Lesson Structure:   Multi Cultural Awareness BPS303

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Cultural Diversity
   • Introduction
   • Defining culture
   • Elements of culture
   • Societal structures and processes
   • Subcultures
   • Key areas of cultural diversity
   • Cultural behaviour
   • Values
   • Social discourse
   • Ideology
   • Expectations
   • Problems ith culture
2. Cultural Self-Awareness
   • Introduction
   • Defining cultural self
   • Environmental influences
   • Family or social group
   • Definitions of self
   • Psychological influences
   • Human nature
   • Personal autonomy
   • Socio economic and political influences
   • Emphasis or minimisation of cultural diversity
   • Code switching
   • Physical environmental influences
3. Prejudice and Racism
   • Introduction
   • Ingroups or outgroups
   • Ethnocentrism
   • What is prejudice
   • Functions of prejudice
   • How we measure prejudice
   • Theoretical perspectives on prejudice
   • Stereotypes
   • Functions of stereotypes
   • Dangers of using stereotypes
   • Discrimination
   • Social discrimination
   • Racism
   • Institutional or structural racism
   • Perception
   • Perceptual change
   • Cognitive dissonance
   • Perceptual defence
   • Reducing prejudice
   • Changing stereotypes
   • Developing cultural sensitivity
   • Belonging to a dominant culture
4. Working with Culturally Different Clients
   • Introduction
   • Communicating across cultures
   • Principles of communication
   • Cultural differences
   • Communicating intimate information
   • The culturally skilled worker
   • Conformity
   • Factors affecting conformity
5. Barriers to Effective Multi-Cultural Relationships
   • Abnormality
   • The counsellors culture
   • The clients culture
   • Individual differences
   • Cross cultural communication hurdles
   • Culture shock
   • Non verbal communication
   • Developing trust
   • Formal judgements
   • Culture and child development
   • Coping with change
6. Developing Cultural Competence
   • Introduction
   • Culturally competent service delivery
   • Culturally appropriate service
   • Culturally accessible service
   • Culturally acceptable service
   • Training for cultural change
   • Cross culture counselling in disaster situations
   • The role of family
   • Working with other cultures 
7. Multicultural Mental Health Issues
   • Introduction
   • Problems with cultural difference in psychology
   • Cultural influences on mental health
   • Culture bound syndromes
   • Trance and possession disorder
   • Factors affecting grief and bereavement: social, psychological and cultural influences
8. Shortcomings of Contemporary Counselling Theories and Future Developments
   • Introduction
   • Culture shock
   • Stages in cultural shock and adjustment
   • Post traumatic stress disorder
   • Treatments for culture distress
   • Successful intercultural adjustment

Each lesson requires the completion of an assignment which is submitted to the academy, marked by the academy’s tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Learning Goals:  Multi Cultural Awareness BPS303

• Develop an awareness and appreciation of cultural diversity;
• Understand the cultural awareness of the self through verbal and non-verbal means;
• Understand the origins and influences of prejudice and racism;
• Understand the impact of culture when working with culturally different clients;
• Understand bias toward and barriers against effective multi-cultural relationships;
• Understand the fundamentals of developing and implementing cultural competence;
• Understand multi-cultural attitudes toward mental health issues.

Practicals:   Multi Cultural Awareness BPS303

• Learn what is meant by the term culture, and different cultural groups;
• Discuss cultural diversity and identify problems associated with it;
• Discuss intra-cultural and inter-cultural contact to managing cultural diversity;
• Identify reasons that people and groups make intercultural contact;
• Explore how we communicate non-verbally;
• Identify ways (verbal and non-verbal) that we communicate our identification to a cultural group;
• In what ways a minority culture influence a dominant culture;
• Ways that people and groups adapt to other cultures;
• Explain the term individualism-collectivism
• Define;
  • ethnocentrism
  • prejudice
  • racism
  • stereotype
  • discrimination

• Discuss how prejudice and/or racism help a group or person feel more comfortable about other cultures;
• Explore the role of stereotyping by a dominant culture in perceived discrimination by an immigrant community;
• Define culture shock;
• Identify barriers to communication that exist in intercultural communication situations;
• Identify strategies to ensure effective communication with a person from another culture;
• Explore the influence of culture differences when providing helping or counselling services to clients;
• Explore ways that people from different cultures deal with psychological or communication problems such as conflict, depression, mental health etc.

Your learning experience with ADL will not only depend on the quality of the course, but also the quality of the person teaching it. This course is taught by Iona Lister and your course fee includes unlimited tutorial support throughout. Here are Iona’s credentials:

Iona Lister
Licentiate, Speech and Language Therapy, UK, Diploma in Advanced Counselling Skills.

Iona has been a clinician and manager of health services for fifteen years, and a trainer for UK-based medical charities, focusing on psychosocial issues, mental health disorders, and also the promotion of communication skills for people in helping roles. She tutors and facilitates groups via workshops and teleconferences, and now specialises in Sight Loss. As a freelance writer, she contributes regular feature articles for magazines, has written five published books, as well as published courses relating to personal development and counselling skills.

Iona has also written published books, courses and articles across a wide range of subjects, mostly in the areas of health, counselling, psychology, crafts and wildlife.

She has drawn experience from clinical and managerial experience within the NHS as well as medical and humanitarian subjects. She has been a regular feature writer and expert panel member of a national magazine for six years.

Books include: A Guide to Living with Alzheimer’s Disease (and associated dementias), The Psychology of Facial Disfigurement; a Guide for Health and Social Care Professionals, When a Medical Skin Condition Affects the Way you Look; A Guide to Managing Your Future, Facing Disfigurement with Confidence, Cross Stitch: A Guide to Creativity and Success for Beginners.
Courses written include: Mental Health and Social Work, Counselling Skills, Understanding and Responding to Substance Misuse, Journalling for Personal Development, Guided Imagery, Stress Management.

Current work includes: Tutor: Courses associated with Creative Writing, Counselling Skills, Psychology, Holistic Therapy, Certified Hypnotherapist and Hypnotension Practitioner.

Facilitator of Teleconference Groups: Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)

Trainer (Skills for Seeing): Macular Society

Reviewer of Books/Information: Macmillan Cancer Support

Fundraiser: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Embroidery/Art Groups Facilitator, Board Member

Website Manager: The Strathcarron Project, Coordinator (Delaware & Tennessee) Human Writes

Excerpt from the Course

Prejudice literally means pre-judgement.  That is, we are no longer open to alternative explanations.  Prejudice is an ever-present phenomenon because human beings are social animals. We are born into a social unit called a family, and grow up in other social units in school, groups of friends, the families that we ourselves establish, and the professional and business groups in which we conduct our lives. Our identities are composed of building blocks that are group memberships, and major parts of our sense of self are embedded in the groups to which we belong. We define ourselves in terms of the national, religious and professional groups to which we belong. However, group membership also involves dividing the social world into two major elements: the “we” and the “not we,” or “them.” This distinction in itself is ample grounds for the statement that stereotypes and prejudice are permanently with us.

Related to this is our tendency to see ourselves and our groups in relation to others, so that our perception of our goodness causes us to see others, but not all others, as bad. In other words, when we describe our traits, values and behaviours, we tend to define in terms of ‘difference from’: I am an honest person, not like that person; My family is a functional family, not like those dysfunctional families”.

Stereotypes and prejudice are not inherently bad. They may be positive and contribute to pro-social behaviour: for example, patriotism, team loyalty and cultural identity may involve beneficial aspects of stereotypes and prejudice. For instance, patriotism may encourage us to try to live up to positive stereotypes of our national character. We may be prejudiced towards stereotypic cultural ideal such as the brave and noble man or the nurturing, loving woman (or the successful, ethical businesswoman; the dependable, caring man).  On the other hand, stereotypes and prejudices can be negative and have negative effects on our behaviour and perceptions.

One very famous example of this tendency to create competitive oppositions, and of the strong stereotypes and prejudices that it feeds and are fed by, are Jane Elliott’s ‘brown eye- blue eye’ workshops.  For decades, Ms. Elliott has been demonstrating to participants how quickly and easily they slip into highly competitive and antagonistic modes based on the simple physical difference of eye colour. (You are encouraged to read about Ms. Elliott’s work on webpage http://www.horizonmag.com/4/jane-elliott.asp or elsewhere).

Ingroups and  Outgroups

People’s social identity depends on the groups to which they belong.  Any group a person belongs to is their ingroup. If they don’t belong to a group, it is an outgroup.  People generally have lower opinions of outgroup members and higher opinions of members of their own groups.  People who identify strongly with a particular group are more likely to be prejudiced against other outgroups.

People tend to think their own group is composed of all sorts of different people, but tend to think that everyone in an outgroup is the same.  Prejudice is thought to decline when people in an ingroup become more familiar with the customs, norms, food, attitudes and so on of the outgroup, so helping them see the diversity within the members of the outgroup.

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is where people have a tendency to look at the world from the perspective of their own culture. It often also entails the belief that the individual’s own race or ethnic group is the most important and/or superior to other groups.  People will judge others against their own particular ethnic groups or cultures, especially language and religion.

So what is Prejudice?

