FACTORS FACILITATING AND IMPEDING GROWTH OF PSYCHOLOGY IN SOUTH-ASIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO INDIA

The growth of psychology in South Asian countries has been impeded by the lack of intellectual climate, scarcity of resources, and poor prof essional support. These proximate factors are embedded in a socio-cult ural milieu of pervasive poverty, collectivism, and centralized contro l of resources. The cultural factors get a free hand because of the in appropriate nature of Western psychology, which is being transplanted as a greenhouse plant. Psychologists can come out of this greenhouse a nd develop an appropriate science by addressing societal problems from indigenous perspectives. If they do so, the same cultural factors wou ld either facilitate the growth of psychology or be contained to a gre at extent.