A Petition to stop the politicisation of psychology
I have recently started a petition to stop the politicisation of psychology: an issue that many of us within the profession find deeply concerning.
The petition can be found here, and I have replicated the content below to show references.
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Petition to stop the politicisation of psychology
The discipline of psychology is becoming increasingly politicised and this is being encouraged by our representative body, the British Psychological Society.
The politicisation prevents the organisation from achieving its aim of achieving ‘excellence in psychology’ for a number of reasons:
- It undermines the scientific, evidence-based foundation that psychology should be based on (by promoting for example, ‘false science’ in the form of discussion about the effect of implicit bias, micro- aggressions, the notion that disparity equals discrimination etc.)
- It puts the vulnerable at risk (e.g. ‘diversity training’ for children was sanctioned by psychologists despite the harm that it can cause)
- It is exclusionary and divisive (statements were released saying that we should ‘apologise’, that ‘anti-racism’ should be promoted, and ‘whiteness’ stopped)
- It prevents our students from receiving a balanced and impartial education (with talk of de-colonising the curriculum, and men, in particular having to be cautious of challenging younger, female, non-white students)
- It is hostile to viewpoint diversity: for example, opposing discussions critical of the dominant ideology of Critical Social Justice Theory
- It can prevent potential patients from seeking help (white people, and males for example tend to be particularly vilified)
- It prevents appropriate treatment of those needing help through encouraging offence and victimhood
We the undersigned demand that the British Psychological Society present itself as an evidence-based, impartial, politically neutral organisation in order to maintain the integrity of the discipline and to ensure that our patients receive the best standard of care.
To view the petition, see here
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More examples of political statements from the BPS can be found here:
https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/be-anti-racist-radical-choice…
https://www.bps.org.uk/sites/www.bps.org.uk/files/Member%20Networks/Divisions/DCP/Black%20Lives%20Matter%2C%20George%20Floyd’s%20Life%20Matters%20-%20Statement%20by%20the%20DCP%20Representative%20Assembly.pdf
https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-statement-racial-injustice
For further reading:
Implicit bias:
https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/object/boreal%3A229408/datastream/PDF_01/view
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/12/iat-behavior-problem.html
https://qz.com/1144504/the-world-is-relying-on-a-flawed-psychological-test-to-fight-racism/
https://www.thecut.com/2017/01/psychologys-racism-measuring-tool-isnt-up-to-the-job.html
Anti-racism:
https://www.city-journal.org/how-to-be-an-antiracist
https://rabbitholemag.com/antiracism-is-racist/
Systemic racism:
