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Major Concepts and Theories

This section organizes the major concepts and theories of Black Psychology according to Kevin Cokley and Rayma Garba's 2018 article "Speaking Truth to Power: How Black/African Psychology Changed the Discipline of Psychology". This article is part of a 2018 special issue of the Journal of Black Psychology honoring the 50th anniversary of The Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi). This issue focuses partly on the "the theoretical revolution/evolution that occurred [among ABPSi], resulting in the domain of African/Black psychology." Cokley and Garba's article specifically discusses how Black Psychology has formed as a discipline within and outside of Eurocentric Psychology. The authors propose three methodological approaches: Deconstructionist, Reconstructionist, and Constructionist, to organize the evolution of major concepts and theories of Black Psychology since the origin of the ABPSi. By using these three methodological approaches the authors "identify the many ways in which Black/African psychology has challenged prevailing beliefs in psychology about Black behavior and culture and forever changed psychological research on Black people."

Deconstructionist

Black Psychology encompasses many concepts and theories that apply to African Americans. The concepts and theories come from two perspectives. One perspective assumes universality, which means that African Americans can be studied using universal laws, while the other operates from the belief that the study of African beliefs, behaviors, and psychology is essential to the study of African Americans. In a reflection on the field of black psychology, and for the ABPsi's 50th anniversary, Cokley describes three methodological approaches that are characteristic of the work of many black psychologists. The deconstruction method focuses on diagnosing and breaking down misconceptions and inaccuracies that Eurocentric Psychology perpetuates. An example of this is Robert V. Guthrie's book, Even the Rat Was White, where he deconstructed mistruths and celebrates unde-rappreciated black psychologists. There was a deconstruction movement in the Association of Black Psychologists which included addressing three challenges that black psychologist were dealing with, and offering suggestions to the American Psychological Association (APA). The challenges included underrepresentation of black psychologists in higher education programs, the APA’s neglect of racism and poverty, and a lack of black psychologists in the APA. The challenges led Black Psychologists to request that the APA integrate its workforce, represent African Americans in graduate programs, and reevaluate their programs until the inherent racism in their standardized measurement of black youth is fully addressed. The APA wasn't the only one fighting this issue. In Even the Rat Was White, Guthrie addresses that Judge Robert Peckham found California to be in violation of the Civil Rights Act due to the use of standardized psychological tests that were culturally biased, racially-biased, and invalid for the purposes of wrongfully placing students into classes for students with intellectual disabilities. In addition to the past challenges, there is a western socialization process that paints Eurocentric psychology as the gold standard for diagnosing and treating mental health issues in the world today. The deconstruction method works to change how psychological research conducted with black participants is perceived and defined by researchers. Furthermore, the deconstruction method is used to craft therapeutic techniques that align with the Optimal Conceptual Theory, a theory of human development that is based on African thought and tradition, and led to the freedom of black people from things such as the school to prison pipeline and high infant mortality rates. These therapeutic techniques and theories are aimed to provide psychological liberation for people that have roots in Africa.

Reconstructionist

The reconstruction method focuses on correcting errors within traditional, Eurocentric psychology so that Black people have access to more culturally sensitive models of psychology. The method specifically examines the ideas of Black self-concept, racial identity, and cultural mistrust. The reconstructionist approach argues that psychology should stop centering the Black self-concept around Eurocentric psychological ideas and instead redefine the Black self-concept as separate. Reconstructionists argue that without differentiating the Black self-concept, traditional psychologists will continue to spread inaccurate narratives about Black people.Some more radical recontructionists like Wade Nobles, the founder of the Association of Black Psychologists, argue that the Black self-concept should center around African worldviews, like communalism. The reconstructionist approach also highlights the importance of Black racial identity development that rejects Eurocentric concepts of identity. William Cross proposed a prominent model of Black racial identity called the Nigrescence theory. Lastly, the reconstructionist approach examines the ways in which racism influences interactions between Blacks and Whites. Black Psychologists working under the reconstructionist framework like Arthur Whaley, Jerome Taylor, and Francis and Sandra Terrell proposed the term cultural mistrust as a replacement to the older term cultural paranoia to refer to the ways in which Black people have developed mistrust towards White Americans due to years of oppression and racism. Black psychologists argued that the word “paranoia” was inappropriate and upheld Eurocentric norms.

Constructionist

The constructionist approach recognizes Black Psychology as a field grounded in an African worldview and ethos that is distinct and independent from Eurocentric Psychology. Afrocentric psychologists develop paradigms, practices, methodologies in accordance with the values of the African worldview to address the well-being of African people and eradicate social, economic, and political injustice. This Afrocentric approach emphasizes the agency of people of African descent in creating and sustaining cultural knowledge that not only aids them in their survival of oppression but also enables them to thrive as people outside of the context of this oppression. Notable black psychologists who ground their work based on an African worldview and ethos include Linda James Myers (optimal worldview), Kobi Kambon (Cultural Misorientation), Shawn Utsey (Africultural coping), James M. Jones (the TRIOS Model), Na’im Akbar (alien-self disorder), and Cheryl T. Grills (The Africentrism Scale).