The Call for Relevance: South African Psychology Ten Years Into Democracy (original) (raw)
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Draft of Becker, Brian W., and Heather Macdonald. 2017. "Does psychology “matter”? An analysis of “relevance” in South African psychology". PsycCRITIQUES. 62 (6). Wahbie Long’s A History of ‘Relevance’ in Psychology details the hidden polysemy of ‘relevance’ in the history of psychological discourse within South African society. His central argument is that ‘relevance’ is not some abstract, universal ideal but is defined only within the historical, social, cultural contexts in which this discourse occurs. To develop his argument, Long employs critical discursive analysis of speeches delivered by previous presidents of psychological associations in South Africa. This qualitative method examines the intersections of tradition, history and power through specific ethnographic descriptions to demonstrate the mutually influential relationship between discourse and its context. This method is ‘epistemologically relativist and ontological realist’ in that real, material conditions shape the develop of ideas, yet understanding itself is an interpretative process contingent upon the shifting nature of our material (i.e. social, political) world. Although Long claims that this method denies any a priori values, aligning with its epistemological relativism, critical discursive analysis seems imbued with assumptions and judgments that make implicit claims about how psychologists ought to define its terms (e.g. liberation from hegemonic power structures). Long’s meticulous examination of speeches and the surrounding South African political context requires patience, yet the reader is rewarded with a clear demonstration of the potential insights yielded from critical discursive analysis and a convincing call to explore the larger historical and cultural context that shapes psychological theories and practice.
This article is a comment on the trajectory of South African psychology over the last 20 years. The case is made that psychology is integral to the developmental state and that empirical psychology has a role to play in fashioning social policy and interventions aimed at social development. Critical psychology as such can be defined not only as a critique of empirical science but also in terms of methodological critique of existing research studies. The emphasis on empirical science is discussed with reference to psychology's role in the contemporary health care system and its relevance to the National Planning Commission and the Millennium Development Goals. Two issues pertaining to contemporary psychology are also discussed, namely, the influence of the positive psychology movement in South African psychology and the question of indigenous psychology. Psychology's relevance and importance are emphasised in the context of economic disparity and the potential contributions it can make in helping to address various social problems that characterise South African society two decades after the beginning of the democratic era.
The changing face of 'relevance' in South African psychology
For several decades, psychology in South Africa has been accused of lacking "relevance" insofar as the country's social challenges are concerned. In this paper, the historical and discursive contours of this phenomenon known as the "relevance debate" are explored. Since the notion of "relevance" entails an assessment of the relationship between psychology and society, the paper presents the results of discursive and social analyses of forty-five presidential, keynote and opening addresses delivered at annual national psychology congresses between 1950 and 2011. These analyses reveal the close connection between discursive practices and social matrices, and, in particular, the post-apartheid emergence of a market discourse that now rivals a longstanding discourse of civic responsibility. This has created a potentially awkward juxtaposition of market relevance and social relevance in a nation still struggling to meet transformation imperatives.
Historicising the relevance debate: South African and American psychology in context
The relevance debate in psychology can be described as discourse which calls for the discipline to become more socially valuable and accessible to those who purportedly need it. Literature suggests that there is a socio-historical dimension to relevance discourse that is frequently overlooked by those engaging in the debate, resulting in a typically ahistorical and axiomatic presentation. It is therefore argued that an historical perspective on the relevance debate is necessary for an informed consideration of its attending issues. This paper compares relevance discourse from South Africa and the United States of America (1960America ( -1980 by means of a thematic analysis of journal articles published during these periods in the South African Journal of Psychology and American Psychologist, respectively. The analysis yielded six key analytic themes: social upheaval; the pureapplied dichotomy in psychology; the role of psychology in socio-political matters; the place of human values in science; equity in psychology; and indigenising psychology. The first five themes are common to both the American and South African debates. Consequently, it is argued that the two debates arose in similar social contexts and that, in particular, the relevance debate is associated with conditions of social upheaval. This historicisation of relevance discourse permits a more critical and accurate understanding of the relationship between the debate and contemporary society.
South African Journal of Psychology, 2013
As South Africa prepared to host the 30th International Congress of Psychology in 2012, a call was made to reflect on the strengths of and challenges facing contemporary South African Psychology. This paper presents our response to our brief to focus on social issues by presenting the results of a situational analysis of South African Psychology over the last five years and comparing this corpus of data to a similar analysis reported in Macleod (2004). Articles appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP) and abstracts in PsycINFO with the keyword ‘South Africa’ over a 5½ year period were analysed. The content of 243 SAJP articles and 1986 PsycINFO abstracts were analysed using the codes developed by Macleod (2004). Results indicate: an increase in the number of articles, a reduction in the percentage of articles using quantitative methodologies and ‘hard’ science theoretical frameworks (particularly in the SAJP), and an increase in qualitative, theoretical, and methodological papers, and papers using systems-oriented theory (particularly in the SAJP). Traditional topics of assessment, stress and psychopathology continue to dominate, with social issues such as housing, land reform, development programmes, water resources and socio-economic inequities being largely ignored. Most research continues to be conducted in Gauteng, KwaZulu/Natal and the Western Cape, predominantly with adult, urban-based, middle-class participants, sourced mainly from universities, hospitals or clinics and schools. Collaborations or comparisons with other African, Asian, South American and Middle East countries have decreased. While the analysis presented in this paper is limited by its exclusion of books, theses, research reports and monographs, it shows that in published research there are some positive trends and some disappointments. The limited number of social issues featuring in published research, the under-representation of certain sectors of the population as participants, and the decrease in collaboration with, or comparison to, countries from the global ‘South’ represent challenges that require systematic attention.
