Decolonizing Psychology as a Scientific and Ethical Necessity
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The starting point of this paper is the colonial heritage of mainstream psychology, and particularly of developmental psychology. The dominant paradigm is still the assumption of universality of theories and findings that originate in research from and with a tiny part of the world’s population. Associated is the neglect, even ignorance, concerning existing anthropological, cultural, and psychological ethnographic research from different communities across the globe, which demonstrate that the so-called WEIRD science (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) is different in many respects from the multitude of existing cultural patterns, representing an outlier in a statistical sense. The paper presents a reflection of what inclusivity means and how it can be realized. It is obvious that a good intention is not necessary a good deed. Inclusivity necessitates a complete change of perspective. The second part of the paper deals with the necessary decolonization of early childhood development interventions. It is demonstrated how WEIRD assumptions are exported in large parts of LMIC without proving their validity and applicability. These practices not only ignore scientific evidence but are also unethical because of epistemic violence. It is concluded that basic science and applications are highly interconnected. Decolonization should start with including majority world research in the general database. It is important to realize that extending the spectrum of samples is not helpful as long as methods are applied that are developed in the WEIRD world.
Author: Heidi Keller
Institution: Osnabrück University
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4407296472