Psychology and society - summary of chapter 13 of Historical and conceptual issues in psychology, by Brysbaert, M and Rastle, K (second edition)

Foundation of psychology
Chapter 13
Psychology and society

Ways in which society has influenced psychology

Science overtakes religion in Western society

Initial strong links between psychological thinking and religion

Psychology as a separate branch of knowledge grew out of the rising role of scientific thinking in Western society.
Education for a long time was controlled by the churches, which did not look favourably upon those who tried to examine the soul.

Many early psychologists had strong connections with religion.

Alliance formation with the expanding sciences

Rapidly, the experimental psychologists distanced themselves from religion, because it jeopardies their scientific credentials.
They sought to align themselves with the rapidly growing natural sciences, by denouncing weaker fields that might contaminate them, such as religion, philosophy, and sociology.

Psychologists replace pastors

Fewer people felt comfortable discussing their mental health problems with religious authorities.
Whereas for a long time churches were the first port to call for mental health problems, growing secularisation increased the need for non-religious counselling.
At the same time, a growing number of clergy started to study psychology to improve the help they were able to provide.

Changes in society impinge on psychological practice

Impact on psychological research

The massive changes in the organisation of Western society in the nineteenth and twentieth century generated ideas and research opportunities for psychologists.
Six historical developments that affected psychological research

• The emergence of industrialisation and increased number of European immigrants to the USA
• The historical commitment to a material basis for all natural phenomena
• The Cold War and computers
• The entry of mothers into the workforce
• The discovery of statistical techniques such as analysis of variance and regression
• The unique position of physics among the empirical sciences

Societal influences were not limited to the science-oriented track of psychology, but also shaped thought in the hermeneutic part.

Impact on clinical practice

Changes in society influenced clinical practice.
Mental disorders show cultural variation.
This is not only true between cultures, but also across time within a culture.
Each culture has a symptom pool, a collective memory of how to behave when ill.
At each time period patients with psychological problems gravitate towards the symptoms that at the time are thought to be legitimate indications of disease, as no patients wants to select illegitimate symptoms.

Society as a metaphor provider

Metaphors: in science, stands for an analogy from another area that helps to map a new, complex problem by making reference to a better understood phenomenon.
The wider world has influenced psychology by the provision of metaphors.

Examples of metaphors in psychology

Psychologists have used four types of metaphors:

• The mind as an animal
  Ideas struggle or compete with each other
• The mind as a neural system
  Ideas are inhibited, disturbance of thought arises because of over-excitation in the brain
• The mind as a spatial container
  Memories that are in the background, fear that inundates the sympathetic nervous system
• The mind as a mechanical or computational system
  Serial, iterative operations going on in the brain

The power of metaphors

Metaphors in science are not just comparisons.
They allow researchers to formulate an test hypotheses on the basis of the analogy, which otherwise would have remained elusive.

Metaphors work because they transfer a complex knowledge system from a known theme to an unknown topic.
At the same time, they include a danger, because often the phenomenon to be understood does not completely fit into the metaphor.
The metaphor does not replace reality, it only allows the researchers to get a grasp of some aspects of the phenomenon.

Throughout history, scientific innovations have been a source of metaphors to understand the mechanisms of the mind.
By applying them, psychologists got a better grip on the phenomena they tried to understand.
At the same time, metaphors restrict understanding, because the phenomenon to be explained is rarely exactly the same as the analogy used

Socio-political biases in psychological theories

Scientific research does not happen in a void but is influenced by the culture in which the researchers live.

Even measurements and data are not safe in the light of strong socio-politico opinions. Gould vs. Morton

Gould
Showed how easy ‘objective’ findings can be distorted by the researchers’ expectations.

The observation that the same data set can lead to different conclusions is a useful reminder of the fact that data collection and measurement involve selection and interpretation, which make scientific conclusions open to socio-political influences.

Money and Ehrhardt (1972). The trainability of gender identity

Socio-political biases in scientific conclusions are not limited to the biological perspective.

An example of current social influences: hidden racism

Hidden racism: advancing one’s own race by non-conspicuous biases against other groups (usually by ignoring their contribution).

Socio-political influences on psychological practice

The socio-political contexts also influences the conditions under which psychologists work.

