Thursday, January 30, 2020
Multiculturalism in Counseling Essay Example for Free
Multiculturalism in Counseling Essay ABSTRACT Stemming from the uprising in the 1960s, multiculturalism has presented serious challenges to the society, especially to the academic sector. Criticized by social groups, schools were inclined to adopt programs in recognition of the multicultural population, and later structured their systems to cater to the needs of the growing population. Today, multiculturalism has become an important consideration in designing school programs, facilities, and hiring policies. Particularly, school counseling was one area that went through a notable change. The introduction of this paper gives a brief historical background of multiculturalism in school counseling. It discusses how multiculturalism was incorporated into the school curriculum, and was adopted in school counseling. The main part of this paper discusses the competencies every school counselor must possess to address the needs of multicultural students. Anchoring on the three core competencies set by the AMCD, this paper presents ways on how one can be knowledgeable of clients’ worldviews in order to serve them best. In addition, it suggests other devices or strategies counselors may consider when dealing with multicultural students.            The conclusion of the paper summarizes the ideal characteristics of a counselor, and presents further considerations school administrators and counselors can make to ensure effective counseling strategies which adhere to the demands of multiculturalism. Introduction Multiculturalism as Rosado (1997) defines, is a system of values and behaviors which recognizes and respects the presence of all diverse groups in societyâ€â€their identities, values and socio-cultural differences. In addition, multiculturalism supports continued contribution of the culture in the society. Based on this definition, we can view multiculturalism as the harmonious coexistence of different cultures in the society. In the author’s view, culture is not limited to bases of origin. Culture may arise from similar beliefs, attitudes, or feelings of a certain group of people. Thus, it also encompasses those who have the same subcultures based on values, economic status, socio-political status, or gender. Particularly, those who have the same subculture based on gender include women, gays, lesbians and transgender individuals. In the same manner, people belonging to the same economic status or religion share a similar subculture that establishes their diversity from others. In this study, we refer to multicultural people as those who embody a different set of cultures and subcultures, other than the native culture or the majority. As such, we may define multiculturalism as an approach that recognizes diversity in culture among different ethnic, gender, economic, socio-political, and religious backgrounds. Multiculturalism has also become a prevalent topic in school counseling. It has prompted psychologists and educators around the world to review school practices that hamper culturally diverse students from performing well in school. Now that the growing population of multiculturally diverse students seems to be taking over the White population, the challenges that go with implementing multiculturalism in counseling would probably be more relevant in the next decades.                                                Multiculturalism in Counseling In the field of education, authors claim that multiculturalism rooted out from the social action of African Americans and other â€Å"people of color†back in the 1960s (Banks, Davidson Davidson, as cited in Gorski, 1999). The common feeling that schools had the most hostile and oppressive treatment of other cultures aroused them to protest and fight for reforms. In those days, African Americans and other cultures suffered from racism and discrimination from the White population who occupied professorship or management statuses. Colored people were treated as second class citizens, if not as outcasts. However, through the efforts of African American activists, schools were compelled to review their policies and hiring process in consideration of the non-Whites. In the 1970s, other groups such as the elderly, gays, lesbians, and people with disabilities also contested that institutions should pay equal respect to all peoples on matters of employment, educational opportunities, and work pay. Following this, a number of programs and policies emerged, including additional courses on prominent women or famous people of color. Despite this effort, social activists were not satisfied, for schools only celebrated women of greatness, and not women in general. For instance, James Banks (1981;1989), one of the pioneers of multicultural education argued that to adhere to the idea of â€Å"multicultural environment,†all aspects of the school had to be reviewed. According to him, policies, teacher’s attitude, assessment programs, and counseling should be transformed accordingly. This concept of multicultural education coincided with the idea of social equality among diverse cultures. By 1980s, following the path of Banks, K-12 teachers, namely, Carl Grant, Christine Sleeter, Geneva Gay, and Sonia Nieto exposed and criticized oppressive teaching approaches, standardized tests, classroom climate, and discriminatory hiring practices. Relevantly, this created in every academic professional the challenge to recognize diversity or as later coined, multiculturalism, and make it their mission to â€Å"manage†and â€Å"live diversity†(Rosado, 1997 ). Being multicultural does not only mean having a student population composed of various cultures, though this is often the contention of many schools. Rosado points out that for a school to claim they are multicultural, they must at least adhere to four standards. These include reflecting heterogeneity, demonstrating sensitivity, realigning the school’s mission, and creating an ambiance that empowers all groups in the school. With clear and careful intention, Rosado argues that schools should adopt change geared towards multiculturalism on individual as well as institutional levels. On the one hand, by saying individual level, we mean that schools should aim at urging administration, teachers and students to transcend beyond their own racial, gender, cultural and socio-political identity to recognize other identities. On the other hand, as Rosado contends, institutional level means focusing on empowering diversity. This goes beyond merely admitting people of color, but also taking into consideration in the school’s mission, vision, values, and structure how it can empower each individual. Although motivated by good intention, empowering people of diversity, as pointed out by Rosado may sometimes lead to a utilitarian view of giving a person his needs in exchange of what he can offer his society. We say that this is very utilitarian in that it sees the individual as a utility, more than an entity with values, attitudes, and affection. In contrast, we should be inclined to think that it is the school’s responsibility to provide the different needs of individuals in recognition of their diversity and nothing else. No conditions should apply as to whether the society can profit from his acts or not. Relevantly, whether the person is worthy of rewards of multiculturalism should not be an issue. Four intentions have motivated the adoption of multiculturalism in education. These include the â€Å"need to remedy ethnocentrism, rebuild understanding and appreciation of different cultures, defuse tension and conflicts among ethnic groups, and make the school curricula relevant to experiences and traditions†(Webb, 1990). In the next part, we will discuss how well these motivations relate to school counseling.            Many research works confirm the positive effects of multicultural education on students. For example, Hale (1986) shows that children in a preschool program achieved higher cognitive levels upon integrating African American culture in the curriculum.            In the same way, Zaslavsky (1988) demonstrates how elements of other cultures can help in teaching complex math concepts to students of an inner-city school. Fulton-Scott (1983) confirms benefits of integrating multicultural education in elementary programs for Hispanic students. The study reveals that students’ scores in Math, Reading, and Language were significantly superior over those of students enrolled in programs without multicultural integration.            Benefits of multiculturalism are likewise recognized in the field of Psychology, particularly in school counseling. However, research in this area has focused more on counselors’ multicultural competence rather than on the effect of counseling founded on multiculturalism.            In 1991, the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) identified the need and rationale for multicultural counseling. This led to the approval of 31 multicultural counseling competencies as proposed by Sue et al. (1992) in 1991. Following this, in 2002, the APA Council of Representatives approved the Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice and Organization Change, which was, in fact, based on the work of Sue et al.            The need to adopt multiculturalism in counseling, especially in schools, is truly urgent and necessary for ethical reasons. In relation to this, AMCD identifies three characteristics counselors must possess. First is counselor awareness of own assumptions, values, and biases. Second is understanding the worldview of the culturally different client; and third, developing appropriate intervention strategies and techniques            Primarily, culturally skilled counselors can be identified as those who have awareness of other people’s culture other than their own. They are aware of how their cultural background, experience, attitude, biases, and values influence the counseling process of a client. Moreover, these counselors recognize their limits when it comes to tolerating other values, behaviors, or norms. To add, culturally skilled counselors are also comfortable with differences between them and the clients in terms of race, gender identity, ethnicity, culture, and beliefs. To illustrate, the first measure of competency requires a counselor to mirror whether his own values and beliefs would personally or professionally affect the process of counseling. For example, a Christian counselor may have biases towards a Muslim student, for they have truly different belief systems. In this situation, if the counselor has no knowledge of ethical limitations, he might insist that his beliefs are better or are morally upright, and those of the student’s are the opposite. However, such case may be prevented if the counselor is fully aware of conflicting values he has with the student. In our own view, a school counselor should be open to all values of every student. This is different from the counselor in the private sector. In school counseling, the counselor who cannot accept views of some students is not fit for school counseling. A school counselor should have readiness to counsel every student, and there should be no instance when he would not accept a student for counseling.            To ensure that the counselor meets the first requirement mentioned above, he should reflect on his values and find out if he has beliefs against any culture, including students with different gender identities, cultural or religious practices, and other moral practices that their culture has taught them. For instance, taking into consideration the case of students with gender identity problem, the counselor must be careful not to insist that the student sticks to his biological gender. Rather, he should exercise care in handling this case. After all, the whole life of the student may depend on the decision he makes at the time of counseling. Culturally skilled counselors possess knowledge and understanding about how gender stereotyping affects them personally and professionally. Considering the sensitivity of the issue of gender identity disorder, the school counselor must be careful not to affect the decision and values of the individual, for he is going to suffer later on should he take the wrong decision.            