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On the history of political diversity in social psychology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2015

Kevin R. Binning  and
David O. Sears
Kevin R. Binning
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. kbinning@pitt.edu www.pitt.edu/~kbinning
David O. Sears
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90095. sears@psych.ucla.edu http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/people/david-o-sears
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Abstract

We argue that the history of political diversity in social psychology may be better characterized by stability than by a large shift toward liberalism. The branch of social psychology that focuses on political issues has defined social problems from a liberal perspective since at least the 1930s. Although a lack of ideological diversity within the discipline can pose many of the problems noted by Duarte et al., we suggest that these problems (a) are less apparent when the insights of social psychology are pitted against the insights from other social science disciplines, and (b) are less pressing than the need for other types of diversity in the field, especially ethnic and racial diversity.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 38 , 2015 , e135
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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