University of Nebraska Kearney

Definitions and Concepts

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• Concepts and Definitions
• Protected Class Groups
• Racial and Ethnic Categories

  
  

   

• Culture: The total, generally organized way of life, including values, norms, institutions, and artifacts, that is unique to a given people and that is passed along from generation to generation by learning alone.
  
• Personality: The dynamically organized totality of personal traits which distinguish one person from others.
  
• Socialization: The process whereby individuals learn to behave willingly in accordance with the prevailing standards of their culture.
  
• Ethnocentrism: The tendency of most people to use their own way of life as a standard for judging others; now also indicates the belief, on the part of most individuals, that their race, culture, society, etc., are superior to all others.
  
• Symbolic Interactionism: The theory that the most distinctive aspects of human behavior are a product of the fact that man alone is a symbol-manipulating animal--that man has developed conventionalized signs which have become organized into language which, in turn, is the vehicle for the transmission of culture and which provides the major means for carrying on social interaction.
  
• Stereotypes: A preconceived (not based on research or experience) standardized, group-shared idea about the alleged essential nature of those making up a whole category of persons, the most significant of such group-shared ideas being without regard to individual differences among those making up the category and usually being emotion charged.
  
• Prejudice: An attitude acquired prior to relevant experience or knowledge; a predisposition to take an intellectual position relative to a given phenomenon irrespective of the nature or amount of relevant objective information.
  Prejudice has also been defined as a "preconceived judgment or opinion, often based on limited information." This attitude denies a person's individuality.
  
• Self-image: An individual's awareness of, and attitudes toward, his/her own physical or biological person; an individual's perception of him/herself, such perception being learned in social interaction, mostly through the medium of language.
  
• Racism: The doctrine that race is the basic determinant of human abilities and that, therefore, the various racial groups constitute a hierarchy in which one group is properly regarded as superior to others.
  Racism has also been defined using the following formula: Power+Prejudice=Racism.
  Racism has also been defined as a "system of advantage based on race."
  
• Self-fulfilling Prophesy: A prediction which is not true as stated, but which evokes behavior such that the original statement becomes true.
  
• Acculturation: The process of two different ethnic groups exchanging cultural elements and complexes.
  
• Cultural Assimilation: The process by which an individual or group acquires the cultural traits of a different ethnic group.
  
• Discrimination: The differential treatment of individuals considered to belong to particular groups or categories.
  
• Melting Pot: A belief that all ethnic differences would amalgamate and a novel person would emerge from this new ethnic synthesis.
  
• Ethnic Pluralism: A society made up of a variety of ethnic groups that fully participate in ethnic societies but who have allegiances to the national state and accept its idealized values.
  
  
  

  Protected Class Groups

  The following five groups are considered "Protected Classes" under various federal equal opportunity laws:
  

  • Females
    
  • Indigenous Minorities. Groups for whom established patterns of discrimination have been determined to exist: Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaskan, Asian or Pacific Islander.
    
  • Individuals with Disabilities. Defined as an individual who has a physical or mental impairment that constitutes a substantial limitation on a major life activity, a person with record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived as having such an impairment. The law also protects those who are in a relationship or associated with someone with a disability.
    
  • Veterans and Disabled Veterans
  • Persons Age 40 or Over
    
  
  
  

  Racial and Ethnic Categories

  The following are definitions used for Federal Statistics and program administrative reporting:
  
  • American Indian or Alaskan Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North America, and who maintains cultural identification through tribal affiliations or community recognition.
    
  • Asian or Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, or the Pacific Islands. This area includes, for example, China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippine Islands, and Samoa.
    
  • Black: A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.
    
  • Hispanic: A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
    
  • White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East.