This research contributes to the expanding literature on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) by focusing on the experiences of victims/survivors who participated in the TRC process. Lengthy semistructured interviews were held with 30 Black South African victims who engaged the TRC process. Qualitative analysis indicated that a small number of those interviewed viewed it as a positive and empowering experience, although for many others it appeared to be a painful and disempowering process filled with unmet expectations and promises. Discussion of the implications of survivors' responses emerging from the thematic analysis and suggestions for improving future policies pertaining to survivors' participation in such TRC mechanisms are offered. The importance of considering the cultural applicability and adaptability of terms such as "amnesty," used in transitional justice scenarios, is also highlighted.

This article calls for the re-humanization of research guidelines and practices in psychology, so that researchers remain aware of themselves as both human beings and researchers. Through the author's experience conducting research with victims of political violence in South Africa, this article addresses practical, logistical, methodological, and ethical concerns that researchers should consider before engaging in fieldwork. This article also emphasizes researchers' ethical responsibilities to participants and the research team and calls for a restructuring of the discipline's ethical codes from the current defensive (do no harm) ethics to more proactive (do some good) ethics.These people came at night. We heard gunshots. When we went outside we found they were there and there were many of them. We heard many people screaming and crying. My wife was in the house. I went out with my 12-year-old son. Inside my wife was with our nine-month-old boy. They saw me . . . I managed to run away with the 12 year old, they shot 7 times behind me, I ran until we got to some bush with water. So early in the morning when we returned there were many people around, when I got back I looked for my wife and didn't find her. As I was going around looking for her, someone called out to me and told me to go to another house a little further down. When I got there I found that the nine-month-old baby had been hacked here [indicates top of child's head was split open]. And he was dead already.

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In order to understand the relationship between psychology and transitional justice mechanisms, we address what psychology is as a discipline and how it is capable of contributing to mechanisms of transitional justice. Psychology as an academic field of inquiry has taken many forms, as demarcated by divisions within the field such as cognitive, developmental, clinical, social, and political psychology, to name a few. These subfields tend to highlight the different frameworks and theories utilized to study and understand human cognition and behavior at both the individual and group level. However, peace psychology attempts to bridge the separation between these subfields by focusing on the understanding and prevention of conflict (often referred to as peacemaking) and the promotion of nonviolent initiatives seeking social justice (referred to as peacebuilding) (Christie, Wagner, & Winter, 2001). By having these specific goals in mind, peace psychology is able to draw from the different theories and methods proposed by the subfields (along with other disciplines such as philosophy, political science, and anthropology), resulting in the potential collaboration of scholars that often are bound to their specific discipline or area of expertise. In addition to examining why conflict happens and how it can be prevented or resolved, peace psychology expands the aim of psychology to be not only a field of academic and theoretical inquiry, but also a source for social change and justice. The role of psychology in transitional justice systems is to provide an understanding of particular psychological processes that can assist in the development and implementation of effective transitional justice mechanisms.