Indigenous psychologies: The meaning of the concept and its assessment: Introduction

The meaning of the concepts of indigenous psychologies and of indigenisatio n, the process by which they are achieved, are explored within the first fo ur articles of this special issue. The concepts are examined initially in t he abstract from the broader perspectives of the social psychology of scien ce (Adair) and cross-cultural psychology (Poortinga), and in two concrete a pplications of indigenous psychology approaches in Mexico (Diaz-:Loving) an d Korea (Kim, Park, Br Park). In the second part of this special issue, thr ee articles report on empirical research assessing the extent of indigenous development: that has occurred in Turkey, the farmer USSR, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico. This introduction summarises some of the commonalities and dif ferences among the contributions.