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Emulation vs. indigenization in the reception of western psychology in Republican China: An analysis of the content of Chinese psychology journals (1922–1937)
Author(s) -
Blowers Geoffrey,
Cheung Boris Tat,
Ru Han
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/jhbs.20347
Subject(s) - indigenization , china , indigenous , period (music) , international psychology , social science , cross cultural psychology , content analysis , cultural psychology , psychology , content (measure theory) , sociology , social psychology , asian psychology , critical psychology , political science , anthropology , law , aesthetics , ecology , philosophy , biology , mathematical analysis , mathematics
The present study examines the practice of empirical psychology in China during the Republican period using a content analysis of its journals. By seeking answers to questions of what kinds of psychology from the West first attracted the Chinese; whether they found a way of developing a psychology more in tune to their own cultural assumptions of selfhood; and to what uses they felt the new discipline could be put, it shows the extent to which its journal content adopted a Western or an indigenous orientation. It thus contributes to the recent debate about indigenization of psychology globally and situates the origins of these issues in China much earlier than has been envisaged by contemporary Chinese indigenous psychologists. Throughout this period, indigenous concerns informed the research agenda, the dominant practice being psychometrics. But because of a lack of social support, they remained largely confined to the pages of psychology journals. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.