Psychology and health after apartheid: Or, why there is no health psychology in South Africa
As part of a growing literature on the histories of psychology in the global South, this paper outlines some historical developments in South African psychologists’ engagement with the problem of “health”. Alongside movements to formalize and professionalize a U.S.-style “health psychology” in the 1990s, there arose a parallel, eclectic, and more or less critical psychology that contested the meaning and determinants of health, transgressed disciplinary boundaries and opposed the responsibilization of illness implicit in much health psychological theorizing and neoliberal discourse. This disciplinary bifurcation characterized South African work well into the post-apartheid era, but ideological distinctions have receded in recent years under a new regime of knowledge production in thrall to the demands of the global market. The paper outlines some of the historical-political roots of key trends in psychologists’ work on health in South Africa, examining the conditions that have impinged on its directions and priorities. It raises questions about the future trajectories of psychological research on health after twenty years of democracy, and argues that there currently is no “health psychology” in South Africa, and that the discipline is the better for it.
Decolonisation and South African Psychology research 30 years after democracy
South African Journal of Psychology, 2024
On the occasion of 30 years of South African democracy, we reflect on the current state of Psychology research in South Africa. We conducted a situational analysis of all papers appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP) and abstracts in PsycINFO with the keyword 'South Africa' over the last 5 years and compared the results with a previous review that used the same methodology. Findings show an increase in papers using 'hard' science approaches and a decrease in systems-oriented theories. Assessment remains a major topic. While COVID-19 and climate change featured, there remains a lack of or low focus on several key psycho-social issues experienced by South Africans. People living in poorer provinces and young and older people are under-represented in knowledge production. Collaborations or comparisons with other African or South American countries have decreased. Positively, production is being spearheaded by South African scholars or people affiliated with South African institutions. Using a decolonising lens that foregrounds epistemic justice, we conclude that substantial work remains to be done for knowledge production in South African Psychology to fulfil the decolonising imperative of distributive epistemic justice.
Critical psychology in South Africa: Applications, limitations, possibilities
Critical psychology -to my mind at least -revolves around one central (and fairly basic) tenet -that psychology is a political tool. Bulhan makes this point at the beginning of his (1985) Frantz Fanon and the psychology of oppression, by means of a pointed comparison between the careers of Fanon and Verwoed: "The two men ... were psychologists who put to practice their profession in ways that made history and affected the lives of millions ... Verwoed was a staunch white supremacist, a Nazi sympathizer, an avowed anti-Semite, and a leading architect of apartheid ... Fanon, in contrast, was a relentless champion of social justice who, when barely 17 ... volunteered for the forces attempting the liberation of France from Nazi liberation" (p3). This is an important contribution to the socio-political history of psychology in that it leaves little doubt as to the political utility of psychology, as either instrument of oppression, or as potentially enabling means of progressive politics. One word of caution though: this comparison should not be taken to imply that psychology's involvement in politics is merely circumstantial, arbitrary, opportunistic. As Bulhan (1985) goes on to make abundantly clear, and as critical psychology should assert whenever possible, psychology is always -even in its most everyday and mundane forms -political. In many ways in fact, and depending on the radicalism of one's critique, this may be not only psychology's most important functiongenerating and cementing kinds of politics -but also the motivating objective behind its initial emergence as a disciplinary practice. [In this respect see particularly and , but also ].
Critical psychology in South Africa: Histories, themes and prospects
Annual Review of Critical …, 2006
He had me go through the gamut of outdated tests, the Rorschach blots and blobs, squiggles and various I.Q. examinations. Naturally I was never informed about any of his deductions. I was the guinea pig. These perverted practitioners of the spurious science of psychology do not have as their first priority to help the prisoner who may be in need of it. They are the lackeys of the system. Their task very clearly is to be the psychological component of the general strategy of unbalancing and disorienting the political prisoner. (Breytenbach, 1984, p. 90) The above quotation is drawn from an account by the well-known South African poet and artist, Breyten Breytenbach, of his seven-year incarceration as a political prisoner under the apartheid regime. What makes it interesting in this context is that Breytenbach articulates precisely the institutional and political entanglements, along with the subsequent abuse of power, that mainstream psychology is so often accused ofand which it so glibly evades by declaring itself scientifically and thus politically neutral. But what is perhaps even more telling about Breytenbach"s account is that, even though his experience is steeped in the particular history of apartheid South Africa, it will be immediately recognisable to psychologists and the public almost anywhere around the world. Like the vocabularies and practices of marketing and public relations, psychology in some form or other has achieved an almost global reach over the last century.
A history of South African (SA) Psychology / Historia de la psicología sudafricana
This historical account of SA psychology spans over hundred years of its engagement with international psychology and the influence of racism on its development. It traces Jan C. Smuts’s correspondence with Adler, Koffka and Perls and Allport’s extensive contact with SA psychologists. The positive impact of the academic boycott in turning psychology towards the concerns of the oppressed is delineated, as well as the response of professional organizations to apartheid. The extensive reciprocal visits of US and Dutch phenomenologists are described and the contributions of Wolpe, Rachman and Lazarus to behavior therapy are noted.