Pakistan, Psychology in

Pakistan came into existence on August 14, 1947, after the division of British India into East and West Pakistan. At this time psychology was being taught as a branch of philosophy, but the history of psychology in Pakistan dates back to the 1920s. This history began with three departments of philosophy in the city of Lahore in West Pakistan that offered a master's program in both philosophy and psychology. Today there are more than 28 independent departments of psychology. In East Pakistan, a master's program in psychology was offered at two universities: Dacca and Rajshahi. These universities also offered MPhil and PhD degrees without a formal coursework. In 1971, East Pakistan was split away and became Bangladesh, and until the early 1980s there was no post–master's training offered in clinical psychology in Pakistan. Most of the clinical psychologists practicing in Pakistan at that time were qualified from abroad. Then two institutes were established to provide post–master's degrees, one at Karachi University in 1983 and the other at Punjab University in 1984.

Keywords: cross-cultural psychology; International psychology; Pakistan; psychology abroad