The challenge of cross-cultural psychology - The role of the indigenous psychologies

Abstract

This article outlines the indigenous psychologies approach within the context of three research traditions in cross-cultural psychology: the universalist, contextualist, and integrationist approaches. The first section outlines the limitations of the universalist and contextualist approaches. The second section overviews the two integrationist approaches: the derived etics approach and the indigenous psychologies approach. In comparison to the former approach, the indigenous psychologies approach advocates a bottom-up, model-building paradigm that examines generative capabilities of human beings. It investigates human actions that occur in meaningful context. In this transactional approach, human consciousness, intentions, and goals are central aspects of the research design.