Hangzhou, March 2011Prof. Dr. Hora Tjitra & Gao Li, Zhejiang University

Indigenous  PsychologyIncorporating “Culture” in psychology research from the indigenous perspective

The universalist approachIt aims to discover abstract, nomothetic, and general laws of human functioning (Koch &Leary, 1985; Shepard 1987).An example of etic approch

The contextualist approachEach culture should be understood from its own frame of the reference, including its own ecological, historical, philosophical, and religious context.An example of emic approach

Integrationist approachRecognizes the importance of integrating the context and content of psychological knowledge in our research for universals.

Research approaches to explain cultural differences

Cultural differences

Outline

Research approaches to explain cultural differences

Two types of Indigenization

Analysis of culture

Religion, culture and science

---Confucianism

Three impositions of psychology and the indigenous psychologies approach

Evaluation  Studies    of  Cross-­‐Cultural  Training

4

14  years  in  Germany

7  years  in  China

Born  and  grew  up  in  Indonesia

Prof. Dr. Hora Tjitra - Cross-cultural and Business Psychology

Dipl.-Psych., Technical University of BraunschweigOrganizational Psychology and Human Resource Management

Dr. Phil., University of RegensburgIntercultural Psychology and Strategic Management

Executive Education, INSEADHR Management in Asia

Two types of Indigenization

Indigenization from without Transporting psychological theories,

concepts, and methods and modifying them to fit the local cultural context

Derived etic approach is an example

External imposition

Accommodative paradigm

Indigenous knowledge is treated as an auxiliary source, not as the primary source of knowledge.

Translate traditional philosophical and religious texts into psychological concepts or theories, and then empirically verify.

The current psychological knowledge can be described as the psychology of psychologists, not the psychology of the lay public.

Indigenization from within A shift in the scientific paradigm, a

transformative change in which theories, concepts, and methods are developed from within, using a bottom-up approach.

The indigenous psychologies advocated by Kim and colleagues is an example

Advocate examining knowledge, skills, and beliefs which people have about themselves, and studying these aspects in their natural contexts

The goal is to create a more rigorous, systematic, universal science that can be theoretically and empirically verified, rather than naively assumed.

Analysis of culture

Cultural products ( e.g. music) Psychological constructs ( e.g. attitudes) Organized bodies of knowledge

( e.g. language)

Culture outsider

Participate in the creation and re-creation of these products

Culture Insider

e.g. burn a piece of cloth vs. a USA flag

Understanding culture from without (1)

Traditional psychology: culture was considered to be contextual factor and not included in the research design. The goal of the psychology is to discover objective, abstract, and universal relationships between independent variables and dependent variables.

Dependent1. Response

2. Behavior

3. response

Independent1. Stimulus

2. Culture

3. information

Positivistic model of causality

Intervening1. Black Box

2. Subject

3. Central

Processing unit

Understanding culture from without (2)

Cross-cultural psychology: culture is treated as a quasi-independent variable and behavior as a dependent variable.

Indigenous psychology: culture is an emergent property of individuals and groups interacting with their and human environment. It’s through culture that we think, feel, behave, and interact with reality.

Understanding a culture from within

The indigenous psychologies approach recognized two types of knowledge:

1. Analytical, semantic, and declarative knowledge 2. Phenomenological, episodic, and procedural knowledge

The indigenous psychologies approach advocates a transaction model of the causality that focus on the generative and proactive aspects.

Situation

Event

Action

Performance

Agent

Meaning

Intention

Goal

Causal Linkage

1

Causal Linkage

2

Transactional model of causality

Religion, culture and science ---Confucianism

• Dao constitutes the very essence, basis, and unit of life that perpetuates order, goodness, and righteousness.( Lew,1977) e.g. Xiao Dao

• Dao manifests itself in the harmonious opposition of yin and yang, and in humans through te (virtue, goodness, moral excellence).

Confucian developmental stages

Ren ( 仁 )

YI ( 义 )

LI ( 礼 )

ZHI (智)

XIN (信)

Context Character Age

19

9

6

2

Society

School

Family

SelfInfant

Child

Adolescent

Adult

Limitations on using Confucianism to explain behavior

Confucianism can be used as a descriptive model, but it should not be used to as an explanatory model. Translate to psychological concepts and then empirically verified.

There are blind spots and biases in all philosophical traditions.

The lay public may not be fully aware of basic Confucian concepts such as ren, yi, li, zhi and xin.

Within a particular culture, there can be competing philosophies and worldviews.

Evaluation  Studies    of  Cross-­‐Cultural  Training

13

International Project References in the Research Areas of

Culture Diversity, Talent Development, and Strategic Change

14  years  in  Germany

Born  and  grew  up  in  Indonesia

8  years  in  China

• Building Global Competence for Asian Leaders

• Applying Social Medias (Web 2.0) in Learning & Development.

• International Employability: Development of Intercultural Competence of German and Chinese Young Professionals.

• Cross-Cultural Learning Behavior: Effectiveness of the Western Technology Transfer and Learning Approaches in China.

• Comparative Studies of Chinese-Indonesian Intercultural Competence and Sensitivity.

• Dynamic Decision Making in Chinese and Multinational Teams.

• Intercultural Perspectives of International Post-Merger Integration in Europe.

• Intercultural Synergy in Professional Team.

• Complex Problem Solving in Small Groups.

• ...

Three impositions of psychology and the indigenous psychologies approach

First, researchers in the field of psychology imposed the natural science model to study human beings.

The second imposition is the assumption of the universality of psychological theories.

Third, expert or professional knowledge have imposed on the lay public.

The indigenous psychologies approach advocates liberation form these external impositions advocates the experience of phenomenon as an insider, for the first time.

The indigenous psychologies approach advocates a linkage of humanities (which focus on human experience ) with social sciences (which focus on analysis and verification).

Thank  You

Contact us via …

Mail: hora_t@mac.comFollow: twitter@htjitraWebsite: http://horatjitra.com

Zhejiang  University,  Hangzhou  (China)

Summary presentation based on the paper “Indigenous, cultural, and cross-cultural psychology: A theoretical, conceptual, and

epistemological analysis” ( Uichol Kim, 2000) and our group discussion.