Moreover, as Sue et al. contend, culturally skilled counselors possess knowledge about their social impact on others. These include one’s awareness of own communication style, and how this style may hinder or facilitate the counseling process. Recognizing limits of their competencies, school counselors may confer with their colleagues how to overcome these weaknesses. Aside from this, they should seek further training or education on other cultures as a way to do away with biases. The process of balancing one’s view of other cultures may take a lifetime as new concepts may arise everyday. For example, the term transgender individuality appeared only in our modern times, but the concept of transforming from one gender to another has been known as early as the time of Sophocles or even earlier. In this regard, counselors should not grow tired of finding ways for self-actualization. Also, on the second characteristic, it is the responsibility of the culturally skilled counselor to gather resources to learn about the identity of other cultures. In the case of homosexuality among students, the counselor should know the different sides of the coin in being a homosexual. In particular, counselors who deal with this issue should have a good understanding of the process of being a homosexual (Adams, Boatwright, Gilbert, Forrest Ketzenberger, Cass, Chung Katayama, Croghan, Driscoll, Kelley Fassinger, Dunkle, and Pope, as cited in Sanabria, 2004). With this knowledge, he must let the student decide on his own whether to retain his gender identity or move to the phase of ‘coming out†. Coming out or in other words, admitting to the society that one belongs to a specific gender type is in itself a dilemma among teenagers with identity confusion. The specific role of the counselor in this situation is to help the youth consider advantages and disadvantages of coming out (Adams, Belz, Brown, Croteau Hedstrom, Elliott, Hetherington, Morgan Brown, Morrow, Pope, Rodriguez Chang, Pope Schecter, Savin-Williams, as cited in Sanabria, 2004). Additionally, the counselor should guide the student in the stage of coming-out by training him/her how to deal with people’s inquiry about his identity. For example, the counselor could give real-life scenarios, and ask the student to react on them in order to ensure that he would be prepared for particular instances when he would experience doubt. If the counselor feels affirmative or senses tolerance toward gays and lesbians but lacks the knowledge to handle cases of these individuals, he could improve his familiarity with them through a lot of ways. One source of invaluable information is reading literatures regarding gay/lesbian culture. At present, explorations on gender-specific cases are improving in terms of number and depth. These readings can guide a counselor to discover gay/lesbian cultural identity. Likewise, attending conferences or symposia, gathering insights from past clients and friends who belong to the same gender type will also contribute a lot (Sanabria, 2004). Also, as Sanabria expresses, if the counselor feels that he is not qualified to handle the case, it is only ethical to refer the student to someone who could offer him the right counseling. Furthermore, counselors who cannot be affirmative of gay and lesbian culture are probably misinformed and should look into themselves again if they are fit for being a school counselor. The issue regarding sexual minorities is only one of the issues a school counselor must be able to handle. If the counselor cannot help sexual minorities, he should reconsider if he should continue practicing in the academic setting. Suffice to mention, the National Career Development Association, American Counseling Association, and American Psychological Association have well-defined ethical codes that offer guidance for individuals who work with sexual orientation issues. Included in these ethical codes is the knowledge about students’ behavioral identity. Importantly, culturally skilled counselors should be aware of life experiences, cultural heritage, and historical background of their multicultural students. For instance, an Asian American student has different historical and cultural background from a Latino counterpart, or an African American. When counseling an Asian American, for example, a Chinese girl who cannot relate well with her classmates, a counselor must be informed of the conservative values Chinese families have. Actually, the attitude of keeping one’s silence may be in conformity with Confucian values. In this regard, the counselor cannot expect the girl to be as outgoing as he r classmates are, for the behavior she presents embodies a cultural heritage among the Chinese. Furthermore, culturally skilled counselors understand the consequences arising from one’s exercise of cultural traditions and rites. In some parts of Asia, for instance, there is still the custom of prearranged marriage. Thus, a counselor who encounters a high school student in this situation should suspend judgment of the custom, but rather honor it, and perhaps counsel the child to make her own choice, after laying down the consequences of abiding by the culture. In considering choices, the counselor may enumerate possible circumstances the child would face if she relents to her parents’ decision, or vice versa. Under no circumstances should the counselor dictate to the child what she should do as this may result in confusion or family conflict. Likewise, the counselor may also opt to explain the issue to the parents, but before doing so, the counselor must take precautions so as not to offend them. At all times, respect should form part of every counseling situation. Aside from obtaining a rich background of their students, a competent counselor, according to Sue et al. should also be kept updated with the latest trends and occurrences that concern his clients. In the case of a school counselor, it would be of great help if he engages in research and other activities to keep him updated with the students’ lingo, hobbies, behavioral patterns, etc. They should actively seek out opportunitiesâ€â€personal and professional experiences that enrich their knowledge, understanding, and cross-cultural skills. Moreover, as some schools implement nowadays, counselors can engage in outside school activities such as outreach programs, educational trips, camps, and other activities which would help gain a more vivid profile of the counselees. They should also be actively involved with minority individuals outside the school setting. Community events, celebrations, and other gatherings may help provide a wider perspective of minorities which relate with the academic scenario. Considering the dynamic role that the school counselor plays in society, the responsibility of ensuring that they possess the relevant qualities expected of a counselor should be borne by colleges offering the course or training. Based on the literature gathered, schools have positively become fully concerned about the issue of multiculturalism. Many schools and universities nowadays adhere to the demands of the culturally diverse society. However, the way to attaining competency of some school counselors may still be too far. In one study Holcom-McCo y (2000) conducted, the author identified five underlying factors influencing school counselors’ perception of themselves as competent professionals. These factors included understanding of racial identity development, ability to comprehend multicultural terminology, multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Among which, counselors perceived lack of knowledge of racial identity development as the problem that hindered them from being fully competent in multiculturalism. To address this problem, Schwallie-Giddis et al. (as cited in Sanabria, 2004) suggest that future school counselors should undergo multicultural training on racial identity development, and multicultural knowledge development. In a study conducted, school counselors assessed the effectiveness of a nine-month multicultural professional development program. The study involved 13 school counselors in a multicultural professional development program held from school year 2001-2002. Applying three dimensions of multicultural competencies, the participants assessed their own competencies. Resources included a videotape of a case study to which participants reacted, in order to discover assumptions, values and biases. To assess understanding of the clients’ worldviews, the study made use of case studies of linguistically and culturally diverse (LCD) students. The participants were asked to apply a framework to the cases to examine aspects school counselors should consider when handling diverse students. The participants had a lengthy discussion on the provided cases, and at the end of the session, they expressed the advantage of having discussions with peers. Another session comprised of a panel interview with three mothers of different cultures. Each of the women talked about her child’s experiences in school, all of which related to the inefficiency of the school officials to handle multicultural students. In all the issues raised, lack of communication surfaced as the most recurrent problem. In relation to this, participants commented that had there been proper communication between parents and school officials, issues would have been resolved more easily. Moreover, the study also included a session that dealt with developing appropriate interventions to cases of LCD students. Through this, participants were able to exchange views and experiences which could help build up a resource for interventions to cases of LCD students. Based on this session, counselors noted that most of them found it difficult to deal with LCD student mainly because of the language barrier. Furthermore, insecurities due to lack of knowledge of other cultures affected the competencies of the participants. In sum, the school counselors agreed that having enough facility to understand the student and overcoming language barriers is one major key to providing adequate help to students. Similarly, Chandras et al. (2006) suggest counseling strategies and techniques in handling multicultural students. One skill they emphasized to be critical in every counseling situation is effective listening. Effective listening, as Neuknug (2002) defines, includes allowing students to talk, concentrating on what is being said, giving minimal advice, empathizing, asking for clarifications, and limiting questions. When handling multicultural students, it is important for the counselor to be fully sensitive to verbal cues that relate to culture. For instance, a student who is often bullied in class may not admit why he is being bullied due to his insecurity. There are some students who would rather keep the truth to themselves or resolve their own conflicts instead of asking help from school officials. Despite this attitude, a good school counselor could still unlock verbal cues that could make the student open up. For example, a child who claims he is not interested in making friends with his classmates could likewise mean that his classmates are cruel to him and not totally uninteresting. As such, clarifying responses and not directly giving advice may help the child reflect on his own situation. To maintain effective counseling strategy, a constructive and emphatic relationship is very important (Chandras et al., 2006). In this respect, the counselor’s role is first to build up trust and optimism. On the one hand, gaining trust of a student is paramount to establishing a good relationship. Without trust, there can be no revelations, no life experiences told. On the other hand, developing optimism facilitates finding a solution to the problem. Also, when a student perceives that there is a solution to the dilemma, he becomes more willing to cooperate in the counseling process. Secondary to the abovementioned is discussing stages of the counseling process. It is important to inform the counselee how the counseling would go, what can be achieved during counseling stages, and how long they will take. Together with this, the counselor should set guidelines both he and the student will follow, such as time schedule, behavior rules, and limitations. Chakras et al. determine other responsibilities of a counselor. These include preparing the student for counseling session. As a counselor, one has to establish the reason why the student should undergo counseling. Asking the student what he feels is wrong, or eliciting experiences that seem difficult for him are ways to prepare the student. In addition, the counselor must assert that the problem can be worked out if the counselee cooperates in resolving it. Also, some situations that lead to the attention are considered for school counseling. These include breaking school rules, misbehaving, or underachievement. As such, the class adviser and the school counselor should work hand in hand regarding record of students’ behavior and progress. One of the misconceptions about counseling is that students are referred to it only for disciplinary purposes. Students tend to think that if they are called for counseling, they have been noted to misbehave in school. Thus, some students create a wrong view that counselors are disciplinarians. Importantly, this issue should be addressed during school orientation, letting the students know and feel that counseling is a helping process, and not a disciplinary one. Furthermore, what the counselor can do to avoid this misconception is to call each student one by one, get to know them, and allow a time for them to be acquainted with her and her work, so that fears regarding counseling could be avoided. Importantly, not only those who have reports of misbehavior should be called for counseling, but every student handled by each counselor. During counseling session, one good characteristic the counselor should exhibit is to remain focused on the specific problem. If the student’s problem concerns only his classmates, the counselor should identify ways to resolve it at the said level, and not delve on the students’ family background, as such may give the student an impression that his problem is huge. For example, if the student identifies that he is having problems with classmates bullying him, the counselor must call the attention of the said classmates and allow the said parties to explain the issue (i.e., tell them of the situation to find out if they are aware of the problem they cause their classmate). Furthermore, it is the counselor’s role to sustain interest of the counselee during the counseling process. To attain this, the counselor should ask questions relevant to the situation, and involve the counselee in arriving at the best workable solution. Asking irrelevant questions and monopolizing the discussion may distract the concentration of the counselee. In addition, the counselor may give assignments or home work so that the student would feel responsible and be prepared for the next counseling session. As regards developing appropriate intervention strategies and techniques to help multicultural students, counselors should also be effectively involved in non-academic and out-of-school activities. As the core of the student’s personality, the counselor should focus first on building family relationships. Activities involving the students’ family would be an effective strategy to (1) know students well, (2) gain knowledge of family structure of students, whether parents are separated, and where students stay, (3) provide a venue for family bonding, and (4) inform parents of their children’s progress/problems. Parent involvement in counseling is inevitable. Some studies confirm student improvement in â€Å"academic performance, attitudes and behavior, attendance, school adjustment and engagement, and graduation rates†(Barnard, Epstein, Simons-Morton Crump, as cited in Sanabria). In Jevnes (as cited in Sanabria), a recent meta-analysis of 41 studies shows a significant relationship between parent’s involvement in school and academic achievement of urban students.            