An increased interest in ethical issues

One of the developments of the last decades is an increased concern for ethical issues.
Two big social changes lie at the heart of this shift

• There was the acknowledgement that some experiments in the past were run despite knowing that they would harm participants
  Informed consent: central principle in ethics, saying that people can only take part in a study after they have been informed of what will be involved and after they have explicitly and voluntarily agreed to participate.
• The increased probability of legal action in case of a participant making a complaint
  All official institutions introduced measures to ensure that no research could be carried out under their responsibility without proper ethical controls
  • Ethical codes of conduct: protocol that includes all the ethics-related conditions to which a study must adhere

Litigation and importance of documented evidence

The same biases apply to all kinds of knowledge and the non-scientific approaches have fewer defences against them.
Mechanisms that allow others to evaluate the claims researchers make and present counter-evidence

• The requirement that knowledge is coherent and cumulative
• The requirement that the knowledge is made available, so that it can be checked
• The requirement to use well-defined and widely accepted methods for information gathering
• The requirement of clarity of exposition
• The requirement that the knowledge is primarily based on prediction and falsification attempts
• The requirement that the knowledge is not set in stone, but will be revised in the light of contradictory evidence

Because of these requirements, scientific knowledge is among the most trustworthy we have.

Psychologists as pawns in power games

Psychologists as a group are entangled in the struggle for power in various groups.
They try to improve their standing by manipulating other, but at the same time are constantly being used by other groups as part of their power struggle.

Foucault and the power of discipline

Michel Foucault (1926-1984)
Published a book in which he discussed how rules discipline their inferiors

• Until the eighteenth century, power was applied by brute force
  Inefficient because power was applied only sporadically, when a situation got out of hand
• Constant surveillance system
  Minor deviances were immediately detected and corrected
  It disciplined the subjects to such an extent that they automatically and unthinkingly followed the rules imposed upon them.
  Became more dominant from the eighteenth century on

Within Foucault’s world view, the primary role of psychologists is to help with the surveillance of mental health patients, students, employees and everyone else they are asked to assess and advise.
The main task of psychologists is not to help clients, but to keep them in line with the prevailing social organisation.

Foucault’s view on madness

Foucault described how societies need outcasts, because their exclusion makes everyone else feel better.

The misuse of psychological knowledge by pseudoscientists

Another way in which psychologists have been used by society is that their knowledge has been hijacked by groups who did not subscribe to the scientific ethos.
Psychological knowledge has been recycled by individuals who were not primarily interested in the truth of the findings, but in the extent in which they advanced their own case.

The essential element of pseudo-psychology is that evidence-based statements are freely combined with made-up statements, statements from dubious sources and statements that are known to be wrong.

In most countries the problem is not that existing psychologists are abusing their powers, but to protect clients from bogus therapists.

The misuse of psychological knowledge in times of war

Psychological knowledge may become misused against people by psychologists themselves.

Interim summary

The ways in which society has influenced psychology

• A first factor in the growth of psychology was the decline of the impact of religion and the increase of scientific thinking in Western society
• Society also provided topics and metaphors to the psychological researchers.
• Because science is a social enterprise, socio-political values have influenced the ideas psychologists put forward and the theories they examined.
• Society also influences the daily practice of psychologists.
• According to sociologists, psychologists have been used in power games that are going on in society. Foucault argued that psychologists were used for surveillance of various groups. Psychology’s findings have also been used by pseudo-scientists, who freely combined evidence-based statements with made-up claims. There is the concern that psychological knowledge may be misused against people. Some authors argue that psychologists have not played their cards well in power games so far, so that their standing in society is lower than it could be.

Ways in which psychology has influences society

The psychologisation of society

The impact psychology has on the way in which people interact is enormous.

Psychologisation: word used in two different meanings

• The fact that emotional ties and personal well-being have become important in primary social relations
• The growing impact of psychology on the way people see themselves and interact with others.

Psychology has changed how people perceive each other

Labels introduced by psychology become real

Many of the concepts through which people differentiate themselves come from psychological writings.
Many psychological concepts became part of everyday life, once they had been coined.

