Shifting Paradigms in Psychology

This doctoral journey I’ve been taking in counseling psychology has illuminated some interesting truths for me. The first is that the research methodologies I’ve learned about in my classes, mostly quantitative methods are limited in nature for an academic who studies Black people. Quantitative methods are great at measuring and analyzing but are not so great at understanding and describing. And what I feel is most lacking in the research on Black parents’ experiences of being Black parents is a more nuanced description and understanding of our experiences. 

For this, and other reasons, I’ve chosen to gear my training towards qualitative research because I notice how much scientific inquiry from this methodology is lacking. How can we possibly claim full understanding of humans, if we do not value investigating them with multiple strategies?  I realize in choosing this path I may never become the most renowned psychologist, yet I must do what is in alignment with who I am as a person.

The second truth that has become clear regards the way we conceptualize and engage in therapy. I’ll admit that I learned not a single non-Western theoretical orientation in my graduate classes.  It is as if no other culture on this big blue planet has ever offered thoughtful insights about human behavior besides White European people.  I say this with the most sarcasm because I know this to be untrue.

In reality, many cultures, with different worldviews have postulated theories of human behavior. Yet in our institutions of higher learning, we are not privy to those ways of understanding psychology. I have found in my experience that I have had to conduct my own research on Afrocentrism and indigenous worldviews to get a more complete picture of what it means to be human, how humans become emotionally unwell, and how to facilitate healing.

How can I conduct “good” therapy with Black peoples, with frameworks that were never designed for them or by them? Again, I have consciously chosen to take on an Afrocentric therapeutic orientation to better serve Black peoples and realize that this stance may not be the most popular either.

So, as we think about multiculturalism in psychology, and how to serve the unique needs of ALL people, not just the Euro-American ones, I question, with all respect and sincerity, if the field of psychology has the tools and mindset to do so. Can we take a step back?  Evaluate ourselves and our profession from a further distance, so that we might gain greater awareness? Can we reconsider what we know to be “true” about research and counseling, and be open to other ways of thinking and being?

It’s a lot to ask. And a lot to unpack for all of us.  Yet I see no other choice.

Thank you for reading.