PSY220 – Multicultural Psychology

Overview:
A genogram is a picture of a person’s family relationships and history. It goes beyond a traditional
family tree allowing the creators to visualize patterns and psychological factors that affect
relationships.
A genogram is a useful tool for helping us to understand the key people and relationships in a client’s
life. It can also help us to see patterns within those relationships and generational patterns that are
affecting our clients. These include immigration patterns and experiences, refugee status, language
and cultural barrier experiences, health status, gender identity, and more. Because of the pictorial
nature of a genogram, it easily shows issues and concerns in a non-threatening manner.
Instructions:
For this assignment, you will:
• Create a genogram of a family that focuses on multicultural issues three generations back.
• You have several options of a genogram to create.
o 1)You may construct a genogram of your own family. Each of you has a unique family
history and we completely understand this- including guardians, foster parents, etc. You are
not required to include information that you are uncomfortable sharing or are unable to
obtain.
o 2) If you prefer not to create a genogram of your family, you are welcome to create a
genogram of a celebrity or a “made up” family.
• Create a PowerPoint presentation.
o Include the genogram and explain the family history. Include concepts or theoriesused
in your text and scholarly, peer-reviewed articles.
o Additional information to include:
▪ Immigration and reasons behind immigration.
▪ Refugee situations and reason behind seeking refuge.
▪ Language and cultural barriers encountered by ancestors or self.
▪ Gender identity or role dissonance encountered in a new culture.
▪ Spiritual or religious dissonance encountered in a new culture.
• Historical research should also be utilized to expand your understanding of yourfamily’s
multicultural experience.
o Historical research examines the meaning of past events in an attempt to interpret the
facts and explain the cause of events, and their effect on the present events. In doing
PSY220 – Multicultural Psychology
Genogram Presentation
so, researchers rely heavily on primary historical data (direct accounts of events,
archival data – official documents, personal records, and records of eyewitnesses)and
less frequently on secondary historical data (information from persons who didn’t
witness the event; e.g. textbooks, newspapers, encyclopedias).
• There is not a set number of slides required for this assignment. However, it is important to
still meet all of the grading rubric requirements (i.e. including scholarly sources to support your
available family information, key multicultural psychology terms from this course etc).
Requirements:
• Use appropriate APA placement and style for in-text citations.
• Complete your work in PowerPoint or another slide application.
• Use at least three (3) scholarly resources (can be related to key concepts and theories as well
as historical research).
Be sure to read the criteria by which your work will be evaluated before you write and again
after you write.