Blinded by the Light? Progress and Pitfalls in Critical Applied Psychology

This contribution provides an update on developments within the social science discipline of applied psychology. Precisely, it offers an account of the emergence of a critical scholarly paradigm in work and organizational psychology. Introduced and advocated for in recent publications, this new direction has sparked intense debates about its necessity, scientific value, and legitimacy. Disciplinary roots, paradigmatic principles, and ontological, epistemological, and axiological premises of critical perspectives in applied psychology are recapitulated. This includes their critique of conventional or mainstream work and organizational psychology, as well as complex relationships with the previously institutionalized stream of critical management studies. Progress in critical applied psychology is mapped out, giving an overview of foundational academic events and activities as well as the growing body of publications, structured into distinct waves, including information on research topics and geographic strongholds. Academic criticisms of the critical paradigm by proponents of the mainstream are reviewed, focusing on its distinctiveness, scientific rigor, and communication style. Drawing on theorizing in philosophy of science and the history of critical movements in other fields of social science, possible future trajectories are speculated about, including paradigmatic consolidation, integration, and fragmentation. Despite the momentum of the current version of critical perspectives in applied psychology, the track record of critical movements in the social sciences is modest and includes the risk of becoming a victim of one’s own success. Pitfalls and possible ways to avoid them are discussed and recommendations for scholars seeking to ‘criticalize’ their research are developed.