African Psychology PDF

African Psychology Debates on African Psychology Debates have involved several people – attention is drawn to the debates between Nwoye & Ratele Comparison of these abstracts Points of agreement Nwoye’s question: Is of concern to all those with interest in psychology in r...

African Psychology Debates on African Psychology Debates have involved several people – attention is drawn to the debates between Nwoye & Ratele Comparison of these abstracts Points of agreement Nwoye’s question: Is of concern to all those with interest in psychology in relation to this continent Challenges the imperial and colonial foundations of psychological knowledge Demands ongoing engagement Nwoye’s effort toward advancing African psychology has to be seen as part of making psychology more situated in actual societies less western less American-centric This is Ratele’s aim too less Eurocentric o more global Points of disagreement Augustine Nwoye African psychology as a discipline African psychology is unified Ratele African psychology as a set of orientations African psychology to be made of debates, different approaches, theories, methods Difference between “African Psychology” and “Africa(n)- centred psychology African psychology refers to a broad category of the body of knowledge and practices that encompasses all of what psychologists in, or in relation to, Africa do. Africa(n)-centred psychology is a distinctive orientation within and towards psychology and Africa. Ratele’s proposal Ratele proposes a framework to understand African Psychology A provisional way of thinking of African psychology in Theory-making, empirical research, university teaching, sociopolitical activism, and therapy. There is not one psychology but rather Four (African) Psychologies The four african psychology orientations The 4 psychologies are: differentiated by the way the ideas of Africa and psychology are understood and approached orientations, approaches or stances to Africa and psychology not subdisciplines or branches The four psychologies do not correspond to categories of registration or divisions of the professional associations of psychology Instead, they will be found within the subdisciplines, within the registration categories, and within the divisions of the professional association o Some, more than others, will evidence more debates on African psychology These 4 are also how academics, clinicians & counsellors: Understand psychology’s role in Africa Think of their own identities as experts Interpret the discipline’s effect on their research, teaching and practice Three of the four orientations are transdisciplinary  Africa(n)-centred psychologists are informed by other disciplines Consult and borrow from fields like African philosophy, religion, literature, history, and politics. Consult lived experiences and realities of existing in Africa 4 Psychology’s in Africa African Psychology = all psychology conducted and practiced within SA Africa(n)-centred psychology = the distinctive orientation towards pscychology that centres Africa & Africans Psychology In Africa Understood as (Western or Euro- American) psychology in Africa Dominates nearly all theoretical explanations Frames what is taught Influences what is published and the research approaches and analyses Underpins what the majority of therapists and counsellors apply in their work Fundamentally informed by the belief that the discipline of psychology is universal The field is considered to be scientific Considered to be objective, value-free and apolitical Conservative in the sense that it conserves the nature of psychology Advantages Fits in perfectly with mainstream psychology No need to reinvent the wheel Psychologists can simply do what everybody else in the world is doing Criticisms This form of psychology can be colonialist It is seen as supportive of the status quo “A pathetic clone” of hegemonic psychology Cannot be viewed as Africa(n)-centred psychology It does not centre Africa Africa is merely a setting for questions and theories generated elsewhere Can become Africa(n)-centred psychology If it takes seriously and situates itself within the realities of Africa To become Africa(n)-centred psychology Reformulate psychological theories and methods from the bottom up Start over and develop a new approach Conduct studies informed by existing conditions and concrete practices of subjects in Africa Cultural African psychology Study of persons as embedded in a metaphysical, spiritual, or cultural environment What Nwoye referred to as his conception of African psychology “One additional theme in African psychology that illustrates its African roots is the recognition given to the influence of spirituality in the life of African clients.” For those who regard African psychology as concerned with spiritual, cultural or metaphysical phenomena Interests in elements such as the importance of shared African languages, values, beliefs, worldviews, philosophies, and knowledge. Nhlanhla Mkhize uses cultural perspective o An African psychology should begin with an examination of the philosophies, languages, and worldviews through which the world is experienced Cultural African Psychology conveys a cultural view of the discipline. It is a vehicle that organizes the way people see, speak, and understand the subjects of psychology as inherently cultural It regards psychology as a part of culture It is seen as intensifying or channelling cultural traditions and does not sit outside of culture To be a psychologist is to take on a culture of ideas The greater mastery one has over Western psychology as a cultural tool, the richer the rewards in a world dominated by Western ideas The problem African psychologists face: How to be a part of psychology without becoming western in direct proportion to their mastery of the discipline Cultural African psychology is an attempt to reject cultural domination in and via psychology as a way to reaffirm the fullness of life in Africa Colonialism figures prominently in Cultural African Psychology Colonialism The structure and policies by which a foreign country acquires control over a country. Sometimes by occupation but always by economic exploitation Subjugates, misrecognizes and pathologizes the cultures of the colonized o Begins the moment violence, coercion or other mechanisms are used to invade and