Cultural Differences: Kayin’s Case

Professionals must work with families to understand cultural and linguistic characteristics specific to each child. This is critical in determining whether a child’s experiences are typical of someone coming from a different background as opposed to a true disability. These issues can be complex as exceptionalities are seen across cultures as well.

Review the following scenario:

Kayin is an eight-year-old boy in the third grade. His teacher, Mr. Bledsoe, has been very concerned about his problems with reading. He also has difficulty socially, and seems withdrawn, with few, if any, friends. Kayin avoids eye contact with most people, but this is more pronounced with adults. He also becomes very frustrated at times, crying and ripping up his work.
Kayin has been enrolled in the same school since kindergarten. However, Mr. Bledsoe knows that his family is originally from Nigeria and they return every summer to visit family. Although Kayin’s parents speak English fairly fluently, they have a pronounced African accent. Mr. Bledsoe remembers learning that it is an act of respect to avoid eye contact with adults in some cultures, but he cannot remember whether this is true of Nigerian culture.
Mr. Bledsoe has been hesitant to raise the possibility of a disability because he does not know how much of Kayin’s struggles can be attributed to growing up in a bicultural and bilingual home or to Kayin’s own personality.

Using the module readings, the Argosy University online library resources, and the Internet, research cultural differences related to children with exceptionalities. It may also be useful to consult CultureGrams in the online library for more information on cultures in Nigeria.

Reflect on your readings and respond to the following:

• What steps should Mr. Bledsoe take to address Kayin’s challenges?
• What professionals might he include to help Kayin?
• What further information does Mr. Bledsoe and his colleagues need to best help Kayin? Where can he find this information?
• How should Mr. Bledsoe approach the issue of cultural differences with Kayin’s parents?
• What ethical dilemma(s) might Mr. Bledsoe face when considering the values, beliefs, and behaviors common in the culture of Kayin’s family within the context of the general American culture?

Write your initial response in 300–500 words. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

Case discussion. 250 words. please describe the type of  existential therapeutic techniques you will use in this case.

 You are an existential therapist with a relatively new client named Dominguez who has yet to make any progress. Dominguez is a 24-year-old who dropped out of college shortly after his girlfriend (Shayla) broke up with him 2 years ago. Since then, Dominguez spends much of his time looking for a job, but will sometimes spend hours checking Shayla’s Facebook status updates or watching her from afar. Ever since the breakup, he has suffered from depression, as demonstrated by feelings of inadequacy, worthlessness, hopelessness for the future, and guilt for all of the mistakes he made in the relationship with Shayla. He seems to be “stuck” in the past. However, he seems in denial about his emotions. He says he’s fine but just needs to build his self-confidence enough to do well on a job interview. How do you conceptualize Dominguez’s concerns from the existential perspective and what existential therapeutic techniques would you use to help? 

Many theories and intervention techniques in performance psychology have a cognitive-behavioral approach. The interactional model of personality which describes behavior as the sum of personality (p), the environmental situation (s), and the interaction (i.e., Behavior = P + S + P x S) is generally a better predictor of success than the environmental situation or the personality alone. However, in many situations the environmental conditions are so influential that the stable personality characteristics will have little effect. This is known as the personality paradox. In this assignment, you will discuss the Cognitive Affective Processing System as a way of explaining both the personality paradox and how a performer’s personality interacts with the environment to produce a behavioral response.

General Requirements:

Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:

• Instructors will be using a grading rubric to grade the assignments. It is recommended that learners review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment in order to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment.
• Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center.
• This assignment requires that at least two additional scholarly research sources related to this topic, and at least one in-text citation from each source be included.

Directions:

Write an essay (1,250-1,500 words) in which you will discuss the Cognitive Affective Processing System as a way of explaining both the personality paradox and how a performer’s personality interacts with the environment to produce a behavioral response. In your paper, include the following:

1. An explanation of how the personality paradox might occur.
2. A discussion of the Cognitive Affective Processing System as a way of explaining the personality paradox.
3. A discussion of the Cognitive Affective Processing System as a way of explaining how the performer’s personality interacts with the environment.

The CRITICAL THINKING PROJECTS from which you may choose are:

1. A case study. Deborah Shore, aged 45, works for a small corporation in the Research and Development department. When she first became a member of the department 15 years ago, Deborah was an unusually creative and productive researcher; her efforts quickly resulted in raises and promotions within the department and earned her the respect of her colleagues. Now, Deborah finds herself less interested in doing research; she is no longer making creative contributions to her department, although she is making contributions to its administration. She is still respected by the coworkers who have known her since she joined the firm, but not by her younger coworkers.

