There's seemingly an ongoing battle between psychology as a whole and Ghana. Certain ideas that psychology has put forth have seen little or no manifestation in our beloved country and this is disturbing. In this post, I write some of the aspects or practices that still exist even with new developments in psychology.
Studying Psychology
This has been a major issue in Ghana for years now. Of the numerous career choices in Psychology, Ghana has only one university that offers Psychology at the master's level. In this university, just three courses (Social, Clinical and Industrial) are offered. Students who want to further in other fields of psychology have to travel abroad and even with that, there's little scholarship opportunities and therefore has to lead to a limited number of psychologists in Ghana. The courses provided at the undergraduate level are usually made up of western research findings and these may not be adequate to address issues in Ghana. Read Being a B. Sc Psychology student.
This has been a major issue in Ghana for years now. Of the numerous career choices in Psychology, Ghana has only one university that offers Psychology at the master's level. In this university, just three courses (Social, Clinical and Industrial) are offered. Students who want to further in other fields of psychology have to travel abroad and even with that, there's little scholarship opportunities and therefore has to lead to a limited number of psychologists in Ghana. The courses provided at the undergraduate level are usually made up of western research findings and these may not be adequate to address issues in Ghana. Read Being a B. Sc Psychology student.
Depression
This is one that I personally find annoying and may not be peculiar to Ghana. I think the problems stem from the word being used synonymously to "sad". This, therefore, it is difficult for it to be seen as a mental condition. In Ghana and many parts of the world, being depressed simply means that you can just stop being depressed, even though Psychological researches have proven that depression may be a result of low serotonin and thus considered a mental disorder. If it were that easy to "just be happy" for depressed people, it wouldn't be a disorder.
Corporal punishment
"Spare the rod, spoil the child". Children must, therefore, be beaten until they understand right and wrong. No one is to be spared and children, regardless of the scarring, the hurt and pain, should not be making mistakes. If they do, the "cane" is there to correct them.
Ghanaian parents can't understand that this is a metaphor to mean that they never fail to correct your child when they're wrong, not necessarily the use of canes and other corporal punishments. In psychology, several studies have been done to show how negligible the positive effects of caning are. Evidence, however, points to the development of negative behaviors such as fear, anxiety, hatred for parents, deviance and even self fulfilling prophecies. Psychologists recommend the use of reinforcements, which I talked about in my previous post. Reinforcement is known to effectively instill certain good behaviors in children. Hopefully, Ghana would get to the point where parents and teachers understand how useless the canes are.
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"Spare the rod, spoil the child". Children must, therefore, be beaten until they understand right and wrong. No one is to be spared and children, regardless of the scarring, the hurt and pain, should not be making mistakes. If they do, the "cane" is there to correct them.
Ghanaian parents can't understand that this is a metaphor to mean that they never fail to correct your child when they're wrong, not necessarily the use of canes and other corporal punishments. In psychology, several studies have been done to show how negligible the positive effects of caning are. Evidence, however, points to the development of negative behaviors such as fear, anxiety, hatred for parents, deviance and even self fulfilling prophecies. Psychologists recommend the use of reinforcements, which I talked about in my previous post. Reinforcement is known to effectively instill certain good behaviors in children. Hopefully, Ghana would get to the point where parents and teachers understand how useless the canes are.
Unconditional love
"My son will be a doctor or lawyer or professor, then I'll be happy". "If you don't pass the exam, you might as well just pack your stuff and leave!" "When you do the right thing then you're my friend." "You're just useless, I shouldn't have given birth to you!" Typical statements from Ghanaian parents that highlight conditional love. It's more about how their investment in your school should be worth your career choice and how respected they'd be among their friends and family. Try deviating and you'd be the black sheep of the family.
This, Carl Rogers referred to as not showing unconditional positive regard, where affection from parents is based on a condition (doing as parents say). The moment you're not able to, then parents begin to slander you. This leads to low self-esteem, inhibition of children, lack of fulfillment and low self-confidence. He suggested that parents offer unconditional positive regard, where they are not too imposing and still show they care even when children misbehave or make wrong choices. Children that receive unconditional positive regard develop self-confidence and are fulfilled.
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"My son will be a doctor or lawyer or professor, then I'll be happy". "If you don't pass the exam, you might as well just pack your stuff and leave!" "When you do the right thing then you're my friend." "You're just useless, I shouldn't have given birth to you!" Typical statements from Ghanaian parents that highlight conditional love. It's more about how their investment in your school should be worth your career choice and how respected they'd be among their friends and family. Try deviating and you'd be the black sheep of the family.
This, Carl Rogers referred to as not showing unconditional positive regard, where affection from parents is based on a condition (doing as parents say). The moment you're not able to, then parents begin to slander you. This leads to low self-esteem, inhibition of children, lack of fulfillment and low self-confidence. He suggested that parents offer unconditional positive regard, where they are not too imposing and still show they care even when children misbehave or make wrong choices. Children that receive unconditional positive regard develop self-confidence and are fulfilled.
Mental disorder
Like the point of depression, Ghanaians have a vague idea of what mental disorders are. Only extreme cases of psychosis and psychoneurosis are considered mental illnesses. Disorders like anxiety, depression, and ADHD are seen as normal human moods and feelings. This makes treatment of mental disorders difficult as individuals are ignorant of the severity of these seemingly "minor" disorders. Individuals experiencing an extreme form of psychosis are left uncatered for because it is believed that they're been punished by the spiritual world for past sins. Awareness has been created to warn individuals of these disorders although it may take a while to eliminate these ideas.
Like the point of depression, Ghanaians have a vague idea of what mental disorders are. Only extreme cases of psychosis and psychoneurosis are considered mental illnesses. Disorders like anxiety, depression, and ADHD are seen as normal human moods and feelings. This makes treatment of mental disorders difficult as individuals are ignorant of the severity of these seemingly "minor" disorders. Individuals experiencing an extreme form of psychosis are left uncatered for because it is believed that they're been punished by the spiritual world for past sins. Awareness has been created to warn individuals of these disorders although it may take a while to eliminate these ideas.
This post is to help put certain things in perspective; psychological perspective. Hopefully, these psychological findings would be applied in parenting and academic lives. The archaic ways have been proven to be detrimental, even though may seem otherwise at the moment. God bless Ghana.
1 Comments
I love this, I feel like every Ghanaian needs to be exposed to some psychology because even the little one may understand may go a long way in changing their mentality
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