In psychology, diversity means incorporation of various people who have different beliefs, different race or different gender (Cherry, 2011). Various issues arise due to presence of diversity among different people, and one of them is societal oppression. Societal oppression entails unequal treatment of people who are not of similar religion, race or gender with majority of people.
Diversity affects the economic consideration of members of a given society. At times, the society may tie the ethnicity of people with economic performance of a given people. In so doing, the minority in the society risk being oppressed when it comes to economic consideration.
Economic consideration entails the various determinants of the economy. A diverse society has people of both genders. The male gender is favored more when it comes to selection in the work place (Grabher and Stark, 2007). For the longest time, the male gender has been favored in the working environment.
The cause of this may be due to the fact that they are able to relocate easily and they are also noted to have minimal disturbance in their work. Minimal disturbance in this case means unlike women, men don’t have breaks due to life experiences like pregnancies. This is the reason for the huge gender income gap between the two genders.
Politically, diversity, especially in the ethnic aspect, tends to bring division in politics in a country. For example, people of similar views ethnically have a certain way of voting. Since most societies are multicultural, different cultural backgrounds have different political views (Graen, 2003).
This strongly implies that certain groups of people tend to vote as a single block or with a similar pattern. The cause of this behavior is the fact that people feel welcomed to a certain group of people and political party due to the views and principles upheld by these groups. The morals that a certain group of people uphold also have a part to play on the political consideration of a certain society (Kaid, 2004).
A certain group of people will feel obliged to side with a certain political side due to the way their morals are upheld. Ethics upheld by the society among the various multicultural society members also shape the political consideration of a certain people.
Psychologically, the behavior of people in in a community is backed by various schools of thoughts. One of such thought is Behavioral psychology which is also known as, the theory of behaviorism. In this school of thought, people’s behavior is believed to be caused by conditioning of individuals.
Interacting with the environment is notably the cause of the conditioning in people. In this school of thought, the mental state is not considered and the behavior of such people is studied through both systemic and observable relations in humans. It is also on record that conditions can be of two major types.
First, there is classical conditioning; this involves the use of a stimulus that is naturally occurring coupled with a response and a stimulus coupled with a stimulus that is naturally occurring (Cherry, 2011). In the long run, the neutral stimulus gets a response even without natural stimulus been in place.
Operant conditioning is the other type of conditioning. In this case, the behavior of people is said to develop from the rewards and any punishment that such people go through as a result of their behavior. In other words, behavior is shaped due to the consequences the people face from their behavior.
The other school of thought is psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis sets out standards of how people should behave and includes the carrying out of experimental research to determine the same. The main considerations in this school of thought were the experiences the child experienced when he/she was young, sex, the mind and aggression.
However, there is criticism that is associated with this thought. Among them is the fact that it is usually hard to measure the quantity of the concepts used. This school of thought is also criticized for its usage of case study rather than scientific research. However, though there are weaknesses, there is also some strength that comes with this school of thought.
For example, currently, these theories are still being used and they have contributed to new views of mental illness. The other two schools of thought are Structuralism and Functionalism (Cherry, 2011). They are notably the earliest school of thoughts. The two schools of thoughts are considered similar as their main concern is the people conscious self.
The first of the two schools of thought, Structuralism, focuses on breaking down the process that goes on in the minds of people to its basic components. Understanding was done through a method known as introspection (Shaffer, 2008). However, this method was criticized due to the fact that it was more concerned with internal behavior, which is immeasurable. Finally, functionalism was meant to explain the process that take place in someone’s mind in a more systematic way.
Compared to other disciplines, psychologists have a different perception to these disciplines. This is because; psychologists consider the behavior of people to be influenced by the mental consciousness of the same. An issue like the one that focuses on the cause of a certain problem or behavior of a certain group of people is related to the pattern of thinking that exists amongst the people in question.
For example, a socialist would argue that people behave the way they do is as a result of their association with the people around them (Rubenstein, 2008). Their reasoning is that, people are social beings and relate with each other to reason the way they do. A socialist would also bring on board the fact that growth of social networks would affect how certain people act or behave the way they do. In this case, the social networks are inclusive of social sites like yahoo, twitter and Facebook.
An economist gives the same scenario, he would argue out such an issue considering the economics side of a given group people (Jakobsen, 1998). On the same issue of behaviorism, an economist would focus on the class of the people in question. They argue out, people behave the way they do due to the social status that they have in the society. People of higher social status will obviously behave differently compared to people of lower social class economically (Hutchison, 2010).
In conclusion, diversity may be analyzed different by people. Whichever the way any discipline inclines to, it is evident that people behave the way they do due to more than one factor. Among these factors is the interaction with other people in the society, as well as the behavior of a certain group of people.
References
Cherry, K. (2011). What Is Psychology? Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/psychology-4014660
Grabher G and Stark D. (1997). Restructuring networks in post-socialism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Graen, G. B. (2003). Dealing with diversity. New York: IAP.
Hutchison, E. D. ( 2010). Dimensions of Human Behavior: The Changing Life Course. Califonia: SAGE.
Jakobsen, J. R. (1998). Working alliances and the politics of difference:diversity and feminist ethics. New york: Indiana University Press.
Kaid, L. L. (2004). Handbook of political communication research. New Jersey: Routledge.
Rubenstein, E. S. (2008). The Economic Costs of Racial and Cultural Diversity. Cost of Diversity , 14-16.
Shaffer, D. R. (2008). Social and Personality Development. Califonia: Cengage Learning.