Analyze the case study from the psychoanalytic, learning, and contextual perspectives: how would a theorist from each perspective explain Deborah’s development? Which perspective do you believe provides the most adequate explanation, and why?

2. Interview your mother (and grandmothers, if possible), asking about experiences with childbirth. Include your own experiences if you have had children. Write a paper summarizing these childbirth experiences and comparing them with the contemporary experiences described in the text.

3. Identify a “type” of parent (e.g., single parent, teenage parent, low-income parent, dual-career couple) who is most likely to be distressed because an infant has a “difficult” temperament. Explain why you believe that this type of parent would have particular problems with a difficult infant. Write an informational brochure for the selected type of parent. The brochure should include an explanation of temperament in general and of the difficult temperament in particular, and give suggestions for parents of difficult infants.

4. Plan an educational unit covering nutrition, health, and safety for use with preschoolers and kindergartners. Take into account young children’s cognitive and linguistic characteristics. The project should include (1) an outline of the content of the unit; and (2) a description of how the content would be presented, given the intellectual abilities of preschoolers. For example, how long would each lesson be? What kinds of pictures or other audiovisual materials would be used? How would this content be integrated with the children’s other activities in preschool or kindergarten?

5. Visit two day care centers and evaluate each center using the information from the text as a guide. Request a fee schedule from each center. Write a paper summarizing your evaluation of each center. Note: Unless you are an actual potential client of the center, contact the director beforehand to explain the actual purpose of the visit, obtain permission to visit, and schedule your visit so as to minimize disruption to the center’s schedule.

6. Watch some children’s television programs and advertising, examine some children’s toys and their packaging, read some children’s books, and listen to some children’s recordings, looking for evidence of sex-role socialization. Write a paper comparing these contemporary influences with those you remember from your own childhood, and discuss the implications of the differences and similarities you find.

7. Write a paper describing things your parents did to help you in school and anything your parents did that hindered you in school. If you have young brothers and/or sisters, include your parents’ influences on their education. Analyze your parents’ actions from the standpoint of the characteristics discussed in the text.

8. Write a paper summarizing the theoretical perspectives on identity presented in the textbook. Identify the perspective you find most acceptable, and justify your choice. Evaluate the information in light of your own development in adolescence.

9. A case study. Julie is a 40-year-old homemaker. Besides chauffeuring her very active 13-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter to school activities, maintaining the household, and providing emotional support to her husband (who is facing a stressful job situation), Julie cares for her 70-year-old widowed father. Her father had a stroke last year. After her father’s stroke, Julie dropped the two college courses she had been taking, so that she could visit him regularly in the hospital and help with his rehabilitation there. When he was released from the hospital, he moved into her home for an indefinite period. That seemed to be the only option other than a nursing home. Julie’s brother and sister live out of town and are unable to provide physical care for their father. It has now been several months since Julie’s father moved into her home. Julie is feeling overwhelmed as she tries to meet the needs of her father, her husband, and her children.

Write a paper discussing steps that could be taken to solve or prevent problems for Julie and possible pitfalls in taking these steps. Dimensions of the situation that you will want to consider include (1) finances, (2) health, (3) emotional functioning of individuals, and (4) relationships between family members.

10. Many colleges and universities allow older people to audit courses tuition-free. But–perhaps because the arrangement does not generate tuition–most institutions do not actively promote this option or encourage people to take advantage of it; the number of older people who actually enroll in such courses tends to be fairly low. Suppose that your college began taking aggressive and effective measures to encourage elderly people to enroll in courses, with the eventual result that around half of the students in most classes were 65 or older. Write a paper discussing two issues. First, how should instructors modify their teaching and their evaluation and testing procedures in response to this change in the student population, given the material in the text describing older adults’ cognitive performance and abilities? Second, how would classes be enriched by an increase in the proportion of older students, and how would classes suffer through such an increase?

11. Although most older people prefer to live independently in the community, and most are successful in doing so, institutional care is an essential option for an aging population. Some facilities are excellent, providing high-quality care, comfort, and intellectual and social stimulation. However, even in these excellent settings, there is probably some room for improvement. Develop a description of an ideal nursing home. Your description should include the approximate number of residents, the approximate number of staff members, the qualifications of the staff, the physical design of the facility, provisions for promoting contact between residents and the community, and activities offered within the facility.