Seth Oppong
Biographic Data
| ID | 163608 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Seth Oppong |
| GIVEN NAMES | Seth |
| FAMILY NAME | Oppong |
| SIGNATURE | OPPONG S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Botswana |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1977-5538 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
On the development of psychology profession in Northern Ghana
The history of psychology in Ghana has received research attention. However, documentation of regional or provincial history of psychology in Ghana has not received enough scholarly attention. In a resource-constrained setting, the least developed areas are often neglected, especially in terms of service provision and historical research. It is important that the progress of psychology in Northern Ghana, one of the least developed regions in Ghan…
Developing and Validating a Soft Skills Assessment Scale for Psychoeducational Assessment
There are concerns that soft skills assessment has been conceptualized within the Western context and may not reflect the indigenous African worldview. Without relevant soft skills assessment contextualized in the African cultural cosmology, there is a limitation in assessing African conceptions of abilities. The purpose of this study was to identify relevant soft skills for secondary/high school students and develop a scale relevant for assessin…
Epistemological Allyship
Discussions about decolonising psychology now abound. A key perspective from which these commentaries have been written relates to a confrontation of the gatekeepers in global psychology. While this approach is valuable to end epistemological violence and other forms of injustice, it also ends up alienating influential scholars in hegemonic psychology who can magnify the impact of the decolonisation effort. In this article, I borrow from the anti…
Care does not just belong at home
This paper presents an examination of the first author’s experiences and unique positioning as a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI hereafter) survivor in doctorate supervision. Autoethnography was used to connect her personal to her cultural experience in this environment where the voices of both supervisors and student enrich doctoral supervision practices. We explore the complex intersections of the first co-author’s experience relating to neurodiver…
Promoting global ECD top-down and bottom-up
Early childhood science and intervention (ECSI) or simply early childhood development (ECD) is now a multi-billion-dollar industry that seeks to export one form of family model, parenting practices, and perspective of child development to the rest of the world. This practice occurs through the efforts of agencies such as the World Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, the World Bank Group, and the LEGO Foundation. As a result, Gabr…
Raising a new generation in a postcolonial era through decolonised early childhood development and care services
This article draws on the literature in development economics, psychology and sociology to explicate how decolonised early childhood education and care services can reverse the metacolonial cognition lingering in the postcolonial era. In particular, the author shows that colonial institutions persist even after formal colonisation has ended through the application of de facto power. Self-knowledge developed during early childhood impacts adult so…
Indigenous psychology in Africa
I present here an assessment of African Psychology (AP) to give insights about how it has been conceptualised and practised thus far as well as what its future holds. I begin with a focus on the centrality of culture and how AP treats the concept of culture. I will then attempt to respond to some concerns often raised by Africa-based psychologists who do not operate in and from a multiracial space about the relevance and legitimacy of AP. Theoret…
How overstated scientific claims undermine ethical principles in parenting interventions
Introduction: While parenting interventions are flourishing in low/middle-income countries (LMICs), their ethical challenges have rarely been considered. We therefore applaud Weber and colleagues1 for their contribution to a recent debate about the ethics of parenting interventions.2 3 To apply the principles of beneficence, autonomy and justice to such interventions is certainly valuable, especially if ‘respect for autonomy’ includes considerati…
Self-Forgiveness Among Incarcerated Individuals in Ghana
Research on the forgiveness of self has largely focused on less severe, more common types of offenses among samples within developed westernized nations. In this brief report of a study within a developing nation in Africa, applications of self-forgiveness are extended to incarcerated people. The sample comprised N = 310 males (83.87%) and females (16.13%) who were incarcerated in a medium-security Ghanaian prison ( M age = 39.35, SD age = 13.28)…
On Simpson’s paradox
In this article, I critically reflect on J. F. Arocha’s (2021) contention that psychologists need to use methods and tools that are suitable for data analysis at the individual level. First, I discuss the beleaguered nature of the philosophical underpinnings of the standard practices in psychological research. Of the five assumptions he presented, the aggregate assumption results in Simpson’s paradox, a form of ecological fallacy. While the other…
When something dehumanizes, it is violent but when it elevates, it is not violent
Epistemological violence is alive and problematic. There is no gainsaying that it dehumanizes members of non-Western societies or persons who differ from the Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) Whites. Psychology has a white, affluent, Western skew as the values of the middle-class, Western, Christian, male, Whites (MWCMW) are held as the frame of reference. In this commentary, I first show how Held’s (2020) “true-for …
