Diversity's Me Traits And Personal Experiences

The closest definition to individual behavior is personality which is "the totality of an individual's behavioral and emotional characteristics. Personality embraces a person's moods, attitudes, opinions, motivations, and style of thinking, perceiving, speaking and acting. It is part of what makes each individual distinct" (Answers, 2007). Diversity within organizations can positively or negatively impact individual behavior. Diversity includes all the ways in which individuals differ including race, gender, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and child/elder care responsibilities (Census bureau, 2007). Organizations can create opportunities to draw upon people with different

Interestingly enough, the main diversity-related obstacle I’ve faced in my life has been the categorization of diversity itself and the notion of being “enough” in these categories. I’m a person of color, and I’m a person of mixed race. My late father was English, and my mother is African American. It was always awkward growing up without my father, because I was a drastically different skin color from my mom as a very pale and white child. People often asked my mother ignorant questions like, “Is she yours? Are you watching her for someone else?”

To me diversity is the interaction between a group of people who come from all regions of the world and accept each other for being different. Interacting with someone who comes from a different background and has distinct ideas than your own, creates an exciting environment when joining forces to meet a common goal.

2.1.4 Engage diversity and difference in practice. Diversity impact on identity formation. Intersectionality. Difference and oppression, poverty, marginalization, alienation and privilege, power and acclaim.

Our assignment, Diversity Awareness, was to take the self-assessment on page 55 of our textbook, calculate our scores, and then read the definition of our score provided in the book. The purpose of this self-assessment was to gain insight on our personal views about diversity. By gaining insight to our personal views we will hopefully be able to identify our weaknesses, take the necessary corrective actions, and become more culturally competent people. According to our textbook my score of 32 means I have a "high diversity awareness and I am comfortable with many different types of people and in many types of situations" . (Phillips|Gulley, pg. 55)

I found the concept of being diversity-supportive to be the most important concept of Module 6. I think it is the most important concept in this module because in each part of being diversity-supportive, we are taking an approach that is not only the right approach to take with every individual, but the right approach to meet organizational goals and lead highly effective teams. Because being diversity-supportive means acting proactively, the concept is leadership-driven, it encourages ownership of initiative, promotes thinking inclusively, and has the goal to mainsteam diversity, we can see it really boils down to two things: getting to know people so we can anticipate their needs, wants, and pitfalls; and removing barriers to every individual succeeding to the maximum extent of their ability.

As I reflect over my life, I realize it has been filled with diversity throughout my childhood, marriage, and career. My experience with diversity dates back to birth. I was born and raised in a small town, Moss Point, MS. and notably the last state to abolish slavery, currently has a population of 13,704 people. The town consists of 73% Blacks or African Americans, 23% Caucasian, 1% Hispanic or Latino and 1% bi-racial.

Diversity is defined as representing the differences among people, places, and things. Challenges are of no exceptions, and the diverse challenges that I overcame contributed to my success in higher education. As an undergraduate, I developed an interest in clinical psychology because I want to inform clinical care for children and adolescents based on research assessing adolescents’ personal and interpersonal difficulties. My fondness for psychology stemmed from my experiences as a first-generation immigrant struggling with acculturation. Simultaneously trying to balance my social identity among my peers and family was a cumbersome process to handle as a young adolescent.

As I reflect over my life, I appreciate the many diverse experiences I’ve came to encounter. My experience with diversity dates back to birth. I am from a small rural town, Moss Point, MS. and notably the last state to abolish slavery. The town currently has a population of 13,704 people and consists of 73% Blacks or African Americans, 23% Caucasian, 1% Hispanic or Latino and 1% bi-racial.

Behavior refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. Behavior can be conscious or unconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary. Behavior is controlled by the nervous system; the complexity of the behavior is related to the complexity of the nervous system. Generally, organisms with complex nervous systems have a greater capacity to learn new responses and thus adjust their behavior. Human behavior is the collection of activities by human beings and influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, ethnicity, gender, ethics, religion, authority, persuasion, and/or coercion. The behavior of people falls within a range with some

“Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without”,-William Sloane Coffin. Diversity can have a positive effect on your group, for you can learn from different cultures; it can spice up your life. First of all, there are many diverse groups all over America. The group can have different races;as a result, they might learn the traditions that came with their races. For example, Mexicans have rich, vibrant cultural holidays like Day of the Dead.

Cognitive outcomes of diversity link to competitive advantages in terms of team performance (Griffith, & Dunham, 2015). The difference of ethnicity and nationality improve the quality of ideas and level of communication on complex tasks. Positive outcomes personally occur when heterogeneous groups are able to consider a greater variety of perspectives leading to realistic and sophisticated analogies of issues and decision-making and problem-solving. Cultural differences gain a wider variety of perspectives.

Affective outcomes of diversity may challenge the group members. “Members who are racially and ethnically different than their teammates tend to be less committed to their organizations and have higher rates of absenteeism” (Griffith & Dunham 2015). One affective outcome of diversity would be absenteeism and turn over. Because the team members do not have a sense of belonging because of their differences, they do not feel loyalty. Missing meeting and workdays does not affect them because they would rather be anywhere but in the team setting. Many will be relieved if they are let go from a job they do not like. Another outcome of affective diversity would be a bad performance review from their superiors. This does not typically happen

Some say diversity is America’s strength. My life has been shaped by the two countries that touch it. I am an American citizen: I was born and raised in a Texas suburb that has influenced my interest of many things, and proudly pledge allegiance to the American flag. I am a daughter of two mexican parents, an immigrant father and a mother who was born in the United States but not very far from the mexican border. My roots go back to the city of Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon state, Mexico. As such, Spanish is my first language, it is spoken around the house regularly. Essentially, with my father as my role model, I often find motivation and bravery in the beliefs my environment has shaped me as a person.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s argument can still be applied in today's society because self-expression and diversity are highly valued even now.