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This paper describes a variety of challenges faced by the author in studying and promoting indigenous psychologies of the Indian intellectual and cultural traditions. It narrates specific instances which tried to present a variety of obstacles that discouraged the author from his pursuit. For example, when a colleague stated that indigenous psychology is nonsense insofar as science is universal, and like physics, it does not admit regional variations; teachers or colleagues expressed extreme dejection about research on Yoga; he was advised against studying Indian psychology as it would ruin career prospects; his articles or book manuscripts were routinely rejected, and so on. In a specific situation, when a young colleague was hounded out of the department for his association with a school of theology, an example was set indicating that the religious association of Yoga would be dangerous. An autobiographical account is chosen over a survey or abstract analysis since academic pursuit must be sustained despite specific sorts of personal experiences that tend to undermine study and pursuit of indigenous psychologies. On the other hand, support offered by opposite types of experiences and by encouragement by mentors is also described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anand Paranjpe's book, "Understanding Yoga Psychology: Indigenous Psychology with Global Relevance," offers a comprehensive account of yoga psychology from an Indian Indigenous perspective. Paranjpe integrates Indian theories of self and self-transformation with traditional Western psychologies, providing a rich understanding of theoretical systems that are both emic to their traditions and etic in their trans-theoretical applications. The book explores the Sāṁkhya system of Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras, discussing the evolution of the self and the path to enlightenment through the pursuit of the eight limbs of Aṣṭāṅga yoga. Paranjpe also draws parallels between Indian Indigenous theoretical systems and Western theoretical psychology, making this book a valuable resource for those interested in yoga psychology and self-transformation. [Extracted from the article]

As a classical art form reserved only for the Yogyakartan royalty from the 18th to the 20th century, the Bedhaya does not simply serve as entertainment for its audiences. It is the epitome of Javanese meditation. This study aims to explore the experiences of court dancers regarding the Bedhaya to ultimately identify what psychological aspects are involved in the formation of their experiences. We used Moustakas' qualitative phenomenology as the basis of this whole research, in combination with movement elicitation procedures to condition the participants prior to the data collection process. Consequently, we interviewed four Bedhaya dancers from various generations who were trained within the royal court of Yogyakarta. We analyzed the results using Moustakas' modification of the Stevick–Colaizzi–Keen method. The results yielded five themes, which are the essence of the experiences of Bedhaya dancers and were then elaborated further using psychological concepts that may serve as a starting point for further psychological research on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The understanding of the nature and the software of the mind has generated immense debate in religion, philosophy, sciences and psychology. Drucker notes that the basic assumption about the reality is the foundation for science, axiom and algorithm adopted for the theory, concept and method. The assumption differentiates what is important from what is noise. In the medieval Europe, the Catholic Church provided a unified theory of the world as a reflection of God's grand design and purpose. They held the power to define and thus had the power to control people's lives. Their power was challenged during the Renaissance with the emergence of humanism. The Cartesian duality of separating the mind from body allowed the separation of church and state and science to flourish. In East Asia, Confucius articulated a different set of assumptions. Humans are defined as ingan 人間 ('human between') and assume relationship and compassion as the basic foundation. This is the basis of the cultural difference and theory of the mind. The Darwinian Evolutionary Theory replaced the religious definition, Cartesian duality, and empathy with the biological traits, instincts and natural selection. Psychology adopted the biological model to explain human behaviour. Research in paleoanthropology, genetics, and neurobiology outline the limitations of the biological model in explaining the human mind and behaviour. Bandura has documented the importance of human agency, consciousness, and self-efficacy in explaining human behaviour and provided empirical results with greater predictive and explanatory power than the traditional psychological theories. Indigenous and cultural psychology represents the continuation of the assumptions, theory and concepts outlined by Wilhelm Wundt and Albert Bandura. Kim outlines the transactional model of science, where human agency (measured by self-efficacy) can explain a person's performance and outcome. Empirically, the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the 85-year longitudinal study, found the unexpected results that challenge the previous held assumptions. Waldinger and Schulz have found that maintaining good relationship is the most important predictor of happiness, health and longevity and not high income, success, IQ and personality. Kim and Kim found that for Millennials and Gen Z, happiness is predicted by relational and social efficacy, positive outlook, and receiving social support from family, friends and online communities, replicating previous results found across three generations and for the past 25 years in Korea. These results point to the importance of examining the basic assumptions of the theories in psychology and the scientific foundation of indigenous and cultural psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like most other Indian Psychologists of his time, who made a mark in the discipline of Psychology, Sinha too got trained abroad. Graph: Durganand Sinha (1922-1998) This thematic issue of I Psychology and Developing Societies i is dedicated to the memory of its founding editor, Durganand Sinha. Durganand Sinha was among those few Psychologists of the third world who helped in placing Psychology from India and other developing societies alongside mainstream World Psychology. [Extracted from the article]

