Impact Of Postmodernism

The postmodernism era consists of a time period from after World War II up to present day. It is a time of questioning and change, that followed the modern era. Postmodernism is known for three key factors: rejecting absolutes, the idea of truth being a social construction, and that differences should be celebrated. These central ideas and the postmodernism period in general impacted the field of psychology a few different ways. First, postmodernism includes multicultural movements such as cross cultural psychology, second it pointed to the idea that perceptions, standards, studies, etc. are local and most apply specifically to Western culture, and lastly, postmodernism further emphasizes individuality. Postmodernism is responsible for multicultural

For example visual perceptions and preferences for local verses global biases can only be applied to the populations most similar to the sample size. If all of the participants were from predominately white, first world cultures, in North America, then the findings may or may not apply to a third world country in indigenous peoples in Africa. The same study would have to be conducted on those individuals in Africa before it can be applied to them. Previously, it was assumed all scientific findings in psychology were applicable to people in general, however postmodernism argues that is not the case due to biases people hold based on their individual experiences and

Even today, religion and science continues to hold antagonistic ideas. From the four river valley civilizations and early religions and philosophies, to Greek and Roman philosophies, to Renaissance science and the modern era, science and religion have a long history of conflict. In the beginning, religion was a driving force used to understand the world in place of science. Although around 5000 B.C ancient civilizations used agriculture and were no longer nomadic peoples, faith and beliefs including Animism explained life and death. It was the idea that all of nature was living. Later, more complex belief systems developed such as Confucianism and Taoism, around 551-479 BC, that also were primary contributors to understanding life and rebirth. These systems came closer to using science than previous ones just as following religions such as Judaism and even more so, Christianity, came closer to using science as a primary understanding of the world. As time continued science and religion slowly become conflicting as science started to explain concepts such as life and death and creation that religion was used to