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Indigenization of Psychology: Empirical Assessment of Progress in Indian Research
Author(s) -
Adair John G.,
Puhan Biranchi N.,
Vohra Neharika
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1080/00207599308247182
Subject(s) - indigenization , operationalization , indigenous , empirical research , context (archaeology) , psychology , social science , epistemology , ethnocentrism , social psychology , sociology , anthropology , geography , ecology , philosophy , archaeology , biology
The development of an indigenous psychology has generally been documented by examples of indigenous constructs and conceptual analyses of their emergence. In contrast, the present article proposes an empirical approach. Indigenization is conceived as a gradual process that may be operationalized, and measured by content analysis of journal articles as the discipline develops and changes. Measures are proposed to assess the extent to which the concepts, problems, hypotheses, methods, and tests: (a) emanate from, (b) adequately represent, and (c) reflect back upon, the cultural context in which behaviour is observed. Application of these to 355 empirical and 31 theoretical articles from Indian journals and 39 foreign empirical articles published by Indian psychologists, indicates some slight movement toward an indigenous discipline, and some interesting relationships that assist in understanding its development. Factors contributing to indigenization and the utility of the empirical approach are discussed.