As such, Professor Durganand Sinha, the Founding Editor of I Psychology and National Development i 35 years ago, stressed the importance of contextualising research, connecting it with its cultural traditions and developing indigenous and cultural psychology. Contributors review their program of research in early stages, review research conducted in various part of the world, and compare the results obtained in developed and developing societies. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a fundamental bias in society by viewing the elderly paternalistically, as a vulnerable segment of society who had to be protected while ignoring their need to be functionally independent and to engage and contribute to society. The goal of the Special Issue is to connect theory development with a program of research to understand how the theory has been developed, tested, and applied in different parts of the world and to examine how it promotes scientific progress and positive societal change. [Extracted from the article]

Kwang-Kuo Hwang provides numerous recommendations for how to develop an indigenous cultural psychology. These recommendations may be understood to suggest proceeding according to three stages: (1) beginning with philosophical reflection on the meaning of modernization and exploring the topics of reality and structure (where such reflections ground one's subsequent development of meta-models concerning self and social interaction), (2) adopting such meta-models as a hermeneutic for interpreting texts associated with one's cultural tradition, and (3) conducting experimental studies on the basis of hypotheses derived from such cultural interpretations. Hwang's philosophy is valuable in that it exemplifies a postmodern approach to cultural psychology that integrates traditional pre-modern forms of wisdom with modern methods of scientific investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous Psychologies is an approach/movement premised on cultural constitution of psychological functioning. Its most significant concept is 'culture' as it aims to be rooted in the culturally relevant and derived categories and theories of the participants whom it intends to study. However, the concept of 'culture' in Indigenous Psychologies is replete with several problematic assumptions that limit its potential to recover local knowledges and move beyond Western taxonomies. The paper takes a critical psychological lens to focus on these assumptions and critique them. It also attempts to draw the contours of Critical Indigenous Psychologies as a dispersed, disjointed field by addressing points of productive tension and predicaments that animate it. It suggests that indigenizing the 'critical' discourse and developing a 'critique' of indigenous discourse is the unending dialogue that Critical Indigenous Psychologies have to engage with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our particular concern here is with how decolonising psychology is interpreted (or misinterpreted) as well as its implications for making our discipline a truly liberating enterprise. We make three related arguments here: first, colonialism was a joint project between the colonisers and the colonised instead of being a one-way imposition of the worldviews of just the colonisers. Second, the constellation of the values of the colonised societies (before their colonisation) that facilitated the fruition of colonialism continues to be a part of the culture of these societies even after their freedom from colonial rule. Third, a version of indigenous psychology that is based on simplistic binaries such as Indigenous vs Western, Local vs Global, or Self vs Other is bound to fail in achieving the goal of substantive decolonisation. Moreover, there is a politics of indigeneity too as Edward Said in his classic Orientalism (1978) has argued that the concept of the orient itself was a construction of the West for an ideological purpose. Therefore, it is ultimately argued that the project of true or substantive decolonisation can be accomplished only by attaining a proper understanding of self and culture and this goal can be achieved by collaborating with others. Further, the culture of a society may be viewed as a set of disparate, often contradictory values which help to keep a check on the excesses of certain cultural tendencies by offering an internal critique of it. This way of looking at culture calls for viewing it as a dynamic process and necessitates a dialectical approach to examine the nature of the relationship between contradictory values of a culture. In this effort, the methodology of critical cultural psychoanalysis helps us to recognise the dialectical relation between the conscious and the unconscious/repressed aspect of the culture of the societies of the coloniser and the colonised and work through them to expand their consciousness by recovering/owning the repressed/disavowed aspect of their self. Finally, it is argued that like colonisation, substantive decolonisation will also involve a collaborative process between the colonisers and the colonised whereby they can recognise and own their selves in entirety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth across Canada, as is true across the United States, pose challenges to education systems to examine and alter professional practices in ways that support closing these gaps. Calls for more Indigenous school psychologists who might bring skills and perspectives to bear are long-standing, yet few graduate preparation programs have responded. Whether Indigenous students begin and do not complete programs, or never apply, it is incumbent on programs to examine the systemic underpinnings of the problem and respond with culturally responsive recruitment and retention strategies. In this article, one school psychology program shares programmatic contexts, recruitment processes, and retention strategies that have supported the preparation and graduation of dozens of Indigenous school psychologists from multiple Indigenous nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As detailed below, we will enact our commitment by enhancing author representation, content diversity and inclusion, submission and review processes, and diversity and collaboration within JHP leadership. We are also honored to work with both a Cultural Equity Editor and a Senior Cultural Equity Editor who provide recommendations and suggestions for actualizing our aspirational commitments to DEI at the Journal. I This statement was written in collaboration with i : Theopia Jackson, PhD, JHP Senior Cultural Equity Editor Sonasha Braxton, PhD, JHP Cultural Equity Editor Tabitha Moore, Doctoral Candidate, JHP Cultural Equity Editor Footnotes 1 The SAGE Publications DEI pledge can be found in https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/sage-journals-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-pledge. [Extracted from the article]

