Religious Pluralism Research Paper

Emerging Issues: Ethnic Socialization and Religious Pluralism

Emerging Issues: Ethnic Socialization and Religious Pluralism
In this multicultural world, the lack of a multicultural approach in psychology detracts from the goals of psychology and the veracity of psychological research. How deeply is the European-American and Western viewpoint engrained into the awareness of those living in Western society? In pointing out that some introductory psychology texts are beginning to address this lack of a multicultural approach, Segall (1999, p. 327) says, tongue-in-cheek, (about cross-cultural psychology, although this also applies to multicultural psychology), that we should see even more multicultural texts in the new millennium, but “as ethnocentrically measured on the Western, Christian calendar.” Even a simple phrase like “new millennium” is ethnocentric.
There is a host of emerging issues in multicultural psychology, and here we will address two: ethnic
Pluralism means various interest groups operating if not in harmony then at least in tandem. In a pluralistic society, various religions may have at least a civilized respect if not a mutually beneficial relationship. However, the reality is today that many persons with differing religions views do clash. However, multiculturalism tells us that this need not be the case. How is this so? The traditional religious view, as well as the traditional approach to psychology, tends to be hegemonic. But the multi-psychological approach shows us otherwise: “Whereas the assumption in traditional psychology is that theories and research are generalizable, the assumption in multicultural psychology is that there are both universal and culture-specific phenomena, with an emphasis on the latter" (Hall, 2010, p. 2). Thus, we jettison the hegemonic view that there is only one right way. As noted above, multiculturalism is about multiple