Assignment 3: Understanding Human Diversity, Cultural Diversity & Special Populations Individual PowerPoint Presentations (Total: 100 Points) – Competency 1 (P.B. 1.2); Competency 2 (P.B. 2.1, 2.3); Competency 3 (P.B. 3.1) Competency 4 (P.B. 4.1, 4.2, 4.3); Competency 5 (P.B. 5.1, 5.2, 5.3) – Due Date: September  21, 2020

There are special populations such as children and youth, the elderly, the homeless, individuals with physical and mental disabilities, police brutality victims, AIDS patients, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, women and minorities, environmental issues, including ethnic minorities bring unique needs and circumstances that must be recognized when the social worker serves these persons. There are also societal induced stressors and factors identified by many in society that subordinate, discriminate, oppress and affect special populations that must be addressed, understood and alleviated. These stressors and factors are identified in rural, urban and suburban sites of practice. Therefore, social work students need to be sensitive to these stressors and factors along with racial, ethnic, and cultural factors when working with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities, and colleagues.

Students are assigned to work individually to complete the following assignment in understanding human diversity, cultural diversity, and special populations:

1) Use the selected group below to research and locate information from books, refereed peer-reviewed journals, or other evidence-based research articles.

2) Using your critical thinking skills, provide your overall reaction to the authors’ presentation of the special population that you are researching. For example, do the authors’ research present stereotypes, value judgments or judgment conflicts?

3) Practice personal reflection and self-correction to assure continual professional development by answering the following questions: Do you have biases toward the diverse group? Explain. As a worker, identify how you eliminate biases and how professional values guide social work practice?

4) Discuss whether your understanding of the special population changed or remained the same after researching the population; and

5) Present your findings in a PowerPoint presentation identifying your reactions to the questions and statements listed in 1-4.

Individual Assignments:

*Group 3 – Social Work Practice with Children & Youth

Cognitive, physical, and social-emotional developmental processes influence and interact with one another. For example, a child’s ability to consider another person’s perspective will, in part, determine the quality of friendships and how long they are maintained. An adult who is physically mature has the cognitive capacity to weigh the pros and cons of becoming sexually active. Keep in mind that the relative importance of cognitive, physical, and social-emotional developmental processes may vary depending upon the age of the individual (e.g., infant, adolescent, young adult, older adult) and any physical or developmental challenges that may arise.

For this Discussion, you will examine cognitive, physical, and social-emotional processes at a specific period of a character’s life.

A)- Post a brief description of the fictional human character (i.e., cartoon character, film/TV character, virtual character) and the event/period of time you selected. Describe two of the three developmental processes—cognitive, physical, and social-emotional—and explain whether they were affected and/or changed in relation to the event/period of time. Be specific in your post and provide examples.

B) -Understanding the impact of diversity on an individual’s cognitive, physical, and social-emotional developmental processes requires an examination of a multitude of characteristics, including gender, race, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability, etc. In addition, behavior within a group is important to examine, along with the similarities and differences of behaviors and attitudes across groups.

The goal of understanding the impact of diversity is not to determine whether one group is inferior to another, but to gain an appreciation of the breadth and depth of variability in human behavior. Cross-cultural investigation allows for the testing of theoretical concepts and predictions to evaluate their generalizability (Jensen, 2012). Another outcome of studying the results of cross-cultural research is that, as a psychology professional, you will be better equipped to empathize with and advocate for those you will be serving.

For this Discussion, you will explore how diversity shapes and influences cognitive and social-emotional developmental processes.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review and consider the same fictional human character from your discussion above
• Also, consider only the cognitive and social-emotional developmental processes and how diversity* shapes and influences these processes.
• *Diversity includes but is not limited to gender, race, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability, etc. It is not the same as adversity, which refers to a difficulty or tragedy in one’s life.
• Think about the kinds of attitudes and behaviors that might be generated from someone who grew up in a collectivist society, which is common in Asian cultures, compared to the attitudes of someone who grew up in an individualistic society, such as that found in the United States.

Post a 1- to 2-sentence description of the fictional human character (i.e., cartoon character, film/TV character, virtual character) you selected. Then, explain how diversity might shape and influence his/her cognitive and social-emotional developmental processes. Be specific in your post and provide examples. Use your Learning Resources and/or other scholarly sources to support your post. Use proper APA format and citations to support your post.

Readings –

Bailey, R. (2005). Physical development and growth. In Neil J. Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human development (pp.1001-1007)

Harris, Y.R. (2005). In Neil J. Salkind (Ed), Encyclopedia of human development (pp.275-280)

Susskind, J. (2005). Social development. In Neil J.Salkind (Ed),  Encyclopedia of Human Development (pp.1191-1197)