Introduction. The American Psychologist Association (APA) defines psychology as “the study of mind and behavior.” The discipline encompasses all aspects of human experience: from the functions of the brain to the actions of nations, from child development to the care of the elderly. '(Association, 2014). With such a broad definition, it is not overly surprising that its scientific prestige has been used to propagate political dogma, including abhorrent beliefs such as the innate inferiority of blacks (Howitt and Owusu-Bempah, 1994), and to facilitate the legalization of racist concepts. laws such as the American Jim Crow laws that imposed severe restrictions on the rights and privileges of African Americans in 1877 (Brown and Stentiford, 2008). Furthermore, Howitt and Owusu-Bempah point out how even psychologists who claimed to abhor racism (e.g., Hans Eysenck) used so-called scientific evidence to support claims that blacks are intellectually inferior. As stated by Jones, psychology is a socially integrated activity that uses a variety of methods to produce knowledge about human nature and behavior and is conducted by psychologists with many purposes behind what they do. Certainly, psychology has enormous power to indoctrinate government policies. These policies may include welfare, education, health and economic policies. As such, can a single universal psychology really be expected to cover the complexities of all the different cultures and societies around the world with their different needs and histories? Psychology has historically been dominated by American psychology (Lunt and Poortinga, 1996). Although Americans only make up less than 5% of the world's population, 70% of the... middle of the paper... in context. International and cultural psychology series. New York, NY: Springer,.LUNT, I. & POORTINGA, Y.H. 1996. Internationalizing psychology - The case of Europe. American Psychologist, 51, 504-508.SHIRAEV, E. & LEVY, DA 2013. Cross-Cultural Psychology: Critical Thinking and Contemporary Applications, Boston, Pearson Education.SLATER, A. & LEWIS, M. 2002. Introduction to Child Development, Oxford , Oxford University Press.STERNBERG, R.J. 2002. The growth of intelligence in childhood. In: SLATER, A. & LEWIS, M. (eds) Introduction to Child Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.UNICEF. no date. Early childhood development: the key to a full and productive life. Available: http://www.unicef.org/dprk/ecd.pdf [Accessed 16 January 2014].WOOD, D. 1998. How children think and learn: the social contexts of cognitive development, Oxford, Blackwell.