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Putting the social in social science

Nature Reviews Psychology volume 1, pages 435–436 (2022)Cite this article

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Under the guise of objectivity, psychologists ignore the fact that understanding the human condition requires engaging beyond the ivory tower. For a more inclusive science, psychologists must lean into the social aspect of being a social scientist.

Psychology is the study of human behaviour, the most basic definition of a social science. But psychologists often take the social out of social science by asserting a top-down approach, studying people instead of working with them. In psychology’s search for scientific legitimacy1, researchers have seemingly left behind the key social aspect. Indeed, the roles of scientist and knowledge producer are largely inaccessible to the majority of society, and it is rare for psychology researchers to engage local communities as a resource for knowledge production. Excluding the public from psychological research can cause substantial harm, particularly when the research focuses on marginalized and minoritized communities.

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Acknowledgements

This commentary is based on a talk T.C. gave at the 2021 Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, sponsored by the SPARK society, where she discussed strategies for increasing the representation of minoritized populations in cognitive psychology. This work was funded by a National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Initiative, grant number RL5GM118975.

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  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Development, California State University, Northridge, CA, USA

    Tissyana C. Camacho

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Correspondence to Tissyana C. Camacho.

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Camacho, T.C. Putting the social in social science. Nat Rev Psychol 1, 435–436 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00091-7

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