Psychology

Debates and Controversies
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-93-5328-083-3
Verlag: SAGE Publications

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 184 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 518 g

Psychology: Debates and Controversies is about the contested nature of psychology, one of the most fascinating and important disciplines on the formation of human subjectivity. The book delves into critical debates over numerous key questions. Is psychology a natural science or a social science? Why is quantification and experimental logic so central to psychology? What kind of paradigmatic shift does qualitative research in psychology require? How does one understand an ‘individual in context’? How does psychology understand the gendered basis of subjectivity? What does the medical model tell us about normality and abnormality?

The book reflects upon and interrupts the dominant theories of psychology as told by academic and professional psychologists. It then aids in re-envisioning psychology along pathways that are different from the mainstream. Rather than asking the question ‘which perspective is more valid?’, the work strives to raise the question ‘what is it valid for’, which focuses the attention on the ideological ends and goals of different discourses of psychology.

Key Features:

• Exposes the ideological nature of mainstream scientific psychology

• Critically interrogates the images of ‘mind’, ‘individual’, ‘gender’, ‘social’, ‘cultural’ that mainstream psychology offers

• Reforms psychology along diverse epistemological and methodological lines of enquiry • Presents the salient debates in psychology in a dialogical and argumentative manner to encourage readers to become curious and seek more answers • Gathers, analyzes and re-presents the diverse strands of psychological thought available for a set of core issues under one title

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bansal, Parul

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Psychologie: Allgemeines

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
Why Debate Psychology? An Introduction
Is Psychology a Science?
Should Psychological Research Be Only about Numbers?
What Is ‘Social’ about Social Psychology?
Where Is ‘Culture’ in Psychology?
How Is ‘Gender’ Treated in Psychology?
What Is ‘Abnormal’ in Clinical Psychology?
References
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Bansal, Parul
Dr Parul Bansal is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, India’s premier liberal arts college, affiliated to the University of Delhi. She received a BA in psychology from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, and an MA and a doctorate degree in psychology from the University of Delhi. Her teaching career spans over 15 years, during which she has served as the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Lady Shri Ram College for Women. In addition, she has been actively involved with curriculum development and course writing at the University of Delhi and IGNOU. She has to her credit a well-received research text, using a psychoanalytically informed qualitative research methodology, titled Youth in Contemporary India: Images of Identity and Social Change. The text endeavours to be a study of identity in Indian urban youth, specifically in the context of the family, and reflects on the nature of intergenerational continuity and shifts in India. She understands psychology as an ‘amphibian discipline’, largely but not solely empirical, sharing porous borders with sociology, humanities and neurosciences and just as much a discursive construction as any other area of knowledge. A devoted teacher, her teaching is geared towards imbibing in students an active curiosity in understanding and critiquing ideological issues in psychology and fostering interest in epistemological and methodological pluralism. Her academic and research interests are in psychosocial studies of self, identity and social change, critical psychology, psychoanalysis and mental health, and qualitative research methodology. She was awarded Shashikala Singh Gold Medal for being a topper of University of Delhi in her Masters. She has also received ICSSR Doctoral Fellowship to conduct her PhD work.