Parent involvement in school can include activities designed to inform them of their children’s progress, workshops or conferences to help them cope with the difficulties of parenting, marriage, etc. However, some parents lack the initiative to get involved in their child’s school affairs. As Lareau (as cited in Sanabria, 2004) posits, parents perceptions of racism and their own negative school experiences tend to create the distance between them and the schools. One study conducted by McKay, Atkins, Hawkins, Brown (as cited in Sanabria, 2004) found that the racism awareness of low-income African American parents was positively related to at-home parental involvement, and inversely related to at-school involvement. In this case, the counselor should coordinate closely with class advisers and other school officials to help convince these parents to give priority to their children. One source of motivation could be research dat a establishing correlation between children’s progress and parental involvement. One activity the counselor could organize is a â€Å"Day with Parents.†This could be a panel discussion involving model parents (probably of outstanding students) to act as the panel, and discuss relevant issues with students and co-parents. In this activity, the panel discusses ways on how they get involved with the affairs of their children, and how these measures create positive output to them. After the pane interview/discussion, the parents may exchange ideas in a forum to discuss proper ways to bring up children. Specifically, student problems, whether academic or personal, may also be brought up. Another activity the counselor could organize is a family day in which the whole family will come to the school to enjoy rides, games, or dining together. This event may be school-wide and would need the participation of every school personnel and students. Aside from organizing events for the family, the school counselor could also incorporate in the program field trips, camping, games, and other fun activities for the students. This will help students, especially with multicultural background, to get to know their classmates well. This way, they would also find time to have more friends. Aside from this, fun activities would also make them realize that school is not just for learning academics but also for having fun.            Moreover, other activities school counselors could provide include workshops or performing arts activities. These activities are very ideal to cultivate the talents of students. Examples of which include art, theater arts, dance, and singing workshops. After the workshops, counselors could also have a culminating activity in which students show what they have learned from the workshop. For arts, students will have an art exhibit, for dance, theater arts, and singing, the counselor could propose to school administration to allow a concert or show, in which students will be the performers. This particular activity could also serve as a fund raising campaign aside from showcasing the talent of students.            Other activities to make students realize their potentials include sports activities/intramurals. This would allow sports-minded students to show their capabilities in their field. Also, this could serve as the school’s campaign against drug use among students.            Further to the given interventions, counselors could also conduct career orientation, especially for graduating students. In this activity, the counselor would invite some professionals to talk about their career to inspire students to follow a similar path. At the end of the session, the counselor would elicit from students, which career aroused their interest, and what made them interested to it. Importantly, students should be given many options to choose from, and career professionals to be invited should likewise have multicultural identity, so that students can easily relate with them. Evaluation sessions should also follow to allow room for improvement.            Counselors also have a part in the school’s community outreach. By giving orientation to students regarding the activity and motivating them to help other people, students will realize that the helping profession is not limited within the four corners of the school. The participation of the counselor is very important as this will strengthen the role of the counseling profession and the school’s mission of helping other people.            Other interventions the counselor could incorporate in the counseling program include achievement tests, personality tests, and other assessments to gauge the students’ academic and personal progress. These could help identify the needs of the students or their inclinations to serve as guide in choosing their future career. There are a lot of ways a school counselor can adopt to help in the holistic development of students. In adopting each intervention, what is important is to bear in mind its applicability to the multicultural students. As each student comes from a different background, it is imperative to learn about them individually, and not just by names or culture affiliation. As long been practiced by other counseling professionals, one strategy the counselor could employ is to do home visits. By visiting students in their home, the counselor will gain a clear and accurate picture of the students’ background. Similarly, this would also create for him a first-hand experience of the students’ cultural background.  Conclusion As we continue to live in the Information Age, we are driven to realize the many impacts of multiculturalism on people, educational institutions, and society in general. In particular, we see how it changed history in the 1960s with the civil protest of Black Americans, and how it restructured school policies on employment of faculty, and treatment of students. Similarly, we see how it inspired minority groups to express their views and contribute to the rich and modern culture. Moreover, we see the important role of multiculturalism in the counseling programs of schools and the community, not to mention the challenges it continues to bring counselors in providing care and assistance. Although discrimination based on race, ethnic origin, gender, religion, disability, socio-political, and economic status are still evident in our society, the progress attained by forerunners and supporters of multiculturalism make us look forward to a better nation in the next decades. As time unfolds, we may take pride as we watch Americans embrace Africans, Asians, and other people of color. This view will continue to unveil as school administrators continue to uphold and cultivate the gifts of diversity in their orientation of students and communities. Much to the efforts made by school activists, we may look forward to more reforms in the counseling scene, either in schools or communities. The standards set by the AMCD or APA would continue to lead counselors to realize the importance of their roles in the society. The role played by counselors is not an easy task. However, by being conscious of their own tendency toward biases, counselors would avoid disserving their clients, and in the long run, the attitude of people especially schoolchildren toward counseling would further be affirmative. Moreover, adhering to the second characteristic, counselors would maintain a sensitive attitude toward cultures of other people. As such, they will feel the importance of bridging gaps among multicultural individuals, thus becoming proponents of unity and peace in the long run. Also part of the competency requirements of counselors is to devise or organize strategies to provide relevant counseling and helping services to the people. In this respect, their role is not limited to the school setting they serve, but it is likewise relevant to the community they work with. By fulfilling their part as community helpers, counselors would have a richer cultural experience which could help in their field. Recognizing the difficult task expected of counselors, we may develop the doubt regarding the capability of school counselors of today in taking on the said challenges. In this regard, counselors would need all the assistance it could get from school officials such as teachers, principal, and other staff. Through the collaboration between counselors and school officials, multicultural students will realize the important contribution they can make in the society, not only in their group but also in the lives of other people, in the fields of technology, manpower, innovation, and care for the environment. The nature of helping students does not end in counseling them or providing moral support. Rather, it extends to making them feel their importance as people, providing them choices in life, and cultivating their talents. The counseling program of every school should be the most active program among all, as it involves not only the students and counselors, but also other school officials, including the teachers, librarian, and support staff. If every one in the school system shares in the goal of achieving multicultural counseling, we can hope for the success of multicultural students. As such, everyone should his/her own part and responsibilities in promoting the welfare of the studentsâ€â€that is, giving respect to people of other cultures, helping them realize their life goals, and making them co-creators of society. Despite all the efforts exerted by counselors and other individuals to make up a better society, we can still note some people, even students who would resist multiculturalism. The harsh picture of some students exhibiting exclusivist attitude toward their peers should not be overlooked. Rather, it should be the concern of everyone in the school, especially its officials. In line with this, more studies should be conducted on how to incorporate multicultural views into the counseling program of every school, beginning from pre-schools to post-graduate schools. It would also help if psychological groups or associations would set standards particularly for multicultural school counseling. These rules would serve as guide for school administrators in choosing the right school counselor. While it is the role of school counselors to provide counseling to multicultural students, it would also help if schools would implement a procedure to evaluate if other aspects of the school adhere to promoting cultural diversity. Particularly, school administrators should realize that the issue of multiculturalism should not be addressed by the counseling program alone, but also by all aspects of the school, including the physical structure of the school. In this regard, future research in psychology could include ways on how the school’s physical structure could support counseling programs for multicultural students. References Chandras, Kan, David DeLambo, Sunil Chandras. (2006). Counseling strategies and techniques to sensitize school counselors to the life experiences of culturally different students. Retrieved January 28, 2008, from http://www.counselingoutfitters.com/Chandras.htm Constantine, Madonna. (2001). Universal-diverse orientation and general expectations about counseling: Their relation to college students multicultural counseling expectations. Journal of college student development. Retrieved January 28, 2008, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3752/is_200111/ai_n8993131 Freedman, Kenneth. (1999). Multicultural counseling. Retrieved January 23, 2008, from http://www.alaska.net/~fken/Multiculture.htm Gorski, Paul. (1999). A Brief History of Multicultural Education. Retrieved January 25, 2008, from http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/edchange_history.html Hanna, Fred. (2000). Asian shades of spirituality: implications for multicultural school counseling. Professional school counseling. Retrieved January 29, 2008, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KOC/is_5_7/ai_n6121238 Harris, Anthony. (2007). Philosophy and techniques of multicultural education. Journal of multidisciplinary research. Vol. 1 Issue 1. Retrieved January 22, 2008, from http://www.scientificjournals.org/journals2007/articles/1080.htm Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2008, from http://www.getthetoolkit.com/publications/transgender%20students.pdf Patterson, C.H. (1996). Multicultural counseling: from diversity to universality. Journal of counseling and development. Retrieved January 25, 2008, from http://www.sageofasheville.com/pub_downloads/MULTICULTURAL_COUNSELING_FROM_DIVERSITY_TO_UNIVERSALITY.pdf Rosado, Caleb. (1997). Toward a definition of multiculturalism. Retrieved January 30, 2008, from http://www.rosado.net/pdf/Def_of_Multiculturalism.pdf Rosado, Caleb. (n.d.). What makes a school multicultural? January 24, 2008, from http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/caleb/multicultural.html Sanabria, Samuel. (2004). Culturally appropriate career counseling with gay and lesbian clients. Career development quarterly. Retrieved January 29, 2008, from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Culturally+appropriate+career+counseling+with+gay+and+lesbian+clients.-a0127052322 Sue, Derald Wing, Patricia Arredondo, and Roderick McDavis. (1992). Multicultural counseling competencies and standards: A call to the profession. Retrieved January 25, 2008, from www.counseling.org/Files/FD.ashx?guid=e14f8c36-41e7-4af8-830d-69f6057986d7 – Van Velsor, Patricia Graciela Orozco. (2007). Involving low-income parents in the schools: Communitycentric strategies for school counselors. Professional school counseling. Retrieved January 29, 2008, from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Involving+low-income+parents+in+the+schools%3a+communitycentric-a0171018638 Webb, Michael. (1990). Multicultural education in elementary and secondary schools. Eric digest number 67. Retrieved January 24, 2008, from http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9218/secondary.htm