I present here an assessment of African Psychology (AP) to give insights about how it has been conceptualised and practised thus far as well as what its future holds. I begin with a focus on the centrality of culture and how AP treats the concept of culture. I will then attempt to respond to some concerns often raised by Africa-based psychologists who do not operate in and from a multiracial space about the relevance and legitimacy of AP. Theoretically, multiracial space is conceptualised not to mean the mere presence of people from diverse races in a particular space but also to the uneven distribution of power in spaces such as a country, state, university, or any community of people. Further, I attempt to argue for positioning of AP to contribute to global psychology. I will discuss implications for theory development, practice, curriculum design, and pedagogical practices as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous Americans are not well represented by mainstream psychology and its reductionistic tenets. As psychology developed, it could not help but to be implicitly biased by the surrounding hierarchical colonial culture—a culture in which Indigenous people and many others were conquered, oppressed, dehumanized, devalued, neglected, and excluded. An Indigenous worldview views humans as co-equal partners of an interdependent holistic system. Striving for healthy relationships with others is foundational to psychological health and well-being from an Indigenous perspective. Discrete entities (including self), independence, autonomy, and hierarchy are considered artificial mainstream conceptualizations that have negatively impacted the well-being of humans and the natural world. Indigenous American psychology appreciates the sacred nature of the whole and its entities, approaching professional psychology with the humility and respect that interacting with sacred entities warrants. Essential tenets of an Indigenous American Psychological Paradigm (IAPP) are discussed therein as an alternative to existing mainstream beliefs. An IAPP offers the ability to address intergenerational psychological problems holistically across time in ways that mainstream psychology has been unable. Psychology is ultimately strengthened by an ability to conceptualize psychology through the new lenses of alternative paradigms such as this one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walking in two worlds is a common metaphor Indigenous peoples use to describe their experiences navigating the differences between Indigenous and Western epistemological and ontological worldviews across various contexts. Despite wide support for this phenomenon, there have been few attempts to address Indigenous–Western cultural incongruities through structural changes in counseling psychology, although as a profession, it is well equipped to do so. Thus, we propose for counseling psychology to move toward the Indigenist ecological systems model (IESM) as an integrative framework for promoting Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies in science and practice. We provide a brief overview of IESM and a direct application of the model through a case illustration of Walking in Two Worlds, a psychotherapy group for Indigenous peoples. With IESM, we describe creating an Indigenous-informed clinical intervention that leverages Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies, prompting real ecological change. We conclude with implications IESM has for counseling psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological science has been biased towards Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic contexts. One indicator of better globalization is increasing authorship from Indigenous populations and less economically developed countries. This article considers the nature of research development in these contexts by analysing authorship from Fiji, a middle-income country in the Pacific Islands region. A review of Fijian psychological research literature up to December 2020 identified 131 publications. The majority of publications (59.7%) had no author based in Fiji at the time of study. Of the Fiji-based authors, most were associated with a single Fijian sample study or were based in Fiji but mainly co-authoring studies on international populations. Despite an apparent growth in publications, there remains a lack of research development to benefit understanding of the Indigenous population or to increase local research capacity. The findings are discussed with respect to how existing initiatives to include and develop research in smaller, low- and middle-income countries may not be sufficiently serving longer-term purposes to support the Indigenous communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

However, as Ting acknowledges, they were unable to publish in top-ranked journals because of the imbalance between indigenous psychology and mainstream psychology. Yang had envisioned a bottom-up movement in which monocultural indigenous psychology leads to cross-cultural indigenous psychology and eventually to a global psychology. Thus, neoliberalism may hide in the Trojan horse of mainstream psychology to undermine the development of genuine indigenous psychology. [Extracted from the article]

This study attempts to widen the conceptual space of resilience in (Western) psychology in order to better capture the resilience landscape of an ethnic minority group ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic—the Nuosu-Yi in Southwest China. Without decolonizing the construct of resilience, non-Western versions of coping with adversities cannot be properly understood. Our process of decolonization of resilience involved two steps: First, we conducted semistructured interviews with the target population (N = 21) to take inventory of their Indigenous notions of resilience. Second, for conceptual comparison, we mapped the themes and categories, derived from thematic analysis, of the interview data onto the conceptual space of the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA), which we used as proxy for mainstream conceptualizations of resilience. This mapping revealed multiple lacunae in the theoretical framework of RSA, and unique properties in the Indigenous approach to adversities in contrast. Far reaching theoretical and practical implications of this investigation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing one of the established theories from cross-cultural