Abstract
Throughout its history as an academic discipline, psychology has used Western subjects as the basis for research and theory building. The resultant models are shot through with assumptions about the nature of the person presented as universal truths rather than ones contextualized in time and place. This chapter interrogates some of the assumptions of Western psychology to open up a conversation about the diversity of human experience in health and illness. It draws from cultural constructivist and critical anthropological perspectives that view notions of self as situated and shaped by local interpretive practices inscribed within and constrained by historical, political economic contexts. Notions of self are viewed as cultural constructions that reflect collective understandings of phenomena, experience, and behavior. By laying bare these contexts, the chapter shows some of the building blocks of psychological structure and function, the range of methodologies needed to advance this exploration, and the political constraints that continue to marginalize or silence diverse voices and perspectives.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abimbola, W. (1975). Iwapele: The concept of good character in Ifa literary corpus. In W. Abimbola (Ed.), Yoruba oral tradition: Poetry in music dance and drama. Ibadan: University of Ibadan Press.
Adeofe, L. (2004). Personal identity in African metaphysics. In L. M. Brown (Ed.), African philosophy: New and traditional perspectives (pp. 69–83). New York: Oxford University Press.
Adeponle, A. B., Whitley, R., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2012). Cultural contexts and constructions of recovery. In A. Rudnick (Ed.), Recovery of people with mental illness: Philosophical and related perspectives (pp. 109–132). New York: Oxford University Press.
Appiah, K. A. (2004). Akan and Euro-American concepts of the person. In L. M. Brown (Ed.), African philosophy: New and traditional perspectives (pp. 21–32). New York: Oxford University Press.
Bauman, Z., & Raud, R. (2015). Practices of selfhood. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bharati, A. (1985). The self in Hindu thought and action. In A. J. Marsella, G. DeVos, & F. L. K. Hsu (Eds.), Culture and self: Asian and Western perspectives (pp. 185–230). New York: Taylor & Francis.
Bojuwoye, O. (2015). Counseling and psychotherapy in Nigeria: Dayo’s story. In R. Moodley, M. Lengyell, R. Wu, & U. Mazablo (Eds.), International counseling case studies handbook (pp. 31–33). Alexandria: American Counseling Association.
Césaire, A. (1955/1972). Discourse on colonialism. New York: New York University Press.
Choi, S. C., & Choi, S. H. (2001). Cheong: The socioemotional grammar of Koreans. International Journal of Group Tensions, 30, 69.
Church, A. T. (2000). Culture and personality: Toward an integrated cultural trait psychology. Journal of Personality, 68(4), 651–703.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1903/2008). The souls of black folk. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Eze, M. O. (2008). What is African communitarianism? Against consensus as a regulative ideal. South African Journal of Philosophy, 27(4), 386–399.
Fanon, F. (1967). Black skin, white masks. New York: Grove Press.
Heine, S. J. (2001). Self as cultural product: An examination of East Asian and North American selves. Journal of Personality, 69(6), 881–905.
Heine, S. J. (2015). Cultural psychology (3rd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton.
Heinrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). Beyond WEIRD: Towards a broad-based behavioral science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), 111–135.
Kirmayer, L. J. (2004). The cultural diversity of healing: Meaning, metaphor and mechanism. British Medical Bulletin, 69(1), 33–48.
Kirmayer, L. J. (2006). Beyond the ‘new cross-cultural psychiatry’: Cultural biology, discursive psychology and the ironies of globalization. Transcultural Psychiatry, 43(1), 126–144.
Kirmayer, L. J. (2007). Psychotherapy and the cultural concept of the person. Transcultural Psychiatry, 44, 232–257.
Kirmayer, L. J. (2012). Cultural competence and evidence-based practice in mental health: Epistemic communities and the politics of pluralism. Social Science and Medicine, 75(2), 249–256.
