Transnational psychology is a branch of
psychology
Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...
that applies postcolonial, context-sensitive
cultural psychology, and
transnational feminist lenses to the field of psychology to study, understand, and address the impact of
colonization
Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
,
imperialism
Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic powe ...
, and
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
, and to counter the Western bias in the field of psychology.
Transnational psychologists partner with members of local communities to examine the unique psychological characteristics of groups without regard to nation-state boundaries. As articulated by Kurtis, Adams, Grabe, Else-Quest, Collins, Machizawa and Rice, transnational psychology aims to counter the Western bias in the field of psychology.
Kurtis and Adams proposed applying the principles of
transnational feminism
Transnational feminism refers to both a contemporary feminist paradigm and the corresponding activist movement. Both the theories and activist practices are concerned with how globalization and capitalism affect people across nations, races, ...
and using a context-sensitive
cultural psychology lens to reconsider, de-naturalize, and de-universalize psychological science.
They identified people in the non-Western, "Majority World" (areas where the majority of the world's population lives) as valuable resources for revising traditional psychological science.
Transnational psychology is essentially synonymous with transnational feminist psychology.
Both transnational feminism and transnational psychology are concerned with how globalization and
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
affect people across
nations,
races,
genders
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures us ...
,
classes, and
sexualities. The transnational academic paradigm draws from
postcolonial feminist theories, which emphasize how colonialist legacies have shaped and continue to shape the social, economic, and
political oppression of people across the globe. It rejects the idea that people from different regions have the same
subjectivities and recognizes that global
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
has created similar relations of exploitation and inequality. A 2015 Summit organized by Machizawa, Collins, and Rice further developed transnational psychology
by inspiring presentations and publications that applied
transnational feminist principles to psychological topics.
International psychology, global psychology, and
cross-cultural psychology
Cross-cultural psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes, including both their variability and invariance, under diverse cultural conditions. Through expanding research methodologies to recognize cultural variance i ...
share the common goal of making psychology more universal and less ethnocentric in character, whereas
transnational psychology is concerned with uncovering the particularities of the psychology of groups without regard to nation-state boundaries and is opposed to universalization.
Transnational intersectionality
Grabe and Else-Quest proposed the concept of "transnational intersectionality" that expands current conceptions of
intersectionality
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adva ...
, adding global forces to the analysis of how oppressive institutions are interconnected.
In addition, Bhatia believes that a transnational
cultural psychology is needed examine the psychology of diasporas, who are impacted by
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
and consequently have many "homes," languages, and selves. This movement asks to critique the ideologies of traditional white, classist, western models of psychology practices from an intersectional approach and how these connect with labor, theoretical applications, and analytical practice on a geopolitical scale.
WEIRD bias
Scholars have noted that most of the articles in
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...
journals are about largely white, US populations, despite U.S. citizens only constituting about 5% of the world's population. Arnett (2008) pointed out that psychologists have no grounds for assuming psychological processes are universal and generalizing research findings to the rest of the global population.
Henrich, Heine, and Norenzayan (2010) noted that although only 1/8 of people worldwide live in regions that fall into the
WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic) societal classification, 60–90% of psychology studies are performed on participants from these areas.
They gave examples of results that differ significantly between people from WEIRD and tribal cultures, including the
Müller-Lyer illusion. Arnett (2008),
Altmaier and Hall (2008), and Morgan-Consoli et al. (2018) all view the Western bias in research and theory as a serious problem considering psychologists are increasingly applying psychological principles developed in WEIRD regions in their research, clinical work, and consultation with populations around the world.
In 2018, Rad, Martingano & Ginges stated that nearly a decade after Henrich et al.'s paper, over 80% of the samples used in studies published in the journal,
Psychological Science, were from the WEIRD population. Their analysis also showed that several studies did not fully disclose the origin of their samples, and the authors offer a set of recommendations to editors and reviewers to reduce the WEIRD bias.
See also
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Transnational feminism
Transnational feminism refers to both a contemporary feminist paradigm and the corresponding activist movement. Both the theories and activist practices are concerned with how globalization and capitalism affect people across nations, races, ...
*
International psychology International or global psychology is an emerging branch of psychology that focuses on the worldwide enterprise of psychology in terms of communication and networking, cross-cultural comparison, scholarship, practice, and pedagogy (Stevens & Giele ...
*
Feminist psychology
Feminist psychology is a form of psychology centered on social structures and gender. Feminist psychology critiques historical psychological research as done from a male perspective with the view that males are the norm.Crawford, M. & Unger, R. ...
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Critical psychology
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Liberation psychology Liberation psychology or liberation social psychology is an approach to psychology that aims to actively understand the psychology of oppressed and impoverished communities by conceptually and practically addressing the oppressive sociopolitical str ...
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Psychology
Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...
*
Feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
*
Feminist movements and ideologies
A variety of movements of feminist ideology have developed over the years. They vary in goals, strategies, and affiliations. They often overlap, and some feminists identify themselves with several branches of feminist thought.
Groupings
Tradi ...
References
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Transnationalism
Branches of psychology