The importance of body language and gesture in the Couselling exchange Essay

The importance of body language and gesture in the Couselling exchange - Essay Example It is an artistic science and a scientific art. It uses the most sophisticated technical tools to explore the deep depths of an individual’s personality. Guidance and counselling are similar in nature. Both are continuous. The term guidance we use in a much wider sense while counselling often used to specific purposes. Counselling is the centre of all guidance programs. Counselling is more technical in nature and it guides the guidance process. The data obtained in the counselling process is often used in guidance process. Body language on the other hand is the peculiar responses of our body to certain situations. All forms of human communication are not uses verbal languages. Body language often makes use of facial expressions. It is a mean of communication using body movements and gestures instead of verbal language or other communication. Many people send and receive non verbal signals all the time. For example, while playing cricket, a batsman’s thoughts about a difficult bowler will always come out as his gestures and body languages. When the batsman deceived by a particular ball, he often make gestures and the bowler can easily identify the thoughts of the batsman and he can attack him consistently with such balls to get him out. Thus body language or gestures are often the results of the thoughts of the person regarding a particular situation. The counsellor at the time of counselling observes the body language of the counselee along with his responses to the questions. An experienced counsellor can learn more from the body language and gestures of the counselee than his verbal responses. While making conclusion the counsellor will consider all such behaviours of the counselee to assess the problem correctly. â€Å"What people say could often be very different from what theyre thinking or feeling. Its very easy to say something untrue or insincere, so we can never rely on words alone. Fortunately, theres a proven way to

The State of Florida should raise the legal drivers age to 18 Essay

The State of Florida should raise the legal drivers age to 18 - Essay Example aged 16 years old at the time of the incidence made a grave mistake in his judgments: overloading the car with eight people, speeding, driving with near bald tires and overtaking another car full of fellow teen-agers (Driscoll 1). Dreadful tragedies involving young drivers have been reported from all the American states. It is quite clear that at ages eighteen and nineteen, there is a greater level of maturity and better judgments than at sixteen. In the year 2009, Justine Winter (while driving at 85mph) crashed a head on leading to a death of a mothers and her 13-year-old only son. On an interview in a TV show, winter says sorry to the family of the victims: 35-year-old, expectant Erin Thompson and Caden, her son (Daily Mail on Teenage Girl). She apologized saying she dint want to put them through any more pain than they had under gone through. Extending her apologies to her own family, she confirmed that her family went through a lot of pain because of the accident. Asked if she would take responsibility for the accident, she said she would although she clearly states that she cannot remember anything about the crash. Winter, who is the youngest inmate at 18, is serving a 15-year sentence at Montana Women’s Prison for the killings. The horrifying crash happened after winter fought with her boyfriend. They had a heated argument via text messages as she was driving. However winter and her lawyers insisted, it was a normal accident and not a suicide attempt. Winter, which was 16-years-older that time, suffered multiple injuries and had to under go several surgeries due to brain damage. Having been found guilty, of double homicide, she was jailed for 15 years. The prosecutor argued winter was carelessly driving, and she was not wearing a seatbelt. Erin Thompson’s family was praised by the judge who said their compassion and courage was remarkable. They only asked for apologies from the 18-year-old. At the moment, car crashes by the teenagers in the United

