Multicultural Psychology Paper

Multicultural psychology has become an essential and pertinent subspecialty of psychology. With the times changing, so must psychology as we know it. In this paper one will learn about what multicultural psychology is. So included will be a brief history of multicultural psychology. Last, the rationale for the establishment of multicultural psychology as a subspecialty of psychology will be explained. Today more than ever, multicultural psychology needs to be at the forefront of research in the field of psychology.

Definition of Multicultural Psychology

Multicultural psychology is a study of human behaviors that is done systematically. It studies people that are from different backgrounds encountering one another. According to Psychology 251, (n.d.),"Multiculturalism has been considered a "fourth force" in the field of psychology, supplementing behaviorism, psychodynamic theories, and humanistic psychology. Multicultural Psychology is also described by two different authors as the study of influences of multiple cultures but in a single social context that is human behavior (Hall, 2012). "Multicultural psychology is American Psychology" (Nagayama, 2010 p3) It is the study of different cultures and the unique ways they live their lives. "Multicultural psychology is the study of the influences of multiple cultures in a single social context on human behavior" (p3) under multicultural psychology is the study of cultural diversity. Under cultural diversity there are other forms of diversity, such as gender, socioeconomic status, sexual identity, disability, and religiosity (p3) African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Latina/Latino Americans are all included under the term that make the study of multicultural psychology so distinctive.

Brief history of multicultural psychology

Many believe multicultural psychology is a much forgotten part of psychology. It is essential to understand multicultural psychology, especially for anyone who lives in the United States. Oddly, there is not much information in the literature of American psychology, especially seeing how much diversity has become a part of the United States. According to Hall (2010), "Most psychological theory development and research has occurred in the West, particularly in the United States". Some studies have been done, but it has not been very often and certainly not to the extent it should be. There has been a method that has been done more commonly. A small group is formed that contains individuals with ethnic minority, put into a research sample and is under the assumption of generalized research findings just because minorities were integrated. According to Hall (2010), "Separate analyses of the data on ethnic minority individuals are usually not conducted because the ethnic minority sample is too small or the researcher is not interested. However, if the majority of the sample is not ethnic minority individuals, ethnic differences may be reduced or invisible because the influence of the majority of the sample is greater than that of the minority".

Rationale for the establishment of multicultural psychology as a subspecialty of psychology

According to Hall (2010), "Theories and research in psychology traditionally have been assumed to be universal--one size fits all. The United States has become a multicultural society. It has become the "norm" to be in a setting where we are encountering, working with, eating around, etc., people with different backgrounds. The United States is becoming a "majority minority". Multicultural psychology