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Reflection of Personal Art Therapy Experience as Facilitator
Reflection of Personal Art Therapy Experience as Facilitator Brett Cartwright Description I have chosen to do my reflection on the Art Therapy Focusing model in which I facilitated a process for my client, who for the purpose of confidentiality we will call ‘Jemima’. This session was conducted at the Phoenix Institute of Australia as a part of the learning model presented by my lecturer within the Art Therapy Module. During the â€Å"setting up†(Malchiodi 1998) the space process I went about finding an appropriate area and making sure there were sufficient items conducive of an Art Therapy session, such as pastels, paper, and markers, as well as a cabinet in the corner filled with Art Therapy supplies, should Jemima wish to use something different. Upon the completion of the setting up process, I quickly checked in with myself to ensure I was capable of holding space for my client before walking into the waiting area to greet Jemima, inviting her to join me in the room. Once in the room I enquired about how she felt regarding the comfort of the space and offered her the opportunity to rearrange it in any way she saw fit, also pointing out that there were many more art supplies in the corner cabinet. Jemima nodded and said â€Å"I’m actually quite happy with this†making a bodily gesture toward the previously setup space. Now sitting, we began to talk about how her day was going so far and if there was anything specific she would like to focus on. Upon creating an intention for the session I suggested that we try an Art Therapy Focusing process and proceeded to explain what would be involved. We began by drawing her attention into her body, in search of a ‘Felt Sense’ (Gendlin 1996) eventually finding an image that had an ‘emotional quality’ fitting to the intention we had set for the session. I then extended an invite to open her eyes and bring the image to concretised form on the paper, inviting her to open up a dialogue with me about the process if she saw fit at any time, which she ackn owledged but declined. The rest of the session was quite silent and required little more than my presence, â€Å"unconditional positive regard†(Rogers 1980) and holding of the space to facilitate. Jemima indicated when she had finished her image, at which time I asked her to close her eyes again, inviting her to bring her awareness back to the room and slowly drawing her out of the focusing process. At this point I asked her if she could share with me how the process was for her. I let Jemima know that the session was coming to a close, offering her the opportunity to express anything else that might have come up for her during the process, and we closed the session. I then invited Jemima to give reflection on my performance as a therapist, took some notes, and the entire process was complete. Feelings I felt quite comfortable entering into this process as I am reasonably familiar and confident with the focusing process from both the ‘Focuser’ and ‘Companion’ perspectives. Also, I have worked with Jemima on a number of occasions and have developed a good amount of rapport with her, which makes for a productive and healthy therapeutic relationship. Having said that there were, and always are, a certain amount of nerves for me when stepping into the role of therapist, as I have recently discovered via an empty chair process that I have a dominant inner critic that has created really strong insecurities around professionalism. This was, however, coupled with intense feelings of excitement about acting out the entire process of a therapy session and the learning that comes from the experience. At the end of the session, as always, I found myself left with mixed feelings. I became highly stressed and critical about how I performed as the therapist, and some of the feedback I received from Jemima, again coupled with an element of excitement about having made it through the process without any major hiccups on my end. Evaluation At the time I felt things went reasonably well for both the client, and myself. It seemed that the client had really managed to embody the Art Therapy Focusing process. The â€Å"Coming in†process (Purton 2004) was smooth and seemed to flow quite well as we slowly drew Jemima’s awareness toward her inner-world, searching for a Felt Sense that eventually matched that of a ‘Protector’ (as referenced in the Analysis section below). Throughout the creation of the artwork I made a few observations about certain things, such as the way Jemima smiled when the image of her protector came to her; the movements and motions of her strokes on the paper which were reflected as being â€Å"helpful for meaning making†by the client; and the pressure she seemed to apply to different areas of the page. The end of this session felt a bit rigid and clunky upon reflection, as I always seem to have some amount of trouble tying things off without interrupting the clientà ¢â‚¬â„¢s process. Analysis Upon analysis of the session and the feedback given by the client, it would seem that it was a productively therapeutic session that helped the client in â€Å"clearing space†(Gendlin 1996) and creating a â€Å"safe space†using an image of a â€Å"protector†as tools created by Judith Herman and described by Rappaport (1998), which the client can now refer to in consecutive sessions to help return to that feeling of safety, if the client resonates strongly with that image. There was the possibility for a couple of intersubjective responses, as I had a couple of images with protective qualities come up for me when I was witnessing the client’s process unfold, which I held back due to some nervousness around projection and interpretation as I did not want to influence the client’s process in any way. Conclusion In Conclusion, upon reflection of the content of the session from both my perspective and the feedback given, I realise that there is a level of incongruence, and slight lack of unconditional positive regard in not sharing my intersubjective responses with the client. Thus putting distance between myself and the client, and in turn creating a lack of attunement. As a final note, there is very little I would change about the process apart from exercising more congruence and working on developing better skills around closing the session. References Malchiodi, C.A. (1998). Setting up: Drawing on Environment and Materials. The Art Therapy Sourcebook: Art Making for Personal Growth, Insight, and Transformation. (p.79 – 102) Rappaport, L. (1998). Focusing And Art Therapy: Tools for Working Through Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Focusing Folio, Vol. 17 (1), (p.2-3) Gendlin, E.T. (1996). Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy: A Manual of the Experiential Method. New York: Guildford Press. (p.57-58) Purton, C. (2004). Focusing as a Taught Procedure. Person-Centred Therapy: The Focusing-Oriented Approach. United Kingdom: Palgrave MacMillan. (p.90) Rogers. C. R. (1980). Characteristics of the Person-Centred Approach. A Way of Being. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. (p.115-116)
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Essay --
Brady Fletcher Mrs. Stone Advanced English III 12. Dec. 2013 Robert E. Lee America has had many people that have made a positive difference to this nation by showing perseverance and putting others first for the greater good for the cause. People from low levels of society and from high levels of society have contributed to change this to become great. Robert E. Lee and his family did not enjoy fantastic wealth (â€Å"American Experience†). Robert E. Lee had an impact on this nation from the military standpoint. He had many difficult choices and decisions to make, like to stay with Virginia or to lead the Union Army. Lee served his country with everything he had. He fought on the battlefield, and commanded troops to victories and defeats. Lee never complained about the situation he was in or gave up when the going got tough. How did Robert E. Lee’s successful military career affect his life and how is he considered a prominent figure in American history? Lee didn’t grow up in a real wealthy family although his family held a position in Virginia’s ruling elite. His father Henry Lee, also known as â€Å"Light-Horse Harry,†was a cavalry leader during the Revolutionary war. Like his father, Robert E. Lee also took the military route when he enrolled in the Military Academy at West Point where he rapidly grew in ranks and graduated second in his class of 1829 (â€Å"American Experience†). After graduating from West Point Lee took the job as an officer in the corps of Engineers, where he supervised and inspected the nation’s coastal defenses. Lee did this for 17 years without having any experience on the field of war. All of this would change very soon for Lee when he would finally set foot on the battle field in Mexico in 1846. Lee r... ...uch to defeat. Lee has had many ups and downs during military career. Because of this, people look to Robert E. Lee as a very good man. He showed loyalty, dedication, and relentless pursue for victory. He truly is a person that you can model your life after and learn some valuable life lessons from him. His courageous and brave lifestyle should be recognized as a prominent figure in United States history. Lee taught people what it meant to be a true American dedicated to make this nation be as good as it can be. He also faced many tough decisions in war whether it was to attack, retreat, or to surrender. Although people make tough decision every day of their life, they don’t compare to the decisions that Lee had to make. Lee’s decisions lead to the death of soldiers in a winning or losing effort. Also his decisions made an impact on the United States. Essay -- Brady Fletcher Mrs. Stone Advanced English III 12. Dec. 2013 Robert E. Lee America has had many people that have made a positive difference to this nation by showing perseverance and putting others first for the greater good for the cause. People from low levels of society and from high levels of society have contributed to change this to become great. Robert E. Lee and his family did not enjoy fantastic wealth (â€Å"American Experience†). Robert E. Lee had an impact on this nation from the military standpoint. He had many difficult choices and decisions to make, like to stay with Virginia or to lead the Union Army. Lee served his country with everything he had. He fought on the battlefield, and commanded troops to victories and defeats. Lee never complained about the situation he was in or gave up when the going got tough. How did Robert E. Lee’s successful military career affect his life and how is he considered a prominent figure in American history? Lee didn’t grow up in a real wealthy family although his family held a position in Virginia’s ruling elite. His father Henry Lee, also known as â€Å"Light-Horse Harry,†was a cavalry leader during the Revolutionary war. Like his father, Robert E. Lee also took the military route when he enrolled in the Military Academy at West Point where he rapidly grew in ranks and graduated second in his class of 1829 (â€Å"American Experience†). After graduating from West Point Lee took the job as an officer in the corps of Engineers, where he supervised and inspected the nation’s coastal defenses. Lee did this for 17 years without having any experience on the field of war. All of this would change very soon for Lee when he would finally set foot on the battle field in Mexico in 1846. Lee r... ...uch to defeat. Lee has had many ups and downs during military career. Because of this, people look to Robert E. Lee as a very good man. He showed loyalty, dedication, and relentless pursue for victory. He truly is a person that you can model your life after and learn some valuable life lessons from him. His courageous and brave lifestyle should be recognized as a prominent figure in United States history. Lee taught people what it meant to be a true American dedicated to make this nation be as good as it can be. He also faced many tough decisions in war whether it was to attack, retreat, or to surrender. Although people make tough decision every day of their life, they don’t compare to the decisions that Lee had to make. Lee’s decisions lead to the death of soldiers in a winning or losing effort. Also his decisions made an impact on the United States.
