Indigenous Psychology

Indigenous psychology is defined by Kim and Berry (1993) as "the scientific study of human behavior or mind that is native, that is not transported from other regions, and that is designed for its people." Indigenous psychology generally advocates examining knowledge, skills and beliefs people have about themselves and studying them in their natural contexts. Theories, concepts and methods are developed to correspond with psychological phenomena. Indigenous psychology explicitly advocates for incorporating both the content and the context of research. Indigenous psychology is considered necessary since existing psychological theories are not necessarily universal, and may often represent the psychology and cultural traditions of Europe and North America. "Indigenous psychology seeks to discover how the cultural views, theories, assumptions and classifications coupled with overarching social institutions influence psychological topics in each respective culture (2007). Indigenous psychologies are rooted in the systematic influences of formal, political and educational institutions as well as social factors that have and will continue to change the state of psychology. These psychologies grow out of the basic, political, economic, religious, and social components of each culture (Lawson, Graham and Baker, 2007). Indigenous psychologies usually use two distinct categories of psychological knowledge; scientific and applied knowledge reflected in scientific and professional psychology. Many indigenous countries prioritize these two categories usually based on the application of psychological knowledge to overcome challenges facing their culture, such as strengthening education, employment, health, population control and religious conflict rather than attempting to fund new scientific research with limited resources (2007).