Problem: I need help to answer this post: APA7 format and including in-text citations, references and create a questions related to the topic. Part 1 and 2
Hello, Class, and Dr. Durbin!
Part 1:
My name is Danielle, and I live in Arizona. I am an officer in the Arizona Army National Guard, with 13 years of service and two deployments.
I have a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Arizona, and I want to keep learning more about sociology and psychology. I am especially interested in understanding different cultures and working well with people from all backgrounds.
Outside of school and work, I am a mother of two boys. We enjoy spending time outdoors, traveling, and playing sports together.
As my curiosity continues to grow, I want to learn more about issues across different cultures, understand myself better, and find useful ways to work well with people from diverse backgrounds in both my job and my life. Need Assignment Help?
Part 2:
This week's readings and my own research have taught me that cultural competence is very important in professional psychology because it addresses both the history of bias in the field and the cultural issues that still affect society today. Multicultural psychology started as a response to a history of leaving out and discriminating against certain groups in psychology (Mio et al., 2016). Before World War II, most psychological tests were made for White, middle-class people, which led to unfair testing that hurt groups who were already at a disadvantage, especially African Americans (Mio et al., 2016). The harm caused by racism showed that psychology needed to include more than just one cultural point of view (Bergner, 2009).
As I read more about the history of multicultural psychology, I noticed that other groups who were left out or treated unfairly included women, people from different ethnic backgrounds, and LGBTQ+ individuals. Women were evaluated based on general male-centered theories, and people from different backgrounds were seen as having problems just because they were different from the "main group." For instance, LGBTQ+ people were essentially called disturbed until research proved these theories as wrong and changed how professionals think (Mio et al., 2016). This study shows that psychology has followed the values of the main culture instead of including different people's real experiences (Henrich et al., 2010).
As the U.S. becomes more diverse, cultural competence is still very important for doing the right thing in psychology. Models like the bio-psychosocial model show that our biology, mind, social life, and culture all affect how we act (Engel, 1992). The APA Multicultural Guidelines also show how different parts of our lives and society come together to affect our behavior and mental health (APA, 2017a, 2017b). I realized it is important to look at my own culture and beliefs. Multicultural counseling methods focus on knowing yourself and being open to different cultures, which I think is very important for giving good care and supporting fairness and equality in psychology (Su et al., 1996).