{"id":1467,"date":"2023-04-07T22:22:18","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T22:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=1467"},"modified":"2025-12-17T18:49:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:49:59","slug":"the-history-of-psychology-learn-it-4-multicultural-and-feminist-psychology","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/chapter\/the-history-of-psychology-learn-it-4-multicultural-and-feminist-psychology\/","title":{"raw":"The History of Psychology: Learn It 4\u2014Multicultural and Feminist Psychology","rendered":"The History of Psychology: Learn It 4\u2014Multicultural and Feminist Psychology"},"content":{"raw":"<section>\r\n<h2>Multicultural and Cross-Cultural Psychology<\/h2>\r\n<p>A major concern through the 20th-century study of psychology is that no matter the perspective, most psychologists were White men who worked with populations that were predominately from western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) populations.<\/p>\r\n<p data-start=\"647\" data-end=\"935\">In 2010, researchers Joseph Henrich, Steven Heine, and Ara Norenzayan highlighted this problem, showing that people from WEIRD societies differ significantly from those in less industrialized or non-Western cultures in areas such as perception, cooperation, and moral reasoning.[footnote]Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., &amp; Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? <em>Behavioral and Brain Sciences<\/em>, 33(2-3), 61-83. Retrieved from https:\/\/www2.psych.ubc.ca\/~henrich\/pdfs\/WeirdPeople.pdf[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n<p data-start=\"524\" data-end=\"673\">To address this gap, psychologists began developing approaches that explicitly study the role of culture in shaping human thought and behavior.<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li data-start=\"939\" data-end=\"1044\"><strong data-start=\"939\" data-end=\"967\">Multicultural psychology<\/strong>: Focuses on understanding diverse populations <strong data-start=\"1014\" data-end=\"1041\">within a single country<\/strong>.<\/li>\r\n\t<li data-start=\"1047\" data-end=\"1184\"><strong data-start=\"1047\" data-end=\"1076\">Cross-cultural psychology<\/strong>: Compares psychological processes <strong data-start=\"1111\" data-end=\"1154\">across different countries and cultures<\/strong> (e.g., the U.S. vs. China).<span style=\"font-family: 'Public Sans', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<section class=\"textbox connectIt\">\r\n<h3><span style=\"color: #333333;\">The Doll Test Experiment<\/span><\/h3>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">While Skinner investigated how behaviors are learned in the 1930s and 40s, researcher <strong>Mamie Phipps Clark <\/strong>(1917\u20131983), the first Black woman to earn her Ph.D. in experimental psychology, wanted to understand what Black children thought about their own racial consciousness. She wondered, \"In what ways did conditioning influence how Black children perceived themselves?\"<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">In what became known as the doll test, Clark, conducted a study with her husband, psychologist <strong>Kenneth Clark <\/strong>(1914\u20132005), to learn about\u00a0the negative impacts that segregation had on the psyche of developing children. They asked children their feelings about either Black or White dolls and found that the Black children preferred the White dolls to the others; when asked to label them as good or bad, the Black children labeled the Black dolls as \"bad.\" <\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">This research was also instrumental to\u00a0the <em>Brown v. Board<\/em> case that made school segregation illegal. The Clarks later applied their research to social services and opened the first child guidance center in Harlem (American Psychological Association, 2019).<\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<section class=\"textbox linkToLearning\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Listen to a\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=1544636\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">podcast about the influence of the Clark's research on the historic\u00a0<em data-effect=\"italics\">Brown v. Board of Education<\/em>\u00a0civil rights case<\/a> to learn more. <\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #333333;\">This website also <a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.activeminds.org\/blog\/10-african-african-american-psychologists-you-should-know\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lists a few renowned African American psychologists<\/a> and their contributions to the field.<\/span><\/section>\r\n<h3 data-start=\"1958\" data-end=\"1980\">George I. S\u00e1nchez<\/h3>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Another psychologist working to fight against social injustices during his lifetime was <strong>George I. S\u00e1nchez<\/strong> (1906\u20131972). He challenged traditional forms of intelligence testing and promoted innovative educational methods for children.