Critical psychology draws extensively on critical theory to challenge mainstream psychology's own assumptions, theories and methods, and to apply psychological understanding in different ways than the mainstream field does. The field has no single unifying framework, and its practitioners begin from different critical starting points with substantial differences as well as similarities between them, so that critical psychology functions more as an umbrella term covering various critiques of the status quo than as one school of thought. A recurring theme is assessing the social effects of psychological theories and practices: critical psychologists argue that mainstream psychology inadequately accounts for differences in power and discrimination between social classes and groups, and that it largely ignores institutional racism, postcolonialism and social-justice deficits facing minority groups, even as the movement pushes psychology as a whole toward emancipation and social justice.
Facts
Central QuestionWhether psychology's mainstream assumptions, theories and methods should be challenged and reworked in service of emancipation and social justice rather than treated as politically neutral science. 1 Key DebateWhether mainstream psychology's focus on explaining behavior at the individual level neglects the impact of institutional power, discrimination and social injustice on a person's or a group's mental and physical well-being. 1 Connections
Associated With
Founder of liberation psychology, a major strand of critical psychology's critique of mainstream practice.
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Source Wikipedia: Critical psychology
Source Wikipedia: Critical psychology
Source Wikipedia: Critical psychology
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Source Filipino psychology, Wikipedia
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Critical psychology
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, third sentence
Critical psychology is a movement that challenges psychology to work towards emancipation and social justice, and that opposes the uses of psychology to perpetuate oppression and injustice.
Lead section, fourth sentence
Critical psychologists believe that mainstream psychology fails to consider how power differences and discrimination between social classes and groups can impact an individual's or a group's mental and physical well-being.
Related Branch: Community Psychology, Article text
Central themes of critical psychology is the concept of “oppression” and “emancipation”. Critical psychology reflects not only on the connection of mainstream psychology with power, but also work toward emancipation (or liberation).
Related Branch: Health Psychology, Article text
Central themes of critical psychology is the concept of “oppression” and “emancipation”. Critical psychology reflects not only on the connection of mainstream psychology with power, but also work toward emancipation (or liberation).
Related Branch: Social Psychology, Article text
Central themes of critical psychology is the concept of “oppression” and “emancipation”. Critical psychology reflects not only on the connection of mainstream psychology with power, but also work toward emancipation (or liberation).
View the Source Filipino psychology, Wikipedia
Related Branches: Filipino Psychology, Article textQuote, Related Branches: Filipino Psychology, Article text
There are even some who had even argued that it is a local variant of Critical Psychology since it served as an emancipatory social science since it aims to decolonize academic neocolonialism.
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