Constructing Indigenous Psychological Theories From A Global Perspective: Taking Filial Piety Model As An Example

Abstract

Most nonwestern researchers regard the field of indigenous psychology as an intellectual movement across the globe to resist the hegemony of Western psychology in representation of the human mind, and in investigations of local mentality. Other than avoiding the hegemony of Western psychology, scholars may still wonder why they need to construct indigenous theories or conduct indigenous research. The answer usually is that existing theories and constructs (especially Western mainstream ones) cannot explain or clarify the local phenomena that they observe or want to talk about. They have to find a new way to describe the local phenomenon they want to describe. An indigenous (new) theory or construct is the solution; the local phenomenon is the basis of reality and needs to be explored and clarified, rather than applying existing theories and constructs. There are several ways to construct indigenous theories or conduct indigenous research. One of the most common ways is the emic approach. However, this paper wants to go a step further to distinguish two different approaches: reflective emic and reflexive etic approach. This paper elaborates on application of these two approaches and advocates a multiple paradigm perspective for constructing an indigenous psychological theory from a global perspective.