Politics of Social Psychology

Jarret T. Crawford, Lee Jussim, Jarret T. Crawford, Lee Jussim

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138930599
• eBook ISBN: 9781351622554
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Social scientists have long known that political beliefs bias the way they think about, understand, and interpret the world around them. In this volume, scholars from social psychology and related fields explore the ways in which social scientists themselves have allowed their own political biases to influence their research. These biases may influence the development of research hypotheses, the design of studies and methods and materials chosen to test hypotheses, decisions to publish or not publish results based on their consistency with one's prior political beliefs, and how results are described and dissemination to the popular press. The fact that these processes occur within academic disciplines, such as social psychology, that strongly skew to the political left compounds the problem. Contributors to this volume not only identify and document the ways that social psychologists' political beliefs can and have influenced research, but also offer solutions towards a more depoliticized social psychology that can become a model for discourse across the social sciences.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• 1 Introduction to the Politics of Social Psychology
• PART I How Politicized Social Psychology Undermines Theory Generation and Hypothesis Testing
• PART II How Politicized Social Psychology Distorts Research Methods and Design
• PART III How Politicized Social Psychology Distorts Interpretation of Research
• PART IV Political Discrimination in Social Psychology
• PART V Towards a De-Politicized Social Psychological Science
• Index