Contemporary and

regional issues in
psychology
 Psychology in “third world”
 Lawson, Graham and Baker (2007) described the three worlds
in psychology, namely “first world” (the US), “second world”
(the developed country), and the “third world”, which includes
developing countries.
 History of psychology in developing countries often deals with
crash between indigenous knowledge and Western mainstream
systems.
 Indigenous psychology , which call for adopting indigenous
ideas in the investigation of psychology, is regarded as a
counter-movement of globalization of psychology from the
“first” and “second” world in psychology.
 Psychology in China
 Xun-Tsu’s contemporary, Gongsunlong Zi ( 公孫龍子 , 320-250 B.C.),
who was the leader of school of names ( 名家 , which included a group of
scholars investigating the relationship between words, meaning, and
symbols, in other words, the origins of psycholinguistics in ancient China),
often had debate with Xun-Tsu and Moism ( 墨家 ), an anti-Confucianism
school founded by Mo-Tsu (about 370-491 BC). Moism comprised a group
of scientists, engineers and scholars that put vast effort in developing
primitive models in personality traits, psycholinguistics, logics, and
perception, and their works were recorded in their encyclopedia, Jing ( 經 ,
the script) and Jingshuo ( 經說 , the annotation). Nonetheless, the
contribution of Moism was largely unknown to the West until the content
in Jing and Jingshuo was read by scientist and historian Joseph Needham
(1900-1995), who introduced Moism to Western audiences.   
 Moism’s major rival, Gongsunlong Zi (the
leader of the school of names 名家 ) initiated
debate with Xun-Tsu and Moism by providing
experimental supports on psychological
phenomena like reflex action and afterimage
in his text Jinbai ( 堅白 , Hardness and
Whiteness). Contribution of Gongsunlong Zi is
now gradually being recognized.
 Psychology in China
 Ancient aspirations to psychology in China include
Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Chinese medicine.
 Traditions like Moism and School of Names, which made
significant contributions in personality traits,
psycholinguistics, logics, and perception ceased to exist after
Han dynasty in 2th Century B.C.
 Majority of ancient thoughts in China did not embrace
naturalism, and psychology as an independent discipline only
appear in late 19th Century due to the influence from the
Western world.
 Joseph Haven
 Blowers (1996) described the earliest attempt to translate western textbook
in psychology was Yan Yongjin ( 顏永京 )’s Xinlingxue 心靈學 (1899),
which was a translation of Joseph Haven’s book Mental Philosophy.
 Joseph Haven (1816-1874) was an American Pastor, and was the Professor
in Intellectual and Moral Philosophy in Amherst College. His work Mental
Philosophy: including the intellect, sensibilities, and will (Haven, 1857)
was a textbook for the class in psychology (at that time it was still called
“Mental Philosophy” instead of “psychology” in the US).
 This was still adopted as a textbook at 1879/1880 in Clark University
under the instruction from G.S. Hall (the student of William James, later
the first president of the American Psychological Association).
 Another important landmark was the establishment of the Imperial University of
Peking ( 京師大學堂 ) 1898, which led to the employment of Japanese Lecturer
Hattori Unokichi 服部宇之吉 to give the first lecture in psychology. He published
Jingshi Daxuetang Xin Li Xue Jiangyi ( 京師大學堂心理學講義 ) in 1898 (Fu,
2003).
 After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Imperial University of Peking was renamed
as Peking University, and educationist Cai Yuanpei (1868-1940) became the
President of Peking University between 1917-1926 after his visit to University of
Leipzig for three years and attended Wundt’s lectures on psychology, experimental
psychology and ethno-psychology (Lawson p. 426). Therefore, he decided to
employ Chen Daqi ( 陳大齊 ); the first Chinese to receive a psychology degree
from the Imperial Tokyo university, to establish the psychology laboratory in 1917,
which was realized in 1918. At the same year the first textbook Elements in
Psychology ( 心理學大網 ) (also called Principles of Psychology, which was
largely translating William James’ Principle of Psychology) was published. Chen
Daqi was also involved in the reform of public examination in 1920s.
 Psychology in china
 First department of psychology established in 1918, in Peking
