Achieving a global psychology.

Abstract

AbstractPsychology has a long history in only a few countries of world. Initially developed in Europe and United States, it necessarily has close ties cultural traditions of those particular societies. As a result, discipline and practice of psychology are largely culture-bound, limited in its origins, concepts, and empirical findings only this small portion of world. The discipline is also culture-blind, largely ignoring influence of role of culture in shaping development and display of human behaviour. This article draws concepts and strategies in psychology (particularly cross-cultural and intercultural psychology) propose some remedies these problems. It is based a universalist vision for discipline; this view asserts that basic psychological processes are common our species, while their development and expression are culturally shaped. The eventual goal is achieve a global psychology that incorporates concepts and findings from societies and cultures from all parts of world.Keywords: acculturation strategies, culture-blind, culture-bound, dominance, emic, etic, global psychology, indigenous psychology, prevention, universalismThe discipline and practice of psychology have long histories in only a few countries of world. Initially developed in Europe, then further in United States, it has close ties cultural traditions of those particular societies. Although more and more taught, studied and practiced in other parts of world, psychology remains largely culture-bound (Berry, Poortinga, Segali & Dasen, 1992; Henrich, Heine & Norenzayan, 2010), being limited in its origins, concepts, and empirical findings only a small portion of world. And although concept of culture has been recognised as a core variable in psychology in a book that documents origin and development of 15 key psychological concepts (Berry & Triandis, 2006), discipline has also been culture-blind, largely ignoring influence of role of culture in shaping development and display of human behaviour.As a result of these limitations, missing from international scene are insights, and knowledge of psychology from largest, most complex and in many ways earliest-developed societies of world. In particular, psychological contributions from China, India, and Arab world are largely unknown Western psychology. Similarly missing are those from societies in Africa, and indigenous peoples in North and South America, and Pacific region.If human beings are all one people, belonging one species, how can a discipline that thinks of itself as the science of human behaviour not be based all human experience and knowledge? Answers this rhetorical question serve a basis for my approach development of a global psychology. In this article, I argue that discipline and profession of psychology are overwhelmingly rooted in and practiced in Western Euroamerican societies (Pawlik & Rosenzweig, 2000). The rest of world has often assumed roles of consumers or subjects; psychology is sold to or tried out on other peoples. The evidence for this state of affairs has been clearly presented by Adair, Coehlo and Luna, (2002); Adair and Kagitcibasi (1995); Allwood and Berry (2006); and Cole (2006). For example, Cole (2006, p. 905) has noted that leadership of international psychology, particularly International Union of Psychological Science has remained firmly in Euro American hands. These countries dominate participation and management of congress this day, despite fact that psychologists from approximately 100 countries currently participate (Rosenzweig, Holtzman, Sabourin, & Belanger, 2000).To deal with these limitations, I argue that human behavioural diversity needs be fully sampled and examined in all its variety, as a basis for discerning what may be common all human behaviour. …

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