in
psychological research while it has
been included in Community
Psychology’s conceptualization of
diversity since the beginning of the field.
Spirituality typically focus on
relationships with a higher power and
a quest for meaning.
Community Psychology has long
considered religion as a dimension of
diversity.
The differentiation between religion
and spirituality has become more
relevant recently as many individuals
consider themselves more spiritual
than they are religious.
We use the inclusive terms spirituality and spiritual to
refer to spiritual traditions and other perspectives
concerned with transcendence.
Spirituality and religion often interrelate with culture
and ethnicity. It is impossible to understand many
cultures without understanding their religious
institutions and spiritual practices.
Yet religion and spirituality are not simply cultural,
many religions and spiritual traditions are multicultural,
and many cultures contain multiple religious and
spiritual communities
The importance of religion and spirituality to physical
and emotional well-being and a strong sense of
community merits the inclusion of both, in research and
practice.
Community psychologists understand the importance of
working in natural settings, which frequently include
religious and spiritual settings. Collaboration with
religious organizations and embedding interventions into
these settings may have positive impacts on individuals
in the community and may also help religious
organizations reach goals.
Impact of identities
These dimensions do not exist independently of each
other, and that the interaction of these dimensions is
referred to as intersectionality.

Intersectionality
focuses on how the dimensions can overlap and give
rise to different experiences as well as multiple
privileges or inequities.

Community psychologists recognize the significance of

intersectionality, but published research in this area is
still lacking compared to other disciplines.
Privilege, or the unearned advantages that
individuals have based on membership in a
dominant group (e.g., race, gender, social class,
sexual orientation, ability), contribute to the systems
of oppression for non-privileged individuals and
groups.
Individuals can have multiple privileges; white
privilege are important for psychologists to examine
more extensively to understand how white people
participate in systems of oppression for racial
minority groups.
Designing culturally situated community
programs

Designing programs in the community needs

to start with an understanding of the diverse
cultures and communities in which they will
be situated. To that end, collaborative and
ecological systems approaches used by
community psychologists are incorporated
throughout the design of community
prevention and intervention programs.
Case Study 8.3

Water Boiling in a Peruvian Town

a three-year public health intervention was implemented to decrease the
water-related health risks in Los Molinos, a rural Peruvian town. The
promotion of the evidence-based practice of boiling water targeted
women, with the assumption that increased knowledge about the health
benefits of boiling water would persuade them to change. The
intervention was delivered by a health worker who took up residence in
Los Molinos and her goal was to have the women boil their water before
using it.
The intervention turned out to be unsuccessful—the majority of women
did not start this practice, due to several factors steeped in cultural beliefs
and local customs or conditions. For example, the cultural meanings of
hot and cold in their culture meant that boiled water was used for certain
health issues, but it was not associated with germs or diseases. The
intervention’s impact was also further affected by the women’s inability to
boil because of their daily routines, social ostracization for boiling
because of the meanings of cold and hot water, and lack of interest in
women’s lives by the gendered town’s leadership.
This case study demonstrates the significant impact of
culture on well-intentioned and scientifically-based
interventions meant to improve community health and
well-being.
For that reason, Trickett provides recommendations about
how Community Psychology can contribute more to the
understanding of culture in research and practice.
Some of these recommendations include focusing on
communities more than programs, understanding that
choice is more important than change, working with local
experts in the community, and using research designs and
methods that are appropriate for diverse cultures and
populations.
Overall, as our knowledge and work with
diverse communities continues to expand, the
culturally-situated and anchored approaches
used by community psychologists will continue
to be very important for designing programs.
Central to this will be the evolving development
of a cultural Community Psychology which
incorporates theories and methods from cross-
cultural and cultural psychology in research
and practice.
Thank you