\u00a0As a psychologist of Mexican heritage, S\u00e1nchez pointed out that the language and cultural barriers in testing were keeping children from equal opportunities (Guthrie, 1998). By 1940, he was teaching with his doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin and challenging segregated educational practices (Romo, 1986).<\/span><\/p>\r\n<h2 data-start=\"2351\" data-end=\"2371\">Looking Forward<\/h2>\r\n<p>Given demographic shifts occurring in the United States and increased access to higher educational opportunities among historically underrepresented populations, there is reason to hope that the diversity of the field of psychology will increasingly match the larger population, and that the research contributions made by the psychologists of the future will better serve people of all backgrounds (Women and Minorities in Psychology, n.d.).<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"eip-876\">The American Psychological Association has several ethnically based organizations for professional psychologists that facilitate interactions among members. Since psychologists belonging to specific ethnic groups or cultures have the most interest in studying the psychology of their communities, these organizations provide an opportunity for the growth of research on the interplay between culture and psychology.<\/p>\r\n<section class=\"textbox tryIt\">[ohm2_question height=\"400\"]3925[\/ohm2_question]<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<h2 data-start=\"2759\" data-end=\"2782\">Feminist Psychology<\/h2>\r\n<h3>The Development of Feminist Psychology<\/h3>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm100806480\">Until the 1960s, the science of psychology was largely a \u201cwomanless\u201d psychology (Crawford &amp; Marecek, 1989), meaning that few women were able to practice psychology, so they had little influence on what was studied. In addition, the experimental subjects of psychology were mostly men, which resulted from underlying assumptions that gender had no influence on psychology and that women were not of sufficient interest to study.<\/p>\r\n<p data-start=\"3064\" data-end=\"3160\">A turning point came with <strong data-start=\"3090\" data-end=\"3124\">Naomi Weisstein\u2019s 1968 article<\/strong>, which criticized psychology for:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li data-start=\"3163\" data-end=\"3201\">Ignoring women as subjects of study.<\/li>\r\n\t<li data-start=\"3204\" data-end=\"3265\">Allowing male cultural biases to define women\u2019s psychology.<\/li>\r\n\t<li data-start=\"3268\" data-end=\"3323\">Failing to test assumptions with scientific evidence.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p data-start=\"3325\" data-end=\"3461\">Weisstein used, as examples, statements by prominent psychologists in the 1960s, such as this quote by Bruno Bettleheim: \u201cWe must start with the realization that, as much as women want to be good scientists or engineers, they want first and foremost to be womanly companions of men and to be mothers.\u201dWeisstein\u2019s critique formed the foundation for the subsequent development of a feminist psychology that attempted to be free of the influence of male cultural biases on our knowledge of the psychology of women.<\/p>\r\n<p data-start=\"3325\" data-end=\"3461\">Weisstein\u2019s critique sparked the development of <strong data-start=\"3373\" data-end=\"3396\">feminist psychology<\/strong>, which seeks to challenge bias and center women\u2019s experiences.<\/p>\r\n<h3 data-start=\"3468\" data-end=\"3530\">Feminist Psychology Approaches\u00a0<\/h3>\r\n<p>Crawford &amp; Marecek (1989) identified several feminist approaches to psychology that can be described as feminist psychology. These include:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li data-start=\"3533\" data-end=\"3611\">Re-evaluating and highlighting the <strong data-start=\"3568\" data-end=\"3594\">contributions of women<\/strong> in psychology.<\/li>\r\n\t<li data-start=\"3614\" data-end=\"3685\">Studying <strong data-start=\"3623\" data-end=\"3645\">gender differences<\/strong> with careful, evidence-based methods.<\/li>\r\n\t<li data-start=\"3688\" data-end=\"3752\">Challenging the <strong data-start=\"3704\" data-end=\"3717\">male bias<\/strong> embedded in traditional science.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"<section>\n<h2>Multicultural and Cross-Cultural Psychology<\/h2>\n<p>A major concern through the 20th-century study of psychology is that no matter the perspective, most psychologists were White men who worked with populations that were predominately from western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) populations.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"647\" data-end=\"935\">In 2010, researchers Joseph Henrich, Steven Heine, and Ara Norenzayan highlighted this problem, showing that people from WEIRD societies differ significantly from those in less industrialized or non-Western cultures in areas such as perception, cooperation, and moral reasoning.