psychology and sociology, first it is shown that both China and India are collectivist cultures. Then the Chinese and Indian worldviews are compared to highlight fundamental similarities between the two cultures. Finally, it is shown how self-cultivation is emphasised in both China and India. Effort is made to show how ideas presented by Confucius and Lao Tsu are captured in the Indian culture and social behaviours. A number of issues are raised for the development of indigenous knowledge from multiple perspectives using various paradigms and methodology. It is hoped that the special issue and this article will stimulate researchers to bridge Chinese and Indian psychologies which may pave the path towards peaceful prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychology has a pervasive but shallow engagement with Confucian philosophy, mainly referencing its popular form as a part of Chinese tradition. This special issue takes a more systematic view of Confucianism as comprehensive philosophy. Drawing from New Confucianism, it is argued that the signal contribution of Confucianism to psychology as human (rather than natural) science is an ontology of the moral mind (heaven and humanity in union). This holistic ontology makes the cultivation of benevolence (仁) a lifelong mission for Confucianists. Practices of self-cultivation are exemplified by a case study of Zeng Guofan, a Qing Dynasty official and scholar, who combined academics, calligraphy, meditation, diary writing and self-reflection to refine his character, nurture and educate his family, and be of service to society. Second, Confucianism's traditional lack of interest in epistemology is addressed through the complementary (dialectical) principle of 'one principle, many manifestations', where methods of Western science can be incorporated into the investigation of practices such as brush calligraphy that are shown to have beneficial effects on mental and physical health. Confucianism can also be treated as an object of scientific inquiry: We find that even among highly educated Chinese people, understanding of Confucianism today is mostly fragmented and abstract. Confucian Psychology can be summarised as a psychology of aspirations for bettering the condition of humanity through character development and greater awareness of the situation to realise the endowment of moral mind. Finally, there are deep connections between Confucian and Indian psychology—both involve height psychology, a psychology of aspirations and for spiritual transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reasonability of the construction of classificatory rankings of societies and related theoretical implications are considered in this paper. I argue that existing classificatory rankings are based on the essentialist views and represent societies as homogenous entities whereas they ignore intra-societal variety. Moreover, the quantitative methodology and methods which underlie those rankings are based on the etic approach and use concepts and indicators which are constructed in the west and don't reflect indigenous socio-cultural dynamics. Besides, existing rankings simply equalize particular aspects to the whole societal development. For example, gross domestic product is equalized to the level of societal development; however, it actually can't fully reflect even the situation in the economic field. Though it can be still reasonable to use such impersonal indicators as gross domestic product or longevity which are based entirely on impersonal data and are free from subjective interpretations, for the exploration of general tendencies in particular fields, however, we should restrain ourselves from invalid generalizations. Krys et al. proposed to elaborate culturally sensitive approach, however, still remained in frame of the etic approach, whereas I argue that the only way for the comprehensive and deeper assessment of the level of societal development is to construct a fully emic and indigenous approach that implies the usage of only locally constructed concepts during the definition of indicators. Those indigenous concepts most probably won't be translatable to other languages that make the aim of the creation of a unified scale theoretically impossible; however, this is the only way for getting valid results at least concerning particular societies with current methodological apparatus. The solution to this issue requires further theoretical development and methodological innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are interested in the psychometric properties of the South African Personality Inventory, a personality measure developed to apply equally to speakers of all official languages in South Africa, by testing for measurement invariance across the four ethnocultural groups in South Africa. We conducted an exploratory structural equation modelling analysis to eliminate any restrictions on the variables and to allow them to covary. While measurement invariance was found on configural and metric levels, scalar invariance was not found. The results advance the aim of the South African Personality Inventory to comply with stipulations in South Africa's Employment Equity Act regarding fair and unbiased assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our comment on Held (2020) we attempt to deepen her criticism and reflection about epistemic violence while addressing the need for its elimination in psychological science. We acknowledge her argument about the prepositional divisions that emerge between two large groups of psychologies or psychologists (mainstream psychology vs. Indigenous and critical psychologies): from above and from below. In relation to these prepositional problems, we agree that the explanations derived from these divisions in terms of of, for, and about are confusing. However, we consider that Held's reflections concerning the set of prepositions in the production of knowledge based on "of, from, and for the other" neglect another alternative that is "with the other." According to this last point, we briefly present Bakhtin's theoretical notion of co-authorship to argue that generally, epistemic violence is committed by not recognizing the voices of the participants involved. In addition, we use examples of our work with Indigenous communities in Brazil to show that generating knowledge together and with Indigenous peoples is a valid and necessary way to eliminate epistemic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Held (2020) provides an admirable overview of the importance of and challenges associated with epistemic violence. However, likely due to length restraints, she did not attend to an important consideration related to her discussion of epistemic violence: that objective knowledge is not possible. The view that objective knowledge is not possible can be interpreted as a species of relativism. This commentary connects discussions of epistemic violence to an ancient argument against relativism, arguing that those concerned with epistemic violence ought to also be concerned with the potentially dangerous belief that relativism is true. