Psy 535 - Multicultural Competency

Multicultural Competency

PSYCH/535

Melanie Smith

January 13, 2013

Kamini Desai-Carroll

This paper will look at the guidelines established by the American Psychological Association and how the guidelines apply to personal life and the workplace. The guidelines cover individuals of ethnic and racial backgrounds, and the gaining the knowledge of the recognizing the difference in people.

There are a few biased beliefs that many people hold about culturally different groups. Personally I do not believe in treating people different because of the color of one's skin or because they dress different then I. Working off of interstate 80, there is a diverse group of customers in my store daily. I have seen the attitude of some of my coworkers when some different cultures enter the restaurant. There are many beliefs that people of Mid-Eastern descent are always going to order a certain sub. Honestly most of the time my coworkers are correct, but I do not think it is proper of them to prejudge and guess the customer's order. This in comparison to some attitudes and perceptions is mild to the racial and ethnical slurs I have heard in my time.

People of different cultural backgrounds are interesting to me. I find that there is not much of an opportunity to interact with people in my line of work. Another thing I have come to realize is that people of Mid-Eastern descent, rarely want to interact with my team of coworkers. This I believe may be a cultural difference; I have often heard that the men and women of Mid-Eastern countries interact very little outside their own culture. On the other hand the African Americans and most of the European people are very friendly and often will speak to myself and others about their travels and what brings them to Brookville, Pennsylvania. I personally do not think that I interact any different with them, in comparison to my own culture. I always have had the understanding that you cannot pre-judge a person based upon the color of his or her skin, or where he or she was born.

I will talk with my customers to discover where he or she is from. There are several coworkers that find it interesting to hear about other countries. Unfortunately with such a short interaction, we are often left guessing, which is not always bad but also not the answer we were looking for. I think that my interaction with people of different culture could be defined as curious; I have to admit I am not familiar with many cultures, but read to learn what I can.

I have very little knowledge of the values and practices of different cultures. I have never been exposed to any cultures other than my own. The closes I have come to experiencing a different culture was in my first marriage,