seize land and resources o Culminates in the invaders establishing political, economic, social, and cultural control over the indigenous people Cultural colonization Colonization of the cultural world of the indigenous people Has influence on cognitions, affect and behaviour o Cultural African psychology is distinguished from American cultural psychology by the emphasis on cultural colonization There are particularities about African and its people that need to be taken into account in studies, therapies, and community engagement. Cultural African psychology is radical in the way it criticizes Euro-American psychologies Cultural African Psychology will link with other indigenous and indigenizing psychologies around the world. Black psychology, African American psychology, cultural psychology, and critical psychology may be seen as allies Criticisms include Views Africans as exceptional or atypical Hampered by a metaphysical search for an ahistorical Africa Tends to treat Africa like one big village Not critical enough of prevalent and injurious African cultural practices Advantages include Cultural particularity and ways of knowing are taken seriously Context in which psychology is produced and disseminated is seen as important It seeks to indigenize psychology Critical african psychology 1. Recognises culture as an important element in theories, methodologies and explanations 2. Distinguished from Cultural African Psychology Critical African Psychology is focused on historical and contemporary contestations around culture Cultural African Psychology is focused on the influence of spiritual, cultural and metaphysical phenomena on its subjects Critical African Psychology is self-critical African psychology often fails to question “it’s status as – and desire to be – psychology” and “the notion of the ‘African’ itself” Colonization is an important element in understanding contemporary Africa Critical African psychology aims to decolonize mainstream psychology and criticize African societies This psychology is political in the sense of being not neutral o Takes positions about its objects of interest o It is not neutral when it comes to apartheid, therapy, gender-based violence, or ideas about happiness Desmond Painter and Associates argued: “[African psychology] is clearly a form of critical psychology: it critiques and rejects (much of) the ontological assumptions and value systems it perceives to be at the core of “Western” psychology; and seeks instead to found its psychology on a different, uniquely African metaphysics. As such African psychology is not only an ally, but a potential vantage point from where the “Eurocentric” tendencies evident also in critical psychology—which includes not only an overreliance on Western (or Northern) theory, but also a tendency to engage African theorists only once they had been endorsed by and re- imported from Northern universities—may be interrogated.” African psychology that Mkhize strives for is also critical psychology It opposes the hegemony of the values of western psychology Mkhize suggests that an African critical psychology: “should not only be concerned with the way in which cultural and institutional practices shape individual development: it should produce research that furthers the needs of developing societies. This includes research into poverty, illiteracy and alienation caused by globalization, among other things.” Mkhize can be regarded as both a cultural and critical African psychologist Rely on or borrow from critical western psychologists, critical western thought, and critical African thought Frantz Fanon would feature prominently amongst those consulted Steve Biko used psychological register to develop his thought on black consciousness South African psychologist: Noel Chabani Manganyi Critical African Psychology would need to overcome some hurdles Much work needs to be done to theorise and undertake empirical work from an Africa(n)- centred critical psychological perspective Work that recognizes the pervasiveness and impact of questions of political and economic power in Africa on psychological thought Work that recognises the powers, possibilities and effects of psychological discourse in political and socio-economic life in Africa Psychological african studies Psychologically or psychoanalytically inclined African Studies A psychology and psychoanalysis aimed at integrating the theories, tools, and insights of the field of psychology into studies of Africa African studies – Those studies whose object is Africa Psychology or psychoanalysis was never one of the core disciplines in African studies First generation of African studies consisted, for the most part, of colonial missionary anthropology, which sought to: “build an understanding of Africans and the African world in an elaborate but misguided exercise at seeking to know the “native” Other who was defined from the outset as being “tribal” and, therefore, fundamentally different and consigned to the lower rungs of the ladder of human progress” African studies developed to understand who and what they have colonized in order to control the colonized After World War 2 the study of Africa was beginning to be questioned & rewritten By radical anticolonial African and Africanist scholars Began to change the anthropological stereotypes of Africans that had been written Psychology was deeply implicated in creating and supporting colonial and racist stereotyping of black people and Africans Psychological African Studies, as an emergent approach aligned with broad critical African and non-African thought, can be useful as an approach to how psychology can be useful as part of studies of Africa and Africans, and how African Studies can be infused in psychological studies.  