Labels introduced by psychology change the subject of psychology

The introduction of new concepts by psychology not only changes the social reality for other people but also for psychologists.
New psychology students wrongly believe that the concepts currently used in psychology and the wider culture refer to ‘natural personal qualities’, which have always been there and not to qualities that, to some extent, are the result of prior developments in psychological research.

As a result of previous research the subject matter observed by psychologists today is different from the subject matter observed in the past.

Psychological labels are to some extent arbitrary

New psychological concepts not only make new realities, but also define them in arbitrary ways, because the concepts have been introduced without a good understanding of what was involved.

Society adapts to the label

Once a psychological label has become reality, society starts to adapt itself to the new measure, thereby further increasing the reality of the concept.

Psychologists make friends

Educational psychology

The first group that welcomed input from psychology was the educationalists.
Psychologists swiftly became involved in educational matters.
Psychologists and teachers agreed that psychology was a core component of a teacher’s qualification.
In addition, psychology started to introduce intelligence tests in schools and began to lobby for school counsellors.

Advising parents

From its stronghold in schools, it was a small step to also raid the fledgling literature of parenting.

Psychologists create needs

Institutions for monopolies by creating needs

Once a new section of society is established, they try to increase their slice of the economy by creating new needs.

Illich’s account of medicine

Illich argues that the medical and pharmaceutical worlds enormously overstate their significance for the health of people.

The extension to psychology

According to sociologists, psychologists are not in the first place interested in helping people, but in creating needs so that they can expand their industry.

Psychologists promote values

Psychologists spread Western views of wellness and healing around the world

Psychologists, together with medical practitioners, contribute to spreading the therapeutic ethos across the world.

Psychologists are not politically neutral

Psychologists within the Western world are not politically neural.
Although psychologist celebrate diversity, recognize the value and legitimacy of diverse beliefs and by their own admission strive to be inclusive, conservatives are a vastly under-represented and marginalised minority in psychology.
As a consequence of their bias, psychology departments are a force in the promotion of left and liberal values in the society.

• Research biases in policy research
• Discrimination against students and scholars who do not share liberal attitudes and values
• Biases in the educational contents
• Biases in views promoted by psychotherapists

Redding (2001)
The liberal bias of psychologists has consequences for psychology’s standing in society

• Psychologists have less influence on socio-political issues under conservative rule
• Psychologists have less to offer to individuals with conservative socio-political values
• Researchers are not critical enough when it comes to evaluating liberal policies

Psychology increases the weight of science in the competition with the humanities

Psychology as a discipline has largely promoted the virtues of the scientific approach and downplayed the contribution of the humanities.
Many psychology researchers in their communication with the general public stress the superiority of their findings relative to common knowledge, because their findings are based on scientific evidence.

Psychologists are not neutral to religion

Psychologists tend to have rather sceptical views about religion.
Few psychologists are able to see religion as a source giving meaning to life and adversity.
Even if psychologists do not talk openly about their religious views, in subtle ways their attitudes impose values on people they work with

Interim summary

Critical views about the ways in which psychology has influenced society

• Psychology has contributed to the psychologisation of society.
• Labels introduced by psychology have become social realities, because their influenced the way people saw themselves and others, and because society adapted itself to the new labels, despite the fact that they were to some extent arbitrary
• Psychologists have tried to increase their power by making alliances with established groups, such as the natural sciences, and by extending their research to new, upcoming groups
• Psychologists also tried to increase their power by creating new needs for which they claimed to have solutions (Illich). They also export these values to the rest of the world
• Psychologist s are not politically neutral, but promote liberal values. This decreases the help they can give to people with conservative values
• Psychologists tent to promote science in the ‘two cultures’ competition (humanities and academic) and have difficulty endorsing religion as a meaning provider

Focus on: to what extent have psychologists been able to change the negative image of mental disorders?

Interim summary

To what extent is the psychologisation of society steered by psychologists?

• There is a discrepancy between the degree to which Western society has become psychologisted and the impact of psychologists
• This is because the psychologisation of society is driven to a larger extent by the popular image of psychology than by what happens in psychological research itself
• Knowledge of psychology is largely driven by the media, which often brings a simplified and sensationalised story in line with popular beliefs and social biases.