Dr glenn adams 2

Neocolonialism in Science :The Case of Relationship Psychology Glenn Adams Department of Psychology and Kansas African Studies Center University of Kansas, USA 18 MAY 2011 Lecture at the

Neocolonialism in Science :

The Case of Relationship Psychology

Glenn Adams

Department of Psychology and Kansas African Studies Center

University of Kansas, USA

18 MAY 2011

Lecture at the Faculty of Psychology, University for Social Sciences and Humanities,

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.

(e.g., Attachment Theory)

The Social Welfare Department, which deals with over a thousand Lagos children a year in need of care and protection, is concerned at the evidence of widespread emotional insecurity amongst children If the argument put forward by Dr Bowlby and others is accepted many Lagos boys and girls must grow up with their ability to form relationships of love impaired Such

emotional insecurity may make it difficult for a couple to commit their feelings to each other , or to overcome conflicts in marriage

At the same time, the exchange of children between members of the family encourages them to identify themselves with the family group, and they must learn not to rely too much on any one relationship But by learning to trust rather in the solidarity

of the family group, they limit the intensity of their feelings (p 64)

Marris, P (1961) Family and social change in an African city: A study of rehousing in Lagos Evanston, IL:

Northwestern University Press.

Relational Patterns

• Kinship Model of Family Relations

• True Love as Filial Obligation

• Nuclear Model of Family Relations

• True Love as Romance

Cultural Psychology of "True" Love

(with Phia Salter)

A West African Dilemma:

Suppose there is a health emergency and your mother and your spouse are in serious danger You have resources to help only one person Whom do you choose to help:

a) your mother b) your spouse

Location F(1,66) = 278, p = 60 Relationship type F(1,66) = 5.98, p =.02 Location x Rship type F(1,66)=2.36, p=.13

Cultural Psychology of "True" Love

Relational Patterns

• Kinship Model of Family Relations

• True Love as Filial Obligation

• Socially Distributed Childcare

• Obedience Oriented Parenting

• Conjugal Complementarity

• Avoidant Attachment

• Materiality of Care

• Silence and Concealment

• Nuclear Model of Family Relations

• True Love as Romance

• Dyadic Relational Childcare

• Cautious relationality emphasizing

dutiful performance of obligation,

preservation of harmony

Promotion-focused (Higgins, 1996)

• Open relationality emphasizing expansive pursuit of pleasurable companionship

Neocolonialism in the Study of Relationship

• Mainstream Psychological Science tends to valorize

characterized by free disclosure and eager pursuit of pleasurable companionship — as a naturally superior standard for health

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Neocolonialism in the Study of Relationship

• Mainstream Psychological Science tends to valorize

"promotion-focused" relationality — an open approach to intimacy

characterized by free disclosure and eager pursuit of pleasurable companionship — as a naturally superior standard for health

• Psychological Science tends to pathologize the more

meeting obligations and preserving harmony—as a suboptimal deviation from the normative standard.

A Cultural-Psychological Analysis

(Adams & Salter, 2007)

• Normalizing Caution

Prevention-focused relationality typical of many West African worlds is not

a sub-optimal form, but instead reflects cultural ecologies of "embeddedness"

or "interdependence" (e.g., bird-scaring rope) that have considerable benefits

• De-naturalizing Openness

Promotion-focused relationality valorized in psych science is not

"naturally" superior, but instead reflects cultural ecologies that promote

abstracted independence and have (typically obscured) costs.

* Adams, G., & Salter, P (2007) Health psychology in African settings: A cultural-psychological analysis Journal of

Health Psychology, 12, 539-551.

Embedded Interdependence

Constructions of relationship as

environmental affordance: "One's birth

is like the bird-scaring rope."

Constructions of relationship as the tenuous arrangement of inherently separate "free agents"

Abstracted Independence

Embedded Interdependence

Constructions of relationship as

environmental affordance: "One's birth

is like the bird-scaring rope."

