Decolonial psychology: Inherently indigenous and globally centered

Western sciences have been interpreted through the hierarchical and reductionist lenses of colonial cultures that have historically excluded other cultural interpretations of science. Decolonizing psychology requires cultural models inherently antithetical to colonial assumptions that advance scientific hierarchies and reductionism. Indigenous psychologies operate from a relational worldview that sees inherent connectivity and respects that relationality. Scientific rigor and significance are interpreted through those cultural lenses as a function of social and environmental responsibility beyond psychology. Indigenous psychologies emphasize planetary and intergenerational relationality as necessary for individual wellness, decolonizing current conceptualizations emphasizing autonomy, reductionism, and self-oriented psychology. An Indigenous relational vision of equitable psychology aligns well with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the American Psychological Association's commitment to advancing health and mental health equity and human rights. Global alliances among Indigenous psychologists have emerged to decolonize psychology. Examples of applied localized Indigenous psychologies used to decolonize the field are discussed. The global decolonizing potential of Indigenous conceptualizations of psychology will not only strengthen the discipline but may also serve to broaden psychology's positive global impact. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).