Offender Profiling Techniques Effectiveness

Offender Profiling Techniques Effectiveness This essay will be discussing the effectiveness of offender profiling techniques. Firstly the essay will be looking into detail what offender profiling is and describing it. Secondly the essay will be looking at the comparison of the US and UK approaches and the effectiveness. Finally a conclusion with be drawn to look at the differences between the UK US approaches. In the criminal justice system, there is a growing demand for experts in the field of human behaviour who can assist law enforcement with solving unusual homicide cases. Law enforcement agencies often seek help from psychologists, criminologists, psychiatrists, and other professionals that specialize in human behaviour when trying to catch a suspect. Criminal profiling is in place to help detect and capture criminals, it has now become more common during many a criminal investigation. Criminal profiling has also been recognised as one of the most useful techniques in offender profiling, a technique used to help define the behaviour of an offender before they reach the height of their criminal career. This gives the Authorities a good idea of important facts of a criminals personality; facts such as: Profession, environment in which they live and whether it is possible for them to strike again or not. Offender profiling is commonly used in crimes such as paedophilia, rape, satanic and ritualistic crime, lust and mutilation murder and as well as many other crimes. The goals of profiling are: to make assessments from the crime scene that will give the authorities an idea of how to catch the criminal. According to The Guardian (the jigsaw man, Steven Morris 2000) The modern history of what came to be known as offender profiling began in the 40s when the US Office of Strategic Services asked William Langer, a psychiatrist, to draw up a profile of Adolf Hitler. After the second world war, Lionel Haward, a psychologist working for the Royal Air Force, drew up a list of characteristics which high-ranking Nazi war criminals might display. Then in the 50s, James A Brussel, a US psychiatrist, drew up what turned to be an uncannily accurate profile of a bomber who had been terrorising New York According to Holmes Holmes (1996) there should be three main goals of offender profiling, these are to provide the police with basic information about the characteristics of the offender such as age, race, personality, employment and marital status, to suggest any possessions the offender may have that would associate him with the crime scene (such as souvenirs the police may want to search for) and to provide interviewing strategies and suggestions the police may use when questioning a suspect. The American approach to developing a profile of an offender has been developed from an initial sample of interviews with 36 convicted serial sexual murderers, combined with detailed information from crime scenes. The next part of this essay it will be discussing the effectiveness of both UK US offender profiling and discussing the comparison of both approaches. Firstly, the US approach is known as holistic or top-down approach and data from scene and from MO compared with previously known information. The FBIs Crime Scene Analysis consists of six steps, which are summarized in the section that follows. Profiling Inputs: a collection of all evidence, including anything found on the scene (i.e. fibers, paint chips, etc.) and anything derived from the crime scene Decision Process Models: evidence is arranged to locate any types of patterns, such as whether or not the crime is part of a series of crimes, what the victims have in common. Crime Assessment: the evidence has been organized, the crime scene is reconstructed. Investigators use patterns to determine what happened in what order, and what role each victim, weapon had in the crime. Criminal Profile: the combined first three steps are used to create a criminal profile incorporating the motives, physical qualities, and personality of the perpetrator. Also, the investigators use this information to decide on the best way to interview the suspects based on their personality. The Investigation: the profile is given to investigators on the case and to organizations that may have data leading to the identification of a suspect. The profile may be reassessed if no leads are found or if new information is learned. The Apprehension: this stage only occurs in about 50% of cases. When a suspect is identified, he/she is interviewed, investigated, compared to the profile. If the investigators have reason to believe that the suspect is the perpetrator, a warrant is obtained for the arrest of the individual, usually followed by a trial with expert witnesses including the forensic psychologist and other forensic experts, including those involved in the crime science analysis. According to Jackson (1997) Offences most suitable for profiling involve those where the suspects behaviour at the crime scene revel important details about themselves. Arson and sexually motivated crimes where the criminal has demonstrated some form of psychopathy seem to offer the best chance of useful information being disclose. A few examples of profiling where its most effective are crime scenes revealing evidence sadistic torture, posturing of the body, ritualistic behaviour or staging. According to the F.B.I case which involve mere destruction to property, assault or murder during a commission of a robbery are generally unsuitable for profiling as the personality of the criminal is not frequently not revealed in such crime scenes. However drug related crimes lend