CONCEPT OF SOCIAL DIVERSITY

CONCEPT OF SOCIAL DIVERSITY

What is social diversity?

The Social diversity is a concept that defines and encompasses the great variety of different and similar characteristics that are shared between all human beings, both personally and at a group level. It is the range or extent to which a community can integrate just and successfully the largest number of groups of individuals with different characteristics and particularities, where everyone enjoys the same rights and perform the same duties. In other words

Social Diversity is successful community in which individuals of different race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, language, geographical origin, gender and/or sexual orientation bring their different knowledge, background, experience and interest for the benefit of their diverse community. As they all contribute to the success of the community, individuals in a healthy diverse society practice daily understanding and respect of the different ideas, viewpoints and unique perspectives of those who are somewhat different from them, as they recognize that those individuals share and are actively working towards achieving many common goals for the benefit of the community as a whole.

Dimensions in social diversity

There are many obvious and visible dimensions in which the human is diverse: height, weight, age, hair, color, among others. But in the world of social relations and self-concepts of people, the dimensions that are most handled-and in which people most are reflected or identified-are race and, in particular, sex. From a human communicative platform, analyzes and studies on the dimensions of social diversity focus on people's self-concepts, self and world perception and expectation. The levels at which these three human communicative approaches are developed are explained below.

1- Intrapersonal dimension

Self-concepts are the basis for intrapersonal communication because it determines how a person sees himself and how he or she is oriented toward others. Also called self-awareness or self-awareness, it involves beliefs, values ​​and attitudes. The Beliefs are basic personal orientations towards what is true or false, good or bad. They can be descriptive or prescriptive. The values are orientations and ideals deeply rooted in people. They are generally consistent and based on beliefs, ideas, and right or wrong actions. The Attitudes Are predispositions learned for or against a particular topic. They are usually rooted consistently with values, and tend to be global and typically emotional.

Beliefs, values ​​and attitudes influence behavior, which functions as a mode of communication of all ideas within the person. It can manifest as an opinion (spoken or written) or with a physical action. Some psychologists include the physical image, as it also communicates how the person perceives themselves, positively or negatively, depending on the social standards of culture. Self-concepts also influence personal attributes, talents, social role, including order at birth. The perception of the world is also based on beliefs, values ​​and attitudes. The inner and outer perception is so interrelated that they feed each other, creating a harmonious and constant understanding of the being and the environment.

2- Interpersonal dimension

The way in which relationships develop between people is the focus of interpersonal communication, and everything starts from the family nucleus. Long, close relationships between family members are based on sharing similar values, beliefs, and rituals. This varies between spouses, parents and children, between siblings and between the wide range of kinships with the rest of the family, which lately shows the first platform of various thoughts and lifestyles relating harmoniously. Communication circles are then expanded in educational institutions and organizations, establishing close personal or work relationships (between friends, peers, between employee and employer). Additionally, some social scholars include impersonal communication, based on the quality of the relationship. This involves short exchanges with the seller of a store, a neighbor in the elevator, with an innkeeper, among others. Everything is building a diversity of patterns of acceptance and social expectation.

3- Cultural and inter-cultural dimension

The social norms are the guides (or limits) of the relations between people and groups in a society. They are the rules that groups establish for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. They can be implicit or explicit. They indicate how it is accepted to do things, dress, talk, and so on. This varies over time, between groups of different ages, between social classes and between social groups. The wide range of attitudes and behaviors from one culture to another indicates the extent of their own cultural norms. Social behavior works best when everyone knows what is accepted and expected by the other. Standards can restrain and control people, but they also lubricate the social machinery towards the harmony of the parts.

Diversity at Individual Level

Diversity at individual level is often denoted as psychological differences among individuals. It is said that no two individuals are exact duplicates. They differ from each other in some way or the other. Such differences between persons reveal individual differences. It happens in our day- to- day life when we see people around us. A question comes to mind; how and why people appear similar or different to each other? For example when we think about their physical appearance, we often as ourselves why some people are tall and some are short, why some are thin and why some are very fat. When we think about their psychological characteristics we often come across people who are very talkative or less talkative, some laugh too much where as others take much time even to smile, and some are very friendly whereas some prefer to be alone. In psychology, these are called individual differences referring to the extent and kind of variations or similarities among people on some of the important psychological aspects such as intelligence, personality, interest, and aptitude.