Psychology is missing something:
Most of humanity

A major problem in psychological science is over reliance on samples from Western industrialized settings, home to only 11% of the world’s population. Longitudinal studies have been central to psychology, teaching us how traits and mental health develop and change over the lifespan, which experiences or attributes shape psychology, and how psychology shapes experience. But such studies are virtually absent outside the West.

The Africa Long Life Study brings lifespan research outside the West

Since 2022, the Africa Long Life Study (ALLS) explores psychological development of young adults in Namibia, Kenya and South Africa. We integrate etic (imported) with emic (Africentric,
bottom up) approaches so that we can test findings from other contexts for replicability, while also building theory about local phenomena and topics of interest.

Generating psychological knowledge while building community

ALLS has a triple “bottom line”: We generate high quality data to address important scientific questions in global psychology; we stay attentive to community needs to provide data for local mental health efforts; and we work as a collaborative community, sharing resources and mentoring of students, networking globally to build capacity and increase representation in psychological science. 

Thank you to our funders

  • The Swiss National Science Foundation

    Our primary funding comes from a 2021-2026 SNSF Eccellenza fellowship awarded to Amber Gayle Thalmayer

  • University of Zurich

    An Einrichtungskredit from UZH funded data collection in Kenya

  • The National Science Foundation of South Africa

    An award to Prof. Luzelle Naudé of University of the Free State funded data collection in South Africa 2023-2025

  • The European Association for Personality Psychology

    2025 small grant to Catherine Shirima, Peter Haehner & Marie Kura for mixed methods study of personality outcomes.

    2024 presidential symposium support to Stephen Asatsa to attend ECP Berlin.

    2023 travel award to Kenyan RAs Eucabeth Mayinbe & Esther Kerebi to visit UZH.

  • Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania

    A Higher Education for Economic Transformation Postgraduate Training Scholarship to PhD candidate Athumani Mgaya at University of the Free State, South Africa