themselves poorly to profiling because the true personality of a criminal is not recognised. Criminal profiling exists in large part due to the work of the FBIs Behavioral Science Unit, a department dedicated to developing new and innovative investigative approaches and techniques to the solution of crime by studying the offender, and his/her behaviour and motivation According to Brent E. Turvey, MS (1998) The advantages of the Inductive Criminal Profiling model are readily apparent. Foremost is that Inductive Profiling is a very easy tool to use, for which no specialized forensic knowledge, education, or training in the study of criminal behaviour or criminal investigation is required. Additionally, general profiles can be assembled in a relatively short period of time without any great effort or ability on the part of the profiler. The result is often a one or two page list of unqualified characteristics. These generalizations can accurately predict some of the non-distinguishing elements of individual criminal behaviour, but not with a great deal of consistency or reliability. The next part of the essay will be discussing the UK approach of offender profiling. The UK approach to the term offender profile came well known to the police forces and the general public during the 1980s. British approach is less subjective and called bottom up method, or data-driven. Data is collected and analysed to produce definite, measured, specific associations between offences and offender characteristics. Paul Britton is a Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist who founded psychological profiling in the UK. He has advised the police in over one hundred serious investigations, including some of the most high profile crimes of the past twenty five years. In his previous role as head of the UKs largest Forensic Psychology Service, he assessed and treated thousands of offenders, victims and witnesses. He sat on the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) sub-committee on offender profiling for some years, remaining an independent consultant for several more, and has liaised with worldwide agencies. Professor David Canter was a pioneer in this nascent field, helping to guide detectives in the mid-80s to an offender who had carried out a series of serious attacks. But he saw the limitations of offender profiling- in particular, the subjective, personal opinion of a psychologist. He and a colleague coined the term investigative psychology and began trying to approach the subject from what they saw as a more scientific point of view. The approach to offender profiling uses the setting and nature of and physical evidence at the crime scene. This builds up a relationship between the characteristics of the offence and the actual offender. This approach also uses scientific statistics in processing evidence. Each profile is unique to the individual offender which gives the technique the name bottom-up. Offender profiling is most useful when trying to find a serial offender as police can identify the typeof victim, especially in rape and/or murder cases. The behaviour of the criminal is an important feature in profiling an offender examples of this are; the location of the crime, type of victim, interaction with victim and often the timing of the crime. Environmental concepts such as mental mapsare often used in order to develop the idea that typical rapists live in the area that they offend in. This approach to profiling aims to be more scientific, using real evidence and statistical analysis. Canter (2000) states concerns that the F.B.I.s typologies may be too closely focused on the behaviors of the offenders rather than on the meaning of the behaviors. A detailed examination of the crime scene might thus be seen as an essential first step in the gathering of relevant information. While a phys ­ical examination is already carried out by forensic scientists searching for fingerprints, clothing fibres, semen samples etc., the scene can also reveal other clues to the profiler. detailed examination of the crime scene may well provide clues as to the underlying personality of the offender. It appeared that some offences were carried out with a great deal of forward planning, while others were committed with little planning or preparation. In the latter case, a victim may have been selected at random, whereas in the former, a victim may have been targeted and observed for some time in advance of the offence. While a detailed examination of the crime scene will be helpful to a profiler, such an examination is not always possible. For example, some recent research in the UK (Smith, 1998) has sug ­gested that profilers tend not to be bro ught in at the earliest opportunity, but rather are contacted when other more traditional forms of police enquiry have failed. By this stage the crime scene will probably have been disturbed and vital clues possibly lost. Turvey (1999) warns against using profiling as anything other than suggesting probabilities. He cites the case of Rachel Nickell, studied by Kocsis et al. (1998). After looking at both approaches from the UK US, they both have different approaches to offender profiling. Firstly, Boon and Davies (1992) argue that the British approach is based on bottom-up data processing (an analysis of existing evidence) the aim being to identify associations between offences and offender characteristics. The American approach is top-up and uses subjective conclusions drawn from both experience of crime and interview with criminals. This states that the UK approach looks at the data of a criminal and the evidence, the US approach looks at the criminal and gathers information.

