Akbar's Theory: A Solution for Today's Violence

One example of the African centered theories would be Akbar's (1997) theory. According to the textbook African American Psychology, this theory was about an emphasis on “the African cultural emphasis on affective orientation including caring, empathy, and cooperative efforts as significant sources of behavioral motivation” (Heisser Metoyer, p. 24). In my opinion, this theory right here is what may be needed for today’s world. In todays society we see that there are problems when it comes to African Americans and violence. Some of it is in the media. An example of some of these would be violence with other individuals of the same race, or even violence with other races, which from my experience is shown more in the media. I believe with this theory by Akbar, if it were to

A quote that is in the textbook that supports this would be, “Rather than anchoring the search for identity and values in a Euro American perspective, the Afrocentric approach looks within and articulates a point of view that is congruent with the history and culture of African American people (pp. 13-14)” (Heisser Metoyer, p.23) To further analyze this quote, the Euro American or Eurocentric perspective would be the one that does not involve the Afrocentric culture or history. Afrocentric psychology is about overcoming oppression according to Akbar (Heisser Metoyer, p.25). This ties back to their history, since this is a race that has been oppressed and dominated in the past by another race such as people who are in the Euro centric culture. Another difference is that according to the book, there is a limitation when it comes to the search for a universal theory (Heisser Metoyer, p.25). The Euro centric is more universal, since it involves a larger range of individuals. All of the African centered theories are not universal since they involve aspects of being