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comment responds to Held's (2020) analyses of Indigenous and critical psychologies, not by providing line-for-line refutations of arguments, but by laying out some of the larger issues in those areas of research and practice. The argument clarifies assumptions and misunderstandings by looking at the relationship between critical and Indigenous psychologies, power and violence, objectivity, and the regulative role of prepositions. It is hoped that a clearer and broader understanding of those psychologies can emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the concept of epistemic violence and its two antecedents, three strategies—developing Indigenous constructs and theories, going beyond the search for universals, and eliminating structural causes of violence—are proposed to generate dialogue between researchers for epistemic harmony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Held (2020) missed one central concern of Indigenous psychology (IP), namely that hegemony of knowledge production in mainstream psychology (MP) is to be resisted. In this commentary, I identify two prevalent assumptions in MP that warrant resistance: first, to gain knowledge of the other is to categorize them; second, the use of neutral categories can reduce epistemic violence against the culturally different other. My critique is based on a cultural analysis of strong-ties versus weak-ties rationalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Held (2020) portrays critical and Indigenous psychologists as subscribing to an epistemological "anti-objectivism" that inhibits their ability to combat oppression. She believes that their anti-objectivism yields a troublesome relativism in which truth is overly context-dependent; what counts as true knowledge for one Indigenous group may not count for another. This commentary explores whether critical and Indigenous psychologists are strict "anti-objectivists," as Held contends. It also challenges the need for epistemological consistency, while encouraging a shift from "objectivism" and "subjectivism" as essentialized states to "objecting" and "subjecting" as complementary ways to explore and study the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A primary target of Indigenous psychologists and critical psychologists is the epistemic violence found in mainstream research. The epistemic violence derives from two alleged mainstream tendencies: (a) omitting concepts/conceptions of othered peoples and (b) interpreting observed group differences to be caused by inherent inferiorities of othered peoples. In seeking remedial research practice, some theoretical psychologists distinguish (a) psychological knowledge from and for the folk, which they advocate and (b) psychological "knowledge" about the folk, the alleged source of objectification of othered peoples. Though seemingly self-evident, this for/about prepositional divide may not be clear. First, mainstream epistemic violence often depends on folk notions. Second, the use in science of folk concepts/conceptions has advanced oppressive purposes, whereas some mainstream findings may serve progressive goals. I exemplify with race concepts, especially racialized essentialism and dehumanization, and I demonstrate how mainstream science sometimes reveals mechanisms of othering that may inform progressive social reform efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we use Birch and Cobb's argument for the application of dual paradigms in the natural sciences and theoretical advances in Chinese indigenous psychology to indicate how a process-relational perspective can contribute to the development of psychology as a global science able to represent the full human experience. We first review the philosophical foundations of mainstream psychology, which emphasizes substance thinking and methodological individualism, and highlight its limitations for supporting truly culture-inclusive global research. Scholars in other natural science disciplines have likewise encountered limitations with a substance approach. Birch and Cobb described a paradigm shift from a substance perspective focused on entities to a process perspective focused on relationships and advocated that a multi-paradigm approach be adopted in natural science research. Chinese indigenous psychologists have made a similar theoretical argument with respect to the field of psychology, but there are few examples of the application of their ideas. We trace the development of Chinese filial piety as a psychological concept to demonstrate in detail how a multi-paradigm approach encompassing a Chinese process-relational perspective and indigenous research can harmonize with the mainstream perspective to contribute to culture-inclusive global psychological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the construct of śraddhā which is derived from a sacred Hindu text, the Bhagavad-Gītā is explicated. The analysis of text resulted in nine themes, and many behavioural outcomes of śraddhā such as not finding faults in others. Jñāna or knowledge is seen as mediating between śraddhā and mokṣa or liberation. This relationship is moderated by tatparaḥ (or eager engagement in the spiritual practice one has chosen) and saṃyatendriyaḥ (or practicing self-restraint). Śraddhā is considered as one of the highest virtues. It is a gift of God. It always bears fruits which carry over to the next life. The highest quality of śraddhā is that of a devotee. From interpersonal perspective, śraddhā is an emotion one has for another person, a deity, God or śāstra (scriptural text or instructions in such texts that guide human behaviour). Śraddhā reflects the basic nature of people. Absence of śraddhā causes all efforts to go in vain. The nine themes that are discussed present a thick description of this indigenous construct and open avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous (Māori) psychologies of sexual health occur at the cultural nexus of Indigenous and Western knowledge, colonising influence and intervention. Formal school-based sexuality education holds potential to intervene in this psychological space by decolonising notions of Māori sexuality, relationships and reproduction. This