Sociology Assignment

Sociology Assignment

Cultural Competency

Cultural competency is an idea which is evolving in health service researches. The term is extensively used in public health services and public wellbeing in the year 1990's. It remains outstanding in current considerations to address ethnic and racial disparities in heath status and to access care (Ferraro & Andreatta, 2011). When focusing on the growing population diversity of the U.S and the perseverance of the ethnic and racial in social work, nursing, public health, health and other science disciplines are adapting the notion to deal with the current issues in working with different populace.

In fact, Culture means a unique configuration of shared understanding of the world, behavioral norms and beliefs that direct everyday life is universal to a specific population sub group. Whereas, the competency is a term in literature of human performance implying abilities and skills to carry out a role required in a particular context. Cultural competency means to a capability to effectively interrelate with the individuals belonging to different races and cultures particularly in the context of government agencies, human resources, on profit organization whose employees work with persons from variety of dissimilar ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

The cultural competencies have four components (Ferraro & Andreatta, 2011):

Cross cultural skills.

Attitude towards cultural difference.

Knowledge of different worldviews and cultural practices.

Attitude towards cultural differences.

Causes of disparities in healthcare are multi factorial. It is commonly agreed that genetic, economic factors and socio cultural factors as well as factors within the healthcare delivery system, contribute to the poorer health indexes in minority populations (Mead et al., 2008).

Gender Socialization and Messages

People in many cultures grow up with specific teachings regarding gender roles and stereotypes that are generally assumed as established way of behaving or act by males and females (Cook & Cusack, 2011). In order to discuss gender messages, it is also important to understand the concept of stereotyping that can be defined as a widespread preconception that arose from people ascribing certain attributes, characteristics, roles, because of their affiliation with a particular social group. In fact, gender stereotypes are related to the social and cultural roles assigned to men and women that are based on physical differences in terms of their genders.

Researchers have found that in many cultures, images presented to children, male and female genders are represented in a stereotypical way and asymmetric against girls whether on television, cartoons, advertisements, or in children's books. It can be seen in many children books that most often girls are represented with a passive or inside role. In other words, it is portrayed they are waiting for Prince Charming to come and rescue them. The boys, however, are shown as active, assertive and live doing a lot of things outside the house (Cook & Cusack, 2011). It is a fact that children have limited scope and experience in their circle that makes them vulnerable to the influence of gender messages or stereotypes (Doka & Martin, 1999). The basic example of genders message is to associate babies with ...