Recognizing the Need for Cultural Change
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Cultural awareness
3. Cultural sensitivity
4. Cultural competence
5. Cultural humility
6. Conclusion
7. References
Introduction
United States of America demographics profiles illustrates a nation rich in culture and culture diversity.
By the year 2050, there will be a 50% increase in minorities (Seibert,Stridh-Igo, & Zimmerman, 2002).
Culture is an organized group of learned responses. Culture is important because it allows us to interact
within our society. Culture creates a highly mobile and a constantly changing environment revealing the
need for new levels of culture awareness and culture sensitivity. These issues are important to
understand in the medical community because cultural differences and barriers impact the way we
evaluate, treat, and rehabilitate patients (Seibert,Stridh-Igo, & Zimmerman, 2002). Understanding
cultural differences is becoming more important in health promotion and prevention activities.
However, culture can be a complex concept to understand. It is the scope of this paper to discuss the
differences between cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, cultural competence, cultural humility, and
how these can impact the way we take care of our patients.
Culture Awareness
So what is culture awareness? The National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) defines culture
awareness as “being cognizant, observant, and conscious of similarities and diff...
... middle of paper ...
...erences, and finding ways to improve care and comfort. A lesson well
learned.
References
Cultural Humility Task Force (CHTF) at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) Department of Psychiatry
(2010). Retrieved from http://psych.ucsf.edu/sfgh/chtf/
Definition of Cultural Sensitivity(1997). Retrieved from
http://www.uvm.edu/~cdci/prlc/unit3_slide/sld005.htm
National Center for Culture Competence (2013).Cultural Awareness. Retrieved from
http://www.nccccurricula.info/awareness
Polan E., & Taylor D., (2011). Journey Across the Life Span : Human Development and Health Promotion.
F.A. Davis Company. Philadelphia, PA.
Seibert, S., Stridh-Igo, P., Zimmerman, C.G., (2002). A Checklist to Facilitate Cultural Awareness and
Sensitivity. Retrieved from http://jme.bmj.com/content/28/3/143.full.pdf
The Culture of Americans is diverse and evolving constantly, due to changing interests, landscapes, religions, and geography.
Before writing this paper, I interviewed several of my colleagues. Among the questions I asked were: if they could give me a definition of culture and what their culture was like. Interestingly I got the same answer, just in different words and terms. Culture to them was what was popular in their family when they grew up. And when they answered what their culture was like, they would label it: Mexican, Chinese, American culture, etcetera. This is why I believe it is vital to know the definition of “culture...
Giger (2013) defines culture as a response in behavior that is shaped over time by values, beliefs, norms and practices shared by members of one's cultural group. A person's culture influences most aspects of his or her life including beliefs, conduct, perceptions, emotions, language, diet, body image, and attitudes about illness and pain (He...
Cultures are infinitely complex. Culture, as Spradley (1979) defines it, is "the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experiences and generate social behavior" (p. 5). Spradley's emphasizes that culture involves the use of knowledge. While some aspects of culture can be neatly arranged into categories and quantified with numbers and statistics, much of culture is encoded in schema, or ways of thinking (Levinson & Ember, 1996, p. 418). In order to accurately understand a culture, one must apply the correct schema and make inferences which parallel those made my natives. Spradley suggests that culture is not merely a cognitive map of beliefs and behaviors that can be objectively charted; rather, it is a set of map-making skills through which cultural behaviors, customs, language, and artifacts must be plotted (p. 7). This definition of culture offers insight into ...
This paper emphasizes the importance of cultural diversity and the impact that it has on Elementary school students (Burt, 2013). Attending a school with a diverse student population can help prepare children for citizenship in a multicultural democracy (Morrissey, 2014). America is known as the melting pot because of the immigration of people who entered the country in search for a more stable life. Immigrants brought their own unique cultures with them. Census Bureau predicts that by 2100, the minority population will be the majority.
Culture often means an appreciation of the finer things in life; however, culture brings members of a society together. We have a sense of belonging because we share similar beliefs, values, and attitudes about what’s right and wrong. As a result, culture changes as people adapt to their surroundings. According to Bishop Donald, “let it begin with me and my children and grandchildren” (211). Among other things, culture influences what you eat; how you were raised and will raise your own children? If, when, and whom you will marry; how you make and spend money. Truth is culture is adaptive and always changing over time because
According to Geert Hofstede (1983, p. 76), culture can be explained as the ‘collective programming of the mind’ and it influences how people think and how they act in different situations. This distinguishes members of one group or category from another. He argued that people are mentally programmed and that it influences the lifestyles, attitudes and norms of people and their belonging in particular groups (Hofstede 1983, p. 76). Another definition of culture is that it explains the different way in which people of different populations perceive values, norms, attitudes and roles in society. By gaining an understanding of the differences that separates a culture from another and gaining knowledge on how cultures operate on a daily basis, conflicts and misunderstandings can easily be avoided (He & Liu 2010, p. 2).
The term culture refers to a broad spectrum of general human society that can be delineated as “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious or social group” as well as “the characteristic features of everyday existence...shared by people in a place or time.” However, with such a vast notion that acts to give meaning to the various methods of operation used by the equally various societies and their respective members worldwide, the definition of culture can be stretched and expanded because of culture’s flexibility as a conceptual aspect of humanity that surrounds, defines, and permeates those in it. Simple attributes such as a group of people, a civilization’s geography, and a set of societal features can
Throughout the years, humans have shaped the world and many societies have developed different cultural patterns. Culture is the way of life of a society. Through culture, we learn how to collaborate with groups of people and we learn how to survive and adapt to changes. It is composed of values and beliefs that are shared by other members of society, as well as species survival. Every culture has different cultural elements that are vital to one’s survival in a certain place.
In his essay, “What is Culture?”, Kluckhohn explains the differences and similarities amongst world’s peoples. To support his explanation of the differences and similarities he provides the concept of culture. It is difficult to give this concept a precise definition because the word “culture” is a broad term. Kluckhohn allows the reader to understand the concept of culture by providing examples of cultural differences along with some anthropological evidence to support his views.
Defining culture gives us a basis from which to work towards intercultural interactions. Traditional thoughts of culture usually assume that culture is enclosed, self-contained, distinct, and the community has a high homogeneity, that is people are primarily part of one culture (Welsch 1999). Now it is becoming increasingly clear that culture is a complex, sophisticated, massive, interwoven set of confounding variables of which a single person has multiple or a hybrid membership of, additionally it is imperative that these cultural values and beliefs are translated properly to another set of such beliefs in an intercultural exchange if violated, pragmatic failure occurs thus resulting in unintended insult or shame.
Edelman, C. L., & Mandle, C. L. (2010). Health promotion throughout the lifespan. (7th ed.). St. Louis: Mosby Elsevier.
...ame place with an identical culture we would all be the same. Culture does shape everyone because it determines what they believe, how they live their daily life, and most importantly, the kind of person they can be.
The Role of Culture in Shaping us as Individuals Culture has a big impact on how we all fit in as individuals in today’s society, and since this assignment is about that I decided to include some of my own experiences to illustrate my point of view and compare it with those of my classmates and some of the readings. My family and I moved to United States in 1998 from Albania. My parents believed that I and my sister would get a better education here and also it would be useful and interesting to learn another language and its culture.
Edelman, C. L., & Mandle, C. L. (2010). Health Promotion Throughout the Life Span (7th ed.). St.Louis, Missouri: Mosby Elsevier.