Custom «Minority Groups» Essay Paper Sample

Research on minority groups should consider the cultural context of the population. As posited by Arzubiaga, Artiles, King & Harris-Murri (2008), this notion of research as situated cultural practice suggests that what research is based on, its principles and uses, the way sense is made through the execution of the research exercise, and the information and representations that are formed are culturally and socially intervened and negotiated procedures. Considering the cultural context of the population will ensure that the investigative focus is broadened from a limited center of attention on particular clusters to paying attention to two extra facets. The two additional facets are socio-cultural position of the researcher as a person and an affiliate of a scientific group together with the cultural presumptions in the customary practices of a scientific field. Another benefit of considering the cultural context of the population in research on minority is that this view is firmly based on interdisciplinary research that employs an active and multifaceted outlook of culture while methodically linking it to human progress. This approach incorporates information from the disciplines of sociology of science, anthropology, cultural psychology, etc. to bring out the idea of research as a positioned cultural practice.

A socio-historical view of culture can offer value to counselors when working with clients of diverse cultures. To start with, a socio-historical view of culture can help counselors appreciate how diverse people construe their surroundings. Culture definitely influences the way people view the world as well as how they operate in the world. It influences individual and collective principles and approaches. In addition, even though it is not possible to alter social backgrounds, a counselor with a socio-historical view of culture is able to avoid the issues of typecasting and pigeonholed expectations by probing their individual ideals and standards, studying their clients' grounding, along with looking for counseling approaches that are suitable to the requirements of the client. A socio-historical view of culture helps counselors shun stereotypes and prejudices that could present challenges to their work. This view promotes concentration on the constructive features of a certain cultural cluster and shows that a counselor appreciates cultural variations. These counselors, even though cannot assume their clients' cultural background, are able to be more receptive to their needs as well as their personal and their clients' prejudices. Being sensitive to the expectations, attributions, principles, viewpoints, as well as methods of coping and levels of susceptibility of the client, is very essential for successful results.

Counselors ought to consider the role of ecological validity while working with different clients. This is very significant in counseling a cross-cultural population whose opinions proliferate without empirical validation. According to Cole (1996), ecological validity is "the degree to which deeds sampled in a set can be taken as features of a person's cognitive practices in a wide range of settings." Ecological validity would demand that counselors must understand the distinction between sampling the occurance of mental roles in diverse settings and sampling settings in which to fix psychological roles. This is chiefly essential since research participants might be unfamiliar with researcher-created tasks or measures. Therefore, the documented behaviours possibly will not present a valid case of what the researcher intended to study. Ecological validity has become very vital in cross-cultural setting because practitioners have identified the need of being competent irrespective of the cultural background of the client.