University
 The first course in psychology was established under Bachelor
of education program in 1923, Taught by L. Foster.
 The Chinese Psychological Association was established in
1936, in the eve of Sino-Japanese War.
 Chan Da Qi, 陳大齊 , the first department head of psychology
in China, later became a Government Official and cease to
conduct experimental work.
 Departments of Psychology ceased to exist during Cultural
Revolution.
 The largest Department of Psychology in Central Nanking
University dissolute in 1950.
 Modern development of
psychology in China
 Yan Yongjin ( 顏永京 )’s Xinlingxue 心靈學 (1899), which is a translation of
Joseph Haven’s book Mental Philosophy.
 The first laboratory of Psychology in China was established by Chen Daqi ( 陳
大齊 ) in Peking University in 1918.
 Internally renowned figure Zing-Yang Kuo ( 郭任遠 ) returned to promote
Behaviorism in China in 1920s.
 Hypnotism became massively popular in Shanghai, and there were more than
100,000 so called “hypnotist” in Shanghai through the competition of two
societies 中國催眠學會 ( 鮑芳洲 ) and 中華心靈學會 ( 余萍客 )
 Chinese Psychological Society, which was established in 1921, suffered from
political and social turmoil, and was not in full span functioning until reform
in China in 1980s.
 Psychology ceased to exist during Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and
revived in 1980.
 Psychology in Taiwan
 First laboratory in psychology was established in 1928 in Taipei
Imperial University (now National Taiwan University, NTU) by
Japanese psychologist Linuma and Rikimaru. Major research interest
included observation and investigation of indigenous people’s culture
and behaviour.
 Hsiang-Yu Su ( 蘇薌雨 ), A psychologist from Mainland China who
migrated to Taiwan in 1946, became the first head of Department of
Psychology of the newly reformed National Taiwan University in
1949.
 The Chinese Psychological Society, later reformed in Taiwan as
Chinese Psychological Association in 1961.
 Before the rise of indigenous psychology led by Yang Kuo-Shu ( 楊國
樞 ), major interested of Taiwanese psychology was validation of tests.
 First laboratory of psychology in Taiwan:
1928, National Taiwan University by two
Japanese professors, Linuma and Rikimaru
 “The psychological research was intended to
study the folk psychology of aborigines to
serve the expansionist government's policies
when Japan was aggressively seeking to
colonize its neighbours to the south (e.g., the
Philippines).” (Huang, 2005)
 Psychology in Taiwan
 After World War II, most Japanese returned to Japan, and in 1949 the first
Department of Psychology was founded at NTU by a graduate of Beijing
University, 蘇薌雨 Hsiang-yu Su, who had a background in the field of
philosophy. Chen Da Qi 陳大齊 went to Taiwan and Joined the
Department.
 In December 1981, Academia Sinica sponsored a conference on
"Sinicization of Social and Behavioral Sciences." Several social scientists
queried the adequacy of Western paradigms of research for Chinese society
and criticized the popular style of mindless empirical research. Professor
Kuo-shu Yang proposed the concept "Sinicization of Psychology"
 Psychology in Hong Kong
 Psychology in Hong Kong could be traced to the first
course in psychology offered in the University of
Hong Kong in 1924.
 The first department of psychology in Hong Kong
was established in 1968 in the University of Hong
Kong, with the Hong Kong Psychological Society
established at the same year.
 Interest of Hong Kong psychological scene is cross-
cultural psychology and indigenous psychology.
 Following the 1981 conference, a conference
was held by the Department of Psychology,
Hong Kong University at the end of 1988
entitled "Marching towards a New Era of
Chinese Indigenous Psychology”
 Indigenous Psychology
 Indigenous psychology was a movement that
is against the influence of Western psychology,
which often implies Positivistic, Behavioral,
and assuming cultural universality of the
findings and assessment from the US scene.
 Along with Yang Kuo-Shu, Virgilio Enriquez
(1942-1994) from the Philippines was also
influential in promoting indigenous
psychology in the world.
 Major arguments from Indigenous
psychology
 1. measurement tools are not suitable for local
culture
 2. ignore the ancient ideas from a particular
culture
 3. Aims at putting local cultural phenomenon
into research agenda.
 Indigenous Psychology
 Rise of Indigenous Psychology since 1970s

