A Vision of Psychology’s Future
-psych has been problematic discipline from ontological/epistemological/ethical–political perspectives
but this critical awareness should not be understood as a call to abandon it
Critical awareness and reflexivity might enable us to transform Psych in a direction:
-that does justice to the complexity of its subject matter conceptually
-w methodologies for the particularities of mental life embedded in cultural-historical context
-w ethically responsible concepts and practices that challenge the societal and disciplinary
status quo and foster emancipation
The internationalization of Psychology and key issues of praxis are central in our vision:
(1) future of Psych depends first on understanding that the world has become more interconnected
-opportunities present themselves for emancipatory theory, research, and professional practice
in the discipline; this opportunity is captured partly by the term internationalization
-internationalization has meant the distribution of US Psych to the rest of the world (or at best,
cross-cultural Psych based on a Western worldview) but can also mean a shift to an international
postcolonial Psychology
-such a shift involves assimilation by which mainstream psychologists incorporate non-Western
concepts into the discipline + accommodation by which the very nature of Psych changes based
on concepts and practices from around the world
-Western psychological concepts are neither universally applicable nor superior to concepts
from other cultural contexts
-exposure to historically and culturally significant horizons that transcend one’s own point of
view will allow the development of broader, deeper, and more sophisticated perspectives that
might address the discipline’s core problems