What is Critical Psychology?

What is Critical Psychology?

Critical psychology constitutes a critique to mainstream psychology.  In this way, it attempts to apply psychology in a more progressive fashion (Burr, 1995). Critical psychology is concerned with examining the way in which psychology as a discipline occupies a privileged position through dominant psychological ideologies.  It is thought, therefore that dominant psychological ideologies operate in the service of power.

Critical psychology owes much of its epistemological underpinnings to the work of Kalus Holzkamp (1927-1995).  Klaus was a very influential critic in this area, particularly through his writings on theory of science.

Thus, critical psychologists subscribe to a social constructionist epistemological stance.  It is not within the scope of critical psychology to reduce human behaviour to an explanatory theory, or to a set of predictable variables.   Instead, it tries to uncover the ways in which dominant psychological discourses use language to conceptualise the individual as an isolated phenomenon, whose thoughts and actions can be conceived in terms of internal 'essence' (see Burr, 1995)


References:

Burr, V. (1995) An Introduction to Social Constructionism. London: Routledge


Foucault, M. (2003) The Birth of the Clinic. London: Routledge


Norman, J. (2013) For how long can Psychology maintain its ‘scientific’ status? Journal of Social & Psychological Sciences. Vol. 6, (1), pp. 1-10


Parker, I. (2007) Critical Psychology: What It Is and What It Is Not. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. Vol. 10, pp. 1-104