When the ethical is unethical and the unethical is ethical
It is nearly impossible to study behaviour effectively without any reference to its context. This is because it is generally known in the psychological literature that behaviour is partially a product of its environment. This suggests that many behavioural processes may be universal but there are significant variations in their manifestations. For instance, love may be a universal process but its manifestation varies from one society to another. …
Overcoming obstacles to a truly global psychological theory, research, and praxis in Africa
In African countries, psychology as it is taught, researched, and practised contributes to epistemic injustice and epistemological violence while depriving Africans of epistemic agency. This is largely because psychology has remained and continues to remain Eurocentric. However, the continual Eurocentric hegemony is not entirely imposed but internalised. This has made this Eurocentric hegemony self-perpetuating with African involvement. In this p…
Examining attitudes and the law on homosexuality in non-Western Societies
The discourse on homosexually has largely remained Euro-American with a focus on human right of African homosexuals residing in Africa. However, current debates in Africa have centered on the cultural acceptability, legality as well as mental health concerns presumed to be associated with homosexuality. The paper approaches the issue of homosexuality from a perspective that is sensitive to the cultural context of Ghana and also through a non-Euro…
Psychology, Economic Policy Design, and Implementation
When designing economic policies, policy makers work with the assumption that targeted beneficiaries would respond in a manner that would lead to success of the policy. However, the responses of beneficiaries do not always follow the expected pattern. Drawing on Thaler and Sunstein’s (2008) and Asante’s (2003) theses, this paper projects the view that economic policies that fail to take account of the psychology of the target people fail. The pos…
Psychology in Ghana
This article presents a brief overview of the emergence, education and practice of psychology as a profession and academic discipline in Ghana. We begin with a short history about psychology education in Ghana, which could be traced to the offering of courses in counseling and educational psychology in departments of education at the colleges of education. Because the classroom has been used mainly to train psychologists in Ghana, we provide rele…
Implications of Local Knowledge of the Ecology of a Wild Super Sweetener for Its Domestication and Commercialization in West and Central Africa
Promoting global ECD top-down and bottom-up
Early childhood science and intervention (ECSI) or simply early childhood development (ECD) is now a multi-billion-dollar industry that seeks to export one form of family model, parenting practices, and perspective of child development to the rest of the world. This practice occurs through the efforts of agencies such as the World Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, the World Bank Group, and the LEGO Foundation. As a result, Gabr…
Implications of Local Knowledge of the Ecology of a Wild Super Sweetener for Its Domestication and Commercialization in West and Central Africa
Psychology in Ghana
This article presents a brief overview of the emergence, education and practice of psychology as a profession and academic discipline in Ghana. We begin with a short history about psychology education in Ghana, which could be traced to the offering of courses in counseling and educational psychology in departments of education at the colleges of education. Because the classroom has been used mainly to train psychologists in Ghana, we provide rele…
Psychology, Economic Policy Design, and Implementation
When designing economic policies, policy makers work with the assumption that targeted beneficiaries would respond in a manner that would lead to success of the policy. However, the responses of beneficiaries do not always follow the expected pattern. Drawing on Thaler and Sunstein’s (2008) and Asante’s (2003) theses, this paper projects the view that economic policies that fail to take account of the psychology of the target people fail. The pos…
Examining attitudes and the law on homosexuality in non-Western Societies
The discourse on homosexually has largely remained Euro-American with a focus on human right of African homosexuals residing in Africa. However, current debates in Africa have centered on the cultural acceptability, legality as well as mental health concerns presumed to be associated with homosexuality. The paper approaches the issue of homosexuality from a perspective that is sensitive to the cultural context of Ghana and also through a non-Euro…
When the ethical is unethical and the unethical is ethical
It is nearly impossible to study behaviour effectively without any reference to its context. This is because it is generally known in the psychological literature that behaviour is partially a product of its environment. This suggests that many behavioural processes may be universal but there are significant variations in their manifestations. For instance, love may be a universal process but its manifestation varies from one society to another. …
Overcoming obstacles to a truly global psychological theory, research, and praxis in Africa
In African countries, psychology as it is taught, researched, and practised contributes to epistemic injustice and epistemological violence while depriving Africans of epistemic agency. This is largely because psychology has remained and continues to remain Eurocentric. However, the continual Eurocentric hegemony is not entirely imposed but internalised. This has made this Eurocentric hegemony self-perpetuating with African involvement. In this p…
