AN OVERVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA

This presentation will provide a brief historic overview of the state of psychology from its murky role during the Apartheid era to its progressive role in a democratic dispensation. The various categories of professional practice as well as the requirements for university accreditation of training programs will be touched upon. The tension between science and profession, the advent of compulsory continuing professional education, the introduction of specialization in neuropsychology and forensic psychology, the impact of university mergers on the discipline and the previous separation of industrial/organizational (located within Commerce and Business schools) and educational psychology (located within schools of Education and Teacher Training) from the mainstream general psychology departments that have continued to be located within the Arts and Humanities will be covered. The positive outlook for psychology as a burgeoning discipline in the majority world may be predicated on the successes/failures of the science and profession in South Africa.

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