Assignment: Cultural Psychological Research
Assignment: Cultural Psychological Research
Assignment: Cultural Psychological Research
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Chapter 4 focused on how women of color or in general women who are not white middle class and American are greatly underrepresented in the field of women psychology. The studies performed in the field of women psychology usually refer to Euro-American women, which is why everyone else is so underrepresented. Because of this they focused on cultural heritages of women of color in the United States, which included Asian American women, Latinas, American Indian women and, African American women.
To begin with, the chapter discussed how race is defined as a biological concept referring to a group of people with a common set of physical features who have mated only within their race. For obvious several reasons this definition is quite problematic which is why culture and ethnicity are preferred instead of the terms race. From here they went on to explain cultural heritages from each of the previously mentioned group of women. Asian American women make up 5% of the United States population. Although this may seem small this includes 40 different ethnicities from about 20 different countries. The 5 core Asian values are collectivism, conformity, emotional control, family recognition through achievements, and humility.
On the other hand Latina women make up about 16% of the United States population. These include Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and many others from Central and South America. Very important factors Latina women cultural heritage include that one should be bilingual, your family should be priority and 39% migrate because they are foreign born. Also, American Indian women make up at least 0.9% of the United States population. This includes people from Alaska native villages and American Indian tribes. They focus on the spiritual world and being in harmony with Mother Earth Last but not least, African American women make up 13% of the United States and they have several subcultures that fall under this category. They have gone through much oppression such as slavery.
Overall, this chapter shined light on how minority women or just women who arent Euro American are very under represented in psychology. Because of this under representation there are many misunderstandings and limited research findings since they only pertain to one group of women. In the future I would like to see more progress in this department. Classes such as this one are already making the change by allowing students to study all different types of women but still more needs to be done.
