The development of psychology in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is briefly and critically reviewed in this paper. The primary foci in PNG, both in teaching and research, have been clinical psychology and selection testing. Despite significant developments during the colonial era, the period since independence has witnessed a stagnation, as reflected in outmoded selection procedures, low employer awareness of psychology, and a dearth of relevant, indigenous research. The primary causes of this stagnation are identified as cross-cultural psychology, the influence of expatriates, and political decisions. The paper concludes with some suggestions for regenerating psychology in PNG, including a project to assess what Papua New Guineans themselves would expect from any genuine indigenisation process.

All else being equal, the Weighted Averaging Model of person perception (Anderson, 1981) predicts that the number of achievements listed on a job application will not influence the impression formed, whereas the concept of Motivational Gravity suggests (Carr, 1994) that there will be an inverted ’U’ function in work cultures that are egalitarian. In egalitarian Australia, a sample of 312 undergraduates rated their overall impression of an imaginary job candidate who had listed from 5 to 20 randomly generated, but job related and positive personality traits, or achievements, in a job application. Impressions first rose and then fell significantly, especially for female candidates and among raters who were anti-achievement. These findings support the Motivational Gravity model, as well as indicating a possible selection bias in Australian and other centripetal work cultures in the South Pacific region.

This paper introduces the problems of cross-cultural research and shows how ordinal test theory can contribute to the solution of some of these problems. The concept of tied-ranks scores is introduced and the use of these scores for dichotomous and polytomous items is explained, as is the use of this theory for the examination of conjoint ordering. Conjoint ordering can then be used to determine the existence of an underlying variable, and to establish whether or not the same underlying variable can be defined for each of the cultures to be compared. Given the satisfaction of these conditions, cross-cultural comparisons can be made. Other considerations germane to the problem of cross-cultural comparisons are also considered.

A total of 202 unmarried males and females from the United States, Japan and Australia were recruited through personal contacts and completed two copies of the Jourard (1958) Self Disclosure Questionnaire, one for a same-sex friend of the same nationality as themselves and one for an equally close friend in one of the other two countries. Psychometric and factor analyses indicated that the scale was acceptably internally consistent but possibly measures more than one dimension of self-disclosure. Sex differences in favour of higher disclosure by females was taken as indicative of cross-cultural validity. There were highly significant differences between countries in scores for both own-country and other-country friends, and a general bias towards disclosing more to own-country friends. However, Japanese respondents disclosed more to other-country friends, particularly Americans. While Australians showed little bias, there was a strong tendency to disclose less to them, particularly by Americans. These results are interpreted in terms of cultural values and communication norms. Further psychometric and substantive investigations of self-disclosure across cultures are suggested.

Workers in outdoor occupations routinely face unavoidable exposure to the sun's ultra violet rays with attendant risk of skin cancer, and this study evaluated a multi-faceted education program aimed at improving the solar protection practices of Australian Technical College Surveying students performing outdoor field exercises. One hundred and fifteen students were randomly assigned (by class) to either a Control or Treatment group, and given slides, information sheets, and a guest talk by a young woman who had recovered from life-threatening skin cancer, with a baseline and two follow-up assessments being made on field days using a behavioural diary. A greater proportion of students receiving the solar education increased sunscreen cream application and hat use compared with Control participants, and a composite index of solar protection favoured the Treatment group. Moreover, Control participants significantly changed some solar protection behaviours, possibly through modelling the Treatment group, and Treatment participants showed significantly higher rates of particular sun protection behaviours at the second post test occasion than at the first post test occasion.

There is a lack of experimental support for Linguistic Relativity Theory (LRT), which has not been tested in a South Pacific context. Fifty-two bilingual male (n = 26) and female Fijians read, and answered survey questions on the family dilemma, “An Unwanted Child?” - one group functioning in English and the other in Fijian. The group reading and answering in Fijian tended to place more emphasis on the rights of the extended family, whereas the group reading and responding in English placed more emphasis on the rights of the individual. These preliminary findings are consistent with LRT theory, and form the basis for more extended study, including perhaps a wider range of dilemmas and linguistic abilities (e.g., Fijians living in Australia).

The global digital communications network, colloquially known as the “internet”, has received much attention in recent years from business, media, cultural, and government interests. This paper looks behind the hype and sales-pitches, at the essential features of the medium which have made it (and will continue to make it) the central technology for the dissemination of information in the next century. It is a particularly important technology for remote communities, since all information resources (educational, commercial, and recreational) can be transmitted using a standard set of protocols (Hypertext Transfer Protocol, File Transfer Protocol, Network News Transfer Protocol), over any physical medium (packet radio, satellite, phone-line, and optic fibre), in any data format that can be digitised (radio, television, text, graphics, and sound). The implications of this non-coercive technology are explored in the context of the impact on development in the physically distant communities of the South Pacific.