The purpose of this paper is to provide a short reflection on chapters 1-10 of the book Cultural Diversity: A Primer for the Human Services by Jerry V. Diller. Also, lectures provide by the professor will be discussed in this paper. The lectures discussed in this paper will be lectures A-E. In chapter one, “The Introduction”, we learn about culture and how the purpose of the book Cultural Diversity: A Primer for the Human Service. The purpose of the book is “to sensitize providers and those learning to be providers to the complex issues involved in cross-cultural service delivery” (Pg. 3). Furthermore, the author writes the goal of Cultural Diversity: A Primer for the Human Service is to train culturally competent human service providers (Pg. 2).
In chapter two, “What It Means to Be Culturally Competent,” we learn about the importance of being culturally competent. Cultural competence is the ability to provide effective services cross-culturally (Diller, 2015, Pg. 17). According to Cross (1988), it is a “set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enable that system, agency, or those
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Readers also learn about assimilation and acculturation. According to the text, assimilation is “the coming together of two distinct cultures to create a new and unique third cultural form” (Pg. 200). Acculturation “involves taking on the cultural ways of another group, usually those of the mainstream culture” (Pg. 201). In chapter nine, a variety of mental health issues associated with racial groups are discussed, such as: trauma. Trauma is “an extraordinary psychological experience – caused by threats to life and bodily safety or personal encounters with violence and death – that overwhelms ordinary human functioning (Diller, 2015, Pg.