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., &amp; Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2-3), 61-83. Retrieved from https:\/\/www2.psych.ubc.ca\/~henrich\/pdfs\/WeirdPeople.pdf\" id=\"return-footnote-1467-1\" href=\"#footnote-1467-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"524\" data-end=\"673\">To address this gap, psychologists began developing approaches that explicitly study the role of culture in shaping human thought and behavior.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"939\" data-end=\"1044\"><strong data-start=\"939\" data-end=\"967\">Multicultural psychology<\/strong>: Focuses on understanding diverse populations <strong data-start=\"1014\" data-end=\"1041\">within a single country<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1047\" data-end=\"1184\"><strong data-start=\"1047\" data-end=\"1076\">Cross-cultural psychology<\/strong>: Compares psychological processes <strong data-start=\"1111\" data-end=\"1154\">across different countries and cultures<\/strong> (e.g., the U.S. vs. China).<span style=\"font-family: 'Public Sans', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<section class=\"textbox connectIt\">\n<h3><span style=\"color: #333333;\">The Doll Test Experiment<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">While Skinner investigated how behaviors are learned in the 1930s and 40s, researcher <strong>Mamie Phipps Clark <\/strong>(1917\u20131983), the first Black woman to earn her Ph.D. in experimental psychology, wanted to understand what Black children thought about their own racial consciousness. She wondered, &#8220;In what ways did conditioning influence how Black children perceived themselves?&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">In what became known as the doll test, Clark, conducted a study with her husband, psychologist <strong>Kenneth Clark <\/strong>(1914\u20132005), to learn about\u00a0the negative impacts that segregation had on the psyche of developing children. They asked children their feelings about either Black or White dolls and found that the Black children preferred the White dolls to the others; when asked to label them as good or bad, the Black children labeled the Black dolls as &#8220;bad.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">This research was also instrumental to\u00a0the <em>Brown v. Board<\/em> case that made school segregation illegal. The Clarks later applied their research to social services and opened the first child guidance center in Harlem (American Psychological Association, 2019).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"textbox linkToLearning\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Listen to a\u00a0<a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=1544636\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">podcast about the influence of the Clark&#8217;s research on the historic\u00a0<em data-effect=\"italics\">Brown v. Board of Education<\/em>\u00a0civil rights case<\/a> to learn more. <\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #333333;\">This website also <a style=\"color: #333333;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.activeminds.org\/blog\/10-african-african-american-psychologists-you-should-know\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lists a few renowned African American psychologists<\/a> and their contributions to the field.<\/span><\/section>\n<h3 data-start=\"1958\" data-end=\"1980\">George I. S\u00e1nchez<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Another psychologist working to fight against social injustices during his lifetime was <strong>George I. S\u00e1nchez<\/strong> (1906\u20131972). He challenged traditional forms of intelligence testing and promoted innovative educational methods for children.\u00a0As a psychologist of Mexican heritage, S\u00e1nchez pointed out that the language and cultural barriers in testing were keeping children from equal opportunities (Guthrie, 1998). By 1940, he was teaching with his doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin and challenging segregated educational practices (Romo, 1986).<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 data-start=\"2351\" data-end=\"2371\">Looking Forward<\/h2>\n<p>Given demographic shifts occurring in the United States and increased access to higher educational opportunities among historically underrepresented populations, there is reason to hope that the diversity of the field of psychology will increasingly match the larger population, and that the research contributions made by the psychologists of the future will better serve people of all backgrounds (Women and Minorities in Psychology, n.d.).<\/p>\n<p id=\"eip-876\">The American Psychological Association has several ethnically based organizations for professional psychologists that facilitate interactions among members. Since psychologists belonging to specific ethnic groups or cultures have the most interest in studying the psychology of their communities, these organizations provide an opportunity for the growth of research on the interplay between culture and psychology.