Assignment 5 women psy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Assignment 5 women psy - Essay Example In particular, racial and gender differences between people are the basis for different measurements of normality, something that makes a general normalcy measurement for all of mankind difficult to ascertain. The first major issue concerning normalcy measures is the existence of several different races among people; in America, for example, there are several prominent minority groups including African-Americans, Latin-Americans and Asian-Americans. Due to the cultural and religious backgrounds of these people, they cannot properly be compared to white Americans and therefore the definition of normal must be changed to accommodate them. It is not logical to group Asian-Americans in with white Americans in terms of religious beliefs, for example, because the sheer numbers of white Americans will overpower the Asian-Americans so that the latter must be defined as deviant (John 1994). Similarly, a comparison of income between white Americans and Latin-Americans who have only recently immigrated will mark out the latter group as deviant from the norm, set by white Americans who simply have a much higher population. Normalcy in terms of ethnic groups becomes very difficult to ascertain because of cultural and initial economic differences which mark out the minority groups as abnormal. Another problem with the definition of normal is its lack of relevance between men and women, regardless of culture. For example, it may considered normal for women to be concerned about health issues like breast cancer and osteoporosis, it is likewise normal for men to be concerned with heart disease and colon cancer. Men and women do not have the same types of health risks, and so to group them together to ascertain what is the normal concern pattern will be dependent completely on the numbers of each gender questioned. Although this would technically