Preview

Critical Psychology A Realistic Perspective

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
869 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Critical Psychology A Realistic Perspective
Critical Psychology: A Realistic Perspective
Kathleen M. Davis
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology
Critical Psychology: A Realistic Perspective
Globalization in the human society has existed for thousands of years. Historically, globalization related to the process of trade, a way in which peoples interacted with one another to obtain necessary or luxurious goods (The Levin Institute, 2013). With the evolution of technology, our world has become much smaller, from a communication standpoint. Media makes it possible to know world events in a manner of seconds. The culmination of a technology-driven global society has brought forth many of the world’s utmost concerns, from poverty, oppression, disease, natural disasters, pollution,
…show more content…
Post-Americanized psychology movements combine the process of assimilation or acceptance of other cultures, and accommodation, the inclusion of cultural viewpoint. Global psychology needs to include a collective construction (Moghaddam, Erneling, Montero, & Lee, 2007) rather than individualistic construction. This approach builds on the Gestalt concept of the “whole being greater than the sum of its parts.” Rather than viewing individuals from mental disorders in a narrow vein, this concept encourages viewing how the individual operates within the society. While these concepts have merit, it is too simplistic from a realistic perspective, to radicalize how society ought to be with how society actually …show more content…
But, the reality of truly making a global psychology work will have to involve the system, otherwise, global psychology, which holds so much promise will be viewed as a small group of neo-hippie radicals with little substantive data to offer. The global society in which the helping professions serve is based on a system of insurance companies, government agencies, non-profit organizations, medical agencies, mental health organizations, corporations, politics and bureaucracy, all of whom have a contribution and a large say in the matter. Critical psychology is just that—it criticizes the status quo, but offers very little in offering concrete solutions. Compromise is a more likely solution than rebelling against the system. And, it will allow further growth of a very promising evolution of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Psychology has a diverse nature. Diversity describes the diverse nature of the field not diversity in human race. The following paper will define two examples of sub-disciplines of psychology and two theories connected to the sub-disciplines, how these two examples connect with contemporary society other than psychology, relate sub-disciplines to a theoretical perspective, and my psychological contribution to society.…

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    positive psychology

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Traditional psychology appeared to explain the development of mental disorders and provided a framework for the treatment of these disorders or emotional difficulties. This started in the earlier 1900’s with Sigmund Freud, but holes began to appear in this first global theory. The theory explained behavior in terms of conditioning and reinforcement. Psychoanalytic theory used to explain emotional problems and psychoanalysis was the treatment preferred, which often failed. There were so many experiences influencing their observations that we had a variety of different paradigms.…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Globalization has become a highly debated concept around the world. Globalization can be simply understood as “a process of global economical, political and cultural integration” (thefreedictionary.com). Today the world has become global and integral and all of its major parts are completely interconnected like in a tiny village. Globalization is an everyday process that brings a cultural unification and changes people’s psychology. Globalization is happening almost everywhere in the world and having various impacts on people. It is a process that is bringing the world smaller and smaller and also imposing a change on people’s cultural level. People’s identity is changing because of globalization. Globalization has made the world we are living today more complex and culturally pluralized. Many people migrate to new places and are forced to adopt a new culture. However, their traditions might not fade away because they will always be part of their identity.…

    • 1180 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, as the unofficial “humanistic” approach gained momentum in the field, it received a lot of warning and criticisms. For example, in the 1960’s when there was a great emphasis on peace and justice from the ending of recent wars, Carl Rogers warned that the approach would not become permanent if it was made into a protest movement. The humanistic approach needed to be taken seriously, and if psychologists treated it as a “fad”, then the community will treat it as such as well. In order for that to happen, there needed to be an appeal for innovative research on the topic (Giorgi, 1992).…

    • 394 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Have you wondered about whether psychologists (as practitioners, researchers, educators, etc) have a role or responsibility in social change movements? This week, you will continue to explore the fundamentals of social change, but with a specific emphasis on psychology and social change.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Wedding, D., McCartney, J. L., & Currey, D. E. (2009). Lessons relevant to psychologists who serve as mentors for international students. Professional Psychology: Research And Practice, 40(2), 189-193.…

