LAHORE – The first international conference on Emerging Trends in Psychology kicked-off at the Government College University (GCU) Lahore on Tuesday with an objective to introduce and encourage new paradigms of theory and research in psychology, which better address the social and cultural issues of Pakistan.
GCU Vice-Chancellor Dr Ikramul Haq was the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the three-day conference, which was attended by psychiatrists and psychologists form all over the country. Noted psychologist Dr Naumana Amjad presented her key note address at the opening ceremony of the conference spread over four academic sessions.
Addressing the conference, GCU Psychology Department Chairman Dr Asir Ajmal stressed the need for developing indigenous psychology with local models so that citizens could better understand the country’s social and cultural problems. He said that the discipline of psychology has undergone rapid expansion and consolidation in the past century.
Modern Psychology is a myriad of perspectives ranging from rigidly scientific and mathematical methods to those committed to their origins in philosophy and religion, Ajmal said. The psychology department chairman said that these modern perspectives when applied in post-colonial contexts as Pakistan seem unfit as either explanations or solutions to the current crisis around identity, religion, culture and gender.
Notwithstanding the labels of third world and developing countries imparted by the complex hierarchies of modern scientific world, the recent departure from modern to post-modern psychology allows a more creative engagement with local knowledge forms and rethinking about modern social science itself.
Ajmal said that the conference on Emerging Trends in Psychology will offer an exposure into the new paradigms and methodologies that mark most recent areas in psychology, as developmental psychopathology, cognitive neuroscience, critical social psychology and psychology of happiness and coping but will also address unresolved issues around culture, religion, spirituality, gender, national and ethnic identities.
Dr Amjad said that the knowledge of human behaviour comes through practice and not only from books. In her address, she pointed out a number of ethical considerations in psychology and concluded that psychology should be put to service of people.