Monday, January 20, 2020
Life-cycle :: essays research papers
Amidst the â€Å"hot pies and potato-chips†, â€Å"innocent monsters†and â€Å"resurgent lions†, Dawe effectively illustrates Victorian popular culture in the poem â€Å"Life-cycle†. Generally speaking, the subject matter is associated with Victorian lifestyle, notwithstanding the prevalent reference specifically to AFL football. Humour and good intentions counterbalance sentiments of condescending ridicule. Dawe flippantly suggests that â€Å"the tides of life will be the tides of the home-team’s fortunes†. Whilst some may be inclined to assume that Dawe is merely mocking a preoccupied Victorian society, it is worth mentioning that his criticisms are far from hostile. In fact, it would be fair to say that they are detailed with an affectionate and benevolent disposition. Whimsically, Dawe depicts a solitary culture conditioned by an overwhelming fascination with AFL football. The insinuation that Victorians are born into football loyalty, similar to that of religion, suggests that Dawe possesses the unique ability to detect similarities in events that are generally opaque to the standard eye. Biblical references throughout the poem cast an additional dimension in the audience’s minds. The mention of the â€Å"empyrean†and the booming of the commentator from the stands could arguably be hypothesised as having a religious underpinning. In a biblical sense, â€Å"empyrean†means the highest heaven and the booming commentator could likewise be compared with a religious God – an Almighty all-seeing onlooker. Dawe further develops comparisons in the form of non-religious similes. For example, the comparison between â€Å"rippling minds†and â€Å"streamers†, and for descriptive purposes, children are defined as â €Å"little monsters who have been years swimming towards the daylight’s roaring empyrean†. The relationship fabricated between Dawe and his audience is far more personal than that achieved by similar poets. The language is seemingly colloquial, vernacular and familiar to everyday Australians, despite the occasional rise of cerebral biblical dialect. Dawe utilises are variety of poetic devices to convey a powerful sense of imagery. The deliberate exaggeration for dramatic effect (otherwise known as a hyperbole) is used in the phrase â€Å"the pure flood of sound†. In this instance, the obvious exaggeration encourages a greater sense of aural imagery. In terms of visual imagery, descriptions of â€Å"club-colours†, â€Å"beribboned cots†and hoisting children shoulder-high, enables the reader to gain a perceptive appreciation of what football loyalty entails. The symbolic application of the â€Å"litter Tiger†, â€Å"resurgent lions†, Demons and Saints, highlight the obvious significance of football mascots. Alliteration such as â€Å"passion persisting†emphasises the strong emotional attachment that football followers rightfully possess.
Monday, January 13, 2020
History of Social Psychology Essay
As a scientific discipline, social psychology is only a bit older than one hundred years, with most of the growth occurring during the past five decades (McGarty & Haslam, 1997). By most standards, social psychology is a relatively young science. In discussing the discipline’s history, it should be noted that there are two social psychologies, one in psychology and the other in sociology, with the larger of the two being the psychological branch (Jones, 1998). The central focus of psychological social psychology is how the individual responds to social stimuli, whereas sociological social psychology focuses on larger group or societal variables, such as people’s socioeconomic status, their social roles, and cultural norms (Stryker, 1997). Although there have been calls to merge the two social psychologies into a single field (Backman, 1983)-â€â€and even a joint psychology-sociology doctoral program at the University of Michigan from 1946 to 1967–their different orientations make it doubtful that this will transpire in the foreseeable future. In this historical overview, the psychological branch of the discipline will be highlighted. Wundt and The Dawning of a Scientific Discipline: 1862-1894 German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1921), who is widely regarded as the founder of psychology, had a hand in the early development of what would become social psychology. In 1862, Wundt proposed that there should be two branches of psychology: physiological psychology and social or folk psychology (Và ¶lkerpsychologie). Largely due to his influential writings, by 1900 Germany’s annual bibliography of the psychological literature listed over 200 articles per year under the heading â€Å"social psychology.†Despite his influence in shaping social psychology in Europe, Wundt’s ideas had little impact on American social scientists because his writings were not translated into English and his conception of psychology as the â€Å"science of the mind†was incompatible with the new behaviorist perspective in the United States that emerged during the early years of the 20th century. Underlying behaviorism was a philosophy known as logical positivism, which contended that knowledge should be expressed in terms that could be verified empirically or through direct observation. This new â€Å"science of behavior†had little use for Wundt’s conception of social psychology. This was especially true for the social psychology developing in psychology in America, but less so for sociological social psychology. Thus, psychological social psychology in America, which would become the intellectual core of the discipline, developed largely outside the realm of Wundtian influence. The Early Years: 1895–1935 An American psychologist at Indiana University, Norman Triplett, is generally credited with having conducted the first empirical social psychological study. In 1895 Triplett asked the following question: â€Å"How does a person’s performance of a task change when other people are present?†The question was prompted by Triplett noticing that a bicycle racer’s speed was faster when he was paced by other cyclists than when he raced alone. Being a racing enthusiast and desiring to learn what caused these different race times, he devised the first social scientific experiment. In this study, he asked children to quickly wind line on a fishing reel either alone or in the presence of other children performing the same task. As he had predicted, the children wound the line faster when in the presence of other children. Published in 1897, this study is credited with introducing the experimental method into the social sciences. Despite the significance of this study, it took a full generation for researchers to understand the social psychological dynamics underlying Triplett’s findings (see the chapter 10 discussion of social facilitation). Despite this accomplishment, Triplett did nothing to establish social psychology as a distinct subfield of psychology. Credit for this achievement goes to the first authors of textbooks bearing that title, namely, English psychologist William McDougall and American sociologist Edward Ross, who each published separate texts in 1908. Consistent with the contemporary perspective in psychological social psychology, McDougall considered the individual to be the principal unit of analysis in this new science, while Ross, true to the contemporary sociological social psychology perspective, highlighted groups. Despite the inauguration of this new subfield within psychology and sociology, social psychology still lacked a distinct identity. How was it different from the other subdisciplines within the two larger disciplines? What were its methods of inquiry? In 1924 a third social psychology text, published by Floyd Allport (older brother of Gordon Allport), went a long way in answering these questions for psychological social psychology. Reading his words today, you can see the emerging perspective that would one day permeate the psychological branch of the field: I believe that only within the individual can we find the behavior mechanisms and consciousness which are fundamental in the interactions between individuals†¦. There is no psychology of groups which is not essentially and entirely a psychology of individuals†¦. Psychology in all its branches is a science of the individual. (Allport, 1924, p. 4) Allport’s conception of social psychology was proposed eleven years after John Watson ushered in the behaviorist era in American psychology. Allport’s brand of social psychology emphasized how the person responds to stimuli in the social environment, with the group merely being one of many such stimuli. Beyond this emerging individualist and behaviorist stamp, Allport further shaped the identity of American social psychology by extolling the virtues of the experimental method in studying such topics as conformity, nonverbal communication, and social facilitation. The pursuit of social psychological knowledge through carefully controlled experimental procedures would increasingly characterize the field in the coming years. As Allport’s conception of social psychology gained American adherents, German social psychology was being shaped by the Gestalt perspective, which rejected both the existing European-inspired notion of a group mind and the American individualist stand that groups were not real in themselves. Instead, Gestalt social psychologists contended that the social environment is made up not only of individuals, but of relations between individuals, and these relationships have important psychological implications. Thus, Gestalt social psychologists promoted an understanding of groups as real social entities, which directly led to the tradition of group processes and group dynamics that still exists today. These two schools of thought within psychological social psychology, one in America and the other in Germany, which were developing independent of one another, would soon be thrust together due to events on the world scene. The Coming of Age: 1936–1945 During the first three decades of the twentieth century, Allport’s conception of social psychology emphasized basic research, with little consideration given to addressing specific social problems or broader issues bearing on reform. However, by the mid-1930s, the discipline was poised for further growth and expansion. The events that had the greatest impact on social psychology at this critical juncture in its history were the Great Depression in the United States and the social and political upheavals in Europe generated by the First and Second World Wars. Following the stock market crash of 1929, many young psychologists were unable to find or hold jobs. Experiencing firsthand the impact of societal forces, many of them adopted the liberal ideals of the Roosevelt â€Å"New Dealers†or the more radical left-wing political views of the socialist and communist parties. In 1936 these social scientists formed an organization dedicated to the scientific study of important social issues and the support for progressive social action (Stagner, 1986). This organization, known as the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), contained many social psychologists who were interested in applying their newly developed theories and political activism to real-world problems. One of the important contributions of SPSSI to social psychology was, and continues to be, the infusion of ethics and values into the discussion of social life. Its immediate impact on social psychology in the 1930s was to infuse a more applied character to research. New areas of research spawned during this decade were intergroup relations, leadership, propaganda, organizational behavior, voting behavior, and consumer behavior. In other countries, world events triggered changes that further distinguished American social psychology from its scientific cousins abroad. For example, the communist revolution in Russia at the end of the First World War led to a purging of individualist-oriented research and theorizing, a development that stood in stark contrast to the increasing focus on the individual within American social psychology. In 1936, the Soviet Union’s Communist Party forbids the use of psychological tests in various applied settings, which effectively prohibited the study of individual differences. At the same time, the rise of fascism in Germany, Spain, and Italy created a strong anti-intellectual and anti-Semitic atmosphere in these countries. To escape this persecution, a number of Europe’s leading social scientists, such as Fritz Heider, Gustav Ichheiser, Kurt Lewin, and Theodor Adorno, immigrated to America. When the United