From Psychology Today: A recent study examining a sample of widely used social psychology textbooks found that the contributions of women and people of color were underrepresented relative to men and white people.
“The implications are numerous, but two stand out: First, the underrepresentation of women and people of color conveys the false sense that individuals from these groups do not make ‘classic’ contributions to psychology, when in fact their more politically charged contributions get coded as classics in marginalized sub-disciplines such as feminist, Black, or postcolonial psychology. Second, to attract and retain individuals that have been excluded from practicing psychology because of a variety of sociohistorical reasons, it is important to integrate explicit messages of inclusivity into our teaching materials. This is especially important because these textbooks are many studentsâ first point of interaction with the discipline of psychology. Textbook authors need to be aware that the information they choose to present also tacitly represents the values of psychology. Authors should thus strive to curate the information that conveys the key content of their discipline in a way that also conveys its key values.”
