Participatory Rural Appraisal (The Experience of NGOs in South India)

This volume is an outcome of selected papers presented at the Eleventh Conference of the National Academy of Psychology held in December, 2000. Taken together, the papers in this volume reflect the pluralistic identity of current psychological research in India, marked by diverse ideological perspectives and methodological preferences. Some of them are critical of dominant trends in the discipline, others, emphasizing on cultural contextualization, have presented alternative ways of conceptualizing and doing research. Themes represented in this volume range from vertical collectivism, intervention programmes for cognitive development of the socially disadvantaged, sexuality and cognition, resilience and poverty, to caste and marital partner selection. Psychology in India: Intersecting Crossroads presents evidence of culturally-appropriate research as well as of a willingness to cross and expand the boundaries of the discipline.