PSY-460 Multicultural Psychology

Course Overview

This course explores the concepts of race, ethnicity, and culture as they pertain to the study of psychology. We will make use of social, cognitive, and developmental psychological theories to explore what it means to live in a multicultural society. We will evaluate the construct of race, how children and adults come to make sense of race, and what utility it has for psychologists. We will examine how culture shapes our values, worldviews, and the ways we communicate with one another. We will examine how and why individuals stereotype, how stereotypes affect behavior, and how privilege and discrimination shape the lived experiences of racial and ethnic minorities as well as members of dominant groups. We will also examine the intersection of multiple social identities (e.g. what does it mean to be a Latina, lesbian woman.)