INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 11 Program Schedule 02/17/2024 10:45 am - 12:00 pm Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120) Poster Session 11: Cultural Neuropsychology \| Education/Training \| Professional Practice Issues Final Abstract #84 Moving Towards a Decolonized Neuropsychology: an Opportunity for African Neuropsychologists Shathani Rampa, Queens College, New York, United States Desiree Byrd, Queens College, New York, United States Seth Oppong, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana Category: Cross Cultural Neuropsychology/ Clinical Cultural Neuroscience Keyword 1: cross-cultural issues Keyword 2: generalization Objective: Psychologists have power as the curators of knowledge about human behavior, however when that power is used without critical reflection, there is danger of making inappropriate conclusions. This presentation argues for incorporating a decolonizing lens in the ongoing development of neuropsychology in Africa to provide a platform for self-reflection amongst African neuropsychologists. Participants and Methods: The discourse around decolonizing Psychology (as a whole) in Africa was used as a guiding framework. Psychology in Africa has not been immune to colonialism both enacted and systemic. Currently, psychological science is dominated by rational, reductionist, and positivist traditions and this impacts the knowledge that is accepted as legitimate or ‘good science,’ which has negatively impacted knowledge creation using other epistemological foundations. Theories, methodologies, assessment instruments, and interventions are mostly developed in Western Europe and the United States, thus forming the basis of mainstream neuropsychology. Cultural neuropsychology has made inroads to improve the diversity of the field, however it continues to center the Euro-American experience as the yardstick for typical functioning, and ‘other’ cultures are seen as a separate sub-field of neuropsychology. African scholars have called for the development of an African psychology as a way to deconstruct the misrepresentations of Africans in psychology from the past as well as building a representative knowledge base that accurately depicts the lived experiences of Africans. These approaches suggest that an African conceptualization of human nature departs from the dominant models in the field. Results: There is a tension among neuropsychologists in Africa between the objective, established and imported neuropsychology, and the African Indigenous Knowledge Systems which are more relevant to the local communities they serve. On the one hand, most of the existing research, clinical, and training efforts have focused on adapting tools and practices that were developed in another context, with efforts to incorporate the unique sociohistorical contexts of the local communities. However, these efforts are still hampered by an inherent ‘othering’ of the African experience. On the other hand, the discourse around African Indigenous Knowledge Systems often treats Africans as a monolith and ignores the reality of the impacts of colonialism and globalization on African traditions, beliefs, and values. To deny the complexity of the modern African is to commit the same epistemological oppression that African psychology is trying to deconstruct. Conclusions: Neuropsychology has an opportunity to take advantage of its relative newness in Africa, by learning from the challenges posed to colleagues in other subfields of Psychology. The discourse around the decolonization of Psychology in Africa can be a launching pad for African neuropsychologists to develop a critical, responsive, and relevant field in the continent. The unequal knowledge and power relations in neuropsychology can be addressed through a critical reflection of the epistemology of mainstream neuropsychology, and how that impacts the way we research, practice, and teach neuropsychology. Moving towards decolonizing neuropsychology, is moving towards a truly global neuropsychology that posits that Euro-American epistemology is but one way to understand brain-behavior processes, and that other ways of being and knowing are also legitimate.

Poster

02/17/2024
10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120)

Poster Session 11: Cultural Neuropsychology | Education/Training | Professional Practice Issues

Final Abstract #84

Moving Towards a Decolonized Neuropsychology: an Opportunity for African Neuropsychologists

Shathani Rampa, Queens College, New York, United States
Desiree Byrd, Queens College, New York, United States
Seth Oppong, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana

Category: Cross Cultural Neuropsychology/ Clinical Cultural Neuroscience

Keyword 1: cross-cultural issues
Keyword 2: generalization

Objective:

Psychologists have power as the curators of knowledge about human behavior, however when that power is used without critical reflection, there is danger of making inappropriate conclusions. This presentation argues for incorporating a decolonizing lens in the ongoing development of neuropsychology in Africa to provide a platform for self-reflection amongst African neuropsychologists.

Participants and Methods:

The discourse around decolonizing Psychology (as a whole) in Africa was used as a guiding framework. Psychology in Africa has not been immune to colonialism both enacted and systemic. Currently, psychological science is dominated by rational, reductionist, and positivist traditions and this impacts the knowledge that is accepted as legitimate or ‘good science,’ which has negatively impacted knowledge creation using other epistemological foundations. Theories, methodologies, assessment instruments, and interventions are mostly developed in Western Europe and the United States, thus forming the basis of mainstream neuropsychology. Cultural neuropsychology has made inroads to improve the diversity of the field, however it continues to center the Euro-American experience as the yardstick for typical functioning, and ‘other’ cultures are seen as a separate sub-field of neuropsychology.

African scholars have called for the development of an African psychology as a way to deconstruct the misrepresentations of Africans in psychology from the past as well as building a representative knowledge base that accurately depicts the lived experiences of Africans. These approaches suggest that an African conceptualization of human nature departs from the dominant models in the field.

Results:

There is a tension among neuropsychologists in Africa between the objective, established and imported neuropsychology, and the African Indigenous Knowledge Systems which are more relevant to the local communities they serve. On the one hand, most of the existing research, clinical, and training efforts have focused on adapting tools and practices that were developed in another context, with efforts to incorporate the unique sociohistorical contexts of the local communities. However, these efforts are still hampered by an inherent ‘othering’ of the African experience. On the other hand, the discourse around African Indigenous Knowledge Systems often treats Africans as a monolith and ignores the reality of the impacts of colonialism and globalization on African traditions, beliefs, and values. To deny the complexity of the modern African is to commit the same epistemological oppression that African psychology is trying to deconstruct.

Conclusions:

Neuropsychology has an opportunity to take advantage of its relative newness in Africa, by learning from the challenges posed to colleagues in other subfields of Psychology. The discourse around the decolonization of Psychology in Africa can be a launching pad for African neuropsychologists to develop a critical, responsive, and relevant field in the continent. The unequal knowledge and power relations in neuropsychology can be addressed through a critical reflection of the epistemology of mainstream neuropsychology, and how that impacts the way we research, practice, and teach neuropsychology. Moving towards decolonizing neuropsychology, is moving towards a truly global neuropsychology that posits that Euro-American epistemology is but one way to understand brain-behavior processes, and that other ways of being and knowing are also legitimate.