So what is a prejudice? Prejudice

• is a negative prejudgement
• is often unwarranted
• is based on limited or insufficient evidence
• usually refers to one person’s membership of another social group
• is an attitude – an evaluative response directed at another object
• is an over generalised attitude applying inflexibly to all members of a group.
• has an emotional component and is often linked to stronger emotions, such as disgust, hate.
• is also linked to beliefs and stereotypes that we hold about the object of our prejudice.
• also has a behavioural component in the form of discrimination.  A prejudice is a belief. Discrimination is acting on that belief.

Prejudice is an attitude that we hold toward a person, group or thing based on our evaluation of them. We develop prejudices because we tend to judge, usually, with limited information. Such behaviour can have distinct survival value, encouraging us to make quick decisions when faced with something out of the ordinary or different from us as to whether it is safe or unsafe, and whether we should run, fight, or remain still. If we come face to face with a large man during our evening walk, and pre-judge (which is what prejudice causes us to do) this person based on his clothing, haircut and facial expression as potentially dangerous, we might take action that will save us from a robbery, or from being attacked. If we never formed such pre-judgments based on equally skimpy information, we might find ourselves in frequent trouble and danger.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Here is a list of the most often asked FAQ’s.

General

Q. Why should I enrol with the Academy for Distance Learning?
A. Here at ADL, our students are our priority – we treat everyone as a unique individual.

Q. Do I need to buy text books?
A. No, as each module has been written by highly qualified industry professionals. The content of the material is presented in such a way that text books are not required. However, if you require additional reading your tutor will be able to supply a list.

Q. What happens if I have to stop studying for a while? (eg. become sick, go on holidays, have a baby, move house, etc)
A. It’s OK to take a break and start up your study at a later point in time. Just let us know.

Q. Is there an age limit?
A. There is no maximum age limit. We do however, have a minimum age limit of 18 years. Below that age parental consent would be required.

Q. Are your courses up-to date?
A. Our courses are revised and updated on a rotation system.

Q. Do you have a Cancellation policy?
A. Yes. We have a cancellation policy that is fair and equitable. For further details please click here.

Q. Will I have any opportunity to engage with other students?
A. We have a Student Community group based on facebook! If you don’t have a facebook account already, you could make one just for talking with fellow students on the group.

Enrolment

Q. When can I enrol/start?
A. You may enrol and start at any time of the year – it’s all self- paced.

Q. Can I study from anywhere in the world?
A. Our courses are available to anyone, anywhere in the world from the comfort of your own home. The course content is relevant to any country, culture or economy.

Q. How long do I have to complete the course?
A. You complete the course at any time that is convenient for you.

Q. Completing a 100 hour module – how long will it take?
A. For some students a 100 hour module will take approximately to 3- 6 months to complete. Others take less time and some even longer.

Assessment

Q. Assessment – how does it work?
A. For each 100 hour module you are assessed by assignments (at the end of each lesson) and a final one and a half hour exam (or you may elect to complete a Project, instead of sitting the exam) – the choice is yours – you sit for the exam in your own location.

Q. I don’t cope well with exams – what can I do?
A. You may elect to undertake a Project (set by your tutor) instead of sitting the exam. Projects are completed from your home and can usually take a couple of weeks to complete.

Q. If my assignment is not up to standard is there an opportunity to resubmit my work?
A. Yes –

Q. How many assignments do I need to complete for each module?
A. At the end of each lesson, there is an assignment – so if a course has say, 10 lessons, there would be 10 assignments.

Q. I am having difficulty attending workshops/industry meetings, what can be done?
A. If your course requires attendance at workshops, conferences, or industry meetings; alternative arrangements can be made in your country.

Qualifications

Q. What qualification will I receive?
A. For individual modules, you would be awarded a Certificate endorsed by TQUK (Training Qualifications, UK), providing you complete all assignments and the exam. If you just want to complete only the assignments and not sit for the exam or finish a Project, then a Letter of Achievement would be awarded. For more details on qualifications available please click here.

Q. Can I customize my diploma/higher qualification?
A. Not all educational institution’s certificates /diplomas meet everyone’s needs. The opportunity to Design Your Own Diploma at the Academy (subject to our approval) is an added bonus, not found at other colleges. You choose modules that you think will help you in achieving your goal.

Q. What do I get when I complete the course? Will I receive a transcript?
A. At the completion of all courses and providing all assignments and exam requirements have been met, you will receive your Award and a Transcript.

Tutors

Q. Our tutors – who are they?
A. We appoint Tutors and require that they must be currently active in their industry, with at least 5 years’ experience in their chosen profession.

Q. Can I contact my tutor at any time?
A. Yes – you have unlimited access to your tutor via email through our Online Classroom. You can always leave a message with ADL requesting your tutor to contact you. You decide on how much or how little contact you wish to have.

Q. Practical work – How is this done?
A. To find out more about this part of the course please visit the section on How Our Courses Work here.