    • 2867 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The diversity of the discipline and its sub-disciplines performs well with my diverse theoretical Not only does diversity assist with diagnosis and treatment in scientific psychology; it can assist in a collection of other areas like environmental, industrial/organizational, social, and cross-cultural psychology. The distinctness of every person, every neighborhood, geographical settings, areas of the country, as well as the areas across the world needs a selection of solutions for deciphering problems.…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The approach also deals with community problems such as mental health and believes that this is not an individual issue but involves the community at large (New Perspectives In Community Psychology, 2002).The advocates of this approach such as Seedat, Cloete,& Shochet(cited in Community Psychology,2002) tend to ague the intrapsychic nature of mental illness by the mainstream psychology which suggest that the problem lies within the individual and ignoring social issues such as poverty, substance abuse, violence, and women-battering. The problem created by this model is its elitist and selective nature which seems to have failed to address the needs of majority in society and focused only in individuals. Hence community psychology seek to concern itself with the issues that involves the community and its collectiveness other…

    • 2731 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Globalization is the process by which different societies and cultures integrate through a worldwide network of political ideas through transportation, communication, and trade. Generally, globalization has affected many nations in various ways; economically, politically, and socially. It is a term that refers to the fast integration and interdependence of various nations, which shapes the world affairs on a global level. Simply put; globalization is the world coming together. In this essay I will discuss multiple perspectives on globalization through the analysis of these three sources.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Psychology and the Media

    • 1722 Words
    • 7 Pages

    References: Ludy, B. (1986). Why don 't they understand us? A history of psychology 's public image. American Psychologists, 41, 941-946.…

    • 1722 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Smith, N. W. (2008). History of Psychology: A Cultural Perspective. The Psychological Record, 58(1), 153+. Retrieved July 15, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5026235145…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The research that psychologists glean from their subjects benefits all of us through better understanding of how our minds work. This is possible through testing of subject groups and adjusting environmental conditions. With the resulting data, psychologists can improve our lives. While most can speculate about behavior and emotion, psychologists us the scientific method to more legitimately predict describe and even explain human behavior. The simple fact that psychology contains so many sub-fields makes it unique. This allows specialized psychologist to concentrate on a more specific aspect of the human mind, such as, developmental psychology where researchers observe human mental growth from birth to death (Feldman 2009). A cross-cultural psychologist could be of help in the conflict affecting Syria. A researcher in cross-cultural psychology could shed light on how people in the region react to the violence and horror that has been occurring over the past couple of years. Through this, mankind can…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The article written by Jeffery J Arnett focuses on the arguments and criticisms on “why American psychology needs to become less American”. The main concept that Arnett argues is that modern psychology is secluded to the United States rather than being based on a broader section of the human population. This idea comes from analysing the current world population and noticing that “psychological researchers in the United States restrict their focus to less than 5% of the world’s total population” (Arnett 2008) therefore resulting in 95% of the world population being neglected, hence Arnett’s choice in the title of this article. He believes that in order for psychology to become an accredited science it needs to represent the entire world population,…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Crazy Like Us Analysis

    • 1717 Words
    • 7 Pages

    I believe a qualitative point of view is important when discussing psychology because when you only focus on things from a very precise outlook you are more prone to encounter a very one-sided argument. Watters’ almost makes it clear cut about his views of the Western culture. Where in all the cases discussed in the book Watters leaves me with the message of “here’s why the psychological research in this country is wrong, and here’s one case as to why it is”. It doesn’t focus on the future impact of psychology or how a lot of these psychological diagnoses were in the beginning stages of being introduced to the world so there were more prone to have faults. Also, I don’t believe Watters emphasizes enough how these countries are lacking in resources and psychological research. As a matter of fact, the book gears the attention to appear as though it’s America’s fault as to why people have been suffering in other parts of the country because we tried to implement our findings/standards of psychiatry to the rest of the…

    • 1717 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American Heritage Medical dictionary (Website one, 2007) defines community psychology (CP) as “the application of psychology to community programs for the prevention of mental health disorders and the promotion of mental health.” Public health (PH) on the other hand is defined as “the science and practice of protecting and improving the health of a community as by preventative medicine; health education; control of communicable diseases; application of sanitary measures and monitoring of environmental hazards (website two, 2007).” Both approaches have its own merits that set it apart from the other and similarities that provide common ground from which both can work in tandem. It is the aim of this assignment to compare and contrast CP to PH approach in terms of social problems. Firstly, by providing the premise from which each operates. Secondly, by providing the differences and similarities between these two approaches it is my objective that the strengths and weaknesses of each approach will be revealed.…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics