William Howell & Nicole Toohill
Optimal Theory and the Psychology of Human Diversity
By Linda James Myers & Suzette L. Speight
• The prevailing worldview fosters alienation, competition, and the need for oppression
• Many point to a void in Western psychology that is created by the lack of a comprehensive framework for understanding how gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, class, and other aspects of human diversity are integral to the field of psychology
• Optimal Theory offers
o a coherent framework for realizing the unity within the varieties of human diversity
o a method for accounting for individual and community action
o encourages examination of human behavior through socially defined
diversity markers such as race, ethnicity, gender, and physical ability
o offers a system of reasoning that avoids and transforms oppositional thinking by creating spaces that support the psychology of human diversity
Introduction to Optimal Theory
• Drawn from the philosophical parameters of ancient traditions of African culture
• Each human seen as an individual and unique expression of a systematic, self- perpetuating, and self-correcting life energy that is manifested in various ways
• Emerged in late 1970’s and shares ideas with the Afrocentric and transpersonal schools of thought
• It emphasizes spirituality, which is void in most Western models of human functioning and development
• It holds that humankind is of one life energy, and each individual is the unique creation of this life force
• This energy is self-organizing and ordered, functioning maximally under the natural equilibrium, harmony and unity
• Identity is seen as the individuated expression of a unified consciousness
• When people become alienated from the unity of consciousness and begin to perceive themselves as an individuated self-separate from the creative life energy, the estrangement spreads to other aspects of being
• This causes a loss of connection to others and proclivity for the oppression of others grows
• In this sociocultural context individuals base their sense of self on material and other external criteria
• When they recognize the finite and limited nature of material possessions in which their self-concept is built, anxiety, insecurity, and fear emerge
• Sampson (1989) attributes this to industrialization and technology
• Self-worth is assumed to be intrinsic, independent of external form
• Life is seen as a process of integrating and expanding ones sense of self to discover its spiritual essence
Human Diversity and Optimal Theory
• Culture reflects and reinforces the belief system held by a people about themselves and their world
• Cultures utilize differing conceptual systems, the social realities created and the behaviors manifested will differ accordingly
• Individuals are seen as unique configurations of spiritual energy that are manifested by skin color, ethnicity, size, age, sexual orientation, and gender
• In contrast, the suboptimal conceptual system creates an essentially faulty assumption about an individuals true identity and relationship to the cosmos
• When people define themselves through the more superficial aspects that are apparent to the five senses, their way of life will reflect increasing chaos, disharmony, and disorder
• White skin or male gender become criteria that automatically make some people better
• This reinforces a “might makes right” orientation
• The need to feel superior, to control, to dominate, and to acquire objects is a natural outcome of this alienation, as is the separation of mind, body, spirit, and nature
• Optimal Theory provides a basis for transcending apparent differences and understanding the more critical values, attitudes, emotions, and experiences
• It uses the cultural frame of reference of ancient Africans to derive its philosophical tenets
• They argue the theory’s universality is inherent, since all people are African therefore it is holistic and unifying
• It is not population specific like most psychological literature which exemplifies the serious flaw with most Western literature and society’s difficulty with issues of human diversity
• Optimal Theory incorporates three areas of emphasis in population specific psychologies (1) principal elements of the population’s culture (2) efforts to use
knowledge of culture, ethnicity, or worldview to understand, predict, or change behavior (3) explorations of the interaction between worldview, culture, and oppression
• Two important strengths are (1) it is a model for theory building because it attends to previously ignored aspects of human experience and diversity and (2) it is a spatially grounded theory based on humanistic ideals
Oppression and Social Change
• Oppression is the logical result of a suboptimal conceptual system
• Oppressing others or being oppressed becomes a characteristic feature of the society
• To be oppressed, is to be socialized into a conceptual system that leads to a fragmented sense of self
• Oppression is the result of giving over power to forces outside oneself and allowing external forces to determine one’s reality
• Distinctions between the oppressor and the oppressed are not viable, since all those who internalize a fragmented worldview will be oppressed
• Friere calls oppression “dehumanization”, those whose humanity was stolen and those who stole it are both dehumanized
• An oppressors belief system perceives everything as an object of domination, and the oppressed often cannot perceive the oppressive system and instead end up identifying with their oppressor
• When a culture has defined certain criteria to be marks of superiority, they accept their inferiority, and seek to become more like the oppressor in anyway possible
• The oppressed rely on acquisition of the superficial external criteria as the basis for bolstering a fragile sense of self
• Oppression cannot take place unless the other allows it, by yielding consciousness
and power to the oppressors definition of reality
• Optimal Theory should not be interpreted as blaming the victim for their own oppression, so if the oppressed have not part in oppression then they can have no pat in their liberation
• Liberation occurs when the need to find validity and stability propels the individual to move beyond externalized criteria
• According to Optimal Theory liberation is a struggle to regain the original connection with the infinite life force
• Nelson Mandela is a perfect example of arising liberated and free after 25 years of imprisonment
Applications of Optimal Theory
• It is sociopolitical in that it identifies the fundamental importance of notions of power and oppression in shaping the experience of diverse groups
• Using the theory we are able to trace the roots of the oppression dynamic (the cyclical roles of the oppressor and victim)
• It has significant implications for research methodologies
• It provides a framework for identifying the underlying assumptions of the investigators and the research participants which reduces distortions
• Optimal Theory also provides an opportunity to integrate the etic and emic approaches to multicultural research
• Etic approach refers to a universal perspective emphasizing the development and explanatory constructs applicable to all cultures
• Emic approach refers to culture-specific perspective that attempts to examine cultural groups in their own terms rather than contrasting them to other reference groups
• Optimal Theory sanctions the development of a hermeneutic perspective that goes beyond the etic-emic distinction, allowing examination of and focus on the interpretation of the phenomenon itself
• This sheds new light on how research is conceptualized, conducted, and analyzed
Conclusion
• Optimal Theory offers a framework and basis for understanding the impact of race, gender, class, age, and all the other diversity markers identifiable among human beings, by unifying the differences while insisting upon the significance of the articulation
• Humans are the same because of the underlying unifying spiritual essence and different in the form they take
• Three important principles can be identified relative to a psychology of human diversity (1) contingent on ones conceptual system, responses to difference will vary (2) when a suboptimal set of assumptions is adhered to, its fragmented nature sets in place alienation within the self, from nature, causing insecurity and resistance to that which is experienced as “other” and (3) human diversity will be fully valued and appreciated when the schism created by the suboptimal construction of reality is bridged
• Optimal theory furnishes a new perspective that incorporates diversity as an
integral part of understanding human behavior
