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This article is a comment on the trajectory of South African psychology over the last 20 years. The case is made that psychology is integral to the developmental state and that empirical psychology has a role to play in fashioning social policy and interventions aimed at social development. Critical psychology as such can be defined not only as a critique of empirical science but also in terms of methodological critique of existing research studies. The emphasis on empirical science is discussed with reference to psychology’s role in the contemporary health care system and its relevance to the National Planning Commission and the Millennium Development Goals. Two issues pertaining to contemporary psychology are also discussed, namely, the influence of the positive psychology movement in South African psychology and the question of indigenous psychology. Psychology’s relevance and importance are emphasised in the context of economic disparity and the potential contributions it can make in helping to address various social problems that characterise South African society two decades after the beginning of the democratic era. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In light of the Psychological Society of South Africa’s commitment to ‘social relevance’, this article investigates the ongoing appeal for ‘relevance’ in the discipline. Pursuant to the social constructionist tenet regarding the constitutiveness of language, it examines addresses delivered at national Psychological Society of South Africa congresses since 1994. With Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for critical discourse analysis serving as its analytic frame, the article presents rhetorical, discursive, and socio-historical analyses of nine presidential, opening, and keynote addresses. Specifically, two competing discourses are identified: the first – a market discourse – advocates the development of a psychology that is financially rewarding, globally competitive, and internationally recognised. Accordingly, ‘market relevance’ is sought in which teaching, research, and community service outputs are graded according to international standards and priorities. The second discourse of civic responsibility casts South Africa’s traumatic past as unresolved and requiring, therefore, the intervention of psychologists. In this case, ‘social relevance’ is desired in order to bring about the emancipation of marginalised communities. On balance, however, it is the market discourse that saturates the discursive order. It is argued that South Africa’s re-entry into the international community has given rise to far-reaching changes to the country’s political, economic, and higher education landscapes, which have adjusted themselves to the demands of a globalised neo-liberal hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]