Refections on the Cross-Cultural Challenge to Western Psychology : Implications for Theory and Practice

This paper has sought to document significant aspects of the cross-cultural challenge to psychology as an academic discipline and a profession. As an academic discipline, psychology is increasingly obliged to incorporate the notions of cultural and historical context in its formulations of the dynamics of a wide range of psychological phenomena. Ethnocentric biases in such efforts must now at least be recognized if not eliminated. Those who offer psychological services in culturally pluralistic communities must be aware of the complications which may arise if the perspectives and practices they bring to bear on a problem are inconsistent with its culturally-linked origins and symptomology and the expectations of the client. Fowers and Richardson (1996) have recently noted how powerful a force multiculturalism has become in contemporary American psychology. The growing appreciation that American norms, or the norms of any particular society, are not necessarily universal has encouraged the American Psychological Association (APA) to publish guidelines for the practice of psychology with culturally diverse populations such as are found in the United States. Psychology is facing an ongoing cross-cultural challenge which will ultimately transform the discipline and the practice in highly significant ways. As Fowers and Richardson attest, multiculturalism in psychology, while initially threatening to the status quo in many ways, is essentially good in the longer run in forcing researchers and practitioners to consider the wider validity of their assumptions, models, theories and professional practice