History of African Studies Final Paper Pitt

African-Centered Psychology

Joshua Bioni

Introduction to Africana Studies

Fall 2015

December 16, 2015

Psychology is the study of the human being’s mind and their behavior, which includes how we think, feel, and act in certain situations. Many are familiar with the basics of traditional psychology and popular psychologists, such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. An introductory course in psychology is usually required of undergraduate students and helps them become familiar with some of the most well-know psychological definitions and experiments. One of the most well-known experiments is Ivan Pavlov’s salivating dog experiment, where he tested the idea of classical conditioning. Once an individual has an understanding of what exactly psychology is, how psychologists attempt to understand these ideas is questioned. For European scholars, developing theories, a set of abstract concepts that people assign to a group of facts in order to explain them, of human behavior are an important part the this process (Paraham, White, & Ajamu, 1999).  They then determine what is called a “control group” in which they will use to compare all of their gathered data. Determining a normative standard for ideas such as human cognition, emotion, and behavior was questionable because it is very difficult to set one set of normative data to such an abstract area of ideas (Paraham, White, & Ajamu, 1999). Being questionable about certain studies and their results is common in the field of psychology, therefore leading to multiple experiments on similar studies to be conducted.

        The study of psychology is very complex and it requires a person to have a specific way of thinking. Thinking critically and differently is very important because not all of the answers found through experiments are straightforward. There is an excess of time and effort spent conducting research and analyzing the results discovered.  These facts are well-known and familiar to many students and adults in regards to psychology, but many do not know that there are different types of psychological approaches, including African-centered psychology.  

         African-centered psychology is an approach that has new aspects of psychology incorporated with older African traditions. African American psychology is the body of knowledge that is focused on the understanding of African American life and culture (Kazdin, 2000). It is a way of uniting African principles, values, and traditions reflected within the African communities (Grills, 2006). When discussing African-centered psychology, many see it as a response with what is considered “white psychology,” since the traditional psychology approach was first developed in the Western world (Kazdin, 2000). At the time in which psychology was developing, racial tension was still a prominent aspect of culture, therefore not allowing the African-American ideas in this area of study to be recognized. African-centered psychology recognizes that the Spirit infiltrates everything in our world, closely related to the idea that everything in the universe is interconnected (Grills, 2006). Another few basic principles that are associated with this study of psychology are the value that the collective is the most significant element to our existence, and that communal self-knowledge is the key to mental health (Grills, 2006).