Introduction
Multicultural psychology is the systematic approach to all kinds of humanities that occur in a multicultural environmental background. This means that people from different backgrounds encounter each other thereby creating an environmental setting that results in composite human behaviour. The multicultural aspect has been perceived by psychologists worldwide as the fourth force in the study of psychology.
Thus, it supplements such aspects as behaviourism and humanistic psychology. It is also worth noting that psychodynamic theories can be supplemented by the multicultural psychological aspects.
Multicultural psychology concentrates on the differences in culture on the part of thoughts, accepted, and unacceptable behaviours. It is important to note that multicultural psychology does not only relate to the normal humanistic approaches but also focuses on the abnormal approaches.
Brief History of Multicultural Psychology
At various times in history, psychology has been defined as the study of the psyche or the mind of the spirit of consciousness. Recently, psychology has been described as the science of behaviour. The study of psychology is as old as the human species. Psychology can be understood to have began during the first studies of human cognitive experience such as those proposed by the early Greeks.
The study also began during the attempts to account for dreams, mental illnesses and emotions, not forgetting fantasies. Many people have been engaged in developing the evolution of psychology. They include Plato and Aristotle who tried to account for such processes as memory, perception, and learning.
Dating the age of psychology is very hard due to lack of past documentation. However, we can date the evolution of psychology thereby splitting this study to create multicultural psychology as one of the disciplines.
However, to be precise, cultural psychology did not begin a long time ago. It was during the 1960s that it began. It then became prominent during the 1980s and 1990s.
Many texts have been written since then. Some of the prominent psychological texts include Sweder and Levine written in 1984 and the recent ones such as Nisbett which was written in 2001. Multicultural psychology is therefore not an old phenomenon in a historical perspective.
Rationale for Establishment of Multicultural Psychology as a Sub Specialty of Psychology
There are a number of reasons why multicultural psychology has been established as a sub specialty of psychology. Psychology can be viewed in a wider sense as the science of habits and the mind set. On the other hand, multicultural psychology is the science of the mind and behaviours in an environment that has a mixed set of cultural backgrounds.
In addition, psychology is further split into many other sub topics that include biological, clinical, cognitive, comparative development, and industrial-organizational aspects among many others. Social psychology also falls in this category. As a matter of fact, social psychology is closely related to multicultural psychology in the primary sense of relationships between groups and people.
Multicultural Psychology and Social Psychology
When people talk about social psychology, they imply to that kind of psychology that relates to people and groups. In a multicultural sense, social psychology takes a primary role in the sense that the interrelationship between the subjects is correlated.
The two terms, that is, multicultural psychology and social psychology differ by a very small margin. This is because multicultural psychology deals with relationships in different cultural backgrounds while social psychology deals with the general relationships between groups and people (Friedman & Schustack, 2009).
It is pretty universal that people with particularly different personality traits may not co-work by virtue of contrasting interests in these characters. Nuclear qualities, personal dispositions, and cardinal dispositions in their personalities can be major factors which determine the workability of a certain combination of people and groups (Friedman & Schustack, 2009).
Thus, it is viable for people from the same backgrounds to work or relate together. This is because there will be fewer conflicts and chances of productivity within an organization or amongst a particular people will increase.
Family Psychology and Cultural Diversity
Culture just like family has been recognized by many psychologists as an important context for understanding the individual. Cultural forces have an impact on the way in which family interacts in particular ways. It is important to understand the impact of the cultural forces on the family in order for one to know how to work with particular families.
In a multicultural environment, common problems that are usually encountered are the adjustment of the thinking so that it corresponds with the cultural diversity. Modification of the understanding of the concept of embedness to include the influence of a culturally pluralistic environment on the family is therefore needed (Szapocnik & Kurtines, 1993).
Cultural diversity can have different effects on particular families. For instance, among certain immigrants in the United States, the culturally diverse environment results in the onset of dispute-laden intergenerational acculturation differences in which the parents develop different cultural alliances with the youths.
This is the result of the study that was conducted by the American psychological association among the Americans and Hispanics (Szapocnik & Kurtines, 1993).
Culture is important especially on a contextual perspective because it serves to represent an aspect that aids in the comprehension of human behaviours in different environments. Formulation and implementation of family-oriented intervention to propagate multicultural skills in all family members is therefore a necessary undertaking within a society (Friedman & Schustack, 2009).
It is important to note that no two individuals or groups of people can possess exactly similar characteristics. In a multicultural setting, this factor is further enhanced because of the polarized ideologies that exist between the groups in question.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology
This is the study of how people function in the work places and in different organizations in relation to the environment. This study entails issues such as behavioural approaches, perceptions, feelings and cognitions in the humanistic aspects. Industrial and organizational psychology is also known as I-O psychology.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is easy to conclude by saying that multicultural psychology is the systematic approach of all kinds of humanities that occur in a multicultural environmental background. Multicultural psychology does not only relate to the normal humanistic approaches but also focuses on the abnormal approaches. Multicultural psychology is a modern ideology that began in the 1960s.
Since then, it has continued to evolve thereby causing many texts to be written even until the twenty first century. It is easier for people or groups from the same backgrounds to work or relate together than those from different backgrounds. This is because there will be fewer conflicts and chances of productivity within an organization or amongst a particular people will increase
Reference List
Friedman, H., & Schustack, M. (2009). Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research, Ed. 4. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Szapocnik, J., & Kurtines, W. (1993). Family Psychology and Cultural Diversity: Opportunities for Theory, Research, and Application. New York: American psychological association, Inc.