Inequality, Military Veteran Transitions, and Beyond: Compensatory Control Theory and Its Application to Real World Social Justice Problems

Excerpt

Conducting social justice research as a psychological scientist can sometimes be a confusing pursuit. Should your ideas and research projects tackle issues of social justice head on, or should you instead focus on more basic psychological processes, ones that give rise to and help explain the kinds of issues social justice researchers think about? While these two paths are inextricably linked, the latter route can at times feel removed from the issues that might have sparked your interest in the field to begin with: A student who entered the field because of their experience with racism might find themselves years later researching the cognitive contours of categorization processes; or someone who was driven to their PhD because they wanted to reduce extremism might, before they know it, be instead studying the neurological basis of cognitive consistency. …