research utilises an Indigenous feminist (Mana Wāhine) methodology and interviews with 43 Māori participants (26 women and 17 men). We explore how Māori knowledges (mātauranga Māori), responsive to the surrounding colonising context, were interwoven through four themes: relationships, reproductive responsibility, open conversations about sexuality and contraceptive education. Indigenous knowledges can contribute to good sexual health psychologies for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ideologies can legitimate inequality and undermine collective action. Yet research overlooks the effects culture-specific ideologies—ideologies that develop within a specific sociohistorical context—have on collective action support. We address this oversight by arguing that two culture-specific ideologies that deny the contemporary relevance of past injustices (historical negation) and reject Indigenous culture from the nation’s identity (symbolic exclusion) undermine support for collective action on behalf of the disadvantaged (namely, Māori—New Zealand’s Indigenous population). As predicted, historical negation and symbolic exclusion had independent negative cross-lagged effects on collective action support amongst Māori (N = 561) and New Zealand European (N = 4,104) participants. The cross-lagged effects of collective action support on historical negation and symbolic exclusion, however, were nonsignificant. Thus, the relationships these culture-specific ideologies have with collective action support are unidirectional. Our results highlight the need to incorporate culture-specific ideologies into models of collective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origins of ‘indigenous psychology’ go back mainly to Asia during the 1990s. Its declared objective is to arrive at psychologies which, unlike the American mainstream, are adapted to the needs of particular cultures/countries. The literature dealing with it, including both journals and books, is critically surveyed. Accounts are provided of the ways in which specific topics are treated, such as: definitions of ‘Indigenous psychology’; its relation to cross-cultural psychology, and how the former’s goals might be achieved. Most of the ideas discussed remain at a high level of abstraction, and a striking lack of consistency in the views of different authors is demonstrated. There are frequent suggestions that a universal psychology will eventually be created from indigenous psychologies across the globe, but no sensible ways in which that might happen are mentioned. It is the general lack of realism in the proposals, and the fact that it is questionable whether any indigenous psychologies actually exist, which help to explain the subsequent decline of the movement. Nonetheless, it did leave a legacy in so far as the term ‘indigenous psychology’ has become part of the vocabulary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reproduction of Indigenous people, who have experienced ongoing cultural and ethnic marginalization, has long been a source of contention in colonizing contexts. There is scope to further decolonize and reinvigorate traditional Indigenous knowledge that has relevancy and utility in contemporary lives. The present article engages a pūrākau (narrative) methodology (Lee, 2009) to construct a culturally relevant PhD literature review and synthesize a range of source materials to develop an account of traditional Māori knowledge (mātauranga Māori) pertaining to reproduction in a New Zealand context. Three areas are explored based on their novelty and distinctiveness from Western accounts of reproduction: connections between humans, spiritual domains and the natural environment; contextualization within social and familial structures; and a unique and refreshing view of masculine and feminine embodiment. Conclusions are drawn on novel implications of this knowledge for research and health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study aims to examine the salutary effects and interactions of three Chinese indigenous well-being (CIWB) constructs, namely relationship harmony (advocated by Confucianism), dialectical coping (derived from Taoism), and nonattachment (based on Buddhism) on mental health. Participants were 262 Taiwanese college students. Results revealed that the three CIWB constructs showed distinct associations with mental health. Relationship harmony was related negatively to psychological distress and positively to meaning in life and happiness. Dialectical coping predicted higher levels of positive affect and meaning in life, whereas nonattachment was the only and strongest protective factor against negative affect and psychological distress. Overall, nonattachment demonstrated the most adaptive effects on mental health. Additionally, moderation effects between dialectical coping and nonattachment on self-esteem, psychological distress, and happiness were observed. These findings underscore the importance of simultaneously investigating CIWB constructs to capture their unique and interactive contribution to psychological adjustment. Practical and research implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, “indigenous psychology” has blossomed into a global movement that seeks to tailor psychological knowledge and practices for use in other-than-western contexts. Prompted by the often apolitical presentation of indigenization imperatives in academic discourse, this article critically examines conceptualizations of “culture” in the South African Journal of Psychology and Psychology in Society between 1980 and 1994. In a discourse analysis of 48 journal articles, three cultural discourses are identified. Discourse 1 conceptualizes “culture” on the basis of an essentialist ontology and advocates a position of cultural relativism and Discourse 2 draws on a social constructionist ontology that advances an anti-essentialist position, while Discourse 3 relies on a neo-primordial ontology that favors a pluralist position. By identifying the discursive functions of these formations in relation to the broader South African political context, this article reveals striking parallels between psychological and political cultural discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Virtue Existential Career Model (VEC) is a Chinese career development model based on the Classic of Changes. It is designed to supplement the person-environment fit paradigm of Taiwan's 12-Year Basic Education for junior high school students. We adopted an action research approach with two parts, reflection-on-action and critical-emancipatory. An easy-to-use VEC career curriculum and a career information system (Career