Maryland Dialogues on Diversity Critical Analysis Paper

Introduction

The global community is interconnected hence requiring people to consider the need for diversity. In the operational platform, diversity and inclusion ought to be top priorities that would enhance interaction of individuals across different environments. Since the multicultural environment is interconnected, it would be crucial to take the right course of action as the aspect of diversity continues eluding many people (David, Okazaki, & Giroux, 2014). Multicultural psychology incorporates the culture of equity and justice in the society. As such, individuals will understand whatever is right and wrong based on their behaviors. This paper will provide an in-depth view of the dialogues of Maryland on diversity.

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Summary of the Speaker's Main Points

From the dialogue, it is evident that cultural differences lead to stereotyping, implicit bias, prejudice, conflict resolution, hate, violence, as well as intergroup conflicts. However, understanding bias may require people to learn a range of theories with the support of relevant data. The models that can be applied include ecological model, schema and social learning theories (Smith et al, 2016). As the attitudes and assumptions about a given gender emanate from cultural backgrounds, superiority and inferiority may exist in the society. For instance, a particular culture may understand females different from the males (David et al, 2014). The roles of individuals in a family and the expectations of households tend to vary based on the existing situations. Ethnicity and race can also depict some aspect of stereotyping, which would consequently lead to injustice, inequality and prejudice (Smith et al., 2016).

How the Article Influenced Understanding and Reactions to the Talk

The article provides relevant information on bias, stereotypes, injustice and prejudice across the multicultural environment. In such environments, there are the macro-system and microsystem. In the macro-system, the stereotype content would be portrayed. In essence, the ecosystem determines whatever happens in such societies. On the other hand, microsystem depicts a significant influence on the interpersonal reactions. At the individual level, the cognitive structure dictates the processes that one engages in. Based on the article, one would understand the various cognitive components that comprise of attention, self-regulation and efficacy (David et al., 2014). Attention will focus on the appropriate behaviors that a person would practice. At circumstances, some people do not belief that they are capable of accomplishing a given task hence showing their lack of self-efficacy. However, people with self-efficacy can monitor their behavior easily and establish whatever the society requires them to undertake. The article enable me to gather concepts related to stereotyping and the factors that may affect the interaction of individuals in a diverse community such as language and gender differences.

How the Talk or Reading Relates to Class

The reading and the talk give a proper view of social learning theory and how operant conditioning enables different people to learn their behaviors. In this theory, there would be mediating processes in stimuli and responses that enable individuals to use observational learning to learn behavior. In the society, children live with those who they can learn from positively such as the parents, peer groups, and other characters within the professional field. The role models would provide the behaviour that needs to be imitated to help uphold the best practices. Another concept is the manner in which schemas cause implicit bias. The schemas always govern the internal individual biases. In situations where social identity groups exist, it would mean that particular stereotypes will be schemas of the group people. Different individuals may coexist in an organized unit with knowledge on various subjects. They can also evaluate own behaviors and beliefs about the processes in the societal spectrum.

What Was Learnt from the Talk

In the society, people tend to be judged differently due to race, color and ethnicity. These may lead to injustices and prejudices. However, the processes would be mediated by attention, retention, reproduction and motivation. When the behaviour is noticed but not remembered, it will be difficult to imitate another person. As such, it is essential to perform the behaviour that the learning theory demonstrates. The physical ability of individuals and reasoning helps reproduce behaviour. Stereotyping can interfere with the development of skill and building of knowledge of different people. The threat can interfere with proper learning within the society. Additionally, some people are more privileged as compared to others. Powerful groups will have unearned advantages given to the members, which shows that privilege only supports the dominant structures of power. The advantage is not universal but depends on the rank and status of those in power positions. Even though one may benefit from the privileges, they behave as if they are unaware of such benefits. The cognitive processes influence how the privileged persons behave as they distance themselves from those who are less privileged.

Conclusion

People should always welcome the culture of diversity, which brings diverse cultures together thereby making it easy to interact and communicate efficiently. Through diversity, there will be improved relationships and coordination of activities. The aspect of exclusion would make people abandon own culture and be distant from other groups. When people struggle with the aspect of financial and educational adaptation, they will end up experiencing physical threats

Reference

David, E. J. R., Okazaki, S., & Giroux, D. (2014). A set of guiding principles to advance multicultural psychology and its major concepts. APA handbook of multicultural psychology, 1, 85-104. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14189-005

Smith, L. V., Blake, J. J., Graves Jr, S. L., Vaughan-Jensen, J., Pulido, R., & Banks, C. (2016). Promoting diversity through program websites: A multicultural content analysis of school psychology program websites. School Psychology Quarterly, 31(3), 327. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2016-17165-001.html