Indigenous psychology

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: • changes in developing countries in the 1970s stimulated endogenous and indigenous rethinking about their social and economic conditions by social and behavioral scientists; • their dissatisfaction with what they had learned from Western disciplines for solving problems of their homelands; • their growing dissatisfaction with the unquestioned, imitative, and explicative nature of psychological research that is deeply rooted in Western psychology; • self-reflection on their own social and cultural characteristics that were beyond Western psychological construction; • the awareness by some Western psychologists that the nature of psychology was 'monocultural', 'Euro-American', and 'indigenous psychology of the West'; and • the parochial and insular stands of Western psychology, which disregarded the interests and research done in other countries and languages. Each individual indigenous culture maintains their own emic explanations for, and solutions to, their own psychological and behavioral issues. Western psychology needs to shift over and learn to understand the indigenous cultures in their own setting, as Allwood and Berry state, "…the science has a dual responsibility: to understand people in their own terms, and to search for general principles of human behavior. The development of an [indigenous psychology] is valuable in its own right, but they may also collectively serve as building blocks in creating a more general psychology." The article defines globalization as the movement of people and knowledge across borders in the attempt to establish common goals and to develop a homogenized world view of psychology. When assimilation occurs it forces the structural context of a society to change often forcing its cultural traditions to undergo a new development. Assimilation occurs most often when a dominant group and less controlling group interact. While it provides a way for better social interaction and communication to happen it is often the cause of one culture losing its traditions and original beliefs. Related to indigenous psychology is a field called critical psychology. This branch of psychology investigates how and why psychology focuses on the individual and disregards power differentials, social, and racial impacts on psychopathology. This branch may be applicable specifically in South Africa due to the apartheid. Authors Painter and Terre Blanche (2004) analyze critical psychology and compare it to what they call mainstream psychology. They describe steps being taken to apply social, political, economical, and racial influences to the field in South Africa and a concern for psychology in South Africa mirroring psychology in the UK and US which would be counter-productive. The advocacy of using social influences in South African society by Painter and Terre Blanche supports the effort to apply indigenous psychology in the area. Further application of indigenous psychology or similar methods will contribute to the field of global psychology. == Indigenous psychologies ==

Three things are in common with indigenous societies including a shortage of resources, professional vs. scientific priority of psychology and the challenge of integrating psychology with culture. Indigenous psychologies practice applied psychology over research psychology. They often lack financial support and resources for research psychology. They end to focus on the application of psychological knowledge to overcome challenges facing their country such as strengthening education, employment, health, population control, ethnic and religious conflicts rather than allocating limited resources to expand research psychology. With indigenous psychologies they have evolved more as a profession than a science. Instability of a country greatly hinders the development of psychology. Indigenous psychologies may be influenced by western psychology but develop it to better fit their culture. Native American psychology The concept of "parallel lives" is a useful one for understanding more recent Native American experience so as to better understand how Native American indigenous ways of knowing have been impacted by historical events following the arrival of European and other settlers to the North American continent. Ed Edmo, a well-known Native American storyteller, author, and poet, comparing his experience of the deliberate flooding of Celilo Falls near The Dalles, Oregon in order to build a dam with that of his friend Lani Roberts, a European-American, writes: "our lives were lived in parallel fashion because of the differences in our ethnic heritage," and "we grew up in the same geographical space but lived in radically different worlds" as a result of the profound racism that Native people have suffered. An excellent resource for better understanding Native American Psychology in terms of pathology stemming in large part from the traumas inflicted on Native American peoples as a result of their contact with European settlers, is Harold Napoleon's book Yuuyaraq: The Way of the Human Being. Harold Napoleon is a Yup'ik Eskimo who wrote his book to try to make sense of the profound sadness of his people, and to understand how he came to cause the death of his own son as a result of alcohol abuse. In the book, Harold suggests that his people were suffering from a kind of post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result of the Great Death in which his culture and people were nearly wiped out by disease and other traumatic experiences resulting from contact with European settlers. He further suggests that denial, nallunguarluku, literally 'pretending it didn't happen', has become something of a cultural trait, one manifestation of which is difficulty in talking about painful circumstances...which can lead to alienation, anger, and self-destructive behavior that some people seek to numb with alcohol. Napoleon writes: "Yuuyaraq (the way of the human being) encompassed the spirit world in which the Yup'ik lived. It outlined the way of living in harmony with this spirit world and with the spirit beings which inhabited this world". While in the West, "incorporating religion in the rational decision-making process or in the conduct of therapy has generally been seen as unscientific and unprofessional", such spiritual "indigenous healing methods are beginning to be seen as having much to offer Western forms of mental health practice. Ross found physiological and psychological differences that prevented aboriginal people proper justice. The SHIP® focus lies on the spontaneous healing of trauma and defines presenting chronic dis-eases as activated healing and precursors to growth. The SHIP® Foundations trains psychologists since 2001. Filipino psychology The Philippine experience has proven that approaching psychology using Western models cannot incorporate the intricacies of Asian cultures. In addition, while many commentators have thought of Filipino psychology as a branch of Asian psychology, there is a continuing discussion on what comprise the subject. This will determine whether Filipino psychology is to be placed under the domain of either Asian psychology or Eastern psychology. Filipino psychology is seen as largely postcolonial and is seen as a kind of liberation psychology, aiming to be familiar with the psychology of subjugated communities by conceptually addressing the oppressive sociopolitical structure in which they exist. The approaches (Filipino: lapit) in Filipino psychology are different from that of the West. In Filipino psychology, the subjects are treated as active participants to the research undertaking, called kalahok, who are considered as equal in status to the researcher. The participants are included in the research as a group, and not as individuals - hence, an umpukan, or natural cluster, is required to serve as the participants, per se. The researcher, who merely acts as a facilitator, is introduced to the umpukan by a tulay ('bridge'), who is also a part of the umpukan and is an esteemed member of the community being studied. ==Real life application==

Cultural views, theories and assumptions within social institutions influence cultures around the world through the application of psychological practices on indigenous populations. The historic, cultural and religious beliefs specific to each population directly affect the application of such psychologies. The specific beliefs of indigenous people must be considered in order to bridge the barrier between psychological ideas and the real world application of these ideas on indigenous people. An excerpt from an article on the American Psychological Association's web site explains this idea and shows how connecting psychology with cultural beliefs can strengthen a doctor patient relationship: ==DSM & western diagnostic hegemony==

In addition to the broader dimensions of western colonial and cultural influence on indigenous psychologies, there are specific limitations for indigenous psychologies that arise from the pervasive (nearly universal) acceptance of western diagnostic tools as the primary source of diagnostic features/criteria for psychopathology. The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) continues to be used as an overarching framework for mental illness across cultures, and may suppress or distort indigenous understandings of mental illness of psychopathological processes. By virtue of its culture-specific origin and oversight, the DSM is culturally bound within western ontological paradigms, and thus may not be, in whole or in part, appropriate for the diverse needs of other cultures. It is possible, and imperative, that indigenous psychologies find meaningful points of integration with western psychologies, and may include the systematic operationalization of mental illness within rigorous diagnostic criteria. However, integration towards a global psychology, or other overarching cross-cultural framework of psychological phenomena transcendent of specific cultural ontologies may require the inclusion of paradigms and methodologies that exist apart from traditional western-scientific understandings of rigor. Moreover, diagnostic criteria will remain an important point of conversation and controversy for global psychology, as it jeopardizes the basic ability of researchers to generalize and categorize the prevalence/incidence of mental illness in a global context. ==References==