States entered the war, many social psychologistsâ€â€both American and European applied their knowledge of human behavior in a wide variety of wartime programs, including the selection of officers for the Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency) and the undermining of enemy morale (Hoffman, 1992). The constructive work resulting from this collaboration demonstrated the practical usefulness of social psychology. During this time of global strife, one of the most influential social psychologists was Kurt Lewin, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. Lewin was instrumental in founding SPSSI and served as its president in 1941. He firmly believed that social psychology did not have to make a choice between being either a pure science or an applied science. His oft-repeated maxim, â€Å"No research without action, and no action without research†continues to influence social psychologists interested in applying their knowledge to current social problems (Ash, 1992). By the time of his death in 1947 at the age of 57, Lewin had provided many of social psychology’s defining characteristics (Lewin, 1936; Lewin et al., 1939). With the end of the war, prospects were bright for social psychology in North America. Based on their heightened stature in the scientific community, social psychologists established new research facilities, secured government grants, and, most important, trained graduate students. These future social psychologists were predominantly white, male, and middle class. Many of their mentors were the European scholars who had fled their native countries and then remained in America following the war. Yet, while social psychology was flourishing in this country, the devastating effects of the world war virtually destroyed the discipline overseas. In this postwar period, the United States emerged as the unchallenged world power, and just as it exported its material goods to other countries, it exported its social psychology as well. This brand of social psychology reflected the political ideology of American society and the social problems encountered within its boundaries (Farr, 1996). Rapid Expansion: 1946–1969 With its infusion of European intellectuals and the recently trained young American social psychologists, the maturing science of social psychology expanded its theoretical and research base. To understand how a civilized society like Germany could fall under the influence of a ruthless demagogue like Adolf Hitler, Theodor Adorno and his colleagues (Adorno et al., 1950) studied the psychological parameters of the authoritarian personality. Some years later, Stanley Milgram (1963) extended this line of research in his now famous obedience experiments, which examined the conditions that make people more likely to obey destructive authority figures. Social psychologists also focused their attention on the influence that the group had on the individual (Asch, 1956) and of the power of persuasive communication (Hovland et al., 1949). Arguably the most significant line of research and theorizing during this period was Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957). This theory asserted that people’s thoughts and actions were motivated by a desire to maintain cognitive consistency. The simplicity of the theory and its often surprising findings generated interest and enthusiasm both inside and outside of social psychology for many years. Social psychology’s concern with societal prejudice continued to assert itself during the 1950s. For example, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision to end the practice of racially segregated education was partly based on Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark’s research indicating that segregation negatively affected the self-concept of Black children. In that same year, Gordon Allport (brother of Floyd Allport) provided a theoretical outline for how desegregation might reduce racial prejudice. What came to be known as the contact hypothesis was a social psychological blueprint for reducing hostility between groups by manipulating situational variables. This perspective toward understanding and â€Å"fixing†prejudice better fit the behaviorist social psychology practiced in America than the earlier developed authoritarian personality approach. The decade of the 1960s was a time of turmoil in the United States, with the country caught in the grip of political assassinations, urban violence, social protests, and the Vietnam War. People were searching for constructive ways to change society for the better. Following this lead, social psychologists devoted more research time to such topics as aggression, helping, attraction, and love. The groundbreaking research of Elaine Hatfield and Ellen Berscheid (Berscheid & Hatfield, 1969; Hatfield et al., 1966) on interpersonal and romantic attraction, for example, was not only important in widening the scope of social psychological inquiry, but it also generated considerable controversy outside the field. A number of public officials and ordinary citizens thought social scientists should not try to understand the mysteries of romance. Less controversial was the bystander intervention research conducted by Bibb Latanà © and John Darley (1968), which was inspired by the 1984 murder of K itty Genovese in New York City. Despite the wariness of some, during the 1960s the federal government expanded its attempts to cure societal ills with the guidance of social scientists. Within this cultural context, the number of social psychologists rose dramatically. Among these new social scientists were an increasing number of women and, to a lesser degree, minority members. Whole new lines of inquiry into social behavior commenced, with an increasing interest in the interaction of the social situation with personality factors. The multitude and diversity of these lines of research would continue into the following decades (Pion et al., 1996). Crisis and Reassesesment: 1970–1984 When social psychology first emerged from World War II and embarked on its rapid expansion, one of the pioneers in the field, Theodore Newcomb (1951), expressed concern that expectations were greater than anything that could be delivered in the near future. By the 1970s, when solutions to societal problems were no closer to being solved, and as the usefulness and ethics of experimental research came under increased scrutiny, a â€Å"crisis of confidence†emerged (Elms, 1975). When this disappointment and criticism was followed by accusations from women and minorities that past research and theory reflected the biases of a white, male-dominated view of reality, many began to reassess the field’s basic premises. Fortunately, out of this crisis emerged a more vital and inclusive field of social psychology. More rigorous ethical standards were established, and although experiments remained the method of choice, researchers began conducting more correlational studies, as well as employing other methods. Regarding accusations of racial and gender bias, social psychology began moving toward more responsible positions, but such biases have yet to be eliminated from the discipline (Graham, 1992; Tesser & Bau, 2002). Another important development during this time period was the importing of ideas from cognitive psychology in explaining social behavior. This â€Å"cognitive revolution†(see p. 00) greatly enhanced theory and research in all areas of social psychology, and its impact persists today. Accompanying the social cognitive emphasis was renewed interest in the concept of the self, which previously had been the focus of only sociological social psychologists. However, with the waning influence of behaviorism, psychological social psychologists rediscovered the insights of founding social scientists such as William James, John Dewey, Charles Horton Cooley, and George Herbert Mead. Soon the self became a central concept within psychological social psychology. An Expanding Global and Interdisciplinary View of Social Psychology: 1985–present By the 1970s, both European and Latin American social psychological associations had been founded, and in 1995, the Asian Association of Social Psychology was formed. The social psychology that developed overseas placed more emphasis on intergroup and societal variables in explaining social behavior than did its American cousin. In the mid-1980s, this overseas influence began to reshape the discipline, as social psychologists throughout the world actively exchanged ideas and collaborated on multinational studies (Fiske et al., 1998; Vala et al., 1996). Many of the new ideas about social behavior were generated by scholars from collectivist cultures who were raised within societies that have a very different perspective on the relationship between the individual and the group than that within the societies of traditional social psychologists. Subsequent cross-cultural research found that certain social beliefs and behaviors that were previously considered universal were in actuality specific to the socialization practices of individualist cultures. Based on these findings, considerable research attention was devoted to determining which aspects of human behavior are culture specific–due to conditions existing within a particular culture–and which ones are due to human’s shared evolutionary heritage. Although social psychology’s â€Å"professional center of gravity†still resides in the United States, European and Third World social psychology offers the entire field opportunities to escape what some consider the limitations of this â€Å"gravitational pull†to perceive new worlds of social reality (Shinha, 2003; Tam et al., 2003). This multicultural perspective will continue to guide research in the coming years. Contemporary social psychologists have also continued the legacy of Kurt Lewin and SPSSI by applying their knowledge to a wide arena of everyday life, such as law, health, education, politics, sports, and business (Ellsworth & Mauro, 1998; Kinder, 1998; Salovey et al., 1998). This interest in applying the principles and findings of social psychology is a natural outgrowth of the search for understanding. Despite the dominance of social cognition in the 1980s, some social psychologists raised concerns about the relative lack of focus on emotions and motives in explaining social thinking. These critics of existing social cognitive theories argued that to think of motives and affect as merely end products in a central processing system was to dehumanize social psychology. In the early 1990s, a number of social psychologists sought to establish a more balanced view by blending the traditional hot and cold perspectives into what some have termed the Warm Look. These revised social-cognitive theories proposed that people employ multiple cognitive strategies based on their current goals, motives, and needs. Theorists typically developed dual-process models, meaning that social thinking and behavior is determined by two different ways of understanding and responding to social stimuli. One mode of information processingâ€â€related to the cold perspective legacy–is based on effortful, reflective thinking, in which no action is taken until its potential consequences are properly weighed and evaluated. The alternative mode of processing information–related to the hot perspective legacyâ€â€is based on minimal cognitive effort, in which behavior is impulsively and unintentionally activated by emotions, habits, or biological drives, often below the â€Å"radar†of consciousness. Which of the two avenues of information processing people take at any given time is the subject of ongoing research. This attention to both explicit and implicit cognition has recently prompted social psychologists to explore how neural activity in the brain is associated with various social psychological processes, including self-awareness, self-regulation, attitude formation and change, group interaction, and prejudice. Although the numbers of social psychologists who pursue such research is still relatively small, the knowledge they acquire concerning the biology of social behavior will undoubtedly play a role in reshaping existing theories. Indeed, the U.S. federal government’s National Institute of Mental Healthâ€â€which has an annual budget of 1.3 billion dollars–has recently given priority to research grants that combine social psychology and neuroscience. In concluding this historical overview, if the life of a scientific discipline is analogous to a person’s life, then contemporary social psychology is best thought of as a â€Å"young adult†in the social sciences. Compared with some of the more established sciences, social psychology is â€Å"barely dry behind the ears†and still subject to growing pains (Abrams & Hogg, 2004; Brewer, 2004; Rozin, 2001). Yet it is a discipline where new and innovative ideas are unusually welcome, where new theoretical approaches and scientific methods from other scientific disciplines are regularly incorporated into the study of social thinking and behavior, and where members of the discipline regularly question the social significance of their findings. In this ongoing critical self-assessment, most social psychologists are confident that their still-young science will continue revealing important insights into how we function as social creatures. Some of the milestones of the f ield are listed in table 1. Table 1 Some Milestones in the Field of Social Psychology The Dawning of a New Discipline and Early Years 1862: Wilhelm Wundt proposes that psychology establish human or social sciences (Geisteswissenschaften) to study the higher mental processes involving language, social practices and customs, religion, and art. 1897: Norman Triplett publishes the first scientific study of social behavior, on a topic that was later called social facilitation. 