FRHD 3400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Essentialism, Intersectionality, Schizophrenia
2 May 2018
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Self-Awareness:
Your Own Assumptions, Values, and Biases
• To help others, it is critical that you develop self-awareness, particularly of yourself as a cultural
being.
• Understand your cultural background and differences that may exist between you and those
from other backgrounds.
• Learn about groups different from yours.
• Recognize your limitations.
• Consider need to refer clients on occasion.
• Contextual issues affect the way client discusses issues.
• No one is without biases (typically unconscious)
Knowledge:
Understand the Worldview of Others
Worldview is the way you and the individuals you work with interpret humanity and the world.
• We all have different views of people and the world.
• Listen and respect worldview of individuals.
• Monitor your negative reactions to worldviews different from yours.
Be careful not to impose your own views.
Cultural Sensitivity Regarding Diversity
I helpig professios, it is the professioals resposiility to:
– provide professional services that demonstrate respect for diversity and the cultural
worldviews, values, and traditions of culturally diverse individuals.
– ensure the individual feels safe and respected as a person first
– incorporate anti-oppressive practices and empowerment Use strength based, feminist,
and empowerment perspectives
– model acceptance and nonjudgmental attitude
– frame discussions of differences by emphasizing inclusivity
– challenge prejudice and discrimination
– advocate for members and support self-advocacy
– respect cultural sensitivity to issues of self-disclosure.
Cultural Competence
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Debate viewed along 2 lines: Essentialism vs. Constructivism
– Essentialism:
• Culture is objective, is stable over time, characteristics are inherent, resident
within the person, and clearly defines the differences between people
• Gender for example - collection of fundamental, sex-linked attributes,
isomorphic with sex
– Constructivism (preferred):
• Culture is the product of social constructions, characteristics are not inherent,
but a construct that emerges in evolving social exchanges
• Gender for example - behaviors are gendered by social convention assigned to
them, not by sex of the individual
Social Location, Positionality, and Intersectionality
– It is very important to recognize that what you see depends on where you are stadig
(Russell, 1993).
– Often what is seen and heard (and what is not seen and not heard) in addition to interpretation
depeds o here a perso stads.
– A aareess of oes soial loatio, positioalities ad itersetioality is key to effective
professional practice
– enables a professional to respond empathically to others with different social locations,
positionalities and social locations.
Power Flower
– A tool that helps us become aware of and reflect on issues of diversity
– Used in anti-oppression and anti-racist work
– Also helpful in examining social location and positionality
– Around the outside are two rows of petals:
– OUTSIDE: dominant social identity, what is privileged or assumed by the dominant
culture
– INSIDE: Personal social identity
Supporting Diversity
– Person first perspective
– The ability to see individuals holistically
• Person with schizophrenia (rather than the schizophrenic)
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