An overview of Ethno-psychology

Abstract

Recognized worldwide, however, ethno-psychology remains a rather unfamiliar and yet necessary academic discipline in Vietnam, a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse country. It is an interdisciplinary subfield of psychology which studies the relationship between culture and psychology, the interaction between internal and external, or individual and social factors. The article provides a conceptual definition of ethnopsychology, followed by a generalization of its several approaches - such as psychoanalysis (by Sigmund Freud), psychopathology (by George Devereux and Abram Kardiner), culture and personality (by Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead) - and relevant methods. Another output of the research is to examine the possibility of employing such research models to tackle existing limitations in Vietnamese ethno-psychology today.