African Psychology And Euro-American Psychology

There have been many to write about the struggles, misfortunates and traditions of those who were enslaved. There have also been scholars who argued that upon their arrival, the enslaves came to North America as blank slates and were complete submissive to authority. In this ideology, many scholars believed enslaves traditions, customs, folk stories all derived or mimic European culture. This ideology also implies that those who were enslaved lacked any social or structural guidance, religious beliefs, values and heritage. While there are many examples of slave traditions and customs that have similar attributes of the Euro-American culture, there are many elements of their West African culture that remained authentic and in practice when slaves were shipped to North America. These same traditions gave them strength and courage to resistant their oppressor and challenge their current social environment. In Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness, he provides example of blacks exemplifying agency over their current situation as well as how these customs and traditions where they derived from. This paper will discuss how those enslaved exercised agency through music, spirituality, and folk tales to excerpt their independence and challenge the agreement of the tabula rasa slave and docility within slavery.

As a psychology major, it is important to know how to work with diverse populations, especially in today’s society. It seems that there are more cultural groups today, compared to the past because of groups such as LGBTQ and an increase in immigration to America from more countries than just Europe and Africa. In America, we expect people to know how to speak English and have a basic understanding of the American culture, but for the most part, Americans lack a willingness to understand other people’s cultures. While some do not want to take the time to understand different cultures, those individuals who work with diverse populations have to understand different cultures in order to truly help those from diverse situations. In order to learn

Music is a creative art form that allows the artist to construct something that expresses a purpose. It evolves over time and changes as the world changes, taking on many different motivations behind the melody and lyrics. In today’s society, anger, oppression, racism, and negative opinions rule the media and popular culture. I believe that African Americans need to show their self worth and not let white people hold them back. With the music in white culture often mocking African American culture and portraying negative stereotypes, African Americans have to find ways to gain respect. In acknowledgement of the negative portrayal of their culture, African Americans respond by creating songs and videos that express their pride in their culture and heritage, react to white oppression, and communicate their independence.

Parham’s video presented to me a counseling method that I do not believe I would be comfortable doing as a White, agnostic man. Multicultural class has shown that psychology research has been Euro-centric and minority populations have been pathologized. I appreciate Parham’s approach and how it engaged the client in finding support through spirituality and interconnectedness, but I do not believe an African American client would respond to me as they did to him. Parham stated African-centered psychology defines the African psychological experience from an African perspective, a perspective that reflects an African orientation.

Guideline 1: Psychologists are encouraged to recognize that, as cultural beings, they may hold attitudes and beliefs that can detrimentally influence their perceptions of and interactions with individuals who are ethnically and racially different from themselves (American Psychological Association, 2003). I agree that psychologist can hold many different beliefs concerning others. The beliefs can sometimes hinder a person from growing emotionally, and cognitively. In my opinion it is important for the professional to be familiar with the diversity that may exist in their patients and remain professional in their

Dr. Kimberlyn Leary writes about the application of treatment methodologies specific to the treatment African Americans but to make this suggestion is contrary to purpose of this paper. I assert that the creation of specific therapeutic methods for Black people and people of color would only deepen the chasm between black and white. What I am saying here is that there is a way to apply the existing psychoanalytic theories to Black people and most all of these theories address many of the issues of the

Psychology is one of the newest sciences. Because it is the science of the mind and behavior, it is also less concrete than some of the other sciences. Over the years, social scientists have developed theories or perspectives based off of their observations, research, and the perspectives of other scientists. Although there is some overlap, each of the major perspectives of psychology is unique. As a result, they each have strengths and weaknesses and explain psychology in a different way. One theory, the sociocultural perspective, is exactly what its name suggests. It’s the idea that the society and groups that an individual belongs to are what influences development, thoughts, and behavior. The sociocultural perspective was

