Indigenous,cultural,and cross-cultural psychology:

A theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological analysis

By: Uichol Kim

Presentor: Jingyan Ding 10906035

Guideline

• Introduction

• Analysis of culture

• Ecology and cultural adaptation

• Epistemology

• Phenomenology

• Conculsion

Introduction

• Three approaches attempt to explain cultural differences can be identified:– Universalist

• Aims to discover abstract, nomothetic, and general laws of human functioning-----etic approach

– Contextualist• Point out that many theories are ethnocentric, bias

ed, and culture-bound-----emic approach

– Integrationist• Integrate the context and content

• Two types of integrationist approaches– Indigenization from without (derived etic)

• Involves transporting psychological theories, concepts, and methods and modifying them to fit the local cultural context.-----external imposition

– Indigenization from within (indigenous approach)

• Theories, concepts and methods are developed internally and indigenous information is considered to be a primary source of knowledge.- a bottom-up

Analysis of culture

• Two approaches to understanding culture– Derived etic approach

• Psychologists adopted a top-down, positivistic approach in their search for abstract and universal laws of human functioning.

• Culture is considered to be a contextual factor and was eliminated from the research design.

• Culture is treated as a quasi-independent variable and behavior as a dependent variable.

– In the indigenous psychologies approach• Culture is an emergent property of individuals and

groups interacting with their natural and human environment.

• Culture is defined as a rubric of patterned variables.

• Differences in cultures exist because we have focused on and developed different aspects of our environment and attached different meanings and values to them.

• Understanding a culture from within– The task

• Translate the first-person phenomenological, episodic, and procedural experience into analytical, semantic and declarative knowledge.

– A transaction model of causality• Focus on the generative and proactive aspects.

– Basic scientific tenets• Which outlined in the sociocognitive theory develop

ed by Bandura

– Separation of different levels of analysis• Physiological• Psychological• Culture

– Three key aspects to investigate culture, • Context• Epistemology• Phenomenology

bottom

up

Ecology and cultural adaptation

• Ecology refers to the total pattern of relationships between life forms and their environment, and includes the natural environment that humans share with other living organisms.

• Berry(1976)found– Cultural differences arise partly due to variatio

ns in ecology and human adaptation to it. – that ecological context has a significant effect

on types of cultures that emerge, which in turn affect individual functioning, namely cognitive style.

See a table below

period Before sixteen century After sixteen century

Economic mode Subsistence economies Market economies

People work for food, and other living materials

wages

labor Serfs and peasants workers

Skill and knowledge Passed down from one generation to another

Result in production and distribution

Socialization practices

Trust, cooperation, and conservatism

Social intelligence,

technological intelligence

Goal of socialization Survival , subsistence Development of cognitive and linguistic

skills

relationship Long-standing relationship of trust and obligation

Full of unrelated strangers

Collective action Family, clan, tribe Class, union

Social and cultural change in ecological context

Epistemology

• The development and transformation of cultures can trace the art work, religion, science.

• Comparison of Western Liberalism and East Asian perspective.– Individualism & relationship (harmony)– Rationality & emotional

• Western liberalism

• Chinese “Confucianism”

– There can be competing philosophies and worldviews within a particular culture. These have influenced each another and have been integrated and blended into a synthetic form.

Phenomenology

• The greatest variation across cultures exists in the area of phenomenology.

Summary and conclusion

• Although science can provide the most accurate understanding of the world, it can also blind and limit our understanding.

– Researchers in the field of psychology imposed the natural sciences model to study human beings. But the natural sciences paradigm distorted psychological phenomena.

– Psychological theories were assumed to be universal.

– Expert or professional knowledge have imposed on the lay public.

• The indigenous psychologies approach advocates – liberation from these external impositions and

experience of phenomenon as an insider.

– A linkage of humanities with social science.

Question?