The Effect of Teacher/Student Relationship on Learning Essay -- Educat

The Effect of Teacher/Student Relationship on Learning There are many controversies when it comes to the relationship between teachers and students. However, one idea remains, the teacher's primary job is to educate while the student's primary job is to learn. The techniques are what differ among teachers and in turn that shapes the relationship between the two parties. As many of the writers discussed in class, have pointed out, the education experience, from curriculum to academic and extra-curricular programs directs a person's path in life. Is this relationship among teacher and student that important to discuss and analyze? Does a student's education depend on the techniques of the teacher? Alternatively, do students have a responsibility to their own education? The relationship between the teacher and the student is both important and detrimental to a student's education. Educators and aspiring teachers need to know what kind of atmosphere they can create in a classroom. Students, college or otherwise, who want a good and rich education need to know ways in which to achieve this goal. The relationship among the teacher and student is an ongoing everyday process at every level of the educational system. What kinds of teaching techniques offer significant contributions towards a student's education? The authors bell hooks and Lynne Cheney consider two different perspectives. In her article, "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education," bell hooks, claims that a student's social class can have an affect on his/her education. Her first experiences outside of Kentucky reflect the teaching techniques she has developed. To a southern black girl from a working-class background who had never been on a city bus, who had... ...ging each side of the relationship, a clearer perspective and job duty can appear. There must be respect and admiration among both the teacher and each student. Every educator can or should reflect on there own teaching patterns and shape them around suggestions made by Cheney and hooks. The teacher's primary goal is to broaden and bring about awareness to individual students. The only way to accomplish that objective is to find a balance between obtaining the power and allowing freedom in the classroom. Works Cited Cheney, Lynne. "PC: Alive ad Entrenched." In the Presence of Others. Ed. Andrea Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. 2nd ed. 112-122. hooks, bell. "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education." In the Presence of Others. Ed. Andrea Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. 2nd ed. 85 The Effect of Teacher/Student Relationship on Learning Essay -- Educat The Effect of Teacher/Student Relationship on Learning There are many controversies when it comes to the relationship between teachers and students. However, one idea remains, the teacher's primary job is to educate while the student's primary job is to learn. The techniques are what differ among teachers and in turn that shapes the relationship between the two parties. As many of the writers discussed in class, have pointed out, the education experience, from curriculum to academic and extra-curricular programs directs a person's path in life. Is this relationship among teacher and student that important to discuss and analyze? Does a student's education depend on the techniques of the teacher? Alternatively, do students have a responsibility to their own education? The relationship between the teacher and the student is both important and detrimental to a student's education. Educators and aspiring teachers need to know what kind of atmosphere they can create in a classroom. Students, college or otherwise, who want a good and rich education need to know ways in which to achieve this goal. The relationship among the teacher and student is an ongoing everyday process at every level of the educational system. What kinds of teaching techniques offer significant contributions towards a student's education? The authors bell hooks and Lynne Cheney consider two different perspectives. In her article, "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education," bell hooks, claims that a student's social class can have an affect on his/her education. Her first experiences outside of Kentucky reflect the teaching techniques she has developed. To a southern black girl from a working-class background who had never been on a city bus, who had... ...ging each side of the relationship, a clearer perspective and job duty can appear. There must be respect and admiration among both the teacher and each student. Every educator can or should reflect on there own teaching patterns and shape them around suggestions made by Cheney and hooks. The teacher's primary goal is to broaden and bring about awareness to individual students. The only way to accomplish that objective is to find a balance between obtaining the power and allowing freedom in the classroom. Works Cited Cheney, Lynne. "PC: Alive ad Entrenched." In the Presence of Others. Ed. Andrea Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. 2nd ed. 112-122. hooks, bell. "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education." In the Presence of Others. Ed. Andrea Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. 2nd ed. 85

