8: Deconstructing Psychology Flashcards
(21 cards)
What is critical psychology?
A form of psychology that considers social, historical and economical contexts within the practice of psychology. It started in the 1960s with the critical movement in psychology with roots in critical theory and Marxism.
What was the core critique of psychology?
- It focused on the individual
- It was essentialist (individual properties are fixed in someone)
- It was detached from philosophy and social theory
- It served dominant social groups
Instead, there was an argument to focus on socio-material structures and power/oppression for change.
What is deconstructionism?
Expose and unsettle the taken for granted assumptions, binaries and hierarchies that structure knowlege
What is knowledge construction?
Knowledge about the world is not found but constructed using material stuff, within communities and socio-historical contexts
What does deconstructionism do to Ontology?
It makes visible what we “know” about the world and denaturalises a lot of it.
What is naturalisation?
The idea that we are surrounded by decisions that we can’t see and rather take as a given
What are the critical approaches?
- critical psychology
- feminist psychology
- postcolonial and decolonial psychology
- liberation psychology
- indigenous psychology
- discursive psychology
What are the integrated goals of critical approaches?
It exposes hidden power relations, critique universalism, center marginalised knowledge and experience, promote reflexivity and transform psychology as a tool for social justice
What is the shared aim of critical approaches?
To uncover, challenge, and transform the power structures, assumptions and exclusions in mainstream psychology. In order to use psychology more just, inclusive and culturally grounded.
What is the critical focus of analysis?
Emphasise socio-historical developments and contexts, highlights psychology’s involvement in concrete practices of the abuse of scientific authority (for oppression) and trace the influence of structural systems on shaping individual psychology
What is discourse?
Any form of language contains it’s own worldview, with social assumptions and covert meanings that assume the speaker of that world
What is the critical method of qualitative research?
It aims not to generalise but to understand the idiosyncratic experience of individuals and the mechanism of processes. This means: interviews, diaries, observations, interpretation and reflexivity (no neutral position), researcher-participant equality, analysis of text, image etc and participants involved in meaning making process.
What is colonialism?
The political and economic domination of one territory and its people by a foreign power (involves: conquest, settlement, and exploitation of land and resources, as well as the imposition of foreign governance, language, culture, and knowledge systems.
What is coloniality?
The consequence of colonialism. The enduring patterns of power, knowledge, and social control that outlive formal colonial rule; shaping modern global structures—including race, gender, education, epistemology, and psychology
What is decolonisation?
The political process of undoing colonial rule—leading to national independence, sovereignty, and self-governance. It primarily refers to the historical wave of struggles in the 20th century that led to the dismantling of formal European empires
What is decoloniality?
Outcome of decolonisation. Seeks to separate from Western ways of knowing, being, and organizing life, and instead recover, reclaim, and legitimize Indigenous, Afrocentric, and other marginalized epistemologies and lifeway
What is symbolic power?
The ability to shape how people see and interpret the world—especially what is considered normal, true, valuable, or legitimate—through language, culture, and institutions
What is epistemological violence?
Certain knowledge systems, ways of knowing, or worldviews are silenced, marginalized, devalued, or erased by dominant knowledge frameworks (i.e. framing specific cultural knowledge as universal
What are decolonial actions?
Undoing psychology from its historical colonial traces, freeing psychology from epistemological violence, challenging all forms of othering, acknowledgement of harmful historical events by Associations of Psychologists and decolonising psychology and its education
What is subjectification?
Conceiving of oneself in terms of the discourse. This is likely due to discourses containing models for “ways of being.” Some argue that it is colonialist as the inside self is perceived as yours - while other cultures may argue for more relativity to others - making it a construct.
