Intersectionality and research in psychology.

2009/04/01 by Elizabeth R. Cole · 2,708 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Disadvantage #Diversity (politics) #Epistemology #Feminist Theory and Gender Studies #Gender Roles and Identity Studies #Gender studies #Identity (music) #Intersectionality #LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy #Meaning (existential) #Power (physics) #Privilege (computing) #Psychology #Social psychology #Sociology #Value (mathematics)

paper · doi:10.1037/a0014564

published in American Psychologist 64(3), 170-180 (American Psychological Association)

openalex publication_date 2009/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Feminist and critical race theories offer the concept of intersectionality to describe analytic approaches that simultaneously consider the meaning and consequences of multiple categories of identity, difference, and disadvantage. To understand how these categories depend on one another for meaning and are jointly associated with outcomes, reconceptualization of the meaning and significance of the categories is necessary. To accomplish this, the author presents 3 questions for psychologists to ask: Who is included within this category? What role does inequality play? Where are there similarities? The 1st question involves attending to diversity within social categories. The 2nd conceptualizes social categories as connoting hierarchies of privilege and power that structure social and material life. The 3rd looks for commonalities across categories commonly viewed as deeply different. The author concludes with a discussion of the implications and value of these 3 questions for each stage of the research process.

Citations

• The gender similarities hypothesis.
• When Multiplication Doesn't Equal Quick Addition: Examining Intersectionality as a Research Paradigm

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