Internationalization of RMB: The Impacts on China and Its Trading Partner Essay

After the thirty years of great economic reforms, imposed in 1978, China has been showing an incredible results and performance. Due to the suitable economic conditions such as cheap labor force and low domestic currency’s (RMB) exchange rate, China has become the largest manufacturer of goods and receiver of foreign direct investments, the majority of which has been in manufacturing industry. And today China has totally changed from the poor agricultural country to the world’s arising economic power state. So with the rise of Chinese economy, its deep integration and significant influence in the world market and at the same time with the instability of euro area and in international monetary system in a whole, the issue of RMB internationalization and China’s exchange rate policy has become of huge importance to the world. So in this essay I will briefly analyze the characteristics of the international currencies, their benefits and costs, and then I will explain China’s interest and steps toward the RMB internationalization and will mainly focus on its impacts on China and its partners. The term of international currency has defined characteristics so that a currency can be considered international if it is used outside the issuing country for the transactions between other foreign states (Investopedia). And according to Chinn and Frankel (2008) (as cited in Lee, 2010) there are four criteria to determine â€Å"international currency status†: 1) Large enough size of country’s trade and output; 2) Liberal developed financial market; 3) Stable currency exchange rate; 4) High level of demand of the currency. Moreover, Kenen(1983) and Chinn&Frankel(2005) (as cited in Haihong Gao & Yongding Yu) stated that the international currency has several functions : 1. act as a store value(i.e. country’s international reserve); 2. act as a medium of exchange(e.g. in trade transactions ) and 3. be a unit of account. So, considering all these, let’s check the suitability of Yuan for international currency status and Chinese government’s challenges and policy steps in internationalizing RMB (Eichengreen, 2010). As their first step China stimulated the use of RMB in setting trade and trade transactions with the neighboring countries by allowing the companies to open RMB-denominated accounts in the banks in Hong Kong and make operating transactions (payments, transfers, etc.) in Yuan. Secondly, they encourage using Yuan in all kinds of financial transactions and permit private institutions to issue their RMB-denominated bonds, making Hong Kong the offshore RMB bond market center. And as the third step, China made arrangements with interested foreign central banks about adding RMB into their international reserve baskets, reaching total of China’s bilateral currency swap agreements in RMB to over RMB 800 billion (Cookson & Dyer 2010, as cited in Otero-Iglesias) and making RMB a world reserve currency. However, RMB is still far from the international status(due to highly government-controlled banking system and capital control) and its internationalization is just beginning and all these shows only China’s commitment to that policy and market’s increasing interest. But still it is obvious that the internationalization of RMB is just only a matter of time. There are several obvious benefits of RMB internationalization for China and it’s trading partners (Haihong Gao & Yongding Yu). Since there will be more RMB-denominated trade and financial transactions, the exchange risk for the trading parties (both Chinese and foreign) be will red uced and the related costs be eliminated. And this in turn will increase the cross border bilateral transactions and gains from it, especially in the East Asian region, where RMB has already become a dominant currency. Secondly, with the internationalization of RMB, China and other countries will be less dependent on USD (Haihong Gao & Yongding Yu). Since USD accounts for more than 70% of China’s exchange currency reserve, China faces a huge risk of big losses as a result of USD exchange rate fluctuations. However, with the RMB-denominated claims, China would not be so dependent on USA. Moreover, with RMB other countries will have more choice on reserve currency and will not be so dependent on USD as well. Thirdly, RMB internationalization will allow the foreign direct investments into China and also cross-border outward investments from it be in RMB. This will obviously benefit the investors, expand the circulation of RMB in both directions of investments and will expand China’s financial market, and its competitiveness and influence as well (Haihong Gao & Yongding Yu). Lastly, since the developed financial market, the currency exchange rate and currency convertibility are the criteria of the international reserve currency; China will face a need for currency and capital account liberalization reforms and further financial reforms in a whole, including unpegging RMB and RMB appreciation. Although for an export-based Chinese economy appreciation of RMB would be harmful in a short run, besides the drawbacks there are the benefits of strong RMB. Appreciation of RMB means the increase in cost of production, therefore an increase in cost for the importers from China. So the importers and the customers will switch to the cheaper substitutes produced in other countries (this statement may vary in different industries). The increasing demand for cheap substitutes will lead to developments and expansion of production in other countries, and will reduce their unemployment rates and etc. Thus, strong RMB as an international currency may benefit China’s neighbors and other developing countries. Moreover, strong RMB benefits China as well. Losing competitiveness in manufacturing industry, China will have to switch from low-efficiency and labor-intensive industries to a more efficient and developed ones and transform from an industry-based economy to a knowledge-based economy (with dominating services sector). In conclusion, with the increasing role of China in the world trade and growing demand for RMB, the internationalization of RMB is just only a matter of time. Although changing the anchor currency(USD) to RMB may cause uncertain effects, the internationalization of RMB will obviously have positive impacts on both China and the rest of the world. And in the nearest future RMB is likely to become the third international reserve currency, after euro and USD. References: Investopedia, Currency Internationalization, What Does Currency Internationalization Mean? Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/currency_internationalization.asp#axzz1f5mjUVqB Lee, J-W.(2010, June) Will the Renminbi Emerge as an International Reserve Currency? Retrieved from http://aric.adb.org/grs/papers/Lee.pdf Haihong Gao & Yongding Yu. Internationalisation of the renminbi. Retrieved from http://www.bis.org/repofficepubl/arpresearch200903.05.pdf Eichengreen.B.(2010, January). The Renminbi as an International Currency Retrieved from http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~eichengr/renminbi_international_1-2011.pdf Otero-Iglesias. M. The Internationalisation of the Renminbi (RMB): A Strategy of Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones. Retrieved from http://www.igadi.org/china/2011/pdf/moi_the_internationalisation_of_the_renminbi.pdf

