Psychologists are gauged based on their ability to embrace cultural differences in improving people’s lives. In service delivery, an organization must learn ways of serving people from different cultures (Tanriverdi, 2017). About 7 billion people are living globally, and none of them is a replica of the other. Individual differences come in terms of skin color, height, accent, clothing, ideas, beauty, religious beliefs, and material possession. Worldwide, people have different cultures based on their different societal settings. It is worth noting that people have unique underlying ideologies that determine their behaviors. As a psychologist, I have the cardinal responsibility of establishing social cohesion and fabric in society. Professional psychologists understand that no single tribe, race, skin color, or status surpasses the rest. People tend to uphold and rever to anything related to their society or group while disregarding those of contrary opinions; however, cultural competence significantly advocates for fair treatment of all people regardless of their cultural differences.
Psychologists must offer services with fairness to all irrespective of individual cultural differences. Lin (2020) notes that diversity is evident in gender, social classes, culture, family constitution, earnings, careers, and ethnicity. Human life is significantly affected by multicultural interactions since there are more than 8000 distinct languages spoken globally. As a psychologist, I appreciate intersectionality by understanding how different entities interact and offer assistance to all, including the minority. A psychologist must understand better how to help people solve the problems that face all human beings. Cultural competence refers to the ability of an individual to exhibit appropriate and effective behavior when in an alien cultural setting. As a psychologist, I have to be culturally competent by learning ways to offer assistance regardless of notable cultural differences.
Lack of cultural competence results in misidentification diagnosis and incorrect sequencing of disorders. People from marginalized cultures, races, ethnicities, and backgrounds are highly likely to face a lack of equitable services such as quality education and health services (Lin, 2020). As a psychologist, I advocate for people suffering from comorbid or other post-traumatic stress disorders to be offered treatment without prejudice. I also champion for people to work together to achieve sustainable development targets that aim at helping people to access treatment regardless of their racial differences and health conditions. Cultural competence encourages psychologists to understand cultural norms by breaking barriers that hinder minority groups from getting services in society. I am also supposed to be cognizant of misconceptions such as cultural ignorance, ethnocentrism, discrimination, and cultural imposition (Tanriverdi, 2017). A culturally competent psychologist is highly dependable and offers services to the patients without stereotyping and hatred.
As a psychology student, one has to abandon connections with one’s family and community when offering services. According to Lin (2020), many professionals find it hard to distance themselves from the influence of their background when making decisions during service delivery. I have to advocate for the minority people not to be compelled to leave their unique attributes to embrace those from the majority group to be assimilated without prejudice and discrimination. As a psychologist, one must know that minorities result from historical injustices, and one must focus on the formulation of practical policies in the enactment of redressing historical injustices. However, in the quest for the protection of culture, Lin (2020) holds that it is not excusable to propagate uncultured beliefs such as gender biasedness and lack of inclusivity in society. A community member must be conscious of which cultural beliefs need protection and to what extent. As a psychologist, I have to disconnect myself from my interests and censor all cultural practices before practicing them.
It is imperative to have a societal picture in mind in all the errands I undertake in a learning institution to expand my cultural competency. According to Lin (2020), while living in a diverse society, one is expected to exhibit tolerance to different cultural ideologies since every voice matters. Learning institutions can embrace dialogues about cultural practices, ideologies, and controversial issues such as identity and culture. Such discussions can help students learn more about others and eventually develop mutual respect and tolerance. When an institution embraces these dialogues, it becomes a promoter of teamwork, trustworthiness, reverence, and openness, hence motivating cultural diversity. However, there is a need to help moderate such dialogues since they are highly likely to be controlled by the majority groups and eventually sabotage the whole objective of encouraging cultural competence. Discussions related to the significance of cultural diversity in institutions, if well moderated, can help augment cultural competence in students.
Cultural competence is of great significance in psychology as it improves the relationship between individuals coming from different walks of life. Cultural competence helps make service delivery more accessible, effective, and satisfactory (Tanriverdi, 2017). As a culturally competent psychologist, I must advocate for people in an organizational setup to embrace a language that all clients understand while respecting cultural and religious ideologies that might be conflicting with the services offered. Cultural competence can be upheld during the recruitment process by hiring qualified employees from diverse, underserved, and LBGTQ (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people, and the queer) societies. People are expected to embrace intersectionality and look for ways of offering assistance to the minority groups in the community.
Also, culturally competent professionals must not alienate people from the LBGTQ community since they also need equal treatment. According to Tanriverdi (2017), during service delivery, it is imperative to assess the racial composition demographics of all clients beings served in any organization to help in establishing how to do better planning to offer services based on cultural diversity. It is also worth identifying with people from communities or populations deemed underserved and looking for ways of helping them be culturally embraced in society. Cultural competence must be incorporated in an organization to ensure that underserved groups are equally given access to privileges accorded to the majority groups.
Summing up, people tend to cling to anything associated with them and disregard what differs from their ideologies. People cherish those from their social classes, ethnicities, literacy, and economic levels. People have a high tendency to despise those from different socioeconomic levels. However, cultural competence in psychology advocates for equal treatment of all people regardless of their cultural differences. Individuals coming from minority groups are highly likely to face barriers from the majority groups when trying to access certain privileges in society. Lack of cultural competence can result in poor service delivery in an organization. Dialogues can help augment mutual respect and tolerance among students regardless of their different social backgrounds. Cultural competence helps in enhancing a fight against stereotyping and prejudice. People are supposed to develop tolerance to those with different ideologies bearing in mind that every voice matters. One must ensure that the undeserving groups are given equal access to resources like the majority groups.
References
Lin, C. (2020). Understanding cultural diversity and diverse identities. Quality Education, 929- 938.
Tanriverdi, G. (2017). Approaches and recommendations for improving the cultural competence in nursing. Florence Nightingale Journal of Nursing, 25(3), 227-236.