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."Kim, U., & Berry, J. W. (1993). Indigenous psychologies: Experience and research in cultural context. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. 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."What is Indigenous Psychology?". The Open University. 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.Jati Anggoro, Wahyu. "Indigenous Psychology: basic concept and research methods" (PDF). 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"Baker. Kristin M, Graham Jean E., Lawson, Robert B. (2007). A History of Psychology: Globalization, Ideas, and Applications. (pp. 391–432). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Indigenous psychology movement
Kim, Yang and Hwang (2006) distinguish 10 characteristics of indigenous psychology.Kim, U., Yang, K.-S., & Hwang, K.-K. (2006). Contributions to indigenous and cultural psychology. In U. Kim, K. S. Yang, & K.-K. Hwang (Eds.), Indigenous and cultural psychology: Understanding people in context (pp. 3–25). New York: Springer. 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,Chakkarath, P. (2012). The role of indigenous psychologies in the building of basic cultural psychology. In J. Valsiner (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 71–95). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 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.Baker. Kristin M, Graham Jean E., Lawson, Robert B. (2007). A History of Psychology: Globalization, Ideas, and Applications. (pp. 391–432). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
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:Allwood, C.M., Berry, J.W., (2006). Origins and development of indigenous psychologies: An international analysis. International Journal of Psychology, 41(4), 243–268 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 its 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."
In South Africa, specifically, apartheid was a major downfall for their psychology. This period in time intentionally neglected and isolated the field of psychology. "...in 1948 the Afrikaner National Party gained power and created the system of apartheid to maintain control over the country’s social, economic, and political system".
In India-Asian psychology, there are three strands of psychology which are defined by Rao (1988): "...general psychology ... that has universal relevance and application... "...country and region-specific psychology ... the study of geographically bound persons ..." "...native based weltanschauung psychology ... driven by the understanding of geographically bound persons yet ... highly theoretical or philosophical component"
In order for these different countries to better focus their psychological standpoints, different programs need to be instituted and more persons need to become involved in becoming psychologists. "The current and future states of… indigenous psychologies, require the sustained growth of their scientific research base at the same pace as their applied professional interventions".
Indigenous psychologies can be alike when they include two different categories of psychological knowledge, explicitly, scientific and applied knowledge reflected in scientific and professional psychology. Each indigenous psychology prioritizes the two in a distinctive way. Trends do exist between more industrialized nations such as the United States. Challenges arise when trying to achieve a successful applied psychology in a culture. One challenge is finding adequate resources. Another challenge is shaping the practice of psychology to suit the circumstances a new culture. It is important to be able to understand the difference between indigenous psychologies and psychological specialties. Psychological specialties include such topics of study lifespan developmental psychology, health psychology, organizational psychology, and social psychology. Indigenous psychologies are culturally specific, and aim to describe, explain, or predict psychological phenomena from within a given culture's worldview.
Indigenous psychology, as defined by Heelas and Lock (1981), consists of the cultural views, theories, classifications and assumptions coupled with the overarching social institutions that influence psychological topics in each respective culture. While indigenous psychologies have existed for a long time, only recently have they been studied in the context of global psychology. While international psychology influences indigenous psychology, it is within each indigenous psychology that the unique histories, social mores, needs and practicalities of a certain culture can be addressed. For example, many Indian psychologists with Western training have incorporated their instruction to include aspects of Indian culture that aren’t necessarily relevant to Western psychology. They have learned to place more emphasis on extended family and community which is more suited to the societal norms of Indian culture than Western culture. Western European and American psychologies have historically had the resources to advance psychology both in the applied fields and scientifically. This has not been the case for many indigenous psychologies. For example, in India, where the population is well over one billion, as of 2005 there were only seventy universities teaching psychology. The lack of trained professionals and the demands of an impoverished population have left psychologists in India struggling to meet the needs of its citizens. This has often taken priority over scientific advancement.