Ideological and Political Bias in Psychology

Craig L. Frisby, Ph.D is an associate professor of school psychology at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He is the former associate editor of School Psychology Review, the official journal of the National Association of School Psychologists, and currently serves as the associate editor of Psychological Assessment, the official assessment journal of the American Psychological Association. He is the co-editor of The Comprehensive Handbook of Multicultural School Psychology (2005), and the author of Meeting the Psychoeducational Needs of Minority Children (2013), both published by Wiley & Sons. He currently serves on the screening technical review committee of the National Center on Response to Intervention. He is a member of the National Association of School Psychologists, APA Division 16, and an elected member of the Society for the Study of School Psychology.  William O’Donohue, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and chairman and professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno, and an adjunct professor in the department of philosophy and a faculty member of the National Judicial College. He has published over 70 books and 150 journal articles and book chapters. He holds advanced degrees both in philosophy and psychology. For the past 14 years, he has been director of a free clinic that treats children who have been sexually abused and adults who have been sexually assaulted. Scott O. Lilienfeld was born and raised in New York City. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University in 1982 and his Ph.D. in Psychology (Clinical) from the University of Minnesota in 1990. He completed his clinical internship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1986-1987. He was assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany from 1990 to 1994, and has been a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Emory since 1994. He is also a visiting fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Dr. Lilienfeld is presently Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology at Emory. He is Editor-in-Chief of the APS journal Clinical Psychological Science and Associate Editor of the APA journal Archives of Scientific Psychology; he also sits on the editorial boards of several journals, including American Psychologist. He is recent past president of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology (Section 3 of APA Division 12) and the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy.

Part I. Foundations.- Introduction and Overview.- History of Political Controversies in Psychology.- Human Nature and Political Bias.- Basic/Core Principles of Science and Their Relevance to Political Bias.- Principles of Scientific/Critical Thinking and their Relevance to Political Bias.- Politics and Ethics/Ethical Decision Making.- Contemporary Sociopolitical Orientations.- The Challenge of Postmodernism.- Measurement of Psycho-political Constructs.- Survey Research in Socio-Political Orientations Within Psychology.- Part II. Evidence of Bias and Negative Consequences.- Political Bias in Psychology Journal/Book Publishing.- Political Bias in Professional Organizations Representing Psychology.- Political Bias in Research Funding in Psychology.- Political Bias in the Teaching of Psychology in Higher Education.- Political Bias in Psychology's Influence in Society.- Part III.  Special Topics: Specific Domains of Political Bias.- Morality.- Race, Ethnicity, and Multiculturalism.- Gender.- Poverty.- Sexuality and Sex Education.- Religion/Faith.- The Military.- Language (Political Correctness, Free Speech/Hate speech).- Public Education.- The DSM/Defining Mental Disorders.- Human Intelligence.- Human Memory.- Violence in Society.- Part IV. Guidelines for Decreasing Political Bias in Psychological Science  and Practice.