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The System‐Maintenance Role of the White Psychologist
Author(s) -
Thomas Charles W.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1973.tb00060.x
Subject(s) - white (mutation) , status quo , dimension (graph theory) , white paper , psychology , social psychology , belief system , engineering ethics , sociology , political science , law , engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , mathematics , pure mathematics , gene , ethnology
A practicing investigator cognizant of the limitations of science claims that the white psychologist cannot help but maintain the current social system since he is rewarded quite well by it for his current activities. If he were to radically change his current activities, he would no longer be rewarded by the system in which he functions. The common dimension characteristic of white psychologists, justification for the status quo, manifests itself in three distinct orientations: (a) bio‐asocial‐ism which justifies traditional instrumentation, (b) cultural pathologism which justifies traditional paradigms, and (c) integrationism which justifies traditional policies. A further two‐fold dimension common to these orientations is a belief that black people are similar enough to white people to permit measurement by common instruments, and different enough from white people to justify scientific research into the causes of the differences.