Indigenous psychology: Going nowhere slowly?

Abstract

In this article, I examine the three guiding principles of the indigenous psychology movement: ontological relativism, epistemological relativism, and the insider perspective. Using African psychology and Islamic psychology as case examples, I contend that these principles-along with the continued neglect of the question of disciplinarity-prevent the establishment of indigenous psychology as a coherent field of inquiry. I submit further that the local-global polarity is a nonissue and that a focus on materiality rather than culture can form the basis for a more viable indigenous psychology.

Islamic Psychology: Expanding Beyond the Clinic

“…This definition naturally points to and accommodates the great diversity of Islam/Muslims, and therefore shows how diverse IP can be. Other work includes exploring collaborative research methods (Alias & Noor, 2009;Kaplick, Chaudhary, Hasan, Yusuf, & Keshavarzi, 2019) or other matters related to the field (Sahin, 2013;Long, 2019).…”

Positivism versus realism: Two approaches of indigenous psychologies.

“…Allwood (2019) concentrated his discourse on the methodology of validation (i.e., verification/falsification of a scientific proposition) without paying much attention to issues related to the ontology and epistemology for heuristics of theoretical construction. Long (2019) made the same mistake when he examined the two target articles in accordance with the three guiding principles of the IP movement: ontological relativism, epistemological relativism, and the insider perspective (Ratner, 2008). The three guiding principles are applicable to most IP researchers, but they are not applicable to Bhaskar’s (1975, 1979) critical realism, which advocated for ontological realism , but not ontological relativism .…”

Towards a Model of Valued Human Cognitive Abilities: An African Perspective Based on a Systematic Review

“…It is against this background that the quest of this special issue to ask of African psychologists "what Africa can do for psychological science" is a relevant question at this point. We are at an epoch where debates are ongoing about the place and role of indigenous psychologies in a global psychology (Nwoye, 2015;Jahoda, 2016;Allwood, 2018;Long, 2019).…”