1900: Wundt publishes the first volume of what would become a classic 10-volume set of Và ¶lkerpsychologie (folk or social psychology) which analyzed a wide variety of social thought and behavior. 1908: Psychologist William McDougall and sociologist Edward Ross separately publish social psychology textbooks. 1920: Willy Hellpach founds the first Institute for Social Psychology in Germany. Hitler’s rise to power leads to the institute’s demise in 1933. 1924: Floyd Allport publishes the third social psychology text, clearly identifying the focus for the psychological branch of the discipline and covering many topics that are still studied today. 1925: Edward Bogardus develops the social distance scale to measure attitudes toward ethnic groups. Shortly, Louis Thurstone (1928) and Rensis Likert (1932) further advance attitude scale development. 1934: George Herbert Mead’s book Mind, Self, and Society is published, stressing the interaction between the self and others. The Coming-of-Age Years 1936: The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues is founded. Muzafir Sherif publishes The Psychology of Social Norms, describing research on norm formation. 1939: John Dollard and his colleagues introduce the frustration-aggression hypothesis. 1941–1945: Social psychologists are recruited by the U.S. government for the war effort. Rapid Expansion Years 1949: Carl Hovland and his colleagues publish their first experiments on attitude change and persuasion. 1950: Theodor Adorno and his colleagues publish The Authoritarian Personality, which examines how extreme prejudice can be shaped by personality conflicts in childhood. 1951: Solomon Asch demonstrates conformity to false majority judgments. 1954: Gordon Allport publishes The Nature of Prejudice, which provides the framework for much of the future research on prejudice. Social psychologists provide key testimony in the U.S. Supreme Court desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. 1957: Leon Festinger publishes A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, emphasizing the need for consistency between cognition and behavior. 1958: Fritz Heider publishes The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, laying the groundwork for attribution theory. 1963: Stanley Milgram publishes his obedience research, demonstrating under what conditions people are likely to obey destructive authority figures. 1965: The Society of Experimental Social Psychology is founded. Edward Jones and Kenneth Davis publish their ideas on social perception, stimulating attribution and social cognition research. Rapid Expansion Years 1966: The European Association of Experimental Social Psychology is founded. Elaine (Walster) Hatfield and her colleagues publish the first studies of romantic attraction. 1968: John Darley and Bibb Latanà © present the bystander intervention model, explaining why people often do not help in emergencies. Crisis and Reassessment Years 1972: Attribution: Perceiving the Causes of Behavior, written by six influential attribution theorists, is published. Robert Wicklund and Shelley Duval publish Objective Self-Awareness Theory, describing how self-awareness influences cognition and behavior. 1974: The Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) is founded. Sandra Bem develops the Bem Sex Role Inventory and Janet Spence and Robert Helmreich develop the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, both of which measure gender roles. 1981: Alice Eagly and her colleagues begin conducting meta-analyses of gender comparisons in social behavior, reopening the debate on gender differences. 1984: Susan Fiske and Shelly Taylor publish Social Cognition, summarizing theory and research on the social cognitive perspective in social psychology. The Expanding Global and Interdisciplinary View Years 1986: Richard Petty and John Cacioppo publish Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes, describing a dual-process model of persuasion. 1989: Jennifer Crocker and Brenda Major publish their Psychological Review article on â€Å"Social Stigma and Self-Esteem,†examining how people respond to being the targets of discrimination. 1991: Hazel Markus and Shinobu Kitayama publish their Psychological Review article on how culture shapes the self. 1995: Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson publish â€Å"Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African Americans†in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, presenting their research on how negative stereotypes can shape intellectual identity and performance. 1996: David Buss and Neal Malamuth publish Sex, Power, Conflict, an edited text offering evolutionary and feminist perspectives on sex and gender interactions. A growing number of social psychologists attempt to integrate these previously divergent perspectives. (Because the passage of time ultimately determines what events significantly shape a field, I will wait a few years before adding any more milestones to this list.)
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Explain the Impact of the Stanford Prison Experiment on Psychology and Behaviour Essay
The Stanford prison experiment ,led by professor Philip Zimbardo, was aimed at seeing the effect on people on becoming prisoners or prison guards. The idea was to see what happens to people when they are put in relatively ‘evil’ places. Do the people themselves become evil or is there no net effect? The results indicated that in fact people adapt to their role exceptionally well. It was observed that the prison guards became overly tyrannical to the level of sadism. In consequence the prisoners were seen to be under severe stress to the extent that they became crazy or depressed. 24 volunteers were selected that had no psychological problems, health issues or any past crime accounts. They were brought to a mock prison set up in the basement of the Stanford university’s psychology building where they were randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards. 3 prisoners each were given rooms that they had to live in for 24 hours of the day and the guards were given 8 hour shifts to work in. The study was observed upon using cameras and microphones. They study was supposed to last for 14 days but had to be halted after 6 days due to extreme unethical practices in the prison. The Stanford prison experiment showed us that human beings alter to the situation they are put in. The guards won total control over the prisoners who blindly followed orders. All of this in just 5 days of experimental conditions. Zimbardo said that the prisoners had internalised their roles and thus continued to participate in the experiment on their own will. One example of this is when they introduced themselves to the priest with their serial number rather than their real name. Another example would be of the prison consultant who took on the role of an autocratic head of the parole board. After the experiment was over he was said to be disgusted at the person he had become. In essence there were two groups created among the volunteers, therefore, according to social identity theory ,people in the in-group would exhibit in-group favouritism and a sense of discrimination of the out-group. This can explain the unanimity between the guards themselves and their certain dislike towards the inmates. To further build on this ,the idea of the prison guards being a group may evoke the feeling of anonymity, which would allow the guards to be more free and aggressive as they could shake off responsibility for their actions. This is called deindividuation theory. It may be a cause of the violence occurred on the prisoners by the guards as there is a diffusion of responsibility. The Self-fulfilling prophecy states that when a person is given a label we often live up to that expectation. In the same way ,as the volunteers were given labels, they tried to live up to that expectation and thus acted in the way they thought they should. Furthermore it can be said that the volunteers had set stereotypes on the idea of a prison guard and prisoner. It can be assumed that these stereotypes illustrated the prison guards to be strong and authoritative. It could also be an illusionary correlation made by them through watching films or through media (which means that they attribute the behaviour of the prison guards to their disposition rather than situation :FAE). The theory of cognitive dissonance can also be used to understand why the prisoners and guards acted this way. They had to alter their mind-set(attitudes) to match with their behaviours so that there was no tension in their self identity. The situation put the prisoners in certain set roles that they tried to live up to and thus they changed their behaviour. This experiment along with Milligram’s shock experiment demonstrates the fundamental attribution error which says that there is a overestimation of dispositional factors and under-estimation of situational factors when we attribute. It changed the way we looked at psychology in a socio-cultural aspect. This experiment has helped us understand how good people do bad things such as the torture of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Gharib prison, which was a real life example of the same results obtained by Zimabardo. It was also used to investigate matters such as prison riots and abuse of juveniles in many prisons. Young adults are also known to be power hungry. Their lust for power might have changed the way they would have normally behaved. The prisoners were made powerless and thus started to behave in such a way. They became depressed ,helpless and unstable. Thus it can be said that power also affected their behaviour. In relation to gender I believe that there would not have been much difference in the experiment as people, male or female, tend to have similar schematic processing when it comes to social perceptions of a certain group or individuals. If conducted with only females it is more likely that there would have been lesser violence as it has been researched that testosterone, which is much more predominating in males, is a cause of sexual arousal and aggression. Culture would not affect the behaviour as everybody needs some power in their life and if power is stolen from us we tend to become unstable. Lastly, it can be argued that all the volunteers of the experiment were college students. These students are more likely to be aggressive, as they would have higher testosterone levels compared to older guards in regular prisons. The volunteers were mostly white males who were on average ,financially stable, which when compared to regular prisoners would not equate well as people in prisons are usually financially unstable. It goes without saying that this experiment was extremely unethical. It did harmed the volunteers both physically and mentally as they were put under severe stress as well as physical torture. Their consent forms were not complete as it id not involve the details of the experiment. The volunteers did not know what they were getting themselves into , for example strip searched which is a violation itself. They were also ,without prior knowledge ,arrested. Zimbardo himself became the super-intendant and did not abide by his role as a psychologist ,which should have been the case to have an unbiased study. The experiment had no controls and thus is therefore severely criticised. Therefore the validity and ethics of this experiment, relating to its method are questioned. In conclusion, the experiment was a path breaking exercise that opened our eyes to show us the vulnerability of our race in terms of conformity and how we adapt to our situations especially when it comes to the fight for power.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
