Applications of Indigenous Psychology: Educational Achievement

One research area of indigenous psychology is the study of educational achievement in different countries. The research questions why students in some countries perform much better than students in other countries. Their findings have emphasized four major factors that impact educational achievement. The first factor, interdependence and proxy control, refers to a child’s dependence on parents. The second factor, self-regulation, refers to the effort a student puts into academic pursuits. The third factor, collective control, refers to cooperation between family members and educators. Organizational cultural, the fourth factor, refers to the underlying cultural value system that emphasizes human-relatedness. Your text provides further details about each of these factors. The article provided in this week’s resources illustrates the four factors and their effect on educational achievement in Korea. (Note that the authors of the article use the terms educational achievement and academic achievement interchangeably).

Studies show that East Asian students are high academic achievers, particularly in math and science. In contrast, studies indicate that students in the United States perform poorly in science, math, and often other academic areas as well. Psychologists are interested in understanding whether factors that influence high achievement in East Asia might somehow be “imported” into the United States to improve educational achievement.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review Chapter 5 in your course text, paying particular attention to the section on understanding achievement in East Asia.
• Review the article “Indigenous psychological analysis of academic achievement in Korea: The influence of self-efficacy, parents, and culture.” Focus on the following sections: “Traditional approaches; cultural values,” “Family and self-cultivation in Korea,” and “Discussion.”
• Think about how the factors of interdependence and proxy control, self-regulation, collective control, and organizational culture contribute to high educational achievement in East Asian countries such as Korea.
• Consider how the absence of interdependence and proxy control, self-regulation, collective control, and organizational culture may correspond with low educational achievement in the United States.
• Think about whether you believe the East Asian approach to interdependence and proxy control, self-regulation, collective control, and organizational culture might somehow be “imported” into American culture in order to improve educational achievement.

The Assignment (3–4 pages):

• Explain how the East Asian approach to interdependence and proxy control, self-regulation, collective control and organizational culture contributes to high educational achievement in East Asian countries.
• Explain how the absence of interdependence and proxy control, self-regulation, collective control, and organizational culture may correspond to low educational achievement in the United States.
• Explain whether you believe the East Asian approach to interdependence and proxy control, self-regulation, collective control, and organizational culture might be “imported” into American culture in order to improve educational achievement. Explain your answer.

Course Text: Stevens, M. J., &Gielen, U. P. (2007). Toward a glob al psychology: Theory, research, intervention, and pedagogy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

• Chapter 5, “Development of Indigenous Psychologies: Understanding People in a Global Context”

Article: Allwood, C. M., & Berry, J. W. (2006). Origins and development of indigenous psychologies: An international analysis. International Journal of Psychology, 41(4), 243–268.

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

 

This seminal article examines the development of indigenous psychology in different parts of the world.

Article: Kim, U., & Park, Y. (2006). Indigenous psychological analysis of academic achievement in Korea: The influence of self-efficacy, parents, and culture. International Journal of Psychology, 41(4), 287–292.

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

 

This article explains how indigenous psychology has contributed to academic achievement in Korea.

Strategies for Change and Macro-Level Interventions

Child soldiers, HIV/AIDS, and education in war-torn countries are just some examples of macro-issues of global significance that are in need of macro interventions. Global psychologists intervene by implementing strategies called change strategies. The three change strategies detailed in your text are top-down, bottom-up, and middle-out. Top-down strategies are those that top-level leaders implement by directing action to those who report to them. Bottom-up strategies work from the grassroots. In bottom-up strategies, laypeople work together to create change. Middle-out strategies are implemented by mid-level leaders to influence top-level leaders as well as their public constituencies. In this Application, you review macro-issues and their macro-level interventions, identify a global issue that might benefit from the presence of a psychologist, and consider strategies that might be used to intervene in such situations.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review Chapter 9 in your course text, paying particular attention to the section that addresses change strategies.
• Identify one global issue currently in the news that might benefit from a macro-level intervention that includes a psychologist.
• Think about one bottom-up change strategy a psychologist might use to intervene and address the issue, one middle-out strategy, and one top-down strategy.
• For each strategy, consider which specific change strategy might be the most effective in addressing the issue you selected.

The Assignment (3–4 pages):

• Describe the global issue you selected.
• Determine the macro-level intervention (that includes a psychologist) that you assert will work best in this situation. Explain why you believe this intervention will work best.
• Provide examples of how a psychologist may use each of the following change strategies to address the situation:
  • Bottom-up
  • Middle-out
  • Top-down
• Explain which change strategy or which combination of strategies you believe would be the most effective in addressing the situation and why.