When something dehumanizes, it is violent but when it elevates, it is not violent
Epistemological violence is alive and problematic. There is no gainsaying that it dehumanizes members of non-Western societies or persons who differ from the Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) Whites. Psychology has a white, affluent, Western skew as the values of the middle-class, Western, Christian, male, Whites (MWCMW) are held as the frame of reference. In this commentary, I first show how Held’s (2020) “true-for …
How overstated scientific claims undermine ethical principles in parenting interventions
Introduction: While parenting interventions are flourishing in low/middle-income countries (LMICs), their ethical challenges have rarely been considered. We therefore applaud Weber and colleagues1 for their contribution to a recent debate about the ethics of parenting interventions.2 3 To apply the principles of beneficence, autonomy and justice to such interventions is certainly valuable, especially if ‘respect for autonomy’ includes considerati…
Self-Forgiveness Among Incarcerated Individuals in Ghana
Research on the forgiveness of self has largely focused on less severe, more common types of offenses among samples within developed westernized nations. In this brief report of a study within a developing nation in Africa, applications of self-forgiveness are extended to incarcerated people. The sample comprised N = 310 males (83.87%) and females (16.13%) who were incarcerated in a medium-security Ghanaian prison ( M age = 39.35, SD age = 13.28)…
On Simpson’s paradox
In this article, I critically reflect on J. F. Arocha’s (2021) contention that psychologists need to use methods and tools that are suitable for data analysis at the individual level. First, I discuss the beleaguered nature of the philosophical underpinnings of the standard practices in psychological research. Of the five assumptions he presented, the aggregate assumption results in Simpson’s paradox, a form of ecological fallacy. While the other…
Raising a new generation in a postcolonial era through decolonised early childhood development and care services
This article draws on the literature in development economics, psychology and sociology to explicate how decolonised early childhood education and care services can reverse the metacolonial cognition lingering in the postcolonial era. In particular, the author shows that colonial institutions persist even after formal colonisation has ended through the application of de facto power. Self-knowledge developed during early childhood impacts adult so…
Indigenous psychology in Africa
I present here an assessment of African Psychology (AP) to give insights about how it has been conceptualised and practised thus far as well as what its future holds. I begin with a focus on the centrality of culture and how AP treats the concept of culture. I will then attempt to respond to some concerns often raised by Africa-based psychologists who do not operate in and from a multiracial space about the relevance and legitimacy of AP. Theoret…
Developing and Validating a Soft Skills Assessment Scale for Psychoeducational Assessment
There are concerns that soft skills assessment has been conceptualized within the Western context and may not reflect the indigenous African worldview. Without relevant soft skills assessment contextualized in the African cultural cosmology, there is a limitation in assessing African conceptions of abilities. The purpose of this study was to identify relevant soft skills for secondary/high school students and develop a scale relevant for assessin…
Epistemological Allyship
Discussions about decolonising psychology now abound. A key perspective from which these commentaries have been written relates to a confrontation of the gatekeepers in global psychology. While this approach is valuable to end epistemological violence and other forms of injustice, it also ends up alienating influential scholars in hegemonic psychology who can magnify the impact of the decolonisation effort. In this article, I borrow from the anti…
Care does not just belong at home
This paper presents an examination of the first author’s experiences and unique positioning as a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI hereafter) survivor in doctorate supervision. Autoethnography was used to connect her personal to her cultural experience in this environment where the voices of both supervisors and student enrich doctoral supervision practices. We explore the complex intersections of the first co-author’s experience relating to neurodiver…
Promoting global ECD top-down and bottom-up
Early childhood science and intervention (ECSI) or simply early childhood development (ECD) is now a multi-billion-dollar industry that seeks to export one form of family model, parenting practices, and perspective of child development to the rest of the world. This practice occurs through the efforts of agencies such as the World Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, the World Bank Group, and the LEGO Foundation. As a result, Gabr…
On the development of psychology profession in Northern Ghana
The history of psychology in Ghana has received research attention. However, documentation of regional or provincial history of psychology in Ghana has not received enough scholarly attention. In a resource-constrained setting, the least developed areas are often neglected, especially in terms of service provision and historical research. It is important that the progress of psychology in Northern Ghana, one of the least developed regions in Ghan…
Psychology (15 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Political science (10 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Developmental psychology (4 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (4 works) · Economics (4 works)