Social Psychology And Developing Countries

Previous leading commentators on the development of psychology in the Third World have conceived of three major stages: an attempt to assimilate Western psychology, with predictably negative results; the study of indigenous constructs, with more relevant applications; and, finally, transcending stage one and stage two to choose theories and methods on their applied merit alone. Psychology and the Developing World has been assembled to document how close psychology has come to researching that stage. Contributors were carefully selected to provide a unique overview of the latest applications of the discipline as a whole. Their work reveals how psychology is being applied to educational needs, management needs, and health needs. This book shows how development studies and allied disciplines cannot ignore psychology's potential for the Third World.

In this special issue we consider the development of social psychology in three developed-world countries/regions: Australia, Canada, and Europe and in three majority-world countries/regions: India, Taiwan, and Latin America. Each author examines how social psychology has uniquely evolved from an imported discipline just introduced to their country or region into a mature, autochthonous science regularly contributing to the world’s research literature. Whether arising from a focal indigenization process or simply adapting and shaping the discipline to address the special issues arising within each country, insights are revealed about the special form and process the discipline has taken within geographically diverse countries.

This volume is constituted of a collection of leading contributions, each focusing on understanding the global dynamics of poverty and wealth together, from a psychological (particularly social psychological) perspective. It is one of few (if any) books on the subject that combines psychological theory and research with community development and practice.

Governments in the developing nations of Africa invest much of their countries’ scarce resources in social and economic development programs, often without much evaluation of the programs or any knowledge of the potential outcomes. Social Psychology and Social Change in Nigeria offers a critical analysis and evaluation of government development social policies and programs, written by a social psychology government consultant who has been involved with such programs for over fifteen years. The analyses and evaluations are conducted using social psychology methods and techniques, including experimental and longitudinal studies, field surveys, and national opinion approaches. Programs and public policies selected for study in the book are those that are guided by social psychology theories and principles, such as the contact hypothesis, ethnic orientation, attitude, behavior and value change, social mobilization, environmental health, and strengthening the youth and women entrepreneurs' contributions to national development. It is the author’s hope that this book will be the first of many such studies, thus helping to improve the outcomes of economic development programs in Nigeria and other African nations.

This book examines how and where psychology can engage itself in the framing of social policies for national as well as human development in India. Although the role that psychological knowledge can play in informing social policy decisions has been discussed for a long time, psychologists by and large have had little role in framing policy decisions related to such important domains as education, health, social justice and social inclusion. Policy makers, not only in India, but more or less everywhere have focused on interventions at the macro level, which has led them to ignore the root causes of the problems lying at the micro level. However, with the more humanistic approaches now being followed by economists and other social scientists, the person in society is slowly taking centrestage. Micro-level variables like happiness, the wellbeing of individuals and the social relationships within which people define themselves are becoming important. Therefore, this book discusses important psychological issues related to human development; particularly, health and education, social justice, social integration, environment and work organizations, besides focusing on some general issues relating to the logic of making social policies. It is a first-ever attempt in India to inform policy makers about how micro-variables can be a crucial factor to consider while framing social policies.

An introduction to how social psychological theories, methods and interventions can be applied to manage real-world social problems.