Each of us has a unique
cultural heritage with a variety of customs and values. As you explore the
application of transcultural assessment tools, it is a valuable exercise to
apply the tool to yourself and ask some of the following questions about your
personal and professional worlds:
- What is my personal
heritage and how deeply do I identify with it?
- What do I know about
holistic health and illness from my own heritage?
- What have I learned
about my family and its belief system?
- What are some of our
health traditions?
- What customs do we
follow on special holidays?
- What do my family members
believe about independence, privacy, physical appearance, discipline, and
money?
A cultural self-assessment
is useful in setting the stage to understanding other people's health traditions.
"Cultural facts are important if they are used with the understanding that
every belief and behavior has both cultural and individual basis" (Lipson,
1999, p. 6). One of the most interesting questions to ask a group of people
is what their family did when one of them had a common cold
There will be a variety
of answers to this simple question such as chicken soup, "feed a cold", menthol
rubs, rest in bed, linseed poultices, or "sweat it out" depending upon family
customs. Values influence our everyday behavior and promote the things that
we hold as important.
Even though some of the
customs that cultures or families follow may no longer have practical value,
they have an important psychological one as they provide a sense of belonging
and identity. The customs serve as a reminder that adhering to the beliefs
and norms of your family keeps you connected to a special group.
When you are
in your home culture, your understanding of what's done is intact and
solid. The context
within which you operate is logical and coherent. When you arrive in another
country, it quickly becomes apparent that your logic is not shared. "At
that moment, that which was invisible and taken for granted becomes visible
and, as a result, becomes the object of awareness and open to scrutiny
and examination
for the first time" (Pratt, 1998, pp. 36-37).
Our frames of reference
limit our perceptions and until we encounter a basis for comparison, our own
assumptions remain invisible. It is not possible to forget our perspectives,
any more that it is possible to forget our cultural upbringing- but it is
possible to deal with new perspectives and situations as you can learn about
other perspectives (Pratt, 1998, p.37).
Explore the process and content needed for the cultural assessment of individuals,
families, and groups.