Disability Is Often Excluded From Social-Personality Studies
Coauthored by Jordan Rubin-McGregor, William Meese, Kathleen R. Bogart, Ian Moura, Payton Rule, and Kyle Anderson The field of psychology aims to study people: how we think, act, and behave. Despite this ambitious claim, in recent years, psychologists have pointed out that psychology often studies the experiences of a subset of people—usually white, Western, well-educated people—more than other, more prevalent groups. We suspected that another common group was also being left out of psychological science: people with disabilities, who comprise 15 to 25 percent of the world population. In a new study, we examined the extent to which disability is covered in social and personality psychology research. As the largest minority group in the United States, and a group anyone can join at any time, disability can and will affect all of us. Most people will experience situational, temporary, or permanent disability at some point in their lifetime, and nearly everyone has loved ones, coworkers, and community members who are disabled. Psychology research could help. Studying how people adapt to disability can help us build …
