W1L1 - A brief history of Psychology in South Africa
(W1 L1)
WEEK 1 REQUIRED READING IS COMPULSORY & WILL HELP TO PREPARE FOR THE MAJOR
ASSIGNMENT (ESSAY)
The semester test (early sem assignment) - more details in the course outline. The test will
cover all material mentioned in the podcasts. So use the podcasts to study for the test but
also supplement by using the readings.
Be strategic when using the readings by only looking at the ides, concepts, debates that are
discussed in the podcasts. The readings provide more information from the readings.
PODCASTS FIRST FORM OF CONTACT, READING SECOND (STRATEGIC), LECTURES,
TUTS.
● Required reading 1: Hegemony of Eurocentric psychology
● South African Psychology and racism: historical determinants and future prospects
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Why is it important to discuss the history of South Africa in psychology ?
This question allows us to engage with how past come to shape & influence the present
Knowledge production: The production of knowledge about psychology in South Africa,
which forms how we practice psychology through teaching, research, psychotherapy &
psychometric assessments etc.
We need to thoroughly examine psychology's history in south Africa to become critically
aware of how past practices in the past need to be reformed in order to be modernised &
become applicable to modern day south African psychology.
(the type of knowledge psych produces in psychology)
Multiple ways to respond to this question but one in particular (used by prof)
● Highlight the idea & notion of knowledge production
Naidoo:
Argues that the knowledge psych produced at an international and local level:
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, ● Reflects the values and interests of western / Eurocentric values & societies.
● Promotes a positivist-empirical mode of scientific investigation and that this
knowledge has been adopted universally and in SA
What does it mean that psychology has created this kind of knowledge?
Naidoo identifies these 2 key characteristic features of psychological knowledge:
1. Western / Eurocentric values = knowledge that reflects the interests and ideas of
white, heterosexual, middle class & educated American and European men & women
& their societies.
The values of these represent a particular kind of consciousness that is vastly different
from people for example who are living in rural South Africa.
1. Positivist-empirical science = knowledge is only considered scientific, valid true &
factual & objective when it is produced under conditions that are observable,
objective, highly controlled & quantified. Where the people / subjects are removed
from the natural context and environment and are put into unnatural settings.
Positivist psych is interested in studying humans / psychology in heavily scientific
environments.
Question:
What does psychology's Western/Eurocentric and positivist knowledge mean for you and the
social, cultural, economic and political context from which you come ?
Is the knowledge psychology produces relevant to your life, with respect to your race,
gender, position, sexuality, nationality, political views, religious affiliation ethnicity etc ?
When we fail to acknowledge the history of knowledge (including psychology) we allow this
knowledge to speak on our behalf in the present.
EX: mainstream psychology which is loosely based on a Eurocentric/Western psychology,
which means that psychology carries the tendency to decontextualize your experiences and
subjectivities, should you fail to question and interrogate from where this knowledge comes
from in the first place and it's usefulness for your current social reality.
Psychology often ends up being not socially relevant enough. Still we shouldn't reject
mainstream psychology roles & models, but we should question the usefulness & source of
these principles.
In answering the original question:
This type of enquiry & investigation draws our attention to the knowledge psychology
produces which reflects Western Eurocentric & positivist values.
This lecture discusses briefly on the general historical trend of knowledge that psychology
produces.
So how does this western-positivist unfold in a south african context?
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