John W. Berry & Walter J. Lonner (Eds)
Many IACCP members who have been involved in the early activities of the Association have recently retired. Their recollections of events leading to the founding of IACCP are a valuable resource that needs to be preserved. These individuals, and others, have substantial files and documents from the early days, and subsequent years. All of these things are candidates for inclusion in the IACCP-sanctioned Archives Project, which seeks to collect and organize these materials, and to make them available to interested scholars.
An invited symposium at IACCP-Bremen (July, 2008) highlighted some of the aims of the Archives Project. The major goal of the symposium was to feature most of the following papers that largely examine the early history of IACCP, including some activities that preceded its foundation, and the seminal role of John Dawson and others in bringing these activities together to form the Association. Some details of the first meetings in Hong Kong and Kingston are also included.
We invited a number of colleagues to join us in this symposium. The presentations, most extensively revised, were:
- Gustav Jahoda: “The Climate for, and Status of, Cross-Cultural Psychology in the 1960s”.
- Marshall Segall: “Out of the Lab and into the World: How One Psychologist Became Cross- Cultural -A Career-Oriented Memoir and Update”
- Harry C. Triandis: “The Ibadan Conference and Beyond.”
- John W. Berry: The Directories of Cross-Cultural Psychology (1968-1970); building a network”.
- Walter J. Lonner: “The Founding of JCCP (1970): The Origin and Early Days of the Journal”.
- Pieter J. D. Drenth: “The 1971 Istanbul Conference: The First Face to-Face Meeting of Many Cross-Cultural Psychologists”.
- John W. Berry and Walter J. Lonner: “The Role of John Dawson and the Foundation Meeting of IACCP in Hong Kong (1972)”
Please note that Marshall Segall could not attend the Bremen conference. However, he kindly agreed to write a paper for this collection. It is an expansion of what he would have presented.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE: We realize that the individuals who presented their views during the Bremen symposium are not the only people who witnessed, in some way, the early developments that in various events and paths led to the inauguration of IACCP and other culture-oriented activities in psychology. Certainly there are others whose participation goes back to the formative years. And still others may have their own perspectives on the early years, despite the fact that they may not have lived through them. Because the following chapters comprise a new unit in ORPC, other perspectives will be considered. This is an open invitation to help enlighten and educate the younger set. If deemed appropriate, submissions will be added to this collection of views on the early days of cross-cultural psychological research. Together, they can help shape activities that will be crafted and developed by future generations of psychologists who believe that culture is a crucial concept to consider in all aspects of psychology.
