Mind Matters: Challenging our perceptions

Posted by Dr. Kayta Gajdos on October 31, 2013

Did you know that every 32 seconds a child is born into poverty — in the United States? This is reported by the Children’s Defense Fund (2010) and is one question of a quiz compiled by EdChange.org.

I had the opportunity to take the “Class and Poverty in the U.S. Re-Perception Quiz” while attending a conference for psychologists who represent their state psychological associations’ disaster response volunteers.

To educate us about multicultural issues in the wake of disasters, Ester Cole of Toronto, Canada, actively engaged us with some tests from EdChange.org.

It is the least affluent and most disenfranchised among us that are often most affected by disasters — and arrive at emergency shelters. We, as a group, know that. Even so, these nine quizzes challenged our perceptions.

For example, we found that, according to the Center for American Progress, one-third of the population of U.S. citizens will live at least one year of their lives in poverty. Meanwhile, most poor live outside of inner cities (Shannon, 2006); and furthermore, suburban areas have the greatest increases in poverty rates (Freeman, 2010).

How about the media wealth of white households in the U.S.? It is twenty times larger than African American households, according to the Pew Research Center (Taylor, et al).

Academic researcher Paul C. Gorski also developed (in EdChange.org) a quiz on equity and diversity. This too was a shocker. Are you also shocked to find that, according to a study by the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights, 52 percent of physicians report witnessing a colleague who refused care or gave minimal care to lesbian, gay or bisexual patients?

Another query considered the treatment of children. UNICEF (2007) rated the 23 wealthiest countries in the world according to 40 indications of child well-being. The United States and the United Kingdom were at the very bottom of the list.

There’s more. While 2,600,000 U.S. citizens may be millionaires, according to the Economic Policy Institute (2007), the annual earnings of the average full-time U.S. worker approximates the daily earnings of the average U.S. CEO. Although the U.S. military budget is seven times higher than the globe’s second biggest military spender, China, less than one per cent of the U.S. government budget goes to welfare and social security.

And as to college? A Princeton study of elite universities in the U.S. found that legacy applicants — generally white and affluent — “are far more privileged by legacy status than applicants of color are by affirmative action” (EdChange.org). Legacy status was equivalent to boosting the applicant’s SAT score by 160 points.

With the possibility of natural disasters becoming more intense, if not more frequent, due to climate change, and with the fact of the division between the rich and the poor becoming wider and deeper, psychologists involved in community mental health and disaster response need to be culturally informed. Actually, we all need to be so informed.

* Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments at MindMatters@DrGajdos.com or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted to www.drgajdos.com.

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.