Chapter 3

Age

The chronological index of developmental change from conception to death.

Social Status

The degree to which an individual has power, influence, or leadership in his or her social group.

Racism

results from the transformation of race prejudice and/or ethnocentrism through the exercise of power against a racial group defined as inferior by individuals or by institutions, with the intentional or unintentional support of an entire culture. Simply stated, racism is preference for, or belief in, the superiority of one's own racial group over any other.

Health

the dimension encompassing acute and chronic physical and psychological illness, on the one hand, and physical and psychological vigor, stamina, and general well-being on the other.

Institutional racism

when either an individual in authority or an organization that harbors negative race prejudice (or any other prejudice for that matter) puts practices or procedures in place that actively discriminate toward a particular group.

People of Color

Nonwhite minority group members, but reflects recent demographic realities of the United States. The phrase refers to groups such as African Americans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Native Americans and is often preferred over ethnic minority because these groups are, in many schools and communities, the majority rather than the minority.

in-context learning

(direct participation) Learning that takes place through direct participation in real-world events.

Culture-specific approaches

(group specific) Cross-cultural concepts that apply to people who live and/or work with people of a particular culture or group.

out-of-context learning

(indirect participation) Learning that typically occurs in the abstract as opposed to learning using concrete objects and references.

Ability/ Disability

A dimension encompassing the range of individual differences with respect to the physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, and other (e.g., aesthetic) domains characterizing human behavior.

Ethnic group

A group that shares a common heritage and reflects identification with some collective or reference group, oftentimes in a common homeland. A feeling that one's own destiny is somehow linked with others who share this same knowledge.

Affirmative action

A policy designed to redress past discrimination against women and minority groups through measures to improve their economic and educational opportunities

Microculture

A social group that shares distinctive traits, values, and behaviors that set it apart from the parent macroculture of which it is a part. It seems to imply a greater linkage with the parent culture and often mediate the ideas, values, and institutions of the larger political community.

Subculture

A social group with shared characteristics that distinguish it in some way from the larger cultural group or society in which it is embedded. Generally, it is distinguished either by a unifying set of ideas and/or practices (such as the corporate culture or the drug culture) or by some demographic characteristic (such as the adolescent culture or the culture of poverty).

Social Class

A way to categorize individuals in a stratified social system; social class characteristics are often related (but may not be limited) to child-rearing practices, beliefs, values, economic status, prestige and influence, and general life chances.

Stereotypes

Beliefs about the personal attributes of a group based on the inaccurate generalizations used to describe all members of the group, thus ignoring individual differences.

culture general approach

Cross-cultural concepts that apply to the kinds of interactions and experiences people are likely to encounter regardless of the groups that are interacting.

Ethnicity/ Nationality

Ethnicity is culturally defined according to the knowledge, beliefs, and behavior patterns shared by a group of people with the same history and perhaps the same language. Nationality is culturally defined on the basis of a shared citizenship, which may or may not include a shared ethnicity.

Geographic location/ region

Geographic location and region are culturally defined by the characteristics (topographical features, natural resources) of the ecological environment in which a person lives. Geographic location may include the characteristics of a neighborhood or community (rural, urban, suburban) and/or the natural and climatic features of a region (mountains, desert, plains, coastal, hot, cold, wet, dry).

Religion/ Spirituality

Religion and spirituality are culturally defined on the basis of a shared set of ideas about the relationship of the earth and the people on it to a deity or deities and a shared set of rules for living moral values that enhance that relationship.

Subjective

The invisible, intangible aspects of a group, including such things as attitudes, values, norms of behavior—the things typically kept in people's minds.

Perception

The process by which people are aware of stimuli in the world around them.

Categorization

The process of dividing stimuli into classes or groups according to a particular system. In the cultural context, the manner by which one's culture teaches one to view the world around him or her.

Enculturate

The process of raising a child to be a member of a particular culture or culture group.

Socialization

The process whereby individuals learn what is appropriate to be a functioning member of a particular group, such as a family, work, or social group.

Objective

The tangible, visible aspects of a culture, including such things as the artifacts produced, the foods eaten, and the clothing worn.

Generalization

The tendency of a majority of people in a cultural group to hold certain values and beliefs, and to engage in certain patterns of behavior. Thus, this information can be supported by research and can be applied to a large percentage of a population or group.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency people have to evaluate others from their own cultural reference point.

Culture

The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought characteristic of a community or a population.

minority group

a social group that occupies a subordinate position in a society. Separated by physical or cultural traits disapproved of by the dominant group, shares a sense of collective identity and common burdens, and is characterized by marriage within the group

Race

an imprecise term: biologically, it is defined as the clustering of inherited physical characteristics that favor adaptation to a particular ecological area; culturally it is defined according to the particular set of physical characteristics emphasized by different cultural groups.

Sexuality

culturally defined on the basis of particular patterns of sexual self-identification, behavior, and interpersonal relationships.

Language

often defined as a system of shared vocal sounds and/or nonverbal behaviors that enables members of a particular group to communicate with one another.