The politics of psychology as a science: Some comments on research for and about the folk

Abstract

In the following, I explore the idea of psychology as a science in Barbara Held’s (2020) reading of Thomas Teo’s (and Klaus Holzkamp’s) distinction of research for and from versus about people. Held argues convincingly that research about people entails aspects for people and vice versa. In her view, to equate mainstream psychology research with research from above and critical/Indigenous research with research from below is an oversimplification. She concludes that Teo’s distinction is fuzzy and thus exhibits limited applicability. I want to argue that Teo’s distinction is useful in a political sense and under the premise of research from the standpoint of the subject.