 Firstly proposed by V.G.Enriquez and gained positive

feedback from Asia and Latin-America
 Definition: Kim and Berry, 1993, as “the scientific
study of human behavior or mind that is native, that is
not transported from other regions, and that is
designed for its people
 1977 the first Conference of indigenous psychology
was held in the University of Hong Kong.
 1980 the first Chinese Psychology conference in
Taipei
 Psychology in Asia
 Psychology in Asia is heavily influenced by
the US system, particularly in US allies such
as South Korea, Japan, and India.
 Japanese psychological scene is epitomized by
its large sector in engineering psychology.
 Islamic psychology is largely anti-American
and comes with the dilemma of crash with
orthodox Islamic doctrines.
Psychology in Central and South
America and Africa
 Central and South America was greatly controlled by the US,
both politically and economically. Similarly, psychological
systems in these areas were largely influenced by the US
system with international bodies like SIP (Sociedad
Interamericana de Psicologia).
 Psychology in South Africa, on the other hand, collaborate
with the Government during Apartheid days (1948-1994).
Critical Psychology in the South Africa developed in response
to such historical roots.
 Psychology in these areas often connected to liberation and
political activism.
 Post-Modern Situation
 According Kenneth Gergen, mainstream
psychology is based on modernist assumption
of "truth," "rationality," "objectivity,"
"individual knowledge," "evidence," and
"scientific progress”, which is under doubt in
the era of Post-modernism.
 Globalization
 Globalization triggered standardization and
spreading of the US standards in psychology,
but at the same time repercussions from the
field leads to new development such as cross-
cultural psychology, cultural psychology,
multicultural psychology, minority
psychology, racial/class psychologies,
psychological anthropology, and indigenous
psychology.
 Baudrillard’s Simularca
 Baudrillard (1981/1994) argued that psychology has become
simularca, that bits and bites of information from “scientists”
would be circulated around the internet, makes it difficult to
differentiate reality from imagination, as we regarded something
as “real” simply based on constructed image attached to such
bits and bites information.
 Baudrillard’s notion on simulacra is highly relevant to
contemporary development of virtual reality, internet, social
media, Wikipedia, bit-torrent and various technology to
facilitate the spread of information, replication, and such
development destroy the boundary between truth and
information.
 Sigmund Koch
 One of the first major critique to quantitative
experimental psychology
 Major arguments:
 Rats can’t replace human being
 The crisis of hypothesis testing

 A call for “back to humanity and observation”

 The limit of statistics

 Change of philosophy of science
 The 1965 Bedford College Debate
 Kuhn: Scientific Revolution, Normal Science
and Paradigm.
 Lakatos: “Hard-core” ( 核心 ) and “modus
tollen” ( 矛頭 )
 → what is the “hard-core” in psychology?
 Post-Modernism and Social
Constructionism
 Post-Modernism: Heavily influenced by
structuralist (e.g. Piaget; Lacan) yet they move
further to challenge the authority of science –
(in particular) – social science.
 K. Gergen: Established the school of “social
constructionism” to de-construct the hegemony
in various schools in psychology.
 Feminist Approach
 Simone de Beauvoir (1949): Le deuxieme sexe ( 第二
性 ) attack the whole paradigm of psychology;
particularly psychoanalysis; as a regime of patrimony.
 Karen Horney: The first feminist psychologist.
 Sandra Bem: Feminist Therapy. (1974: The
measurement of psychological androgyny )
 Sometimes Feminist psychologists join-force with
social constructionist.
 Chaos theory and Complex Theory
 Chaos Theory 混沌理論 : “linear regression” is
a myth.
 Complex Theory 複雜理論 : Automatic-
organization of particles.
 Led to new theories like Item Response
Theory.
 Anti-Psychiatry
 K.D. Laing and Thomas Szasz: Psychiatry as a
social Myth.
 Psychiatry are regarded as a means of social
control.
 Baudrillard’s argument to
psychology
 Psychology is a simularca 擬像 that replicates itself.
 The four phrases:
 It’s very concrete
 It’s self-contradictory
 A newly imploded concept 內爆 appears as if we know
how it is.
 This concept replicated itself as a form of simularca that is
simply a signifier of departure.
 Contempory Issues:
 The existence of “self”?
 Methodology: is it a “myth”?
 How can we establish the “reliability” of test-
instruments in psychology?
 Is there any negative impact of “psychology”?