Special Issue Call for Submissions "Centering Underrepresented Populations and Cultural Frameworks in Psychological Science: African and Global Perspectives"
Editors: Stephen Baffour Adjei and Derek Isaacowitz
Psychology commonly advances claims about human universals, yet its samples and analytical frameworks continue to privilege a narrow segment of humanity mostly from Western cultural contexts, institutions, and epistemic traditions. To globalize both data and theory, Psychological Science invites submissions for a special issue devoted to research that enhances the inclusion and representation of populations that have been systematically, culturally and socially excluded from psychological inquiry. This special issue will feature empirical work that (a) includes participants from underrepresented populations and/or (b) develops, tests, or interrogates psychological theories and concepts grounded in underrepresented cultural contexts. While any global underrepresented population is welcome in the special issue, we will also feature a dedicated section for manuscripts that include African participants and that draw on and foreground African theoretical, epistemological, and cultural perspectives. Submissions may employ any rigorous methodological approach (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, experimental, ethnographic) and may focus on any substantive domain of psychological science (e.g., cognition, emotion, development, personality, social behavior, clinical processes, health, organizational dynamics). Prospective authors are also asked to consult Psychological Science’s manuscript submission guidelines before submitting their manuscripts. (https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/psychological_science/ps-submissions#)
We invite full manuscript submissions that:
- Use the lived experiences and perspectives of underrepresented populations and cultures to expand the empirical foundation of psychological science
- Empirically examine the cultural assumptions underlying predominantly Western psychological studies and theories
- Study indigenous experiences and theoretical frameworks
- Apply decolonial perspectives to psychological data drawn from underrepresented populations
- Engage with participants (or populations) within the African continent and apply African communal worldviews of personhood, Ubuntu, spirituality, and related concepts as important contexts for psychological research and theory development; and/or investigate African interdependence-focused orientations and cultural notions of human flourishing and aging.
Authors should submit complete manuscripts by 30 March 2027 and specify in the “Comments to Editor” box that the submission is intended for the special issue on “Centering underrepresented populations and cultural frameworks in psychological science: African and global perspectives.” Preliminary proposals are not required, and Registered Reports will not be considered for this special issue.