<\/p>\n<section class=\"textbox tryIt\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"ohm3925\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/ohm.one.lumenlearning.com\/multiembedq.php?id=3925&theme=lumen&iframe_resize_id=ohm3925&source=tnh&show_question_numbers\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\"><\/iframe><\/section>\n<\/section>\n<h2 data-start=\"2759\" data-end=\"2782\">Feminist Psychology<\/h2>\n<h3>The Development of Feminist Psychology<\/h3>\n<p id=\"fs-idm100806480\">Until the 1960s, the science of psychology was largely a \u201cwomanless\u201d psychology (Crawford &amp; Marecek, 1989), meaning that few women were able to practice psychology, so they had little influence on what was studied. In addition, the experimental subjects of psychology were mostly men, which resulted from underlying assumptions that gender had no influence on psychology and that women were not of sufficient interest to study.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3064\" data-end=\"3160\">A turning point came with <strong data-start=\"3090\" data-end=\"3124\">Naomi Weisstein\u2019s 1968 article<\/strong>, which criticized psychology for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"3163\" data-end=\"3201\">Ignoring women as subjects of study.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"3204\" data-end=\"3265\">Allowing male cultural biases to define women\u2019s psychology.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"3268\" data-end=\"3323\">Failing to test assumptions with scientific evidence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-start=\"3325\" data-end=\"3461\">Weisstein used, as examples, statements by prominent psychologists in the 1960s, such as this quote by Bruno Bettleheim: \u201cWe must start with the realization that, as much as women want to be good scientists or engineers, they want first and foremost to be womanly companions of men and to be mothers.\u201dWeisstein\u2019s critique formed the foundation for the subsequent development of a feminist psychology that attempted to be free of the influence of male cultural biases on our knowledge of the psychology of women.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3325\" data-end=\"3461\">Weisstein\u2019s critique sparked the development of <strong data-start=\"3373\" data-end=\"3396\">feminist psychology<\/strong>, which seeks to challenge bias and center women\u2019s experiences.<\/p>\n<h3 data-start=\"3468\" data-end=\"3530\">Feminist Psychology Approaches\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>Crawford &amp; Marecek (1989) identified several feminist approaches to psychology that can be described as feminist psychology. These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"3533\" data-end=\"3611\">Re-evaluating and highlighting the <strong data-start=\"3568\" data-end=\"3594\">contributions of women<\/strong> in psychology.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"3614\" data-end=\"3685\">Studying <strong data-start=\"3623\" data-end=\"3645\">gender differences<\/strong> with careful, evidence-based methods.<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"3688\" data-end=\"3752\">Challenging the <strong data-start=\"3704\" data-end=\"3717\">male bias<\/strong> embedded in traditional science.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-1467-1\">Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., &amp; Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? <em>Behavioral and Brain Sciences<\/em>, 33(2-3), 61-83. Retrieved from https:\/\/www2.psych.ubc.ca\/~henrich\/pdfs\/WeirdPeople.pdf <a href=\"#return-footnote-1467-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":20,"menu_order":15,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Multicultural And Cross-Cultural Psychology\",\"author\":\"OpenStax\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/psychology-2e\/pages\/1-2-history-of-psychology\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/psychology-2e\/pages\/1-introduction\"}]","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"part":335,"module-header":"learn_it","content_attributions":[{"type":"cc","description":"Multicultural And Cross-Cultural Psychology","author":"OpenStax","organization":"","url":"https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/psychology-2e\/pages\/1-2-history-of-psychology","project":"","license":"cc-by","license_terms":"Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/psychology-2e\/pages\/1-introduction"}],"internal_book_links":[],"video_content":null,"cc_video_embed_content":{"cc_scripts":"","media_targets":[]},"try_it_collection":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7404,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1467\/revisions\/7404"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/335"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1467\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=1467"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=1467"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/introductiontopsychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=1467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}