There is very little of what is referred to as psychologically inclined African Studies Exciting growth area for African psychology as well as global psychology Psychological African Studies puts psychological processes at the centre of its enquiries May not necessarily put the individual at the centre of the world This form of African psychology borrows from theories of psychology but takes seriously non- psychological studies on societies, histories, politics, cultures, languages, and religions in Africa Psychologists as part of African Studies would have to enter in dialogue with African scholarly, literary and other creative work outside of psychology Challenges to developing Psychological African Studies Development can be hampered by and has to overcome the fact that disciplines come with and often are the theories and tools. o The disciplines teach how to see the world o Western psychology sees the world as comprised of essentially separate individuals o Is it possible for psychology to conceive of subjects as primarily part of others? o Therefore, there would be a need to unlearn some of the ways the discipline of psychology understands people. Development can be inhibited by the perception that African studies tends to be dominated by historical, political, economic, sociological, cultural and literary studies’ perspectives o African studies can be experienced as inhospitable to insights and tools of psychoanalysts and psychologists Travelling across the boundaries Scholars do not need to subscribe to one orientation and stick to it Nothing prevents someone from travelling across different orientations, approaches, or stances. Eg. Nhlanhla Mkhize Differentiation strengthens the foundations of African Psychology More precisely delineates the aims, definition and disciplinary coordinates of African Psychology The boundaries are permeable When working with others one is required to compromise and step outside of one’s preferred orientation Movement across boundaries is developmental o One might begin their psychological journey from a Western psychology in Africa orientation but later find culturally oriented African psychology more suitable "Four (African) Psychologies" by Kopano Ratele Kopano Ratele's article explores the complexities of African psychology o addressing the question of what constitutes African psychology and proposing a framework that recognizes its diverse orientations. The author argues against the notion of a singular African psychology, advocating for a nuanced understanding that reflects the continent's varied cultural, political, and social contexts. The Four African Psychologies Ratele delineates four distinct orientations within African psychology, each characterized by different approaches to understanding psychology in relation to Africa. 1. Psychology in Africa This orientation focuses on the practice and application of psychology within the African continent. o Emphasizes local issues and contexts. o Aims to address the psychological needs of African populations. o Engages with the realities of living in Africa, including socio-economic and cultural factors. 2. Cultural African Psychology This approach is inclined towards understanding psychological phenomena through the lens of African culture, spirituality, and metaphysics. o Integrates indigenous knowledge systems and cultural practices. o Explores the spiritual and metaphysical dimensions of psychological experiences. o Aims to create a psychology that resonates with African cultural identities and values. 3. Critical African Psychology This perspective critically examines the political and material conditions affecting psychological practices and theories in Africa. o Challenges Western-centric models of psychology. o Advocates for a psychology that reflects African realities and addresses systemic inequalities. o Engages with issues of power, colonialism, and socio-political contexts in shaping psychological knowledge. 4. Psychological African Studies This orientation situates psychology within the broader field of African Studies, promoting interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. o Encourages the integration of psychology with other disciplines such as history, literature, and politics.  o Aims to enrich psychological understanding by drawing on diverse sources of knowledge. o Fosters a holistic view of African experiences and identities. Challenges in African Psychology Ratele discusses several challenges that hinder the growth of Africa(n)-centred psychology: Dominance of Western Theories: The prevalence of Western psychological models often marginalizes indigenous perspectives. Need for Corrective Discourse: There is a necessity to address negative stereotypes of Africa in global scholarship. Identity Assertion: African psychologists must assert their identities and contributions within the global psychological community. Key Takeaways African psychology is not a singular entity but a collection of diverse orientations. Each of the four psychologies offers unique insights and approaches to understanding psychological phenomena in Africa. Ratele emphasizes the importance of retaining the term "African" in psychology to navigate the complexities of knowledge production in Africa. He advocates for a psychology that is locally grounded, globally engaged, and open to external influences and critiques. This comprehensive approach aims to enrich the discipline and foster a more inclusive understanding of psychological practices in Africa. A critical engagement with history, culture, and politics is essential for the development of a robust African psychology. This structured summary provides a comprehensive overview of Ratele's article, highlighting the key concepts and differentiating between the four psychologies, making it suitable for study and reference.  Africa(n) Centred Positive Psychology Definition & Purpose = A framework that emphasizes understanding well-being through African values, culture, and context. The purpose is to explore how different people and communities experience life and promote well- being. Importance of Africa(n) Centred Positive Psychology Historical Context: o Decolonization, racism, and apartheid highlight the need for an African psychological perspective. o Previous psychology frameworks may not adequately represent African experiences. Main Concepts: o Well-being must be understood in context (history, culture, and community). o Most people are not "weird"; differences in experiences stem from diverse contexts. Overview of the study of African Positive Psychology The scientific study of what makes life worth living, focusing on positive experiences and well-being (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Research Trends (1960-2000): o Disparity in research focus: 5,000 articles on anger vs. only 415 on joy. o Emphasis has been predominantly on negative emotions rather than fostering happiness. Contextualizing Well-being Quality of Life: Woodcock et al. (2008) argue that subjective quality of life is influenced by personal goals, resources, and cultural values. Limitations of Mainstream Psychology: o Existing theories are predominantly based on North American perspectives (Marecek & Christopher, 2018).  