Psychosocial Research

The relatively new area of psychosocial studies has developed in part as a critique of psychology and a response to its supposed deficiencies. This chapter reviews the relationship between the psychosocial and the psychological, noting the substantial contributions of psychologists, including social and critical psychologists, to the development of psychosocial studies. Referring to four published examples of research studies, the chapter discusses key psychosocial claims and concepts, considering their distinctive contribution to concerns—social context, subjectivity and emotion—which are also studied by critical and social psychologists