Psychology Homework
Social responsibility includes intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities, including the workplace. These skills are rated highest as desirable skills among hiring managers.
Intercultural competence includes:
• Knowledge of your own culture and how it has shaped your world view.
• Knowledge of significant characteristics of other cultures.
• Awareness of differences and similarities in cultures.
• Ability to adjust your actions to successfully interact with someone of another culture.
How do we continuously improve our intercultural competence? First, by understanding that intercultural competence is complex, and it requires growing and maturing in three areas: mind set, heart set, and skill set.
Mindset is the domain where as we learn and engage with others, we recognize similarities and differences. A growth mind set requires self-awareness and cultural awareness.
Heart set is the domain where we learn to acknowledge, appreciate, and accept cultural differences. There are six dimensions to your heart set:
o Self esteem
o Self-monitoring
o Empathy
o Open mindedness
o Reserved judgment
o Social relaxation
o Listening
Skill set involves our intercultural agility; the ability to adjust your actions to successfully interact with someone of another culture. Specific skills include message skills, appropriate self-disclosure, behavioral flexibility, and interaction management.
Review the power point on eCampus, and watch the following YouTube videos:
• "Defining Intercultural Competence"
• "The danger of a single story | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie"
• "Engagement is the Answer! Cross-Cultural Lessons in Life and Psychology"
• "Laura Johnson | TEDxUM"
• "If I Could Change the World"
Knowledge of civic responsibility includes:
a) Recognizing your civic responsibility to a specific community: locally, nationally, globally.
b) Identifying actions you will take as a citizen to address the pertinent issues within your community.
Engagement in a community includes:
• Describing effective participation in civic engagement activities.
• Understanding the purpose and benefits of your engagement in the community.
Intercultural Competence Questions
PART A
I. Define your culture. Include display rules (e.g., culturally accepted ways of communicating with others in your culture). Go beyond discussing food, dance, music, and holidays. What makes your culture special?
II. Discuss and record the things that you love about your culture. How has your culture shaped your identity and how you feel about your place in the world?
III. Discuss the misconceptions about your culture - what bothers you the most?
IV. Discuss the contributions your culture has made to the community, state, country, and the world.
V. Research and discuss a specific psychologist from your culture. Describe his/her area of research and contributions to psychology (requires research).
PART B
I. Engage with a person from a culture that is different from yours, and about which you know very little. This person is your "culture" partner.
II. Before you sit down to talk to your partner, honestly reflect on and record perceptions that you have about this culture.
III. Allow your partner to discuss his/her culture in detail. Record what your partner says, including display rules.
IV. Listen to and record what your partner loves about his/her culture.
V. Listen to and record the misperceptions about your partner's culture - what bothers your partner the most? Did you believe any of these misperceptions?
VI. Listen to and record the contributions that your partner's culture has made to the community, state, country, or the world, including a psychologist.
PART C
I. After reflection on the experience, summarize your encounter in essay form.
II. Include a discussion that compares and contrasts the two cultures (yours and your partner's).
III. As you learned about your partner's culture, discuss any emotions/feelings you may have experienced. Did your perspective change? How? What psychological factors (e.g., stereotyping, perceptions, schemas, prejudice, "us vs them," ignorance, motivation, personality) may have influenced your encounter, or could influence an encounter between people from your two cultures?
IV. How did you adjust your actions to successfully interact with your partner?
Civic Engagement
PART D: Partner Collaboration - This section requires research and valid support for your suggestions.
If your partner is someone in class, each partner will turn in an individual project.
I. With your "culture" partner, choose an issue that affects both of your cultures at a local, national, or global level. Define the issue and community (some examples: food insecurity, access to health care, access to education, immigration, LGBTQ, gender equity, racial equity, white privilege, climate change, housing availability, poverty, stress, mental illness, discrimination).
II. When analyzed with a lens of civic responsibility (see definition above), discuss what responsibility exists to address this issue.
III. Based on research and personal experiences, discuss the important and relevant issues that need to be addressed within the issue and "community" that you have chosen to focus on.
IV. Research and discuss how one can effectively participate in civic engagement activities to address this issue? Find out what organizations or opportunities for engagement already exits. How can people get involved? What are the steps to joining a group? Include websites and citations for existing programs.
V. If something needs to be developed, what is it and how will it make a difference?
VI. Discuss how your personal involvement could benefit you.
VII. Actively engage in an event or activity that is related to the issue you chose. Discuss the experience.
Some tips for how to approach this section:
i. Avoid sharing only your opinion on this section. For example, you and your partner may want to reduce prejudice and racism. You may suggest that people should accept each other the way they are, and learn to get along better. Although these are favorable outcomes, you should include a discussion on realistic methods to achieve these outcomes. What programs exist? What does the research suggest? Has this outcome been achieved in another situation and, if so, how?
ii. Similarly, you and your partner may suggest that immigration laws should be reformed to allow people to become citizens of the United States. Your discussion should outline the steps needed to accomplish such reform and how people can get involved. Marches and demonstrations call attention to issues, but they rarely change policy.
Definitions of words in the instructions:
Explore: research, engage
Reflect: think deeply and honestly. Can also mean reflecting back to your partner what you heard him/her say.
Discuss: engage in a conversation with your partner. Also, when writing about the experience, be clear, accurate, precise, relevant, significant, in-depth, logical, and fair.
Record: Write down (see Discuss)
Research: Read, study, and provide evidence-based information (not only your opinion). Include references and citations.
Listen: pay attention to what your partner is saying. Suspend judgment, be empathetic and open-minded.
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
i) The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
ii) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
iii) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.