Diversity and Psychology Derived From the Greek

Diversity and Psychology Derived from the Greek word, psyche "meaning 'breath, sprit, soul' and the Greek work logia meaning the study of something," the study of psychology is "the science of the mind and behavior" (Nordqvist, 2009). In the medical dictionary, psychology is "The profession (clinical psychology), scholarly discipline (academic psychology), and science (research psychology) concerned with the behavior of humans and animals and, related mental and physiological processes" (Nordqvist, 2009).

In short, psychology is the science that answers the ever fascinating questions of how and why people and organisms think and behave in the manner in which they do. Psychology is imperative in the study of understanding and exploring one another and the people that surround us- society often looks to the study of psychology to explain the diverse population that inhabits the world. To that end, the concept of diversity is also another essential concept to comprehensively understand.

Diversity, as defined by the University of California at Berkley, "refers to human qualities that are different from our own and those of groups to which we belong; but that are manifested in other individuals and groups" with a myriad of dimensions including "but not limited to age, ethnicity, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, parental status, religious beliefs, work experience, and job classification" (University of California, Berkley).

The study of psychology is the science of mind and behavior while diversity "refers to the human qualities that are different from our own and those of groups to which we belong"- it only seems that these two concepts are intertwined in a way so that in order to truly understand someone's thought processes and behavior, then they should be understood within the context of diversity (University of California, Berkley).

It is imperative that the scholarly community and society examine diversity through the lens of psychology and examine the following: how diversity is understood in psychology, how diversity impacts psychological considerations and the differences in explanations for groups behavior in the same situation- through the examination of these issues, then a more accurate and comprehensive picture that of individuals can be reached. Foremost, the question of how diversity is understood in psychology must be tackled in order to build a foundational framework before delving into other issues.

In addition to the obvious categories of diversity including "race, ethnicity and sexual orientation" there are also "hidden diversity categories" including political views, religious beliefs and socioeconomic backgrounds (McClintock Greenberg, 2010). These categories mentioned that individuals may fall into comprise diversity in our community's have an impact, or at least an influence, on the way that people think and behave. When psychologists work with these groups of individuals, a strong sense of the diverse nature needs to be grasped in order to truly understand the thoughts and behaviors that may result.

Psychologist need to strive "to apply culturally appropriate skills in clinical and other applied psychological practices" (Manesse, Saito, & Rodolfa). To understand the diverse nature of the human population and the animal population, psychologist can make more informed scholarly conclusions about the thoughts and behaviors of these organisms. Furthermore, another question to understand in the realm of diversity and psychology is how diversity impacts psychological considerations.

Knowing that diversity influences people's thoughts and behaviors, special psychological consideration need to be taken in to consideration in order to help an individual progress and move forward.

For example, if there was an elderly gentleman who became physically disabled due to complications from a stroke or heart attack, the healthy psychologist on hand would make an assessment that would take into consideration "a number of factors including racism, able-ism, fluency in English, changes in social status, mobility, multiple identities, generational history, family and "community" resources to gain an understanding about how they relate to the presenting problem, intervention strategies and the best prognosis for treatment (Manesse, Saito, & Rodolfa).

The assessment is taken like this because all of these different factors ultimately have an impact on the patient's thoughts and behaviors and whether they can get better in a treatment paradigm, which may include physical therapy. If the patient is not fluent in English and that type of environment provides a sense of worry and anxiety for the elderly patient, which is a diversity issues that needs to be taken into consideration.

This treatment consideration should ultimately translate into a psychological treatment intervention that maybe that the patient should have at home physical therapy visits, as this would create less anxiety for this patient and would yield a better medical outcome. Without the consideration of the diversity factor for the psychologist, then the anxiety which resulted from his surroundings could not be assessed.

Finally, another facet of the diversity and psychology relationship to be explored is that of how diversity impacts psychological considerations and the differences in explanations for group's behavior in the same situation. This facet may be best explored through an example in the context of consumer behavior and psychology.

The psychology of marketing mainly deals the "study of consumers" which "helps firms and organization improve their marketing strategies by understanding" the consumer better (Perner, 2010).The psychology involved in marketing, is "how consumers think, feel, reason and select between different alternatives," "the psychology of how the consumers is influence by his or her environment," and also includes "the behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions" (Perner, 2010).

For example, if they are testing a product like a microwave dinner to see where it should be marketed- a diverse pool of participants in the research would need to be recruited. This would be the perfect forum to further examine how people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds would react to something like organic food.

Though this example may be too obvious in that someone with less discretionary income would have issues attaining the organic food in their market, this would likely make them less likely to choose this product in the market relative to someone in a higher socioeconomic level. Socioeconomic diversity, given this example, definitely impacts the way that people think and ultimately,.