This essay discusses some impediments to, and prospects for, the development of applied Aboriginal psychologies from the perspectives of cross-cultural and cultural psychology. Aboriginal psychologies are said to differ from mainstream scientific psychology in terms of their research priorities, world views, problems to be addressed, methodologies, ideological commitments, and perceived usefulness. Aboriginal and nonaboriginal people's perceptions of mainstream psychology and psychologists and of priority community needs are reported to provide evidence for such differences.

Geographical relocation is often associated with problems adjusting to the new physical and sociocultural environment (Totman, 1979) and with the stress of disruption to lifestyle routines (Cochrane, 1983; Cochrane & Stopes-Roe, 1980). Relocation commonly entails culture shock, financial difficulties, separation from family, racial discrimination, and language difficulties (Murphy, 1977; Oberg, 1960); frequent relocation is also associated with illness (Stokols, Shumaker, & Martinez, 1983).

One group of people who tend to relocate relatively frequently consists of students, many of whom do report difficulties attributed to relocation (Anderson & Fleming, 1985; Fulmer, Medalie, & Lord, 1982; Simmonds, 1987). Their problems appear to be common to those of migrants in general (Cochrane, 1983; Cochrane & Stopes-Roe, 1980). One very frequent complaint is the familiar one of homesickness.

Homesickness is commonly used to describe any condition of unhappiness or malaise which follows a transition to a new environment (Fisher, 1988). Denoted as “pining for home” (Chambers Dictionary, 1972) or “depressed by absence from home” (Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1964), students reportedly agree that homesickness has four main elements: missing home, missing family, longing to see friends, and wanting to go home (Brewin, Furnham, & Howes, 1989).

Recent studies conducted in Scotland found that homesickness affected 60 to 70 percent of native first-year students (Fisher, Fraser, & Murray, 1984; Fisher, Fraser, & Murray, 1985), a figure which approximates that found for boarding school students (Fisher, Fraser, & Murray, 1986). Homesickness was associated with cognitive failures, poor concentration, handing in work late, and decrement of work quality (Fisher et al., 1985; Fisher & Hood, 1987). In other words, there was some evidence that homesickness may affect academic performance.

People moving into a new environment often find the process stressful (Cochrane, 1983; Cochrane & Stopes-Roe, 1980). One of the reasons for the stress is that the new environment may not provide substitutes for the losses incurred during the process of relocation (Beck & Young, 1978). Separation anxiety, loss, interruption of lifestyle, reduced control over the psychosocial environment, role change, and self-consciousness are all after-effects of the relocation process (Fisher, 1988).

In general, migrants move as a group or as a family unit (Marmot & Syme, 1976; Murphy, 1976), but this is not true for students. Despite the fact that students often perceive their relocation as a challenging life event (Fulmer, Medalie, & Lord, 1982), they must face the challenge on their own, for they cannot count on the support and comfort of family and old friends. Furthermore, their relocation is to a competitive environment in which they are exposed to a range of stressors which, in all likelihood, are novel.

Students commonly experience problems following their relocation. The problems are related to change of culture (Oberg, 1960), to racial discrimination, and to change of diet and climate (Dyal & Dyal, 1981; Murphy, 1977; Nicassio & Pate, 1984). Other problems, including fatigue and headaches (Miller & Harwell, 1983), homesickness (Fisher, 1988; Fisher & Murray, 1984), and language difficulties (Mellam, 1989) may be more common to students than to other migrant groups.

This article reports an evaluation of the officer selection procedures of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force based on the performance of 195 officers. Results indicate that a linear combination of selection variables, including psychometric measures, academic achievement, interview impressions, and hands-on performance tests, was not predictably related to the criterion measure of officer performance. Post-hoc validation checks suggest that only one of the psychometric tests used in selection meets basic construct validation criteria and that the criterion measure of officer performance is unreliable. No evidence was found to support the predictive validity of selection procedures.

The prevalence of violence in Australian Aboriginal communities continues to be a matter of great concern (Atkinson, 1990a; Bolger, 1990; Hunter, 1990; Miller, 1990a, 1990b; O'Shane, 1990; Payne, 1990; Tatz, 1989). In this article, I document the extent of violence in a sample of Aboriginal communities, and briefly review some psychological research that may help us to understand the pattern of violence.

In a recent article published in this journal, Lea (1991) argues against psychological theory which proposes access to mental states through empirical investigation. His argument depends upon demonstrating certain logical flaws in the arguments of proponents of this kind of empiricism, thereby ruling their conclusions out of court. In response to Lea, I will show that empirical investigation of mental states is possible only when undertaken as a reflexive theoretical practice. Unlike Lea's argument which remains within the Cartesian/Kantian paradigm of a priori structures and categories, an argument based on reflexive theoretical practice takes account of the grounded conditions under which knowledge becomes validated in social settings, involving close attention to the status of language in context of use. I will show that certain elisions in Lea's argument, particularly in his invocation of Wittgenstein's work on language use, eliminates for him the possibility of dealing with language in this manner. Furthermore, I will also show in the course of undertaking the above tasks, that Lea's mode of augment is itself perfectly consistent with the form of apriori theorizing he wishes to reject.