6 - Psychology, Customary Behavior, and Ethnic Identity

Abstract

This chapter explores various parameters of individual and social psychology, such as emotion, communication, attitude, value, group behavior, and culture-rooted customary behavior and addresses the issue of ethnic identity formation and its relation to mental health functioning. Psychiatrists, as clinicians, are interested in the psychological parameters of emotion, as they deal professionally with patients who suffer from emotional problems, such as anxiety, depression, or anger. Communication is another psychological parameter that often concerns clinicians, as clinical practice always deals with communication between people and, in particular, between the therapist and the patient. Communication involves interpersonal interaction and transmission of a message through a wide range of means, including language, sublingual or nonverbal communication, and emotional communication. Nonverbal or sublinguislistic communication is considered very important from cross-cultural and clinical perspectives, as it expresses underlying emotions and attitudes explicitly, without the barriers of language. As a member of a society, a person's behavior, in addition to biological factors, individual psychology, and personality, is always subject to customary regulating factors derived from sociocultural dimensions. These regulating factors are exercised and enforced through rituals, etiquette, customs, taboos, or laws. They can vary tremendously from culture to culture and may therefore not be applicable cross-culturally. Ethnic identity refers to the psychological way in which a person identifies his own ethnic background and how he feels about his own ethnicity. In contrast to an individual or personal identity, ethnic identity is one kind of group identity. As with personal, family, or other kinds of group identity, a sound and positive ethnic identity is important for an individual's psychological well-being and health.