Multicultural Psychology

Multicultural Psychology Multicultural Psychology Multicultural psychology is the study of human behavior and mental processes through multiple cultures. The focus of this field of psychology incorporates theories on culture-specific issues and behaviors. Study models can be used as comparisons in understanding ethnic identity in viewing similarities and differences of the structure of the culture. In recent years, the original concept of one size fits all psychology has changed to include multicultural psychology that focuses on specific cultures and uniqueness within the culture. The study focuses on how a culture varies from other cultures to how they are similar. â€Å"It is apparent that the â€Å"old rules† in psychology have moved away from monoculture to a multicultural premise and that these â€Å"new rules† recognize both an appreciation of differences as well as an understanding of the inherent ambiguity and complexity in psychological practice† ( Pack-Brown & Williams, 2003). Defining Multicultural Psychology Multicultural psychology can be defined as â€Å"the systematic study of behavior, cognition, and affect in settings where people of different backgrounds interact† (McGraw-Hill, 2009). The focus on multiculturalism started in the 1960s as minority issues became more prevalent in society, especially in the Anglo dominated countries such as North America. Multicultural was primarily defined in association to race or ethnicity. The focus has broadened to include age, gender, religion, sexual preferences, and social class. Much of the focus on multicultural issues was directed toward issues in society regarding equality; many were caused and generated by political biases, programs, and policies. Nagayama Hall (2010) stated, â€Å"Multicultural psychology is the study of the influences of multiple cultures in a single social context on human behavior† (p. 8). Brief History of Multicultural Psychology The study on human behavior labeled as psychology, has been traced back as far as the Greeks and into the medieval period of history, studing language, human behavior, and various human traits. In the early 1800s Darwin’s theory focused on an explanation of the evolution of humans and focused on the transformation of mankind. Throughout time numerous psychologists such as Freud, Kant, Mach, Hegel and Galton, to name a few, focused their studies on human behavior. The focus of these early psychologists’ studies relied primarily on a monoculture focus of human behavior. Cultural diversity has been overlooked for centuries and only in the past two decades has a stronger focus begun on how cultures vary from each other in their influences on human behavior currently are incorporating cultural trends. â€Å"During the 1980s, the percentage rate of articles in psychology on people of color remained at 3%. There was a percentage increase in the 1990s but the percentage rate has remained at about 4. 5% throughout the 2000s† (Nagayama-Hall, 2010). Opinions on the reason for such low percentages primarily focus on the lack of cultural (diverse) backgrounds of the psychologists. In 2002, the American Psychological Association Council approved and released a document of guidelines titled â€Å"Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists† (APA, 2002, p. 1). This document has provided a guideline for psychologists to refer to as the concepts of multicultural psychology continues to evolve and emerge into a specialized area of study in psychology. With APA guidelines in place more focus on the variety of cultures and the similarities and differences within cultural groups will create awareness of cultural diversity and increase educational efforts targeted toward a greater understanding of various ethnic groups. Rationale for the Establishment of a Subspecialty for Multicultural Psychology Although ethnic diversity is growing in North America and in many other countries there is also needs to have a growth in psychologists trained on multicultural issues to expand the focus to a broader spectrum of study. The need to encourage and recruit individuals with diverse ethnic backgrounds into the field of psychology has become crucial and providing educational opportunities to support the development of the field of multicultural psychology needs to continue to support the future of psychology. Many business organizations are expanding their focus to international levels that will increase a new level of human resources issues that will need to be considered and developed. With the development of international business along with cultural influences continuing to grow in the United States more multicultural research studies will be needed and the results recorded and published to maintain successful on various levels. Greater understandings of the variance in cultures need to be created and known by business professionals expanding their businesses abroad. The needs for multicultural professionals are growing and psychological research will be vital on many levels. For example, many businesses are required through the guidelines instituted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to recruit a specific percentage of individuals from different ethnic backgrounds. The EEOC has placed guidelines when hiring and firing individuals and serves as a protection agency for possible issues and concerns of discrimination because of diversity or ethnic differences. â€Å"The U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information† (2010, EEOC). Through an improved focus on multicultural psychology, stronger guidelines can be set in place for education, the workforce, institutions . and society all that involve the interaction of a multitude of multicultural environmental backgrounds. Nagayama Hall (2010) stated â€Å"Rather than ignoring, neglecting, or reacting to cultural diversity, as has been the tradition of mainstream psychology, multicultural psychology is proactive and is helping to shape the discourse on race, ethnicity, and culture† (p. 19). Now is the time to grow diversity and eliminate the â€Å"cookie cutter† approach to the field of psychology. With the growing number of ethnic groups from so many countries, the make-up of society is constantly changing. Schools, businesses and entire neighborhoods are continuously changing as more ethnic groups integrate into these areas. The guidelines set forth by the APA provide psychologists strategies to work with society to educate and remove barriers that can come from the unfamiliar and lack of understanding of those individuals from different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities. The concept of monoculture in psychology must be eliminated and replaced with an active focus on multicultural issues in psychology to continue to evolve within society on a personal and professional level. References About the EEOC: Overview. (2010). U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retrieved on April 2010, from http://www. eeoc. gov/eeoc/index. fm Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists. American Psychological Association. (2002) Retrieved on April 14, 2010 from http://www. apapracticecentral. org/ce/guidelines/multicultural. pdf Nagayama Hall, G. C. (2010). Multicultural Psychology (2nd ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Pack-Brown, S. & Williams, C. Ethics is a multicultural context. (2003). Psych Board. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications What Is Multicultural Psychology? (2009) Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://highered. mcgraw-hill. com/sites/dl/free/007338271x/591940/Chapter1. pdf