Psychology in South Africa Flashcards
What is the relevance debate?
Refers to the question of psychologies relevance.
The views are still Euro-American centric (an imported mechanism)
No collaboration of traditional knowledge
A talking healing method but limited to language
What are 4 groups to consider in psychology in South Africa?
PIRSA
- 1960’s, White Afrikaans only
OASSA
- 1983, MH professionals of different stripes, race wasn’t a factor to distinguish
Psychology and Apartheid Committee
- radical activists, mainly black bodies
PASA
- Combination of races but 99% white still
NOTE PSYSA 1994
What does psychology look like post apartheid?
Still represents a white-middle class, capitalist, ethnocentric and colonised world view
Questions of psychologies role in social world and it as a liberatory practice
There is an inertia to psychology which makes it difficult to make meaningful changes
Hegemony remains the same despite the people changing
What are the 4 drivers of the relevance debate?
1) Curriculum issues
- Still based in a Euro-American centric bias
- Institutions are not changing even if curriculum appears to be
2) Research issues
- There is a side-lining of contextual issues
- There is a poor uptake of government priorities
3) Professional Issues
- Race and language
- 15% of psychologists in SA are black
- Most therapy is conducted in English or Afrikaans still
4) Training
- Selection criteria and panels
Why is there a lack of progress in the growth of psychology in South Africa?
1) Personal Biographies
- Individuals are in control of the agenda but this doesn’t account for structural and institutional factors
2) Regulatory Authorities
- Rules and what is taught is restricting
3) Institutional Cultures
- Curriculum changes but the institution remains the same
4) Broader Societal Factors
- Disciplines are a reflection of society itself
5) The discipline itself
How does the relevance debate show itself in American and European psychology historically?
State of crisis in the 1960/70’s
Artifact crisis arises
- question of validity and reliability of psychological experiments and questions of psychological neutrality.
Ethics Crisis
- issues with researchers such as Milgram, social psychologists call for real world application of experiments
-NOTES SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE NEVER HOLDS TRUE FOR LONG
In Europe
- thought psychology to be too atheoretical and also based on an American ideology that doesn’t agree with their political ideologies
Why does the relevance debate never seem to end?
Humans are sentient and ever-changing
As generation gaps become smaller application of knowledge to a society changes.
What is an irrelevant psychology?
One that has little to offer society
What do we need to consider when thinking of a relevant psychology?
How much it can benefit society?
What is public good?
Which public are we looking at?
What settings can be understand relevance under?
1) Social relevance
- Discipline must contribute to human welfare
2) Cultural relevance
- Afrocentrism and accessibility
3) Market relevance
- international benchmark
NOTE SA is competing with international knowledge
ALSO ask if relevance is an empty signifier if it can mean different things in each setting.
What do we mean by disciplinary DNA?
What makes psychology so that it never ceases to solve the relevance debate.
1) Failure to define psychology
-Psychology is considered a pre-paradigmatic subject
- It does not have one fundamental question, thus leaves space for various camps
2) Basic and Applied distinctions
- Basic psych refers to a fundamental storehouse of knowledge. It plays an authority role.
- Applied psych refers to basic being applied to the real world. It must be based on basic.
Basic has no meaning without applied but applied cannot be without basic
3) Indecision about cognitive interest
4) Difficulty theorising rapid social change
Where can violence occur?
Between individuals. interpersonally, domestic, gender-based, structural etc.
What does misrecognition refer to?
The idea that there is a lack of acknowledgement of the existence of the Other.
Hegel’s dialectical is useful here.
What does Hegel’s Master-Slave dialectic say?
The world is divided by domination and subjugation
Masters need to be recognised. They do this by vanquishing the slave. But they seek acknowledgement from the slave that he cannot provide due to his status. Thus the master is left in a constant state of impulse and drive for recognition.
What is alienation in relation to relevance?
Alienation is the concept that bridges the inner and outer worlds. We do not exist internally without the external and thus this influences knowledge production.
Note in a hyper capitalist culture we are moving further into patterns of alienation.
