Out of Africa? A Review of G.A. Tyson (Ed) Introduction to Psychology : A South African Perspective

Abstract

OUT OF AFRICA?

A REVIEW OF G.A. TYSON (Ed.), INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY: A SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE. JOHANNESBURG: WESTRO EDUCATIONAL BOOKS, 1987.

Ian Moll

University of the Witwatersrand

With the publication of Introduction to Psychology (hereafter ITP), Graham Tyson and his co-authors appear to have taken a step that has been spoken of for so long in the struggle to produce and to teach a psychology relevant to a South Africa in transition. At a time when the production of knowledge is, even to the most experimental of observers, increasingly implicated in the struggles of either the oppressors or the oppressed in South Africa, an introductory psychology textbook motivated by a concern "about the relevance of psychology in South Africa" (ITP, p. iii) and a desire to move away from "a traditional American approach to psychology" (ITP, p. iii) must be welcomed.