Essay on Psychology

Introduction

The key to being an great social worker is appreciating cultural elements of each individual. Homogeny of world cultures began through dominance of different religious and political outfits throughout history. The Greek and Roman empires for example had some visible impact in the modern world. First, the Romans had contributed to influencing a huge Catholic following around the world (Jiang, 2020). The Catholic Church is the largest single Christian denomination in the entire world for example, with its official seat at the Vatican. For the Greeks, their sports culture influenced the creation of the Olympic Games, which is one of the world’s most influential games. The facts presented in this paper will seek to highlight the characteristics of being an exemplary social worker, giving emphasis to cultural protectionism and inclination.

Discussion

Cultural Protectionism

The element of self-influences social cognition by being aware of one’s existence and purpose as an exemplary social worker. It is knowing when to interact with others and when to be alone. It is the opposite of alienation in a sense. It is important to note that in this current era of cultural hybridization, alienation is becoming more and more frequent. The media for instance is always running news on how various groups are becoming increasingly alienated from society, a concept I would become totally opposed to as a leader and social worker. A perfect example would be how the younger generations are increasingly becoming more and more detached from the conventional mainstream values of society. The use of the concept has created the impression that some groups are doing something separate from what society in general expects or what is naturally expected of them. The concept of ‘Alienation’ was first used in sociology by Karl Marx. He made use of the concept of an estrangement sense that was exceedingly profound than what most usages in a contemporary manner would capture (Jiang, 2020). Marx developed the concept in his attempt to capture capitalism’s effects on society in general and on work experiences. He managed to apply the concept in industrialist capitalist societies.

An example case of alienation would be workers getting paid less for the work that they do because of their race, religion, or ethnicity. In the UAE for example, more than 60 percent of workers are foreign expatriates who work for minimum wage. This is a clear case because their societal rights to equal pay are being trodden on by the mere fact that they are not of the same race or social identity as the ruling elite. Marx’s arguments stressed that for workers to be emancipated, they had to wrestle for control by the displacement of the ruling elites and thereby dominating them (Giddens & Sutton, 2017). Other examples of alienation include the recent seclusion of Colin Kapernick who was an athlete who refused to stand up for the national anthem in protest of the mistreatment of black folks in America, the alienation of former president Donald Trump from mainstream government activities after losing the American election, and the alienation of African countries from nuclear war matters.

Another evidence based strategy that would be useful to me as a social worker is cultural inclination. It comes from the natural elements that nurture us while we grow. We learn language, music, customary law and almost all other forms of culture as a result. Nature and nurture integrate to become aspects of cognitive development (Morin,2021). Nature involves maturity, while nurture involves the social grooming from the environment. Nature refers to what we think of as an inclination to our genetic influence as well as other biological factors.

Nurture influences human behavior by making us who we currently are. Through nurture one’s individualistic nature can be shaped and transformed to various extents. It is a well-known fact for example that children who are from poor backgrounds are more likely to end up attending schools that offer poor education in addition to interacting with disruptive peers (Giddens & Sutton, 2017). This is because the disadvantaged family environment may most likely foster and give rise to truancy.

Nature on the other hand has a significant variance when it comes to human behavior. This is because most traits that are psychological have been discovered to have a heritability ranging around 50% (Morin, 2021). This means that a difference in genetics between individuals attributes to an averagely half of the variance that is observed within a given community. Studies have shown that there is a significantly small genetic contribution to human behavior. They have also shown a small relationship between human behavior and a documented shared environment as the main cause of problems for families.

The aspect of parenting and religion is one things that will form the basis of my leadership as a social worker. One of the main reasons for an increasing rise in the number of divorce for example is the changes that have been experienced particularly in social attitudes. Because of these changes, divorce especially in Western and European countries like the US has become more and more common and even socially acceptable. This is a sharp contrast from the past where such actions were considered taboo (Chon & Sitkin, 2021). Now, there is less and less stigma that is attributed to divorce. This has made it something that is no longer considered a big deal to go through and to undertake.

Another reason is the fact that the roles of women in society are increasingly changing. The fact that most divorces are filed by women is also important to acknowledge. This implies that unlike men, most women are at a point where they are less satisfied with their marriages and now dare to walk out of those marriages more than before (Cebioğlu & Broesch, 2021). This role change is critical in acknowledging the increasing divorce rates since more and more women now feel that they have the power to do something about their relationship situations if they no longer work for them. This has resulted in situations where if female partners feel unhappy they opt-out of marriages through a divorce to look for more compatible partners. The self influences social heuristics through decision making and cultural influence.

Conclusion

As mentioned, cultural inclination comes from the natural elements that nurture us while we grow. We learn language, music, customary law and almost all other forms of culture as a result. Understanding these cultural elements are the most important characteristics of becoming a social worker. Nature and nurture is also seen to integrate to become aspects of cognitive development. The use of such perspectives leads to the view that no particular culture stands significant or more important than another when doing comparisons with the morality systems, law, and politics, and so on. It is of the idea that values and cultural practices derive their significance with a particular social context.

References

Cebioğlu, S., & Broesch, T. (2021). Explaining cross-cultural variation in mirror self-recognition: New insights into the ontogeny of objective self-awareness. Developmental Psychology, 57(5), 625.

Chon, D., & Sitkin, S. B. (2021). Disentangling the Process and Content of Self-Awareness: A Review, Critical Assessment, and Synthesis. Academy of Management Annals, (ja).

Giddens, A., & Sutton, P. (2017). Essential Concepts in Sociology, 2nd Edition. New Jersey: Wiley.

Jiang, J. (2020). Influence of music appreciation on self-awareness of college students based on philosophy of music. Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica, 29(1), 56.

Morin, A. (2021). Implications of mirror self-recognition for self-awareness.