The Journey Towards Africanising Psychology in Ghana

Authors

  • Seth Oppong Sam Jonah School of Business, African University College of Communications, Accra, Ghana

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5964/psyct.v9i1.128

Keywords:

Pan-African psychology, indigenous psychology, Africa, Africanisation, psychological testing, psychology and national development, humanitarian work psychology, Ghana

Abstract

Psychology has come a long way since its origin in Africa and Ghana in particular. In this paper, an attempt is made to explore the current state of psychological knowledge in Ghana as well as the associated problems in the application of such knowledge. It was concluded that the approach to the study and application of psychological knowledge and tests has been too Eurocentric and westernized. As a result, it limits the applicability of the approach to the African setting, and yet, Western theorists may expect African psychologists to apply the theories to Africans. On the basis of this criticism, the scope of Pan-African psychology is defined and suggestions for pursuing an Africanisation project are presented. It is expected that the strategies that this paper advocates for indigenizing psychology in Africa can equally be useful to psychologists in other developing regions of the world.

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Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Theoretical Analyses

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