Social characteristics and knowledge

pp. 133-153

in: Thomas Teo, Outline of theoretical psychology, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

From a critical perspective, it is important to assess the role of social categories such as class, gender, and cultural location for knowledge-making, and to examine the implications of the historical fact that psychology as an academic discipline has been associated with certain social characteristics. The idea that social categories influence research has been inaugurated by class-based analyses and expanded in feminist and postcolonial epistemologies. It is argued that the elimination of subjectivity is impossible in psychology. Discussed are various epistemological positions as well as the difference between classical and social-constructionist critical theories of knowledge. The consequences of class, gender, and race on psychological knowledge are debated, focusing on epistemologies of ignorance and neglect. Opportunities for critical knowledge are discussed.