China increasingly accepts psychology

Considered a pseudoscience just 25 years ago, psychology is becoming more mainstream in China.

Sara Martin
Monitor staff

China?s move toward a market economy has brought more prosperity and economic freedom to the Chinese people. But those changes also appear to have wrought more psychological unrest, says Beijing psychologist Houcan Zhang, PhD. Unemployment has sparked increased levels of depression . Divorce rates are up. And thoughts of the future make people anxious?particularly those who live in such highly developed commercial cities as Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.

In response, just as China has adopted Western economic ideas, so too has it embraced psychology to deal with its newfound challenges. In fact, psychology?largely considered a pseudo-science by the Chinese just 25 years ago?has become a fast-growing, well-respected field, said Zhang, a psychology professor at Beijing Normal University.

Though independent psychology practitioners are still rare, more medical centers are offering psychotherapy services. Psychology departments are cropping up throughout the nation, and more young people are expressing an interest in the field. Schools and universities are setting up counseling centers for students. Chinese companies are relying on psychologists? expertise in testing employee competence and setting human-resources policies. And China?s psychologists are making headway into such areas as traffic management, crime control and market research.

'We are convinced that psychology in China is entering a new era,' said Zhang. 'And by going through this period, psychology will become a more mature science, capable of making greater contributions to our country.'

At the International Congress symposium 'Psychology as a profession in China,' Zhang gave an overview of psychology?s recent successes in the country, focusing on two professional subfields that have grown dramatically: psychological counseling and human-resource development.

Education reform

Beginning in the 1980s, the Chinese people began to question the pressure they put on children to succeed academically. Ideology passed down from Confucius placed a high priority on education and encouraged parents to push their children to excel at school. That urging for scholastic achievement accelerated after World War II when 'the high expectations of parents seemed to be a psychological compensation for their own lost opportunities in having a proper education by the ?cultural revolution,?' said Zhang. And, because China has a limited number of colleges and universities, children feel extreme competitive pressure to be accepted in these schools. Thus, 'children are often overloaded with homework and have no time to devote to their own interests and develop their potential talents,' she said.

But the Chinese people decided that while a good education was imperative, so too is the need for children to be 'all-round developed,' said Zhang.

This change in thinking opened new roles for psychologists, she said. In addition to improving teaching methods, eliminating unnecessary homework and revising curricula, schools have sought psychologists? expertise to better understand children ?s personality development, moral education and how to prevent mental health problems, she said.

Some schools have established mental health counseling centers, which help children with learning disabilities, examination anxiety and interpersonal relationship problems.

In Shanghai, 26 percent of the city?s 3,000 elementary schools have such centers and 20 percent keep psychological files on students, Zhang reported.

Many colleges have also set up counseling centers that focus mainly on diagnosis of mental health problems and academic guidance, said Zhang. As of 1995, of the 1,080 universities in China, more than 30 percent offered some kind of psychological counseling for students, including help in solving academic problems and helping them with job selection, as well as treating them for interpersonal relationship troubles, emotional instability and psychophysical health problems.

Medical centers and hot lines

Psychological services are growing within the Chinese medical system, but in most cases they?re provided by medical professionals rather than psychologists.

According to some studies, said Zhang, less than 10 percent of counselors in hospital settings have 'qualified psychological backgrounds,' while about 80 percent are trained as medical doctors.

'This kind of personnel structure certainly produces some problems in the counseling service, but as psychology as a profession continually develops, it will be more specialized and standardized, and this situation will improve,' Zhang said.

Some social institutions have also set up independent counseling centers and hot lines, particularly in highly developed commercial areas, Zhang said.

Young women appear most likely to seek out these services, she said. In one study of 1,400 people who received counseling by phone in Shenzhen, a newly developed city in southern China, 63 percent of callers were women and 88 percent were under age 30.

The counseling they requested can be put into six categories and don?t necessarily fall into the realms Western psychologists would treat: Forty-seven percent had mental health problems, including neuropathy, personality problems and relationship problems; 32 percent had medical problems; 10 percent had gynecological and obstetrical questions; 8 percent had questions about 'sexual knowledge'; and 3.2 percent had child-rearing questions.

Some psychologists work for the hot lines and counseling centers, but most of these counselors are medical doctors, educators and teachers. And because the hot lines and centers are established independently, they don?t follow any set standards. 'Thus, the quality of service is questionable,' she said. However, the Chinese Psychological Society and the Chinese Association of Mental Health have called for these workers to be certified.

Human resources

Before 1989, no Chinese psychologists worked in personnel administration, said Zhang. But that changed when national reforms took over and the government sought ways to improve its efficiency. It turned to psychologists to develop personality and intelligence tests to help place people in the right jobs.

Psychologists then became instrumental in developing tests to certify workers in certain professions. With psychologists? help, the government?s Personnel Testing Authority identifies competence criteria for certain jobs?such as engineers, architects and pharmacists?then designs the tests and specifies their scoring standards, Zhang said. More than 15 million people have taken these tests, of which more than two million have passed and received their professional technical qualification certificates.

Psychologists in China are also well-respected for their work in helping people adapt to new jobs?a skill that became essential when economic reforms allowed people to leave their government posts to work for private enterprises, she said.

Many Chinese companies now recognize the expertise psychologists bring to their work. 'The costs of personnel management and risks of wrong policy-making are greatly reduced,' Zhang said.