World psychology: Ecuador
Ecuador gets its name from the equator which crosses it. Despite not being very large in territory, Ecuador is the eighth most biodiverse country on the planet! Spanish is its official language, and it has a population of nearly 17 million. Ecuador offers Psychology programs in many universities across its regions: Universidad Central del Ecuador, Pontificia Universidad Católica, Universidad de las Américas, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Universidad de Guayaquil, Universidad de Cuenca, among others. There is an online option as well with Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja. Psychology is a very popular major!
One of the first psychology courses occurred at the Universidad de Cuenca in 1952. However, it was not until the 1970s that Psychology developed at universities nationwide. One reason for the slow growth in the field was that psychology felt “imported” from the USA and Europe. The challenge for Ecuadorian psychologists was to find and develop Ecuadorian psychology. 
Cristina Crespo-Andrade is the psychology program coordinator at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Her early research focused on emotional intelligence in the workplace. Her most recent research has focused on cognitive and emotional interventions for marginalized, unemployed young people, particularly among displaced Latin Americans.
María Sol Garcés Espinosa is a psychologist and neuroscience researcher who coordinates the Institute of Neurosciences and SHIFT Academy at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. She has worked to develop virtual reality interventions to reduce stress, anxiety, sadness, and anger in older adults that would be relevant to Ecuadorian culture.
She is currently part of an international team that is attempting to develop culturally appropriate tests to measure cognitive ability in patients with neurological damage.
Glenda Villamarín is a faculty member of Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar and the only authorized trainer in Ecuador for Brainspotting and Theraplay. She trains therapists with these techniques all over Central and South America. She was also one of the first therapists in Ecuador trained in EMDR.
EMDR and brainspotting are therapies that encourage a patient to briefly focus on the trauma memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation (typically eye movements), which is associated with a reduction in the vividness and emotion associated with the trauma memories. These are alternative therapies that are currently being studied to determine their effectiveness.
Manuel Capella is an assistant professor at the University of Guayaquil. One of his current areas of research is exploring mental health care support for convicted perpetrators of intimate partner violence.
He has also studied the extent to which the average Ecuadorian trusts psychologists. You can access his report No creen en los psicólogos a construcción de la psicología desde la cotidianidad popular de Guayaquil here.
Thank you to Mónica Baez from the American School of Quito, Ecuador, for authoring this page.
ATL: Reflecting on indigenous approaches to psychology
Indigenous approaches to psychology are based on the knowledge and experiences of indigenous people.
Early cultural research attempted to apply Western psychological theory to indigenous groups without seeking the knowledge and experience of the people they studied. This is known as an imposed etic approach.
The goal of Indigenous psychology is for Indigenous peoples to see their worldviews reflected to them when they seek help for themselves, their families, or their communities
Estefanía Bautista-Valarezo and her team from the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, carried out a study of indigenous attitudes toward health and illness (Bautista-Valarezo et al., 2020). Eleven focus groups were conducted with 110 participants aged 20–70. Participants were from indigenous communities in Southern Ecuador. Purposive sampling was used to recruit the participants. All participants were healers who were recognized by the communities.
The focus groups were conducted with the help of four moderators, and four observers, who took field notes. The focus group interview guide consisted of questions focused on traditional healers’ understanding of health and illness.
The researchers transcribed the interviews and found the following trends in indigenous conceptualizations of health and illness.
Health
Four bodies/balance and harmony
Religiosity/god's blessing
Health as a good diet
Health as community and social welfare
Health as peacefulness
Illness
Imbalance
Bad energy
Bad diet
Suffering, worry
From God, nature, and people
A key concept was "the four bodies." According to Andean beliefs, a human being is composed of four connected bodies: the physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental bodies. For an individual to have optimal health, these four bodies need to be in harmony with each other and everything external to the being, such as nature.
Questions for reflection
1. Looking at the lists of characteristics for health and illness, how does this differ from the way Western psychology and health professionals define health? What could Western psychologists learn from the indigenous Ecuadoran healers?
2. The following quotes come from the transcripts of the focus group interviews, with minor language editing. Choose one of the quotes and discuss your thoughts on why this may affect one's health.
A healthy person cares about the well-being of the social community. If they are healthy, then all the community has to be well.
Sometimes, we are born with bad energies from our mothers' belly. For example, if the father fought with the neighbor and then begot me, this bad energy came from the mother’s womb.
Some people have bad energy; some illness comes from hate, revenge, envy, fights, naggings, slanders, or gossip.
To be healthy is to be at peace with yourself, nature, and others.
When you buy a bottle of water, although they say it’s virgin water, it is dead by the time you put it in a bottle because it has lost all its nutrients and spirit.
That’s why we have good manners and ask the creator to bless the food and remove the bad energy. It’s the same with medicines.
Thank you to Mónica Baez from the American School of Quito, Ecuador, for authoring this page.