Reviews for Psychology Applied to Everyday Life

The average rating for Psychology Applied to Everyday Life based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-11-14 00:00:00 David Rd Overall I feel conflicted with the work presented in Real Indians: Identity and Survival of Native America by Eva Marie Garroutte. There is a sense that in trying to establish the identity of Native Americans, offering insight through research and testimony, health service backgrounds, and together with a cadre of included works by American Indian "experts," Garroutte loses her point. Because of the sociological standing, the eroding of the bloodline through mixed marriage, and disinterest from the youth, Garroutte might as well be kicking a dead horse. I grew up in New York State, within the Upstate area. According to my mother (the most unreliable of sources), my grandfather was half-blooded Onondaga Native American. Somewhere within the family tree that ferreted over during the French Indian Wars and the Revolution, my namesake took to marriages outside the European lineage to forge new paths. As an adolescent, I had mixed feelings about this information because one didn't take time to have cultural studies in the school system. Learning about American Indians came from Saturday afternoon black and white westerns. The Indian was always presented as the enemy to the cowboys. Once I reached adulthood, other forms of racism came and went; forming opinions about people didn't mean to include their heritage. If didn't judge someone by the color of their skin; though my mother will deny it today, she is a racist. It comes; still, the N-word falls from her mouth mater-of-factually, and I cringe at the sound of the word. It used to be a perfectly acceptable word at one time. The times when my mother grew up, seeing segregation first-hand. And yet, did it ever occur to her that someone might pull the race card against her? She was a small-statured "white" woman with raven-black hair and high, defining cheekbones. There were signs in her school, she recalls, that had "white only" water fountains, and "black only" water spigots that were outside the school and likely froze in the winter months. She never considered the secondary culture that ran through her veins. She was as far removed from a reservation as any middle-class white American was in the 1950s and 60s. "In some places and times, non-Indian spouses were allowed to become citizens of Indian nations. Even in instances where an adopted white spouse was subsequently widowed, remarried, and had children by a non-Indian, the children (who had no tribal ancestry at all) were sometimes recognized as tribal citizens." This is no different than same-sex marriages afforded the rights of the traditional married couple. People use their resources to stay alive. Some will exploit the system; some will turn their back on their culture and embrace something that fits their personal beliefs. In American, we are supposed to live by forefather values that are documented in a nifty parchment that was presented to a king some years ago that afforded us some rights and privileges and the opportunity to govern ourselves. Garroutte is seeking to understand the "genealogical relatedness" of Native Americans and balancing the federal government affiliation with tribal laws. I do not attempt to understand the author's vision since it reads like a convoluted rant. Much like what was presented above; however, people afforded choice, the opportunity to choose a path that is right for them is an ethical and ethical option they must make alone.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-01-17 00:00:00 Brian Cunningham Really excellent. This looks like a history book, but it turns out to be an exploration of perceptions of Native American identity ultimately used as a springboard for discussion of broader issues of racial identity in the US, and to top it off, Garroutte provides an utterly proposal for revolutionizing the way the Western academy operates. A brilliant book for anyone interested in Native American affairs, humanity, or scholarship (read: every US college kid should read this).