o Lack of research reflecting local ideals and lived experiences in African contexts (Mahali et al., 2018). Research Findings on Well-being in Africa Subjective Well-being: o Children in Zambia report high levels of happiness despite low income (Holder et al., 2016). o Emphasis on relational, material, and subjective dimensions of well-being (White et al., 2016). Dimensions of Well-being Eudaimonia vs. Hedonia: Traditional Western notions often separate these concepts, while qualitative research suggests a more integrated view. Wellness Framework: o I COPPE: Interpersonal, Community, Occupational, Physical, Psychological, and Economic well- being. o Interrelatedness of dimensions is crucial for overall psychological health. Africa(n) Centred Positive Psychology Framework 1. Cultural Relevance: Understanding shared African languages, values, beliefs, and worldviews. 2. Relational Perspective: Well-being must be seen through the lens of relationships, which are central to the African experience. 3. Spiritual Dimensions: Recognition of spirituality as integral to human well-being. Types of African Psychology Cultural African Psychology: Focuses on metaphysical and spiritual elements, resisting cultural domination. Critical African Psychology: Addresses historical and contemporary cultural contestations, aiming for social justice and decolonization. Moving Forward: Integration and Application Combined Approaches: Advocates for integrating multiple orientations to enrich African psychology (Ratele, 2017). Community Identity: Recognizes the role of community in shaping individual aspirations and well- being among South African adolescents. Spirituality and Well-being: Spiritual beliefs are significant for hope and meaning in the lives of African youth. Take-away Acknowledging the diverse and complex experiences of individuals in Africa is essential for advancing psychology. Future research must focus on culturally relevant frameworks that reflect the lived experiences of African communities. Embracing Well-Being in Diverse African Contexts The chapter explores the concept of well-being within the African context, advocating for an African- centered positive psychology. It critiques the dominance of Western psychological frameworks and emphasizes the need for culturally relevant approaches that reflect the unique social, political, and economic realities of African societies. Key Concepts Well-Being Definition: Well-being is viewed as a multidimensional construct that includes social, material, and subjective dimensions. Cultural Specificity: The understanding of well-being must be rooted in the cultural and relational contexts of individuals. African-Centered Positive Psychology Need for Contextualization: The chapter argues for a positive psychology that is theory-driven and empirically supported, taking into account the meanings attached to experiences in African contexts. Critical Realism: Advocates for a critical-realist approach to knowledge generation that recognizes both individual and broader societal influences on well-being. Decolonization of Psychology Social Justice: Emphasizes the importance of addressing historical injustices and cultural domination in psychological research and practice. Cultural Models: Calls for the development of African cultural models of well-being that challenge Western theories and explore divergent views. The Four African Psychologies (recap) 1. Psychology in Africa Definition: This framework treats psychology as a universal discipline, applying theories developed elsewhere to the African context. Critique: It is criticized for failing to critically engage with the unique cultural and social dynamics of Africa, often reducing the continent to a mere testing ground for external theories. 2. Cultural African Psychology Definition: Focuses on the metaphysical, spiritual, and cultural aspects of psychology, emphasizing the importance of African languages, values, and worldviews. Objective: Aims to resist cultural imperialism and reaffirm African identity, promoting a deeper understanding of psychological phenomena through a cultural lens. 3. Critical African Psychology Definition: This approach addresses issues of power, oppression, and social justice, seeking to decolonize psychology. Goals: It aims to promote emancipation and social change by acknowledging the systemic contexts that shape individual experiences and well-being. 4. Psychological African Studies Definition: A proposed interdisciplinary movement that integrates various fields to study psychological phenomena in Africa. Current Status: While still developing, it seeks to explore how positive psychology can be adapted to the African context, focusing on issues such as peace, gender, and socio-economic factors. Limitations of Current Research Cross-Cultural Psychology: The chapter critiques the limitations of cross-cultural psychology, which often generalizes findings from a few African countries while neglecting the continent's diversity. Need for In-Depth Exploration: Calls for qualitative research that allows for a deeper understanding of well-being patterns and manifestations in different African contexts. The Way Forward for African-Centered Positive Psychology Contextualism: Emphasizes the importance of understanding individuals within their social and relational contexts, recognizing the influence of family, social groups, and environments on well- being. Research Integration: Advocates for the integration of local theoretical, empirical, and epistemological knowledge to inform well-being research and practice. Grounded Praxis: Encourages research that is rooted in local contexts, facilitating the generation of insights that are relevant to African societies. The chapter highlights the urgent need for an African-centered positive psychology that is reflective of the continent's unique cultural, social, and economic realities. By embracing the four psychologies and advocating for contextually relevant research, scholars and practitioners can foster a more inclusive understanding of well- being in Africa.