Mapping contemporary Critical Psychology in the UK

The discipline of Psychology and leading psychological organisations, such as the British Psychological Society and American Psychological Association, are undergoing a period of reckoning with the role of Psychology in supporting historical injustice and its contemporary contributions to the maintenance of systemic inequity and injustice.

Often overlooked in such discussions are the potential contributions of Critical Psychology, through which psychologists interrogate how Psychology conceptualises human behaviour and how these understandings may serve to uphold systems of inequality. Such critical awareness is vital, and yet Critical Psychology remains disparate and located on the fringe of the discipline with little engagement from mainstream sections of Psychology.

The project investigators aim to map contemporary Critical Psychology in the UK to examine how its critical engagement with Psychology is informed, how it is used in teaching and psychology practice, and to outline the aims of Critical Psychologists in the UK to understand how, and in what way, Critical Psychology should engage with wider Psychology to create necessary change.

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Research objectives

This project seeks to map Critical Psychology in the UK to understand its theoretical and disciplinary approaches, explore how Critical Psychology is currently being and should be used in practice, and examine the aims of Critical Psychology in terms of its engagement with the wider Psychology discipline. The project, therefore, has three key objectives:

  1. To develop a theoretical argument to explain the cross-disciplinary boundaries of Critical Psychology and how critical engagement with Psychology is informed
  2. To map the ways in which Critical Psychology is utilised in the UK across teaching, research, and professional practice
  3. To outline the goals and aims of Critical Psychologists in the UK to understand how and in what way Critical Psychology could and should engage with wider Psychology in theory and practice.

Research team

Dr Sarah Gillborn (Principal Investigator, University of Birmingham)

Dr Saskia Jones (Co-Investigator, Leeds Beckett University)

Partner organisations and sponsors

The British Academy