A history of ‘relevance’: South African psychology in focus Wahbie Long Thesis presentedUniversity for the Degree of of Cape Doctor ofTown Philosophy in the Department of Psychology University of Cape Town April 2013 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town University of Cape Town i CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VI ABSTRACT VII NOTE TO EXAMINERS VIII LIST OF ACRONYMS IX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Becoming a psychologist in South Africa 1 The disputed ‘relevance’ of South African psychology 1 Defining ‘relevance’ 2 Thesis outline 4 CHAPTER 2: A HISTORY OF ‘RELEVANCE’ 7 Chapter overview 7 The worldwide ‘irrelevance’ of higher education 7 The ‘irrelevance’ of American psychology 9 The ‘irrelevance’ of European psychology 11 The ‘irrelevance’ of Third World psychology 12 Indian ‘relevance’ 13 Chinese ‘relevance’ University of Cape Town 14 Filipino ‘relevance’ 15 Latin American ‘relevance’ 17 Islamic ‘relevance’ 18 African ‘relevance’ 19 South African ‘relevance’ 21 Discussion 25 CHAPTER 3: THEORIZING ‘RELEVANCE’ 29 Chapter overview 29 Psychology and its subject matter 29 ii Pure and applied psychology 31 Psychology and social change 32 ‘Relevance’ as rhetoric 33 ‘Relevance’, realism and relativism 34 Theoretical framework 39 Rationale and research questions 40 CHAPTER 4: METHOD 42 Chapter overview 42 Investigating ‘relevance’ 42 Data corpus 43 Rhetoric of inquiry 46 Discourse analysis 49 Methodological framework 54 Evaluating knowledge claims 57 Significance of the study 58 CHAPTER 5: THEMATIC ANALYSIS 61 Chapter overview 61 Using thematic analysis 61 Theme 1: Psychology and South African society 62 The important role ofUniversity psychology in South Africa of Cape Town 62 The failure of psychology in South Africa 63 Theme 2: The individual–social antinomy 64 In defense of the individual 64 The rise of systems thinking 66 Theme 3: Science versus profession 68 Discussion 70 CHAPTER 6: THE SAPA–PIRSA SPLIT 72 Chapter overview 72 iii PIRSA presidential address, 1962 (A.J. la Grange) 72 Analysis 77 Discussion 82 SAPA presidential address, 1962 (B.J. Schlebusch) 90 Analysis 91 Discussion 94 CHAPTER 7: SAPA ADDRESSES (1950–1961) 98 Chapter overview 98 Presidential address, 1950 (A.J. la Grange) 98 Opening address, 1951 (I.D. MacCrone) 99 Opening address, 1953 (E. Pratt-Yule) 100 Presidential address, 1954 (S. Biesheuvel) 103 Presidential address, 1955 (A.B. van der Merwe) 105 Presidential address, 1958 (A.B. van der Merwe) 106 Presidential / opening address, 1961 (A.B. van der Merwe) 108 Discussion 109 CHAPTER 8: PIRSA ADDRESSES (1963–1977) 112 Chapter overview 112 Presidential address, 1963 (A.J. la Grange) 112 Presidential address, 1964 (P.M. Robbertse) 114 Presidential address, University1965 (A.J. la Grange) of Cape Town 115 Presidential address, 1966 (J.M. Hattingh) 117 Presidential address, 1967 (P.M. Robbertse) 118 Presidential address, 1968 (P.M. Robbertse) 119 Presidential address, 1969 (P.M. Robbertse) 120 Presidential address, 1970 (P.M. Robbertse) 121 Opening address, 1970 (A.S. Roux) 122 Presidential address, 1972 (H.L. Krige) 124 Presidential address, 1973 (A.B. van der Merwe) 125 iv Presidential address, 1975 (J.M. du Toit) 125 Presidential address, 1977 (H.P. Langenhoven) 127 Discussion 129 CHAPTER 9: SAPA, PIRSA, PASA & OASSSA ADDRESSES (1978-1993) 132 Chapter overview 132 Presidential address, 1978 (H.P. Langenhoven – PIRSA) 132 Presidential address, 1979 (L.C. Gerdes – SAPA) 134 Presidential address, 1980 (I. van W. Raubenheimer – PIRSA) 136 Keynote address, 1980 (D.J.W. Strümpfer – SAPA) 137 Presidential address, 1982 (G. Rademeyer – PASA) 140 Opening address, 1983 (R.C. Albino – PASA) 141 Keynote address, 1986 (S. Biesheuvel – PASA) 142 Opening address, 1986 (L. Vogelman – OASSSA) 145 Opening address, 1987 (J. Coovadia – OASSSA) 147 Keynote address, 1988 (B. Nzimande – OASSSA) 148 Opening address, 1989 (D.J.W. Strümpfer – PASA) 149 Keynote address, 1991 (L.C. Gerdes – PASA) 150 Opening address, 1993 (D.J.W. Strümpfer – PASA) 152 Presidential address, 1993 (B. van der Westhuÿsen – PASA) 153 Discussion University of Cape Town 154 CHAPTER 10: PSYSSA ADDRESSES (1996–2011) 158 Chapter overview 158 Presidential address, 1996 (T. H. Veldsman) 158 Keynote address, 2000 (S. Mkhatshwa) 160 Keynote address, 2001 (K. Asmal) 161 Keynote address, 2002 (S. Badat) 163 Keynote address, 2003 (M. Tsedu) 164 v Presidential address, 2004 (P.T. Sibaya) 165 Opening address, 2007 (B. Mkhize) 166 Keynote address, 2010 (H. Mkhize) 167 Presidential address, 2011 (E. Tlou) 168 Discussion 169 CHAPTER 11: CONCLUSION 173 Summary 173 Reflections 