Research Overview

Two Experiments

• Participants from University of Kansas, University of Ghana

• Participants receive an embeddedness treatment.

• Participants complete dependent measures.

Participants in the embeddedness condition will show the more prevention-focused patterns typical of Ghanaian settings.

Experiment 1

Participants

• University of Kansas (KU; n = 71); University of Ghana (UG; n = 67)

Experimental "Treatment"

Individual (I am …) and Collective (We are …) versions of the TST

(Kuhn & McPartland, 1954; Hong, Ip, Chiu, Morris, & Menon, 2001

Measures of Friendship Experience

• Social Support in Friendship

Social Support Measure

Results: Social Support Emphasis

Support Type x Setting: F(1, 131) = 36.04, p < 001

As in previous research (e.g., Adams & Plaut, 2003) people in an American setting, relative to people in a parallel Ghanaian setting:

placed greater emphasis on emotional support, and placed less emphasis on material support.

However, also evidence for the embeddedness hypothesis:

The above tendencies were higher for Ghanaian participants in the

independence (I) condition than interdependence (we) condition.

Experiment 1: Results

University of Kansas University of Ghana

Support Type x Manip x Nation: F(1, 131) = 3.96, p = 049 Within UG: Support Type x Manipulation: F(1, 64) = 8.40, p = 005

Results: Social Support Emphasis

Use a scale from 0 (not at all) to 4 (completely) to indicate the extent to

which you discuss the following topics with your romantic partners

Self-Disclosure Index

• What is important to me in life

• What makes me the person I am

• My worst fears

• Things I have done which I am proud of

(α = 73)

Consistent with previous observations, willingness to disclose was

lower among people in a Ghanaian setting than a US setting.

Consistent with the embeddedness hypothesis, willingness to disclose was lower among people exposed to "eyes of others" than in the no- treatment "control" condition.

Experiment 2: Results

Setting: F(1, 256) = 12.64, p < 001

Embeddedness Treatment: F(1, 256) = 6.39, p = 012

Experiment 2: Results

• Results confirm stronger tendencies of "prevention-focused"

relationality among "Ghanaian" participants, even in a setting (UG) that affords considerable abstraction.

• However, results challenge prevailing interpretations of this pattern:

Overall Summary

• Normalizing Caution

Prevention-focused relationality typical of many West African worlds is not

a pathology, but instead reflects ecologies of embeddedness that have benefits (e.g., assurance of belonging and support).

• De-naturalizing Openness

Promotion-focused relationality valorized in psych science is not

"naturally" superior, instead reflects ecologies of abstracted independence that have costs

Experience of abstracted independence may free people (with sufficient resources) to contract relationships that provide self-expansion and personal satisfaction.

… but association with neoliberal individualism also has costs (Ferguson, 2006)

• Uncertain pleasures of "romance" can lure people to forgo guarantees of

embeddedness and put them at risk for disappointment, abandonment (Cole & Thomas, 2009; Hirsch & Wardlow, 2006).

• Sense of freedom from embeddedness leads people to acquire and consume with little attention to social consequences and reputation (Geschiere, 1997).

• More generally, this "high mobility" (and middle-class) way of relating

requires and consumes resources (Markus, Ryff, Curhan, & Palmerscheim, 2004)

Despite sincere intentions to do no harm, imposition of promotion-focused

relationality as a normative standard legitimizes resource-intensive ways of being that reproduce inequality and (perhaps) neocolonial domination.

Conclusion: View from Postcolonial Studies

"For [the colonizer], for ourselves, and for humanity

… we must work out new concepts and try to set

afoot a new [hu]man."

Franz Fanon (1961) Wretched of the Earth

Decolonizing Psychology

Acknowledgements

Funding

• Social Science Research Council (USA)

• J William Fulbright Fellowship Board

• KU General Research Fund

• Kansas African Studies Center

• Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

• Department of Psychology, University of Ghana

• Tamale Institute for Cross Cultural Studies

• University for Development Studies, Navrongo Campus