 

• Chapter 9, “Macro-Level Interventions: Psychology, Social Policy, and Societal Influence Processes”

Individual Therapy

In this week’s Discussion, you considered broad differences between non-Western and Western psychotherapeutic interventions. The focus of this week’s Application is individual therapy, one specific type of psychotherapeutic intervention. Most people think of individual therapy as a client sitting with their therapist to address the client’s concerns. This is indeed one type of individual therapy. This week’s learning resources refer to different approaches in individual therapy such as: psychoanalysis, behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, and counseling. Regardless of the approach, individual therapy depends on a person’s willingness to seek therapy and the relationship between a therapist and a client. In this Application, you consider how sociocultural context influences individual therapy.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review Chapter 8 in your textbook, Toward a Global Psychology: Theory, Research, Intervention, and Pedagogy. Pay particular attention to the following sections: “A Global Panorama of Psychotherapy: Innovations, Modifications, and Elaborations”, “Psychotherapy in its Sociocultural Context”, and “Expectations, Preferences, and Styles: Cultural, Characteristics and Differences”.
• Consider the differences in the expectations, preferences, and styles of psychotherapy with Chinese clients and African and Indian Clients.
• Review the article, ” Wrapping and unwrapping emotions: Clinical practice with East Asian Immigrant Elders,” paying particular attention to attitudes toward psychotherapy and therapist-client relationships.
• Review the following videos: “Tango and Analysis,” “Argentina in Therapy – Trailer Film,” and “Argentina in Therapy – Pre-Title Sequence.” Focus on attitudes toward psychotherapy and therapist-client relationships.
• Consider similarities and differences in attitudes toward individual therapy in Argentina and Eastern Asia.
• Think about how sociocultural context, in general, influences attitudes toward therapy.
• Consider similarities and differences in therapist-client relationships between Argentina and Eastern Asia.
• Reflect on how sociocultural context, in general, influences therapist-client relationships.

The Assignment (3–4 pages):

• Explain how the sociocultural context influences attitudes toward both therapy and therapist-client relationships.
• Compare the differences in the expectations, preferences, and styles of psychotherapy among Chinese, African, and Indian clients.
• Describe the similarities and differences in attitudes toward both individual therapy and therapist-client relationships in Argentina and Eastern Asia.

Course Text: Stevens, M. J., &Gielen, U. P. (2007). Toward a glob al psychology: Theory, research, intervention, and pedagogy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

• Chapter 8, “Psychotherapeutic and Related Interventions for a Global Psychology”

Shibusawa, T., & Chung, I. (2009). Wrapping and unwrapping emotions: Clinical practice with East Asian immigrant elders. Clinical Social Work Journal, 37(4), 312–319.

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

Blando, J. A. (2009). Buddhist psychotherapy with older GLBT clients. Journal of GLBT Family Studies, 5(1/2), 92–81.

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

Kavak, F., Ekinci, M. (2016). The effect of yoga on functional recovery level in schizophrenic patients. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 30(6), 761–767.

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

Assignment: Culturally Appropriate Research Methods

In order to understand research methods that are suitable for global psychology, it is important to state what is meant by “global psychology.” Marsella (1998) refers to global psychology as “concerned with understanding, assessing, and addressing, the individual and collective psychological consequences of global events and forces by encouraging and using multicultural, multidisciplinary, multisectoral, and multinational knowledge, methods, and interventions” (p. 1284).

Culturally sensitive research methods employed by psychologists with a global perspective usually are qualitative, while Western psychologists often employ quantitative approaches. Quantitative approaches emphasize cause and effect and reflect a traditional scientific method. Quantitative methods also are objective and value statistical analyses. Qualitative methods allow more subjectivity and often involve observation and interviews that are harder to quantify. Recently, many Western psychologists have increased their acceptance of qualitative methods or blending quantitative and qualitative methods (mixed methods). However, even in the realm of qualitative methods, psychologists have identified some methods that are more appropriate than others in satisfying the needs of their discipline. Your course text explains four specific, culturally appropriate research methods: action theory, discourse analysis, grounded theory, and focus groups.

Despite global psychology’s preference for culturally appropriate qualitative methods, most peer review committees of professional journals publish studies that use traditional quantitative methods. Thus, psychologists who work internationally or globally continue to encourage researchers to apply culturally appropriate quantitative and qualitative methods.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review Chapter 7 in your course text.
• Think about culturally appropriate research methods, such as action theory, discourse analysis, grounded theory, and focus groups.
• Use the link provided in this week’s learning resources to review several past issues of theInternational Psychology Bulletin.
• Within the past issue of your choice, select one peer-reviewed article which is of interest to you that does not use action theory, discourse analysis, grounded theory, or focus groups.
• Think about whether the research used in the article is quantitative or qualitative.
• Consider how you might use action theory, discourse analysis, grounded theory, or focus groups to conduct a study about this same topic.
• Think about why the research method you selected could benefit a study of this topic.

The Assignment (3–4 pages):

• Summarize the study in the research article you selected, including a description of the type of research method that was used.
• Is the study qualitative or quantitative? Discuss how you know.
• Pick two culturally appropriate research methods (action theory, discourse analysis, grounded theory, or focus groups) and explain how you could apply each method to conduct a study about the same topic described in the research article you selected.
• Explain why the research methods you selected could benefit a study about this topic and describe how they compare to the type of research methods originally used.

Course Text: Stevens, M. J., &Gielen, U. P. (2007). Toward a glob al psychology: Theory, research, intervention, and pedagogy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

• Chapter 6, “Toward a Conceptual Foundation for a Global Psychology”
• Chapter 7, “Qualitative Research Methods for a Global Psychology”