The Wounded Knee Massacre
The massacre of hundreds of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in South Dakota on December 29, 1890, marked a particularly tragic milestone in American history. The killing of mostly unarmed men, women, and children, was the last major encounter between the Sioux and U.S. Army troops, and it could be viewed as the end of the Plains Wars. The violence at Wounded Knee was rooted in the federal governments reaction to the ghost dance movement, in which a religious ritual centered around dancing became a potent symbol of defiance to white rule. As the ghost dance spread to Indian reservations throughout the West, the federal government began to regard it as a major threat and sought to suppress it. The tensions between whites and Indians greatly increased, especially as federal authorities began to fear that the legendary Sioux medicine man Sitting Bull was about to become involved in the ghost dance movement. When Sitting Bull was killed while being arrested on December 15, 1890, the Sioux in South Dakota became fearful. Overshadowing the events of late 1890 were decades of conflicts between whites and Indians in the West. But one event, the massacre at the Little Bighorn of Col. George Armstrong Custer and his troops in June 1876 resonated most deeply. The Sioux in 1890 suspected that commanders in the U.S. Army felt a need to avenge Custer. And that made the Sioux especially suspicious of actions taken by soldiers who came to confront them over the ghost dance movement. Against that backdrop of mistrust, the eventual massacre at Wounded Knee arose out of a series of misunderstandings. On the morning of the massacre, it was unclear who fired the first shot. But once the shooting began, the U.S. Army troops cut down unarmed Indians with no restraint. Even artillery shells were fired at Sioux women and children who were seeking safety and running from the soldiers. In the aftermath of the massacre, the Army commander on the scene, Col. James Forsyth, was relieved of his command. However, an Army inquiry cleared him within two months, and he was restored to his command. The massacre, and the forcible rounding up of Indians following it crushed any resistance to white rule in the West. Any hope the Sioux or other tribes had of being able to restore their way of life was obliterated. And life on the detested reservations became the plight of the American Indian. The Wounded Knee massacre faded into history, but a book published in 1971, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, became a surprise bestseller and brought the name of the massacre back to public awareness. The book by Dee Brown, a narrative history of the West told from the Indian point of view, struck a chord in America at a time of national skepticism and is widely considered a classic. And Wounded Knee came back in the news in 1973, when American Indian activists, as an act of civil disobedience, took over the site in a standoff with federal agents. Roots of the Conflict The ultimate confrontation at Wounded Knee was rooted in the movement of the 1880s to force Indians in the West onto government reservations. Following the defeat of Custer, the U.S. military was fixated on defeating any Indian resistance to forced resettlement. Sitting Bull, one of the most respected Sioux leaders, led a band of followers across the international border into Canada. The British government of Queen Victoria allowed them to live there and did not persecute them in any way. Yet conditions were very difficult, and Sitting Bull and his people eventually returned to South Dakota. In the 1880s, Buffalo Bill Cody, whose exploits in the West had become famous through dime novels, recruited Sitting Bull to join his famous Wild West Show. The show traveled extensively, and Sitting Bull was a huge attraction. After a few years of enjoying fame in the white world, Sitting Bull returned to South Dakota and life on a reservation. He was regarded with considerable respect by the Sioux. The Ghost Dance The ghost dance movement began with a member of the Paiute tribe in Nevada. Wovoka, who claimed to have religious visions, began preaching after recovering from a serious illness in early 1889. He claimed that God had revealed to him that a new age was about to dawn on earth. According to Wovoka’s prophecies, game which had been hunted to extinction would return, and Indians would restore their culture, which had been essentially destroyed during the decades of conflict with white settlers and soldiers. Part of Wovoka’s teaching involved the practice of ritual dancing. Based on older round dances performed by Indians, the ghost dance had some special characteristics. It was generally performed over a series of days. And special attire, which became known as ghost dance shirts, would be worn. It was believed that those wearing the ghost dance would be protected against harm, including bullets fired by U.S. Army soldiers. As the ghost dance spread throughout western Indian reservations, officials in the federal government became alarmed. Some white Americans argued that the ghost dance was essentially harmless and was a legitimate exercise of religious freedom. Others in the government saw malicious intent behind the ghost dancing. The practice was seen as a way to energize Indians to resist white rule. And by late 1890 the authorities in Washington began giving orders for the U.S. Army to be ready to take action to suppress the ghost dance. Sitting Bull Targeted In 1890 Sitting Bull was living, along with a few hundred other Hunkpapa Sioux, at the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota. He had spent time in a military prison and had also toured with Buffalo Bill, but he seemed to have settled down as a farmer. Still, he always seemed in rebellion to the rules of the reservation and was perceived by some white administrators as a potential source of trouble. The U.S. Army began sending troops into South Dakota in November 1890, planning to suppress the ghost dance and the rebellious movement it seemed to represent. The man in charge of the Army in the area, General Nelson Miles, came up with a plan to get Sitting Bull to surrender peacefully, at which point he could be sent back to prison. Miles wanted Buffalo Bill Cody to approach Sitting Bull and essentially lure him into surrendering. Cody apparently traveled to South Dakota, but the plan fell apart and Cody left and returned to Chicago. Army officers decided to use Indians who were working as policemen on the reservation to arrest Sitting Bull. A detachment of 43 tribal police officers arrived at Sitting Bull’s log cabin on the morning of December 15, 1890. Sitting Bull agreed to go with the officers, but some of his followers, who were generally described as ghost dancers, tried to intervene. An Indian shot the commander of the police, who raised his own weapon to return fire and accidentally wounded Sitting Bull. In the confusion, Sitting Bull was then fatally shot by another officer. The outbreak of gunfire brought a charge by a detachment of soldiers who had been positioned nearby in case of trouble. Witnesses to the violent incident recalled a peculiar spectacle: a show horse which had been presented to Sitting Bull years earlier by Buffalo Bill heard the gunfire and must have thought it was back in the Wild West Show. The horse began performing intricate dance moves as the violent scene unfolded. The Massacre The killing of Sitting Bull was national news. The New York Times, on December 16, 1890, published a story at the top of the front page headlined â€Å"The Last of Sitting Bull.†The sub-headlines said he had been killed while resisting arrest. In South Dakota, the death of Sitting Bull stoked fear and distrust. Hundreds of his followers departed the Hunkpapa Sioux camps and began to scatter. One band, led by the chief Big Foot, began traveling to meet up with one of the old chiefs of the Sioux, Red Cloud. It was hoped Red Cloud should protect them from the soldiers. As the group, a few hundred men, women, and children, moved through the harsh winter conditions, Big Foot became quite ill. On December 28, 1890, Big Foot and his people were intercepted by cavalry troopers. An officer in the Seventh Cavalry, Major Samuel Whitside, met with Big Foot under a flag of truce. Whitside assured Big Foot his people would not be harmed. And he made arrangements for Big Foot to travel in an Army wagon, as he was suffering from pneumonia. The cavalry was going to escort the Indians with Big Foot to a reservation. That night the Indians set up camp, and the soldiers set up their bivouacs nearby. At some point in the evening another cavalry force, commanded by Col. James Forsyth, arrived on the scene. The new group of soldiers was accompanied by an artillery unit. On the morning of December 29, 1890, the U.S. Army troops told the Indians to gather in a group. They were ordered to surrender their weapons. The Indians stacked up against their guns, but the soldiers suspected they were hiding more weapons. Soldiers began searching the Sioux tepees. Two rifles were found, one of which belonged to an Indian named Black Coyote, who was probably deaf. Black Coyote refused to give up his Winchester, and in a confrontation with him, a shot was fired. The situation quickly accelerated as soldiers began shooting at the Indians. Some of the male Indians drew knives and faced the soldiers, believing that the ghost dance shirts they were wearing would protect them from bullets. They were shot down. As Indians, including many women and children, tried to flee, the soldiers continued firing. Several artillery pieces, which had been positioned on a nearby hill, began to rake the fleeing Indians. The shells and shrapnel killed and wounded scores of people. The entire massacre lasted for less than an hour. It was estimated that about 300 to 350 Indians were killed. Casualties among the cavalry amounted to 25 dead and 34 wounded. It was believed most of the killed and wounded among the U.S. Army troops had been caused by friendly fire. Wounded Indians were taken on wagons to the Pine Ridge reservation, where Dr. Charles Eastman, who had been born a Sioux and educated at schools in the East, sought to treat them. Within days, Eastman traveled with a group to the massacre site to search for survivors. They did find some Indians who were miraculously still alive. But they also discovered hundreds of frozen corpses, some as many as two miles away. Most of the bodies were gathered by soldiers and buried in a mass grave. Reaction to the Massacre In the East, the massacre at Wounded Knee was portrayed as a battle between â€Å"hostiles†and soldiers. Stories on the front page of the New York Times in the final days of 1890 gave the Army version of events. Though the number of people killed, and the fact that many were women and children, created interest in official circles. Accounts told by Indian witnesses were reported and appeared in newspapers. On February 12, 1890, an article in the New York Times was headlined â€Å"Indians Tell Their Story.†The sub-headline read, â€Å"A Pathetic Recital of the Killing of Women and Children.†The article gave witness accounts and ended with a chilling anecdote. According to a minister at one of the churches at the Pine Ridge reservation, one of the Army scouts told him he had heard an officer say, after the massacre, â€Å"Now we have avenged Custer’s death.†The Army launched an investigation of what happened, and Col. Forsyth was relieved of his command, but he was quickly cleared. A story in the New York Times on February 13, 1891, was headlined â€Å"Col. Forsyth Exonerated.†The sub-headlines read â€Å"His Action at Wounded Knee Justified†and â€Å"The Colonel Restored to Command of His Gallant Regiment.†Legacy of Wounded Knee After the massacre at Wounded Knee, the Sioux came to accept that resistance to white rule was futile. The Indians came to live on the reservations. The massacre itself faded into history. In the early 1970s, the name of Wounded Knee came to take on resonance, largely due to Dee Brown’s book. A native American resistance movement put a new focus on the massacre as a symbol of broken promises and betrayals by white America.
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