Indigenous psychology is defined by Kim and Berry as "the scientific study of human behavior or mind that is native, that is not transported from other regions, and that is designed for its people." There is a strong emphasis on how one's actions are influenced by the environment surrounding them as well as the aspects that make it up. This would include analyzing the context, in addition to the content that combine to make the domain that one is living in. The context would consist of the family, social, cultural, and ecological pieces and the content would consist of the meaning, values, and beliefs. Since the mid 1970s, there has been outcry about the traditional views from psychologists across the world, from Africa to Australia and many places in between about how the methods only reflect what would work in Europe and the Americas. There are several ways that separate indigenous psychology from the traditional general psychology. First, there is a strong emphasis on the examining of phenomena in context in order to discover how one's culture influences their behaviors and thought patterns. Secondly, instead of solely focusing on Native populations, it actually includes information based on any group of peoples that can be deemed "exotic", in one area or another. This makes indigenous psychology a necessity for groups all over the world. Third is the fact that indigenous psychology is innovative because instead of only using one method for everyone, there is time dedicated to the creation of techniques that work on an individual basis, while working to learn why they are successful in the regions that they are being used in. There is advocacy for an array of procedures, such as qualitative, experimental, comparative, philosophical analysis and a combination of them all. Fourth, it debunks the idea that only members of these indigenous groups have the ability to achieve true understanding of how culture affects their life experiences. In fact, an outsider's view is extremely valuable when it comes to indigenous psychology because it can discover abnormalities not originally noticed by members of the group. Finally, there are concepts that can only be explained by indigenous psychology. This is due to researchers having a hard time conceptualizing these phenomenon. Despite there being noticeable differences between cultures, they all share one common goal: "to address the forces that shape affective, behavioral, and cognitive human systems that in turn underlie the attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, expectations, and values of the members of each unique culture"
Indigenous psychology movement Kim, Yang and Hwang (2006) distinguish 10 characteristics of indigenous psychology.
It emphasizes examining psychological phenomena in ecological, historical and cultural context. Indigenous psychology needs to be developed for all cultural, native and ethnic groups. It advocates use of multiple methods. It advocates the integration of "insiders", "outsiders" and multiple perspectives to obtain comprehensive and integrated understanding. It acknowledges that people have a complex and sophisticated understanding of themselves and it is necessary to translate their practical and episodic understanding into analytical knowledge. It is part of a scientific tradition that advocates multiple perspectives, but not multiple psychologies or absolute relativism. Although descriptive analysis is the starting point of research, its final goal is to discover psychological universals that can be theoretically and empirically verified. It is a part of the cultural sciences tradition in which human agency, meaning and context are incorporated into the research design. It advocates a linkage of humanities (which focus on human experience and creativity) with social sciences (which focus empirical analysis and verification). Two starting points of research in indigenous psychology can be identified: indigenization from without and indigenization from within. Although there is debate within the indigenous psychology movement about whether indigenous psychology represents a more universalistic or a more relativistic approach, most of these 10 characteristics are advocated by the majority of those in the indigenous psychology movement. Political and economic instability has greatly hindered the development of psychology as a science in Latin America, South Africa, and Indian-Asian Psychology. This problem is a phenomenon that is present across the majority of non-northwestern indigenous psychologies, creating unstable societies. Lack of national capital creates a shortage in influential professional fields like psychology and propagates the science of the leading countries. Nations such as the United States, that flourish economically, affect the poorer and less flourishing countries, and in doing so interject their western ideologies the indigenous nations with whom they trade. Allwood and Berry note six sources of influence on the development of global indigenous psychologies:
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
