Abstract
Psychology is a culture-based scientific discipline and clinical practice. In the past decades, Western theories and methods have played a dominant role in the psychological science and practice development in China. The time has come that psychology of China (vs. psychology in China) rooted in the Chinese culture be recognized and respected, and further developed that centers Chinese cultural values and well-being. To do so, we argue that a paradigm shift is necessary and urgent, which involves questioning the existing Western paradigms that have permeated every aspect of modern psychology and revitalizing traditional Chinese cultural values and psychological wisdom. The exiting Western empiricism in science needs to be replaced by methodological holism with a culture-centered hermeneutic approach, the exclusive individualism in theory by epistemological pluralism, and the Western medical model by Eastern philosophical/cultural models in psychotherapy. Psychology of China is not only possible but inevitable and it starts with a paradigm shift.
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Duan, C., Li, F. (2022). Advancing Psychology of China: A Call for Paradigm Shift. In: Hua, S. (eds) Paradigm Shifts in Chinese Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8032-8_9
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