Genesis; CG) were developed by a team of staff members from government agencies (Tainan Department of Education and Student Counseling Centers), junior high schools, and the Chinese Career Research Center of National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan. The outcome of this project was strong on fostering interconnectedness. Implementing our VEC curriculum and CG to 30 junior high school students received statistically significant immediate increases in resilience, adaptation, and liking of career decision. The feedback and reflections suggest that mandating, attracting, and simplifying are useful strategies to promote our VEC model as well as to facilitate social change and create a multiple-win situation for all parties involved. This approach also follows the tao (道) of the Classic of Changes to provide new knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the influence of Erica Burman’s book Deconstructing Developmental Psychology in one university department over two decades. To illustrate, three colleagues describe their separate geographical and theoretical journeys towards critical study of human development. Ongoing influences of Burman’s work in Aotearoa New Zealand are outlined. In particular, Burman’s view—that development is socially constructed within particular cultural, economic and historical circumstances—has become central to our research and university curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To challenge the Taiwan Ministry of Education's (TMOE) dominant enforcement of a person-environment fit model, the Chinese Career Research Center incorporated yin-yang alternation principles from the Classic of Changes (I Ching, Yi Jing or 易經) to develop the model of career development touching the sky yet grounded (TSG) and corresponding practice guidelines, a career website (CCN), and four career service projects. Using Lewin's (1946) cyclical-spiral process of action research, CCN and TSG service projects were promoted to complement the TMOE's fit model, and feedback was utilised to revise our TSG model and its applications. Yin-yang alternation principles and the four stages of chien (the creative) from the Classic of Changes were applied to develop social action strategies. Social change was indicated by counsellors’ and students’ changes in their career views, as well as the TMOE's direct financial support for TSG service projects. This progress is encouraging for whoever is interested in developing culture-inclusive indigenous psychology with practical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is claimed via analysis of Shu-Hsien Liu's seminal book Understanding Confucian Philosophy that contemporary Confucianism offers: (1) a set of ultimate concerns that can be used to guide life and scholarly endeavour; (2) an axiomatic world view, and a generative model of human nature that not only accords with empirical evidence, but is highly adaptive in organising society; (3) an epistemology that is appropriate for social science research on social change. These qualities suggest that contemporary Confucianism can inform psychological research in a manner that goes far deeper than merely describing popular tendencies among culturally Chinese people. It may be used in constructing a form of social science with depth and utility in addressing both practical and existential concerns of scholars and ordinary people in society that is not restricted to Chinese societies alone, but any society in need of inspiration in seeking to construct humanist ethics for research and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of psychology has been largely developed in Europe and the United States. It thus has close ties to the cultural traditions of those particular societies. As a result, the discipline and practice of psychology are largely culture-bound, limited in its origins, concepts, and empirical findings to only this small portion of the world. The discipline is also culture-blind, largely ignoring the influence of the role of culture in shaping the development and display of human behaviour. The result has been the dominating position of a Western Academic Scientific Psychology in relation to other cultural perspectives. Challenges to, and some possible solutions for, these problems have come from some recent regional and national conferences. In particular, the Nassau Declaration from the Caribbean Regional Conference of Psychology in 2011 and the Capetown Declaration from the International Congress of Psychology in 2012 have highlighted widespread concern for this continuing imbalance in international psychology. This article draws on concepts and strategies in psychology (particularly cross-cultural and intercultural psychology) to propose some remedies to these problems. It is based on a universalist vision for the discipline; this view asserts that basic psychological processes are common to our human species, while their development and expression are culturally shaped. The eventual goal is to achieve a global psychology that incorporates concepts and findings from societies and cultures from all parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article draws upon insights from Gary S. Gregg to sketch an outline of periods of psychological development in one MENA (Middle East North Africa) society, ancient Israel, fleshing it out with select examples from the Bible. Cross-cultural psychology is the most appropriate discipline for pursuing this project. Six stages from infancy to adulthood are investigated constituting a first step in developing a suitable model for similar future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year is 1884. Somewhere in Central Africa is a vast Bantu kingdom known as luBemba. The people are abaBemba. Somewhere else, and unbeknownst to abaBemba, European nations are sharing African land including that of abaBemba. Consequent to this “scramble for Africa,” abaBemba find themselves in an arbitrary amalgamation of 70-plus ethnic groups. The amalgam is Northern Rhodesia. Bemba sociopolitical systems collapse. Young men are forced into mine labor for tax money. Mine townships bring together cultures from Africa, India, and Britain. For abaBemba, this experience is characterized by a multilayered psychological destabilization. Taking advantage of the onset of the written text, Bemba authors delineate for their kinsfolk an Afrocentric space around their new sociopolitical reality. These novelists are neither psychologists nor conventional philosophers; yet their literary treatment of the African psyche is profound. From one such novelist, this article draws insights for Afrocentric psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relevance debate in psychology can be described as discourse which calls for the discipline to become more socially valuable and accessible to those who purportedly need it. Literature suggests that there is a socio-historical dimension to relevance discourse that is frequently overlooked by those engaging in the debate, resulting in a typically ahistorical and axiomatic presentation. It is therefore argued that an historical perspective on the relevance debate is necessary for an informed consideration of its attending issues. This paper compares relevance discourse from South Africa (1974-1994) and the United States of America (1960-1980) by means of a thematic analysis of journal articles published during these periods in the South African Journal of Psychology and American Psychologist, respectively. The analysis yielded six key analytic themes: social upheaval; the pureapplied dichotomy in psychology; the role of psychology in socio-political matters; the place of human values in science; equity in psychology; and indigenising psychology. The first five themes are common to both the American and South African debates. Consequently, it is argued that the two debates arose in similar social contexts and that, in particular, the relevance debate is associated with conditions of social upheaval. This historicisation of relevance discourse permits a more critical and accurate understanding of the relationship between the debate and contemporary society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies explore the structure and psychological makeup of jeitinho, a Brazilian indigenous construct associated with problem-solving strategies in strong hierarchies. Study 1 used a scenario approach with nonstudent participants and demonstrated that jeitinho can be described by a three-dimensional structure: corruption, creativity, and social norm breaking. Study 2 used individual and social norm scenarios in nonstudent samples and demonstrated that moral leniency is associated with more corruption and social norm breaking. Furthermore, only in the personal but not the social norm condition was greater social dominance orientation associated with more corruption and social norm breaking. Jeitinho is not a monolitical construct, but it is a complex sociocultural strategy that has distinct functional components at the personal and normative levels. Theoretical advances in the understanding of social norms and indigenous psychology by examining both culture-specific and general social-psychological processes are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three articles in this special edition of the Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology encompass a range of approaches within cross-cultural psychology. Adrian Furnham's (2011) culture shock shows how academic psychology can be applied to, and helps to inform a popular concept. John Berry's (2011) acculturation theory demonstrates how focused theory and empirical data can align with a national agenda. Anthony J. Marsella and Ann Marie Yamada's (2011) socioconstructionist critique of mainstream clinical psychology and psychiatric practices illustrate how epistemology and indigenous psychology can challenge institutional practices. They are united in rejecting a culture-blind psychology of the mainstream. They differ by referencing largely separate but nonetheless complementary literatures on cultures of relevance to the Pacific Rim region. Taken together, these three articles combine meaningfully to illustrate how Pacific Rim psychology might benefit from having (1) a definition of itself with Hawaii and the Pacific Island Nations as the centre and hub for the broader Pacific Rim that includes East Asia and the Western American seaboard; (2) a focus on action, particularly action research and its cyclical communication process of planning, action, evaluation and feedback; and (3) an interdisciplinary orientation where interconnectedness with such institutions as mass media, government, and clinical and psychiatric practices, as well as within psychology itself, underpin and inform research practice and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although self-care is often touted as being important to counselors and psychotherapists, historically little has been done within graduate school to provide future therapists with self-care strategies. This article proposes that mindfulness training offers a promising approach to therapist self-care and introduces qualitative research on the long-term impact of mindfulness training to substantiate this claim. Sixteen former students who are now practicing counselors were interviewed. Thirteen of them reported continuing to practice mindfulness techniques. Participants indicated that mindfulness continued to influence both their personal lives and self-care practices leading to positive influences in physical, emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal well-being. In their professional lives, participants described ways of incorporating mindfulness into their way of being a therapist, their interventions, and how they conceptualize their clients’ issues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A comprehensive conception of personality would incorporate dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and life narratives considered within evolutionary and cultural contexts (McAdams & Pals, 2006). In this article, I review evolutionary, cross-cultural, indigenous, and cultural psychology perspectives as they address these different aspects of personality across cultures. Evolutionary psychologists have focused most on evolved human nature (e.g., species-typical psychological mechanisms) and have recently considered evolutionary bases for heritable variation in dispositional traits. Cross-cultural psychologists have primarily addressed the universality of dispositional traits (e.g., the Five Factor Model) and characteristic adaptations (e.g., values, motives, and beliefs). Indigenous psychologists elaborate salient personality constructs for specific cultural groups, raising the question of whether these constructs represent culture-unique traits or culture-relevant expressions of universal dimensions (i.e., characteristic adaptations). Cultural psychologists de-emphasize dispositional traits, propose cultural differences in characteristic adaptations (e.g., conceptions of personality and self) and life narratives, and investigate dynamic constructivist perspectives on culture. After the review, I consider what an integration of these perspectives might look like and offer suggestions for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]