Psychology and Social Class: The Working-Class as ‘Other’ (Bridgette Rickett)

This chapter aims, first, to scrutinise contemporary research and theory within mainstream psychology around social class and, second, to analyse the interrelationship with this and the history of the psychology of social class. We will identify a selection of ways in which the discipline of psychology has researched, theorised and practiced social class and how these have accounted for where we are now. We will also consider arguments that the ‘psy’ disciplines have a ‘horrible’ history where psychological accounts have enabled notions of class oppression, poverty and inequality to be an ‘absent present’. Last, we will review some examples of mainstream psychological work on social class that has questioned social conditions and practices and explore how these may contribute to class-related psychologies.