The Importance of Constructive Realism for the Indigenous Psychologies Approach

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors note that a deeper understanding of science can only be achieved by considering the following two aspects: (1) the necessity of regulating scientists' practical activities; and (2) science must lead to knowledge, or else lose its importance and become simply instrumental. The authors point out the rise of constructive realism and then argue that traditional philosophy of science and constructivistic approaches failed because they either subscribed to the view that science describes the world or because they have ruled out the necessity of a regulative instance or the necessity of interpretation. Second, the authors sketch the ontology of constructive realism. It postulates a clear distinction between a world working without human impact, but influencing and constraining humans, the world of the scientific constructions and the world of different cultures. Third, the authors discuss the method of constructive realism, called strangification, and explain the constructive realistic view of scientific knowledge. Fourth, the authors outline the problems of psychology pertaining to the uncertainty of the psychological subject, and then sketches aspects of the indigenous psychologies approach, a rather new discipline in psychology that reflects on the subject of psychology more appropriately than mainstream psychology. Finally, this chapter discusses the idea of a universal psychology presented by Kim and Berry (1993) and emphasizes the importance of strangification and constructive realistic ontology for the indigenous psychologies approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)