No abstract

Psychology has come a long way since its origin in Africa and Ghana in particular. In this paper, an attempt is made to explore the current state of psychological knowledge in Ghana as well as the associated problems in the application of such knowledge. It was concluded that the approach to the study and application of psychological knowledge and tests has been too Eurocentric and westernized. As a result, it limits the applicability of the approach to the African setting, and yet, Western theorists may expect African psychologists to apply the theories to Africans. On the basis of this criticism, the scope of Pan-African psychology is defined and suggestions for pursuing an Africanisation project are presented. It is expected that the strategies that this paper advocates for indigenizing psychology in Africa can equally be useful to psychologists in other developing regions of the world.

Possessing endogenous knowledge can help Africans formulate practical solutions to our problems that best fit our circumstances to improve our livelihood. Endogenous knowledge can be considered as knowledge about the people, by the people and for the people. This suggests that economic progress is most likely to occur in societies that succeed in linking their knowledge base to innovation systems. But can Africans create such indigenous knowledge? This paper outlines an approach that suggests modification in the current epistemology and pedagogy applied in teaching, learning and research. It is being proposed here that the African scholar should adopt a problem-oriented approach in conducting research as opposed to the current method-oriented approach that prevents the African from examining pertinent African problems. Pedagogy should also change from single-loop learning in which assumptions underlying western theories and concepts are not examined to double-loop learning. In addition, there is the need to revise the training of the next generation of African scholars and modes of knowledge dissemination. The African scholar must be educated on how to apply critical theory to screen imported knowledge. African universities should also rely less on publications in the so-called international journals as the criterion for staff promotion and rather rely more on publications in domestic journals, staff contribution to solving African problems and the number of postgraduates successfully supervised. The journey to creating indigenous knowledge will be long. As such, a ‘front’ should be nurtured to clear the path.

Studies that investigate cognitive ability in African children and estimate the general cognitive abilities of African adults tend to work with existing models of intelligence. However, African philosophy and empirical studies in cross-cultural psychology have demonstrated that conceptualizations of human cognitive ability vary with location. This paper begins with the assumption that the existing Anglo-American models of cognitive abilities are valuable but limited in their capacity to account for the various conceptualizations of valued cognitive abilities in different human societies. On the basis of this assumption, I employ extant empirical evidence generated through ethnographic studies across Africa to formulate what an African model of valued human cognitive ability ought to be. The output of this formulation has been so christened a model of valued cognitive ability in order to draw attention to the fact that models of cognitive abilities have currency and values in each human society. This value allocation is expected to influence which elements of cognitive ability each human society will promote and develop. In addition, implications for theory, research and praxes are discussed.

In any social analysis, one can attribute observed behavioural outcomes to actions and inactions of people (agents) or to the presence or absence of certain structures or systems. The dualism of agent and structure is resolved through the concept of duality as proposed by Anthony Giddens in his structuration theory (ST). Though ST has been applied in other disciplines, it is either less known or applied in psychology. This paper sought to examine ST as a framework for understanding the interdependent relationship between structure and agents in the light of offering explanatory framework in social science research or policy formulation. It concluded with an integrated model comprising elements of both Bandura's social-cognitive theory and Giddens' ST.