As an African-American, I've seen the world through a different lens than most of my contemporaries. Different attitudes and different perceptions have created this continual Gap and where my people and others stand in our country. Since the late 1800s after President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, African Americans have been fighting for basic rights that were promised to everybody else in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. As we remember the Reverend dr. King On this day in January, we remember the values he fought for and what it means to have can Americans across the country in this present age. What this man, Louis Stokes of the Congressional Black Caucus understood was that if we hold together we will overcome. Heard

People of different ethnic backgrounds are treated differently due to many kinds of social and multicultural differences people and society. African-Americans within society are treated with prejudice and are stereotyped into negative connotations that can increase distress and impairments such as depression. Behavioral disorders as well as mental illnesses that African-Americans develop throughout their lifespan can show implications on how racism can be a cause of depression when African-Americans are faced with situations that can involve racist views or altercations. This article will provide an overview of how racism towards African-Americans can contribute towards mental health issues within African-American community as

In effect, while race has special meaning for African Americans, it 's absent in the psychotherapy systems and clinical sessions that typically guide a clinician 's work with African Americans. What a pickle! For all the polemicists out there, in a nutshell, there are competing visions for psychotherapy with African Americans. Neither side is monolithic. On one side, which I 'll call the Universal approach, researchers and scholars hang their hat on the belief that psychotherapy systems are sufficient for treating African Americans because

Ramseur says a healthy mental state for an African-American is based on high self-esteem, positive racial identity, and adapting coping styles. Both articles talk about the different things that have set African-Americans back such as family, income, and psychical health. Throughout the years African-Americans have made progress in the way society views them but still have ways to go.

Afrocentricity is based on the ideology that African Americans need to re-assert a sense of agency in order to achieve sanity. Agency refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own choices. Afrocentricity looks at the history of the agents and the people that they interact with rather than economic status. This theory is about the “black perspective” of society opposed to the “white perspective” that society has deemed the one and only way to view things. The afrocentric theory had five characteristics: a phenom must be studied and analyzed in a relationship in to psychological time and space. Phenomena is diverse and in motion, so the person must be able to locate and record the phenomena and where they stand in that process. This theory is a form of cultural criticism, this allows for intersection of actions and ideas. The theory seeks to unmask the rhetoric of power and privilege. Lastly, the theory locates the imaginative structure of a system of economics (Asante, 2009).

Women have struggled to have their experiences recognized as valid within disciplinary Psychology. Identify and discuss several contributions made by women in Psychology to the study of sex and gender in the 20th century.

Black psychologists faced many unique challenges in their quest for inclusion and voice in the professional and academic community of Psychology. However, the Civil Rights movement began an era of transformation that impacted several sectors of society, including the professional and academic spheres. Both the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) and the Black Students Psychological association (BSPA) played a significant role in challenging the American Psychological Association’s (APA) discriminatory actions towards the Black community and the general lack of awareness of the field’s exclusively White and euro-centric framework. The ABPsi was established at the APA convention of 1968, where they disrupted a meeting of the APA Board of Directors meeting to present their concerns with the establishment. During this formal protest, they declared that “Members of the Association have pledged themselves to the realization that they are Black people first and psychologists second. Accordingly, they will not continue to ignore the exploitation of the Black community” (Williams, 1974).

The fear of success in blacks can also be looked at through many angles. Socially blacks tend to hinder each other by viewing success as “Acting white.” In the article Scholars Debate Theory that Blacks Equate Academic Success with 'Acting White ', Dr. Ronald F. Ferguson argues how success often equates to acting white in the black community. Ferguson argues, “Blacks value education and good grades just as much as whites, what it comes down to is time spent leisurely reading or doing extra work that is considered white” (page). John Uzo Ogbu another professor that argues in the article Black Students ' School Success: Coping with the Burden of 'Acting White, argues that this acclaim that blacks do n’t read leisurely isn’t true. “This isn’t true, and that kid’s answer questions to what they think the adult wants to hear, and the only way to make that assumption is to actually observe the kids”. I think that there is some true in both of their statements, but neither is all the way right.