Traditional Western Approach To Modern Psychology

Traditional Western approach to modern psychology
The Traditional Western approach has had a great influence on modern psychology. The Traditional Western approach differs quite a lot from the African perspective, but has made a big impact on psychology today.
Here are a few key aspects of the Traditional Western approach to modern psychology:

• Assumes that psychology is a universal science that is objective and the knowledge is value-free
The Traditional Western approach to modern psychology considers psychology as a science. The knowledge obtained needs to be free of values or predispositions as this could impact the theory or research completely. Our personal feelings need to be set aside to ensure accurate results. Psychology needs

The traditional Western approach to modern psychology draws a sharp distinction between the knowing subject and the object of his or her knowledge. The knowing subject is stripped of particularities such as culture, race, gender, position and his or her existence in time and space.

• Assumes psychic unity and sees the self as an independent individual or self-contained.
Psychic unity refers to the assumption that all human beings are the same. It signifies that there are universal and underlying psychological processes that are deep-rooted in all individuals. If we look at the aim of psychology from this perspective, the aim is to look beyond superficial differences such as gender, race and culture to unveil these processes.
In traditional psychology the “Self” is seen as a restricted or bounded and autonomous being. Internal attributes such as emotions, independence, thoughts, contextual factors as well as social factors defines the

Culture refers to the knowledge that is part on from one generation to another within a society, which allows people to make sense of themselves and the world around them. Culture consists of languages, assumptions, norms of behaviour, values and ideas. Worldview refers to the set of basic assumptions that a group of people develop in order to explain reality and their purpose in the world. Worldview consists of time orientation, people-nature orientation, activity orientation and relational orientation. Discourse in languages refers to written or spoken communication. Traditional Western approaches suggest that psychology can be applied to everyone all around the world, without taking the above mentioned into account.

Key aspects of the African perspective that differs from the Traditional Western approach includes the following:

• An indigenisation of psychology that is based on worldviews, languages and philosophies.
• Assumes that existence is concrete and not universal and takes people’s values, languages, worldviews and philosophies into account.
• Joins with cultural psychology (how cultural traditions and social practices regulate, express and transform the human psyche)
• Sees the self as a collective or interdependent self.
• The self is defined in terms of relationships with others.
• Criticises acculturation