Understanding ethnic identity formation and social integration

Racism Psychology

The diverse nature of the world we live in provides both a source of inspiration and challenge. The challenging aspects of diversity are heightened within a counseling environment where the crossroads of identity and culture meet and intersect. To be successful in any counseling attempt the psychic power of empathy must be employed in order to reach out and communicate to the one seeking help.

The concept of the self becomes very important in developing new behavioral habits that can be funneled in a constructive manner that aligns with the greater societal needs and blends, in harmony, the internal ideals of the self. Race and ethnicity are important factors in understanding oneself and holds key information about how one can realize their true self within the presence and context of others.

The purpose of this essay is to explain the synthesis of both race and ethnicity into the self defining mechanisms of patients and clients that seek healing and assistance in psychological counseling. To perform this task, this essay will first define key terms that will help frame the discussion. The essay will also discuss the subjective nature of psychology and the self and how understanding the limitations of both objectiveness and material society, can mislead individuals into false paradigms that do not promote healing or well being. Ultimately this essay will explain how race and ethnicity, and the conflation of these ideas, are misunderstood in a general fashion and that too much emphasis on these factors are placed on these defining terms that tend to harm rather than help.

Defining Race and Ethnicity

The terms "race" and "ethnicity" are often conflated and not appropriately parsed in a fine sense that could help better understand the meaning of their usage. Race has been placed as a means to stereotype and group individuals in certain fashion. Race is often used as an intellectual shortcut and an explanation for all the ill will of society. The tendencies towards science and academia is to dissect things down to its smallest particle and ignore the bigger picture of things fit into a society or group. As a result of these ideas, race and ethnicity have become conflated due to the simple and subtle tendency to take intellectual shortcuts.

Race is not chosen by the individual and is issued to a person at birth. Race is a biological condition. Racial features include skin color, hair color and type, skull shape, muscle formations and other physical traits. The human race is noted as being the most general of races and suggests that all others are merely offshoots of this main artery. Races do not have exact scientific definitions and different cultures identify different races for different reasons. The problems of race are purely related to the ability to understand and define race in simple terms, a challenge in and of itself.

Ethnicity is different than race, because it categorizes people in a cultural manner. Culture is based on the word "cult" which may often have dangerous connotations itself. Ethnic groups have a shared history and common roots that help them identify their selves through the customs and culture of those historic roots. Ethnicity is not biological at face value but provides insight on how different racial groups create and utilize culture for their own practical advantage.

The Impact of Religion

The idea of religion is extremely impactful on how the individual views him or herself within the context of the greater collective. Religion is based on the idea of linking to the source of existence, or lack of existence in some cases. Religion drives many and sets the course for cultural and societal norms. This spiritual connection is correlated to how race and ethnicity are intertwined as varying forms of practicing religions are expressed in the practice and understanding of religion.

For many science and rationale thought have provided a religious connection for those in today's technological-based world. The temptation to rely on cold reason is dangerous because it ignores the subjective interpretation of the interpreter and the impact of that interpretation on the event itself. Regardless of the counselors' religious beliefs, a firm understanding of how these forces work on both the creation of culture and society and on the individual itself helps reveal important attributes towards understanding the relationship between these variables.

Literature Review

Global Pressures on Culture and Psychology

Christopher et al. (2014) exposed the uniqueness and specificity of culture as it related to psychological treatment. The impact of globalization was used as a means of expressing the dangers of exporting concepts, practices and values of U.S. centered psychology on certain geographical areas where these values etc. are not accepted nor understood. The literature aimed to demonstrate how culture, and hence subjective interpretation of one's own standing directly affects the mental health of a person. The authors wrote "Science -- whether in the form of methodological controls or evidence-based practice guidelines -- cannot produce "pure" forms of knowledge unaffected by the knowers' place in historical time and geographic space. Because global connectedness is projected to increase dramatically in the foreseeable future, U.S. psychologists need to apprise themselves of the moral visions and folk psychologies that are embedded in their own assumptions, methods, and practices. Hermeneutic thought, along with the research methods it has inspired, provides tools for examining the ways that culture shapes human experience, and the ways that culture -- in the form of folk psychologies and moral visions -- shapes every psychology," (p.653).

The hermeneutic approach holds value in many psychological objectives including identifying patterns of racial and ethnic adaptation. This formula also allows for subjective interpretations to be accepted without moral judgment which can often impact the mental health and healing abilities of any individual not at ease within society.

Clinical Approaches

Hardin et al. (2014) introduced a clinical tool to help in identifying some of these ideas within the practice of psychology. The critical lens approach (CLA) theory is used to demonstrate a scholars' ability to summarize knowledge about cultural differences. The research's premise is that culture is a very import contributor to positive psychology and that having a means to test the awareness of this ability can help guide the practice into integrating culture more into the operations.

