Asian Indigenous Psychology: Emerging Possibilities

Abstract

This concluding chapter highlights the following possibilities that are essential for the development of Asian indigenous psychology: global awareness, self-reflexivity, and contribution to a more equitable global psychology. It explains why we need Asian indigenous psychology when we already have a flourishing Asian psychology—the former takes a more critical stance toward mainstream psychology and strives for a more equitable global psychology than the latter. To situate Asian indigenous psychology in the larger context of indigenous psychology globally, it presents the results of the Delphi Poll recently conducted by the Indigenous Psychology Task Force. Results of the Delphi Poll suggest that the scholarship showcased in this volume on Asian indigenous psychology seems to foreshadow the future directions of indigenous psychology. More specifically, three dominant themes in this volume—self-reflexivity, definition of indigenous psychology, and theory construction—have been identified by the survey as important future developments of the indigenous psychology movement worldwide.