A complete discussion of the history and principles of African-centered psychology, this work explores the development of the African American mindset in society and reveals the thought processes of the African mind in America. Using a new approach that decries the various negative influences upon African Americans and their families, this treatise proposes a method that reclaims and restores the mind and spirit of African Americans.

This 1974 book is a personal survey by an eminent linguist, testing the adequacy of descriptive theories.

Ruth C. Wylie's two volumes of The Self-Concept, published by Nebraska in 1974 and 1979, evaluated psychological and sociological studies of self-concept and self-esteem. Looking at a plethora of tests, Wylie found in 1974 that very few had been adequately conceived or implemented. Many produced results that wereøunverifiable or specious. Her findings had disturbing implications not only for the tests themselves but for substantive research based upon them. In the 1980s psychometric tests of self-concept have continued to proliferate. Wylie has continued to assess them. Measures of Self-Concept briefly summarizes the psychometric criteria for self-concept tests, as fully discussed in Wylie's 1974 book, and the present general state of methodological adequacy of currently used earlier tests and some promising new ones still under development. Although Wylie still finds serious shortcomings, she notes a greater attempt today to increase and evaluate the validity of self-concept indices. This book presents detailed, up-to-date information about and psychometric evaluations of ten self-concept tests that appear to be the most meritorious candidates for current use and for further research and development. It is the first book since her 1974 volume to review specific as well as general measures of self-esteem for a range of ages from preschool to adult.

Taking the contentious debates surrounding historical evidence and history writing between secularists and Hindu nationalists as a starting point, this book seeks to understand the origins of a growing historical consciousness in contemporary India, especially amongst Hindus. The broad question it poses is: Why has ‘history’ become such an important site of identity, conflict and self-definition amongst modern Hindus, especially when Hinduism is known to have been notoriously impervious to history? As modern ideas regarding notions of history came to India with colonialism, it turns to the colonial period as the ‘moment of encounter’ with such ideas. The book examines three distinct moments in the Hindu self through the lives and writings of lower-caste public figure Jotiba Phule, ‘moderate’ nationalist M. G. Ranade and Hindu nationalist V. D. Savarkar. Through a close reading of original writings, speeches and biographical material, it is demonstrated that these three individuals were engaged with a modern historical and rationalist approach. However, the same material is also used to argue that Phule and Ranade viewed religion as living, contemporaneous and capable of informing both their personal and political lives. Savarkar, the ‘explicitly Hindu’ leader, on the contrary, held Hindu practices and traditions in contempt, confining them to historical analysis while denying any role for religion as spirituality or morality in contemporary political life. While providing some historical context, this volume highlights the philosophical/ political ideas and actions of the three individuals discussed. It integrates aspects of their lives as central to understanding their politics.

After putting down this weighty (in all senses of the word) collection, the reader, be she or he physician or social scientist, will (or at least should) feel uncomfortable about her or his taken-for-granted commonsense (therefore cultural) understanding of medicine. The editors and their collaborators show the medical leviathan, warts and all, for what it is: changing, pluralistic, problematic, powerful, provocative. What medicine proclaims itself to be - unified, scientific, biological and not social, non-judgmental - it is shown not to resemble very much. Those matters about which medicine keeps fairly silent, it turns out, come closer to being central to its clinical practice - managing errors and learning to conduct a shared moral dis course about mistakes, handling issues of competence and competition among biomedical practitioners, practicing in value-laden contexts on problems for which social science is a more relevant knowledge base than biological science, integrating folk and scientific models of illness in clinical communication, among a large number of highly pertinent ethnographic insights that illuminate medicine in the chapters that follow.

Voices of African Women is a collection of essays by accomplished women's rights lawyers from Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania. In the last decade, women's human rights have been the focus of significant attention at the international level. There remains, however, a dearth of information concerning the application and relevance of international norms at grassroots levels within Africa. There are few works about women's human rights within Africa that are actually written by African women lawyers and human rights activists. This book offers a glimpse into the lives of women in Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania; it describes -- in their own words -- the challenges these activists face in implementing international human rights norms at the local and national levels. "The contributors are a unique set of talented analysts... Introductions for each chapter are by Johanna Bond, whose precise summaries and analyses of the topics systematize what would otherwise be repetitive evidence found in similar circumstances in these African countries. Summing Up: Recommended." -- CHOICE Magazine, November 2005 "The book is well worth space on...professionals' bookshelves." -- African Studies Association, 2006 "The book is useful and essential reading for anyone interested in women's rights in Africa. This has to be the most detailed and up-to-date book on women's rights in this region." -- Modern African Studies