Ethnic Identities and Indigenous Psychologies in Pluralist Societies

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Abstract
Current theorising about the sociopsychological processes of ethnic identity development and redefinition in pluralist societies is augmented by a framework of theoretical concepts, Identity Strudure Analysis, which places indigenous psychologies at its focus and indicates that conflicts within people's ethnic identities and between ethnic groups are generally to be expected. False expectations of engineering universal "harmony" represent an inadequate understanding of the sociopsychological development of ethnic identity in pluralist societies. Instead, potentials for resolutions of ethnic conflicts to tolerable levels need to be enhanced, while processes toward pathological ethnic conflict require to be contained. Consideration is given to fundamental conceptual issues in explicating ethnic identity processes in the socio-historical contexts of differing pluralist societies. Attention is directed to the necessity for the efficient operationalisation of identity con cepts, using, for example, the accessible Identity Exploration computer software, for rapid empirical investigations of the complexities of ethnic conflicts.

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