Executive Summary based on the paper “Indigenous, cultural, and cross-cultural psychology: 
A theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological analysis” ( Uichol Kim, 2000). Explaining the different perspective in culture-oriented research in psychology.

1. Hangzhou, March 2011
Prof. Dr. Hora Tjitra & Gao Li, Zhejiang University
Indigenous
Psychology
Incorporating “Culture” in psychology research
from the indigenous perspective

2. The universalist approach
It aims to discover abstract,
nomothetic, and general laws of
human functioning (Koch &Leary,
1985; Shepard 1987).
An example of etic approch
The contextualist approach
Each culture should be understood
from its own frame of the reference,
including its own ecological, historical,
philosophical, and religious context.
An example of emic approach
Integrationist approach
Recognizes the importance of
integrating the context and content of
psychological knowledge in our
research for universals.
Research approaches to explain cultural differences
Cultural
differences

3. Outline
 Research approaches to explain cultural
differences
 Two types of Indigenization
 Analysis of culture
 Religion, culture and science
---Confucianism
 Three impositions of psychology and the
indigenous psychologies approach

4. Evaluation
Studies
of
Cross-­‐Cultural
Training
4
14
years
in
Germany
7
years
in
China
Born
and
grew
up
in
Indonesia
Prof.Dr.Hora Tjitra - Cross-cultural and Business Psychology
Dipl.-Psych.,Technical University of Braunschweig
Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management
Dr.Phil.,University of Regensburg
Intercultural Psychology and Strategic Management
Executive Education,INSEAD
HR Management in Asia

5. Two types of Indigenization
Indigenization from without
 Transporting psychological theories,
concepts, and methods and modifying
them to fit the local cultural context
 Derived etic approach is an example
 External imposition
 Accommodative paradigm
 Indigenous knowledge is treated as an
auxiliary source, not as the primary
source of knowledge.
 Translate traditional philosophical and
religious texts into psychological
concepts or theories, and then
empirically verify.
 The current psychological knowledge
can be described as the psychology of
psychologists, not the psychology of
the lay public.
Indigenization from within
 A shift in the scientific paradigm, a
transformative change in which
theories, concepts, and methods are
developed from within, using a bottom-
up approach.
 The indigenous psychologies
advocated by Kim and colleagues is an
example
 Advocate examining knowledge, skills,
and beliefs which people have about
themselves, and studying these
aspects in their natural contexts
 The goal is to create a more rigorous,
systematic, universal science that can
be theoretically and empirically verified,
rather than naively assumed.

6. Analysis of culture
 Cultural products
( e.g. music)
 Psychological constructs
( e.g. attitudes)
 Organized bodies of knowledge
( e.g. language)
Culture outsider
Participate in the creation and
re-creation of these products
Culture Insider
e.g. burn a piece of cloth vs. a USA flag

7. Understanding culture from without (1)
Traditional psychology: culture was considered to be contextual
factor and not included in the research design. The goal of the
psychology is to discover objective, abstract, and universal
relationships between independent variables and dependent variables.
Dependent
1. Response
2. Behavior
3. response
Independent
1. Stimulus
2. Culture
3. information
Positivistic model of causality
Intervening
1. Black Box
2. Subject
3. Central
Processing unit

8. Understanding culture from without (2)
 Cross-cultural psychology: culture is
treated as a quasi-independent variable
and behavior as a dependent variable.
 Indigenous psychology: culture is an
emergent property of individuals and
groups interacting with their and human
environment. It’s through culture that we
think, feel, behave, and interact with
reality.

9. Understanding a culture from within
 The indigenous psychologies approach recognized two types of
knowledge:
1. Analytical, semantic, and declarative knowledge
2. Phenomenological, episodic, and procedural knowledge
 The indigenous psychologies approach advocates a transaction model of
the causality that focus on the generative and proactive aspects.
Situation
Event
Action
Performance
Agent
Meaning
Intention
Goal
Causal
Linkage
1
Causal
Linkage
2
Transactional model of causality

10. Religion, culture and science ---Confucianism
• Dao constitutes the very
essence, basis, and unit of
life that perpetuates order,
goodness, and
righteousness.( Lew,1977)
e.g. Xiao Dao
• Dao manifests itself in the
harmonious opposition of
yin and yang, and in
humans through te (virtue,
goodness, moral
excellence).

11. Confucian developmental stages
Ren ( 仁 )
YI ( 义 )
LI ( 礼 )
ZHI (智)
XIN (信)
Context Character Age
19
9
6
2
Society
School
Family
Self
Infant
Child
Adolescent
Adult

12. Limitations on using Confucianism
to explain behavior
 Confucianism can be used as a descriptive
model, but it should not be used to as an
explanatory model. Translate to psychological
concepts and then empirically verified.
 There are blind spots and biases in all
philosophical traditions.
 The lay public may not be fully aware of basic
Confucian concepts such as ren, yi, li, zhi and
xin.
 Within a particular culture, there can be
competing philosophies and worldviews.

13. Evaluation
Studies
of
Cross-­‐Cultural
Training
13
International Project References in the Research Areas of
Culture Diversity,Talent Development,and Strategic Change
14
years
in
Germany
Born
and
grew
up
in
Indonesia
8
years
in
China
• Building Global Competence for Asian Leaders
• Applying Social Medias (Web 2.0) in Learning & Development.
• International Employability:Development of Intercultural
Competence of German and Chinese Young Professionals.
• Cross-Cultural Learning Behavior:
Effectiveness of the Western Technology Transfer and Learning
Approaches in China.
• Comparative Studies of Chinese-Indonesian Intercultural
Competence and Sensitivity.
• Dynamic Decision Making in Chinese and Multinational Teams.
• Intercultural Perspectives of International Post-Merger
Integration in Europe.
• Intercultural Synergy in Professional Team.
• Complex Problem Solving in Small Groups.
• ...

14. Three impositions of psychology and
the indigenous psychologies approach
 First, researchers in the field of psychology imposed the natural
science model to study human beings.
 The second imposition is the assumption of the universality of
psychological theories.
 Third, expert or professional knowledge have imposed on the
lay public.
 The indigenous psychologies approach advocates liberation
form these external impositions advocates the experience of
phenomenon as an insider, for the first time.
 The indigenous psychologies approach advocates a linkage of
humanities (which focus on human experience ) with social
sciences (which focus on analysis and verification).

15. Thank
You
Contact us via …
Mail: hora_t@mac.com
Follow: twitter@htjitra
Website: http://horatjitra.com
Zhejiang
University,
Hangzhou
(China)
Summary presentation based on the paper
“Indigenous, cultural, and cross-cultural psychology: A theoretical, conceptual, and
epistemological analysis” ( Uichol Kim, 2000) and our group discussion.