An Introduction to Critical Social Psychology

by Alexa Hepburn

• ISBN13: 9780761962106
• ISBN10: 0761962107
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-02-28
• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd

Summary

What is critical social psychology? In what ways can social psychology be progressive or radical? How can it be involved in political critique and reconstruction? Is social psychology itself the problem? Critical social psychology offers a confusing array of diverse answers to these questions. This book cuts through the confusion by revealing the very different assumptions at work in this fast growing field.A critical approach depends on a range of often-implicit theories of society, knowledge, as well as the subject. This book will show the crucial role of these theories for directing critique at different parts of society, suggesting alternative ways of doing research, and effecting social change. It includes chapters fr

Table of Contents

List of boxes	vii
Acknowledgements	viii
The Critical Context	1	(16)
What is critical social psychology criticizing?	1	(2)
Stories of class and privilege	3	(2)
Society, knowledge and subjectivity	5	(6)
What's in this book?	11	(6)
Part I Mind and Society	17	(114)
Social Cognition Critics	19	(27)
Early critical work in social psychology	20	(4)
The crisis in social psychology	24	(8)
Contemporary social cognition	32	(10)
Application	42	(1)
Conclusion	43	(3)
Marxist Critics	46	(24)
Marxist theory: basic ideas and recent developments	47	(8)
Ideology and discursive, critical and rhetorical psychology	55	(6)
Foucault's theoretical development and critique of Marx	61	(5)
Application	66	(1)
Conclusion	67	(3)
Psychoanalytic Critics	70	(28)
Freud's psychoanalysis and Klein's object relations theory	71	(3)
Hollway: object relations in critical work	74	(5)
Parker and Billig's psychoanalytic cultures	79	(8)
Post-structuralism and psychoanalysis: Lacan and others	87	(6)
Application	93	(2)
Conclusion	95	(3)
Feminist Critics	98	(33)
What is feminist psychology?	99	(4)
Sexism and the legitimation of gender inequalities	103	(4)
Heterosexism and lesbian and gay psychology	107	(4)
Eating disorders and the body	111	(6)
Postmodern feminists: contemporary debates	117	(5)
Feminism and relativism	122	(6)
Application	128	(1)
Conclusion	128	(3)
Part II Resolutions and Dilemmas	131	(118)
Subjectivity Critics	133	(33)
Some philosophical explorations of subjectivity	135	(13)
Critical psychology and subjectivity	148	(14)
Application and intervention	162	(1)
Conclusion	163	(3)
Discourse Critics	166	(32)
Discourse, psychology and the individual	167	(7)
Discourse and construction	174	(9)
Rhetoric and ideological dilemmas	183	(10)
Applications	193	(1)
Conclusion	194	(4)
Postmodern Critics	198	(30)
Postmodern theories	199	(11)
Postmodernism, deconstruction and critical social psychology	210	(5)
Postmodern knowledge and the realism/relativism debate	215	(8)
Application	223	(1)
Conclusion	224	(4)
Integration and Subversions	228	(21)
Critical assumptions	228	(7)
Critical practice	235	(2)
Critical evaluations	237	(9)
Conclusion: looking to the future	246	(3)
References	249	(20)
Index	269