3.1 It’s awfully narrow for something so broad

You may be wondering whether this matters at all and, if so, why it is important. Perhaps early psychology being produced by a narrow range of people is fine, as humans are the same everywhere. Maybe, despite these narrow beginnings, psychology today is far more diverse and is researched by people all over the world. Indeed, as you have learned throughout this course, modern psychologists do come from, and study, a variety of social and cultural contexts. There are, however, still legacies of the narrow beginnings of psychology which persist. Most of the history of psychology has come from a very limited range of people and places, and that is inevitably reflected in the current knowledge base of the discipline.

A study in 2008 looked at the top psychology journals (meaning the most prestigious places to publish psychology studies) and found that 96 per cent of the people who had taken part in the studies reported were from rich, industrialised countries. These countries have around 12 per cent of the world’s population (Arnett, 2008). Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan (2010) describe the majority of people who have taken part in psychology studies as WEIRD, standing for ‘Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic’. ‘Western’ in this context refers to the shared culture of Europe and North America, including people in other parts of the world who also share that culture such as Pākehā in Aotearoa New Zealand. ‘Educated’ refers to the fact that many of the people studied in psychological research are college or university students who, especially in the United States, come disproportionately from white, and relatively wealthy, backgrounds. Even when studies are done on people who did not go to college or university, they typically have had access to formal education during their childhoods in schools. ‘Industrialised’, ‘rich’ and ‘democratic’ refer to the societies in which most psychological research has taken place (even if the people studied are not personally ‘rich’, by the standards of their own society).

These authors, along with many others, have pointed out that much of psychology is therefore based on studying a narrow selection of people who differ from much of the world’s population in ways that may be important (or may not – until we have the data, there is no way to know). A historical assumption that European culture was superior to other places around the world has also been argued to still have an impact on what questions and concepts are seen as worthwhile within psychology (e.g. Oppong, 2019).

These are all live issues in psychology, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Psychology is now becoming global, and in this course you have already learned about some contributions to psychological knowledge from around the world. At the same time, in many topics within psychology, the questions which are still asked were originally defined in this specific historical and geographical context. Psychology is, as mentioned, a relatively young discipline and is still finding its feet in many ways. There are not many settled answers. This makes it an exciting and vibrant discipline to study and research, with plenty to think about. As psychology tries to include more and more perspectives, it is likely that both the kinds of questions asked and the answers found will shift even further in the future.

If you decide to continue your learning journey in psychology, it is worth bearing in mind that much of the work which has been done so far has been based on this narrow range of people. This does not mean that what you will learn is invalid or wrong, but it does have limitations, as all knowledge and theories do. What psychology has done to date is a start, but only a start, in answering the broad questions which motivate psychologists: what makes people think, feel and act in the ways that they do?