The authors ultimately concluded that "The CLA is so widely relevant because it is not limited to assessing the cultural validity of individual differences measures, but it may be applied more broadly to assess the cultural validity of theoretical propositions about the relationships between constructs and the cultural validity of experimental manipulations and behavioral operationalizations." In other words an assessment such as the CLA becomes very valuable at evaluating the evaluation. This self teaching mechanism can assist in becoming aware of the subjective biases that psychologists must incorporate in their understanding of the patient's situation. This article further demonstrated the importance of the subjective interpretation as being critical and the dangers of becoming overly objective. In this case an objective measure is taken to evaluate subjectivness, a balanced a reasonable approach to integrating both sides of the equation.

The Use of Understanding One's Self

To help understand this in more depth, a specific research example can be useful in interpreting objective understandings of racial and ethnic positions. Oser et al. (2014) examined how black women may be more vulnerable to stressful lifetime events as a result of a disassociation with their self in relation to their race and place in society. The idea of knowing oneself and their place in society is placed highly in this article's research as it sought to conduct a study to determine if such a relationship does exist. The article used data from a study that used data from 204 black women in a southeastern U.S. city where the ideas of racism, sexism and stressful life events are explored in a social context.

The research suggested that "It is important to note that sociocontextual risk may also explain the significant, positive correlation of racism and sexism to every other stressful life event measured in this study across a range of social contexts and life domains. These findings support the existing research and theoretical constructs of intersectionality suggesting that African-American women's social location may increase their susceptibility to adverse life events and chronic stressors, often resulting in psychological distress," (p.567).

The conclusions of this research further suggest that culture and the way that it is subjectively interpreted provides the necessary stimuli to either progress or regress in mental advancement and adapting to change. The lack of stress appears dependent on the ability to adapt to and make sense of one's own place in society, using race, gender and sociocultural position as a means of translating this experience.

Ethnicity as a Tool

By examining how ethnicity and race can be used in a practical situation, Stein et al. (2014) examined Asian-American Adolescents and how they used their unique characteristics as a buffering tool in social situations. The research ultimately concluded that "These findings suggest that in an emerging community ethnic exploration is particularly beneficial in the long run, and may be more important than ethnic belonging in terms of promoting positive youth outcomes. This finding suggests that changes in either depressive symptoms or self-esteem are not due to past experiences of ethnic/racial discrimination or economic stress. This is consistent with other findings in the literature that show that for Asian-American youth ethnic/racial discrimination predicted current psychological functioning but not longitudinally, " (p.211).

The Impact of Racism on Psychology

The demonization of the word "racism" has created many problems in society and leave many in a sense of wonder about their place in society and how their race contributes to the cultural development of that collective. Racism implies that a judgment has been made depending on someone's race. Many times this innocuous mental process is never revealed or communicated in any way, but societies pressure to apply guilt to those with these thoughts are creating neuroses at an alarming pace.

Diversity is certainly not accepted in today's society at any wide scale level despite the best efforts of social engineers. Globalization has diversified the globe biologically before the culture seems ready to accept. Quick changes in small amounts of time that are a result of easy travel, limited immigration restrictions and the political and war that displaces so many, all contribute to this shuffling of cultures and races worldwide that has left the world thoroughly mixed up.

Traditions, values and morals have been developed over thousands of years and are passed down through the generations throughout long periods of time. In today's information age, new cultures and traditions are everywhere, leaving many without a strong sense of self-identity without having adapted to the mainstream culture. Since mainstream culture is so quickly changing and so rapidly being interbred with different cultures and races, there is very little time to react and adjust to the new scenario. Psychologists themselves are left with very little to work with as they are adjusting to the environment as well.

Cohen (2011) explored the idea of prejudice and racism and how it affects the world of psychology and the ability for counselors to treat those in need of mental health treatment. She wrote "Given our diverse and multi-ethnic world, it is of great importance to understand ways to reduce social prejudice. In the 1950's, Gordon Allport introduced the intergroup-contact hypothesis. In this view, intergroup contact under positive conditions can reduce social prejudice. The necessary conditions include cooperation towards shared goals, equal status between groups, and the support of local authorities and cultural norms. Considerable research since then has supported these ideas. In a 2003 review, Stephen Wright and Donald Taylor also noted the effectiveness of identification with a super-ordinate group. In other words, different groups can come together as part of one overarching group, for example as part of one community or of a common humanity."

Implementing Ethical Emerging Technology

The technological landscape has provided many avenues of approach towards solving this problem. The adjustment to these new technologies as created uncertainty and stress while at the same time raising serious ethical questions regarding the power of these technologies and their ability to modify and transform human behavior into a desired result or condition. This extra burden places extra demands on the psychologist in today's world, because of the numerous ways that a patient may now be lawfully violated.