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Linkages between culture and psychopathology
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Introduction
While psychological assessment can be useful, it is merely a tool that provides a piece of a puzzle when assessing individuals. Many things need to be considered in addition to psychological assessment to generate the most accurate results. No individual is exactly the same, therefore a standarized assessment tool will remain flawed. Cultural and linguistic differences are important to acknowledge and understand in efforts to reduce bias in assessment tools.
Cultural and Linguistic Issues Impacting Psychological Assessment
An individuals culture is one of the most influential factors that will drive an individual’s responses to psychological assessment. Culture molds and shapes our values, social norms, behaviors and belief systems. Duran, Firehammer and Gonzalez (2008) recognize, “Culture is part of the soul. As human beings, we are all part of a culture and not separate from it” (p.288 ). The understanding of culture is complex and has to be extended to include how domestic and international culture vary in relation to similarities, variances and contrad...
In such a multicultural world, being knowledgeable and understanding of not only your cultural background, but that of others is essential. Building my awareness on cultures different from my own, and how it shapes an individual’s identity, will foster my personal and professional development. Subsequently, I conducted a cultural interview with an individual whose cultural background differed from my own. Several similarities and differences between our cultures were apparent in the interview, specifically in the areas of race, ethnicity, language, values, and worldview.
The lack of appropriate assessment strategies unfairly puts cultural and language diverse students at a disadvantage. These types of tests are geared towards assessing the majority of the population, not the minority. This poses a serious problem when trying to correctly identify students who may have learning or behavioral problems (Ralabate, & Klotz, 2007).
When you think of the word “culture” what comes to mind? Many elements can contribute to
The field of psychology has continuously endeavored to find an appropriate method in evaluating intelligence. The Stanford-Binet intelligence test is one of pioneering tests created to measure facets of intelligence, and it is still being utilized today (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997). Weschler created several intelligence tests focusing on age range in relation to intelligence (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997). While these tests are staples in the psychological testing community, there are many criticisms of intelligence testing. One such criticism is the absence of race and culture as influential factors of intelligence (Carroll, 2010).
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 ...
John, W. Berry, Ype H. Poortinga, Marshall, H. Segall, Pierre R. Dasen (2002). Cross- Cultural Psychology: Research and applications (2nd ed.) United States of America, New York.
Experiencing a society of multi-cultures is beneficial through a variety of concepts to epitomize each individual identity. A person may vary in the degree to which he or she identifies with, morals, or...
Ruth Benedict’s anthropological book, Patterns of Culture explores the dualism of culture and personality. Benedict studies different cultures such as the Zuni tribe and the Dobu Indians. Each culture she finds is so different and distinctive in relation to the norm of our society. Each difference is what makes it unique. Benedict compares the likenesses of culture and individuality, “A culture, like an individual, is a more or less consistent pattern of thought or action” (46), but note, they are not the same by use of the word, “like.” Benedict is saying that figuratively, cultures are like personalities. Culture and individuality are intertwined and dependent upon each other for survival.
As cited by the National Institute of Health, “Culture is often described as the combination of a body of knowledge, a body of belief and a body of behavior. It involves a number of elements, including personal identification, language, thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions that are often specific to ethnic, racial, religious, geographic, or social groups” (NIH, n.d).
With this paper I wanted to focus on psychological aspects that had to do with a different side of the culture. There are three key aspect of information from the c...
of decisions can and cannot be made on the basis of test data, and how should those decisions be made? What credentials, if any, are necessary to administer and interpret psychological tests? What rights do examinees undergoing psychological evaluation have? Public scrutiny of psychological testing reached its zenith in 1965 with a series of probing and unprecedented congressional hearings (see Amrine, 1965). Against a backdrop of mounting public concern about—as well as legal challenges to—psychological testing, many psychologists in the 1960s began to look anew at the testing enterprise. Beyond being a mere instrument of measurement, a psychological test was conceptualized by many as a tool of a highly trained examiner. The value of a particular
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.
Humans’ behaviors are often guided by their culture because culture can influence their psychological processes.
The analysis of both approaches evoked Schellenberg to examine the accuracy of standardised assessments on either of four criteria’s: content, construct, predictive and consequential validity. This led Schellenberg to identify defects in construct validity of assessment and suggested that it may have caused item bias that may have led to cultural bias. Schellenberg supported his argument by explaining how lack of construct validity an assessment always leads to an item bias, and concluded this statement by stating that “if assessment measures something that is not consistent with the individual background and has item bias then it certainly lacks construct validity” (2004). Therefore the results derived from such standard assessments are definitely not suitable for cultural
Assessment is a core component in research. Clinical Psychologists use various types of assessments ...