Diversity in Psychology

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1.) What is diversity?

Diversity as defined by the World English Dictionary is (1) the state or quality of being different or varied; (2) variety, multiformity; (3) a point of difference ("Diversity", 2012). Sometimes when one hears the word diversity is tied to race, however, diversity is more than race it incorporates many other factors such as personality traits, or food, race, age and so forth. Diversity is including and realizing the potential of everyone no matter the age, ethnicity, language and culture, economic status, educational background, gender, geographic location, marital status, mental ability, organizational position and tenure, as well as work experience (Virginia PTA, 2012). It has also been defined as the inclusiveness toward historically disadvantaged groups ("The Ever-Expanding Definition of Diversity", 2012).

2.) How is Diversity understood in Psychology?

Psychology deals with the full range of what makes one human and because of that it is an extensive discipline with many levels. Because of this, psychology is a diverse, multi-perspective discipline ("The Diversity of Psychology", 2012). The many areas of psychology include developmental psychology, personality psychology, clinical and counsel psychology, social psychology and a few others. However, with all of these different areas of psychology diversity is an important focus because for psychologists there is a rich diversity of behavior and thought that exists in the human species, both individuals and between groups. This is especially true for feminist psychologists who argue minority groups are still under represented among American psychologists and before the feminist theory emerged, psychology reflected only a male perspective of human behavior ("The Science of Psychology", 2002). With human diversity and research, because of the differences among people based on age, gender, culture and ...