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Chapter 2 - Psychological Assessment in Southern Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2022

By
Sumaya Laher ,
Robert Serpell ,
Kayi Ntinda  and
Regis Chireshe
Edited by
Sumaya Laher
Sumaya Laher
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

Countries in Southern Africa face many social, development, economic, trade, education, health, diplomatic, defense, security, and political challenges. These countries also have a history of colonialism, liberatory struggle, and independence. Although the language of business and schooling is English for most of the countries, there are still huge chunks of the population that are illiterate and functionally illiterate. People also speak one or more indigenous languages. The majority of the countries in this region have high levels of unemployment and poverty. Ensuring that psychological assessments are appropriate and fair in these contexts is a huge challenge. When this challenge occurs in a poorly resourced setting against the background of social inequality, practitioners need to be highly resourceful, as well as culturally sensitive and ethically aware. This chapter discusses the historical development of psychological assessment in South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe demonstrating how the social and contextual factors interacted with assessment.

Keywords

AfricaassessmentBotswanahistorypsychologypsychological assessmentSouth AfricaZambiaZimbabwe
Type
Chapter
Information
International Histories of Psychological Assessment , pp. 21 - 46
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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