Diversity We Live in a World Full

Diversity We live in a world full of diverse people, and all these diverse people interact with each other. Most of the time, the differences between two people don't really matter much: it does not matter whether the person who checks out your groceries is gay or straight, black or white, male or female. However, in the classroom and the workplace, differences may complicate interactions some, leading to confusion or even arguments (Mendelson & Mendelson, 1998).

In the workplace, people tend to hold stereotypes regarding their co-workers based on all sorts of things: sexual identification, ethnicity, education, socio-economic status. While some of this may be prejudice, there are legitimate differences between groups of people. One easily spotted difference involves ethnicity. A person's ethnicity will affect personality. A person with strong Asian influence may resist answering know when someone makes a request. However, people should keep in mind that a wide variety of factors may influence a trait in a person.

One person might believe that others from a certain ethnicity tend to not value education, but that person might value education very much and be quietly working on an advanced degree. It is difficult to talk about what effects on a personality might come from a person's ethnic background, though, because it will sound like prejudice. All people want to be seen as more than their ethnicity.

A Caucasian person does not want to be seen as prejudiced against Blacks just because he or she is white; and African-Americans have legitimately complained of the many ways they have been and sometimes still are stereotyped. Ethnicity should perhaps be viewed as a backdrop for the individual person and not viewed as the person him or herself. We all know that some people are smarter than others, some people have more formal education than others, and some have more knowledge than others (Neale, 1999).

These factors will affect how a person acts but perhaps not s much as some other traits might. Some very educated people wait to be asked before offering their opinions, while some people who don't know what they're talking about are all too willing to tell other people how to manage something they actually know nothing about whatsoever. It seems likely that big differences in intelligence would affect individual personality, but perhaps factors such as ability to get along with others would be more important.

Large differences in education probably cause individuals to choose different kinds of friends; probably not many people with Ph.D.'s hang out with people who did not graduate from high school. But education itself can be changed. People go back to college at age 30, 40 or even 50. Of all the differences between people, individual personality traits probably play the most important role. Some people's personalities push them to achieve while others are more laid-back.

Some people are markedly sensitive to criticism so that even a mild negative comment can stop them in their tracks. Some people possess the ability to focus on a task single-mindedly while others prefer to have several irons in the fire at once. It is probably personality more than anything else that drives what individuals do. A person who is quick to anger may start arguments where most other people would not.

A person who sees him or herself as entitled to special privileges will be offended if he or she does not get those special privileges. A person who sees him or herself as not very competent won't take on challenges. Those traits can be present in any person from any ethnic background, of either sex, of any sexual orientation, of any intelligence or education, and from any socioeconomic level. It is personality that drives our every day behavior more than anything else.

This may have been shown clearly in the recent trial of Scott Peterson. Peterson lied easily and told his girlfriend Amber Frey many lies, but Frey valued the truth. She did not like being deceived, and her personality of honesty and forthrightness led her to call the police, tape his calls, and catch him in his lies about his wife. People who possess differing values will perform differently.

Some people put the highest value on effectiveness, willing to take whatever time it takes to end up with a result that serves its purpose well. Others are more focused on efficiency, and prefer quick solutions (Neale, 1999). Both approaches have their merit and there is a time and a place for each, but which value the person holds will affect how he or she approaches any task. However, it may be hard to categorize values as only a personal trait. We learn.