Kirmayer, L. J., & Ramstead, M. J. (2017). Embodiment and enactment in cultural psychiatry. In C. Durt, T. Fuchs, & C. Tewes (Eds.), Embodiment, enaction, and culture: Investigating the constitution of the shared world (pp. 397–422). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kirmayer, L. J., Fletcher, C., & Watt, R. (2008). Locating the ecocentric self: Inuit ethnopsychology, identity and community. In L. J. Kirmayer & G. G. Valaskakis (Eds.), Healing traditions: The mental health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada (pp. 289–314). Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Kitayama, S., Karasawa, M., Curhan, K. B., Ryff, C. D., & Markus, H. R. (2010). Independence and interdependence predict health and wellbeing: Divergent patterns in the United States and Japan. Frontiers in Psychology, 1, 163.
Kitayama, S., & Park, H. (2007). Cultural shaping of self, emotion, and well-being: How does it work? Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1, 202–222.
Kpanake, L. (2015). Counseling and psychotherapy in West Africa: Mazabalo’s story. In R. Moodley, M. Lengyell, R. Wu, & U. Mazablo (Eds.), International counseling case studies handbook (pp. 23–30). Hoboken: Wiley.
Kpanake. L. (2018). Cultural concepts of the person and mental health in Africa. Transcultural Psychiatry, 55, 198–218.
Lazarus, N. (2011). The postcolonial unconscious. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Liu, J. H. (2017). Neo‐Confucian epistemology and Chinese philosophy: Practical postulates for actioning psychology as a human science. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 20(2), 137–149.
Loomba, A. (2015). Colonialism/postcolonialism (3rd ed.). London: Routledge.
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253.
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (2010). Culture and self: A cycle of mutual constitution. Perspectives in Psychological Science, 5, 420–430.
Mauss, M. (1985). A category of the human mind: The notion of person; the notion of self (Originally published in 1935). In M. Carrithers, S. Collins, & S. Lukes (Eds.), The category of the person: Anthropology, philosophy, history (pp. 1–25). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Mbiti, J. S. (1969). African religion and philosophy. London: Heinemann.
Moghaddam, F. M. (1987). Psychology in the three worlds: As reflected by the crisis in social psychology and the move toward indigenous third-world psychology. American Psychologist, 42(10), 912.
Oishi, S. (2010). The psychology of residential mobility: Implications for the self, social relationships, and well-being. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(1), 5–21.
Okazaki, S., David, E. J. R., & Abelmann, N. (2008). Colonialism and psychology of culture. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(1), 90–106.
Sampson, E. E. (2000). Reinterpreting individualism and collectivism. Their religious roots and monologic versus dialogic person-other relationship. American Psychologist, 55(12), 1425–1432.
Smedley, A., & Smedley, B. D. (2005). Race as biology is fiction, racism as a social problem is real: Anthropological and historical perspectives on the social construction of race. American Psychologist, 60(1), 16–26.
Steele, C. M. (2010). Whistling Vivaldi: And other clues to how stereotypes affect us and what we can do. New York: W. W. Norton.
Triandis, H. C., Bontempo, R., Villareal, M. J., Asai, M., & Lucca, N. (1988). Individualism and collectivism: Cross-cultural perspectives on self-ingroup relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(2), 323.
Tu, W. M. (1985). Selfhood and otherness in Confucian thought. In A. J. Marsella, G. Devos, & F. L. K. Hsu (Eds.), Culture and self: Asian and Western perspectives (pp. 231–251). New York: Tavistock.
Vignoles, V. L., Owe, E., Becker, M., Smith, P. B., Easterbrook, M. J., Brown, R., et al. (2016). Beyond the ‘East–West’ dichotomy: Global variation in cultural models of selfhood. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(8), 966–1000. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000175.
Vitebsky, P. (2001). Shamanism. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
wa Thiongʼo, Ngũgĩ. (1986). Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kirmayer, L.J., Adeponle, A., Dzokoto, V.A.A. (2018). Varieties of Global Psychology: Cultural Diversity and Constructions of the Self. In: Fernando, S., Moodley, R. (eds) Global Psychologies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95816-0_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95816-0_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95815-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95816-0
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)