“Pushing an Irritational Button”: Asian Psychologists Making Sense of Racialization in Psychology Training in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

The monocultural psychology training in Aotearoa New Zealand deliberately centers White racial framing which enables those who benefit from Whiteness to uphold an imposed hierarchy of racially inferior (Māori) and superior (Pākehā) groups. In Aotearoa, we are faced with a reality that Asian (as a diverse group from East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia) knowledge sources and the intake of Asian students into psychology training are scarcely prioritized. In this study, we utilized counter-storytelling as a critical race praxis to illuminate the various forms of Asianization (Asian racialization) as a subframe of White racial framing. Employing interpretative phenomenological analysis, we explored the subjective experiences of four Asian psychologists as they made sense of racism and the formation of their racialized identity within psychology training. Our analysis uncovered three main themes with subordinate themes: (1) the White mold of psychology (encountering White ideals of psychology and pursuing perceived benefits of Whiteness); (2) bearing the brunt of Asianization (ranging from being achievers yet forgotten to being perceived as a threat and unassimilable); and (3) relating to Māori (expressing identity validation and empathy yet experiencing lateral violence). We observed the manifestation of White racial framing across various cognitive (e.g., the prioritization of western knowledge and the promotion of colorblind norms), emotional (e.g., White fragility), and behavioral aspects (e.g., expectations placed on minoritized ethnic groups to assimilate), all of which contribute to Asianization archetypes (viz., the forgotten Asian, the irritational button, and the unassimilable foreigner).