176 Implications 179 REFERENCES 186 University of Cape Town vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to the many people who contributed to the writing of this thesis. In no particular order, they include, first, my fellow students, for never ceasing to remind me how „irrelevant‟ South African psychology is; second, my supervisor, Don Foster, for his guidance and enthusiasm; third, my mentor, Kurt Danziger, for his wisdom and generosity; fourth, dozens of psychologists, for giving freely of their time, ideas and resources; and fifth, my wife, Yumnah, for helping me see this project through. University of Cape Town vii ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the historical and discursive contours of the „relevance‟ debate in South African psychology. It begins by contextualizing the debate, detailing how appeals for „relevance‟ in the broader discipline proliferated during the sixties and seventies in American, European and „Third World‟ psychology. The thesis observes further how widespread conditions of social turmoil precipitated the development of this crisis over „relevance‟, which was encouraged also by traits peculiar to psychology. These include the discipline‟s indecisiveness regarding its cognitive interest, its reliance on a basic but rarefied science for its scientific eminence, and its longstanding difficulty accommodating sociality. Proponents of „relevance‟, that is, insist that psychology attend to „real world‟ concerns. However, since the thesis advances the position that materiality can only be accessed via language, it is asserted that the credentialing of „relevance‟ occurs rhetorically. The research questions, in turn, reflect this discursive emphasis: 1) What are the terms of debate within South African psychology concerning its „relevance‟?; 2) How have these changed with passage of time?; 3) How is „relevance‟ articulated currently within the discipline?; and 4) How can changes in South African psychology‟s discourses about „relevance‟ be understood? In order to answer these questions, forty-five presidential, keynote and opening addresses, delivered at annual national psychology congresses between 1950 and 2011, were collected from national libraries, university archives and private collections. Norman Fairclough‟s three-dimensional model for critical discourse analysis provided the analytic frame, which focused on the textual/rhetorical, discursive and socio-historical features of addresses. At the discursive level in particular, discourses pertaining to disciplinarity, professionalism, ethnic-national service, liberation, salvation, civic responsibility and the market were identified, all of which interpreted „relevanceUniversity‟ in contrasting ways. Currently,of Cape however, Town it is „market relevance‟ that serves as the hegemonic reference point for South African psychology‟s discursive order. This explains why the emancipatory „social relevance‟ that psychologists have been espousing since the 1980s remains out of reach. Indeed, since „market relevance‟ has become invisibilized, a seeming lack of critical language awareness about their discursive practices suggests that South African psychologists will continue to lament, without prospect of remedy, the „social irrelevance‟ of the discipline. viii NOTE TO EXAMINERS This thesis adopts the spelling conventions of U.S. English. Where quotes appear making use of U.K. English, the spelling has been retained. The following papers emerged during the course of this study and were drawn on in various parts of the thesis: Long, W. (2013). The many faces of „relevance‟: South African psychology in context. In A. Marvakis, J. Motzkau, D. Painter, R.C. Ruto- Korir, G. Sullivan, S. Triliva & M. Wieser (Eds.), Doing psychology under new conditions: Selected papers from the 14th biennial conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology in Thessaloniki, Greece (pp. 103-111). Concord, CA: Captus Press. Long, W. (2013). Rethinking „relevance‟: South African psychology in context. History of Psychology, 16(1), 19-35. University of Cape Town ix LIST OF ACRONYMS ANC African National Congress APA American Psychological Association BEE Black Economic Empowerment CA conversation analysis CDA critical discourse analysis CPS Chinese Psychological Society FAK Federasie van Afrikaner Kultuurorganisasies GEAR Growth, Employment and Redistribution HPCSA Health Professions Council of South Africa IMRAD Introduction, Methods, Results And Discussion IOK Islamization of Knowledge LSP Liberation Social Psychology NEPAD New Partnership for Africa‟s Development NIPR National Institute for Personnel Research NP