Pathways to a Psychology for Development: Reconstituting, Restating, Refuting and Realising

Psychology has, at best, only made a modest contribution to efforts aimed at resolving the problems of developing societies. While other disciplines have produced specialisations addressing the difficulties of the world's poorer nations, psychology has failed to do so. It is suggested that psychologists in developing countries lack a framework for applying psychological knowledge to their local settings and conditions. Wepresent a conceptual methodology which incorporates Reconstituting, Restating, Refuting and Realising the relevance of "Western psychology" to the challenges of development. Each of these pathways to a "Psychology for Development" is illustrated by describing some recent psychological contributions to identifying problems regarding development in Malawi.