Assigning Culture: An Example of a Cross-Cultural Assignment for Teaching Introductory Psychology

Abstract

Psychology teachers and textbooks continually introduce content into courses that emphasizes diversity in all forms, particularly those attributed to culture. The present study examined the effect of an assignment involving a book report and literature review that incorporated crosscultural psychology into an introductory course. Students were assigned a book on cross-cultural applications of psychology in addition to a standard introductory textbook. Students selected a mental illness as a report topic that included a discussion of cross-cultural applications of western concepts of mental illness. A pre-test/post-test design surveying students' attitudes and knowledge revealed significant improvement in understanding how culture influences the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. The authors discuss the effectiveness of the assignment in terms of changing student attitudes and knowledge of cross-cultural issues.It is easy to find consensus among teachers of psychology regarding the importance of incorporating cross-cultural content into courses. For example, the American Psychological Association's guidelines (APA, 2007) include the promotion of socio-cultural and international awareness as one of the primary goals of undergraduate psychology education. This goal is based in part on the appreciation of the diversity of our students and an increased understanding that research findings in one population do not necessarily apply to other cultures (APA, 2003).It is more difficult to create activities and assignments that achieve this goal and that go beyond the discussion found in most textbooks. Extensive discussions and coursework that involve cross-cultural applications are generally reserved for small upper-division classes. Such classes allow for incorporating activities and assignments that are more labor and time intensive for both students and instructors. For example, Smith and Eggleston (2003) described an assignment for upper-level psychology classes such as human sexuality and psychology of women that involved each student selecting a country at the start of the course, then reporting on course-relevant research in that country in written and oral reports (e.g., a student who selects a sub-Saharan African country in a human sexuality course might report on the impact of HIV/AIDS in that country). Similarly, Bartolini, Gharib, and Phillips (2009) described cross-cultural and international assignments for a variety of psychology classes, including abnormal psychology, social psychology, physiological psychology, and cognition. Many of these exercises involved students performing library research, gathering data (both in and outside of the classroom), and presenting the project to the class. These types of assignments require significant one-on-one instruction and guidance as well as considerable independent work by the students, making them most appropriate for upperdivision classes.Adding substantial cross-cultural content to a course takes a considerable amount of class time. For exampl...

Incorporating Diversity Content Into Courses and Concerns About Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

“…More to this point, concerning the heterogeneous group of students typically present in the introductory psychology course, Ellicker, Snell, and O’Malley (2010), Gharib and Phillips (2012), and Littleford (2013) all reported that their introductory psychology students held very supportive attitudes toward having diversity content incorporated into their course content. Their students also believed that exposure to diversity content increased their understanding of course concepts, increased their ability to apply course content to their life experiences, and helped to improve their understanding of how culture influences the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.…”

Factors influencing academic participation of undergraduate students

“…At IT Del itself, lecturers and teaching assistants will provide assignments and quiz to remeasure their understanding of the learning which has been carried out. Assignments quiz, and examinations increases students' awareness and understanding [19]. However, there are several conditions when lecturers or teaching assistants gave excessive assignments and quiz without consider how much time students have.…”