title: The challenges of culture to psychology and post-modern thinking

authors: Waldegrave, Charles

subjects: Maori

abstract: Someone at a workshop in the Waikato once said to us, “You know a Maori, if they want to, can always learn to be a psychologist, but a psychologist can’t learn to be a Maori”. Cultural knowledge may or may not be accompanied by social science knowledge. Cultural knowledge can stand on its own. Those who possess it, and choose to work in the institutions we are associated with, have gifts this country desperately needs. All our organisations require such people, and they need to be properly resourced, have employment security and control over their work. Their own work away from our organisations also requires adequate resourcing. They can heal their own in ways that we will never be able to. They will almost certainly offer the field rich alternative metaphors and meanings that can free us from the tired old medical, biological and social science ones. This also has implications for those in other branches of psychology, including research, experimental and industrial psychology. There is perhaps a unique opportunity for psychologists in this country of Aotearoa/New Zealand to recognise other ways of describing events, which will lead to creative practices and enable the health and welfare resources to get to those who most need them, on their own terms. It would also enable other people, other workers from other cultures to develop new paradigms, and new shifts in our field. This will not lead to the abandonment of social science, but it will enable that body of knowledge, to sit appropriately along side other realms of knowledge such as gender knowledge, and cultural knowledge, without dominating. A new experience for the social scientists, but I suspect a liberating one!

text: The challenges of culture to psychology and post-modern thinking Someone at a workshop in the Waikato once said to us, “You know a Maori, if they want to, can always learn to be a psychologist, but a psychologist can’t learn to be a Maori”. Cultural knowledge may or may not be accompanied by social science knowledge. Cultural knowledge can stand on its own. Those who possess it, and choose to work in the institutions we are associated with, have gifts this country desperately needs. All our organisations require such people, and they need to be properly resourced, have employment security and control over their work. Their own work away from our organisations also requires adequate resourcing. They can heal their own in ways that we will never be able to. They will almost certainly offer the field rich alternative metaphors and meanings that can free us from the tired old medical, biological and social science ones. This also has implications for those in other branches of psychology, including research, experimental and industrial psychology. There is perhaps a unique opportunity for psychologists in this country of Aotearoa/New Zealand to recognise other ways of describing events, which will lead to creative practices and enable the health and welfare resources to get to those who most need them, on their own terms. It would also enable other people, other workers from other cultures to develop new paradigms, and new shifts in our field. This will not lead to the abandonment of social science, but it will enable that body of knowledge, to sit appropriately along side other realms of knowledge such as gender knowledge, and cultural knowledge, without dominating. A new experience for the social scientists, but I suspect a liberating one!

year: 1993

title: Data logging and performance analysis software for teachers of indigenous New Zealanders: early results

authors: Barbour, Robert H.

abstract: Technology, in the form of personal computers, is making inroads into everyday life in every part of every nation. It is frequently assumed that this is 'a good thing'. However, there is a need for the people in each cultural group in each nation to appropriate technology for themselves. Indigenous people, such as the Maori of New Zealand/Aotearoa, are in danger of losing their language because technology has a European face. Yet despite the fact that the Maori are currently experiencing a cultural renaissance, there are no commercially available products that are specifically designed for Maori-speaking people.

text: Data logging and performance analysis software for teachers of indigenous New Zealanders: early results Technology, in the form of personal computers, is making inroads into everyday life in every part of every nation. It is frequently assumed that this is 'a good thing'. However, there is a need for the people in each cultural group in each nation to appropriate technology for themselves. Indigenous people, such as the Maori of New Zealand/Aotearoa, are in danger of losing their language because technology has a European face. Yet despite the fact that the Maori are currently experiencing a cultural renaissance, there are no commercially available products that are specifically designed for Maori-speaking people.

year: 1992

title: Body Image Dissatisfaction among Men Engaged in Regular Weight Training Activities: An exploratory analysis

authors: Jones, Lewis Neihana Tait

subjects: body image

abstract: The central purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the body image dissatisfaction experiences of a group of young adult men who were engaged in regular recreational weight training activities. Within this, three primary areas of enquiry were investigated through the completion of twelve semi-structured interviews with men aged between eighteen and thirty who were residing in the city of Hamilton, New Zealand. The first area of investigation focused on gaining a broad appreciation of participants’ body image dissatisfaction experiences. While participants’ reports indicated that for the majority, the experience of dissatisfaction did not have a significantly detrimental effect on their well-being, behavioural indications highlighted a tendency for men to downplay the actual impact of these types of experiences. The second area of enquiry focused on investigating participants’ beliefs about specific factors which they thought were influencing their own and others’ body image dissatisfaction experiences. Reports tended to suggest that media, particularly advertising, entertainment and Internet-based media, as well as peer, family and opposite sex influences were most central to the development and maintenance of dissatisfaction experiences. Coupled with these influences, social comparison and internalisation processes also appeared to act as important mediating processes for participants’ body image dissatisfaction experiences. When considered in their entirety this combination of influences lent support to the sociocultural model as a framework for explaining the development and maintenance of body image dissatisfaction among participants. The third and final area of enquiry was aimed at gaining an understanding of the relationship between weight training and participants’ body image dissatisfaction experiences. While results indicated the existence of a positive relationship between regular recreational weight training engagement, body image satisfaction, and other aspects of well-being, engagement also appeared to have an effect in the opposite direction, influencing the quality of body evaluation in a manner which appeared to also increase the likelihood of experiences of body image dissatisfaction among participants.

text: Body Image Dissatisfaction among Men Engaged in Regular Weight Training Activities: An exploratory analysis The central purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the body image dissatisfaction experiences of a group of young adult men who were engaged in regular recreational weight training activities. Within this, three primary areas of enquiry were investigated through the completion of twelve semi-structured interviews with men aged between eighteen and thirty who were residing in the city of Hamilton, New Zealand. The first area of investigation focused on gaining a broad appreciation of participants’ body image dissatisfaction experiences. While participants’ reports indicated that for the majority, the experience of dissatisfaction did not have a significantly detrimental effect on their well-being, behavioural indications highlighted a tendency for men to downplay the actual impact of these types of experiences. The second area of enquiry focused on investigating participants’ beliefs about specific factors which they thought were influencing their own and others’ body image dissatisfaction experiences. Reports tended to suggest that media, particularly advertising, entertainment and Internet-based media, as well as peer, family and opposite sex influences were most central to the development and maintenance of dissatisfaction experiences. Coupled with these influences, social comparison and internalisation processes also appeared to act as important mediating processes for participants’ body image dissatisfaction experiences. When considered in their entirety this combination of influences lent support to the sociocultural model as a framework for explaining the development and maintenance of body image dissatisfaction among participants. The third and final area of enquiry was aimed at gaining an understanding of the relationship between weight training and participants’ body image dissatisfaction experiences. While results indicated the existence of a positive relationship between regular recreational weight training engagement, body image satisfaction, and other aspects of well-being, engagement also appeared to have an effect in the opposite direction, influencing the quality of body evaluation in a manner which appeared to also increase the likelihood of experiences of body image dissatisfaction among participants.

year: 2014