Book excerpt: Psychology in Social Context: Issues and Debates provides a critical perspective on debates and controversies that have divided opinion within psychology both past and present. Explores the history of psychology through examples of classic and contemporary debates that have split the discipline and sparked change, including race and IQ, psychology and gender, ethical issues in psychology, parapsychology and the nature-nurture debate Represents a unique approach to studying the nature of psychology by combining historical controversies with contemporary debates within the discipline Sets out a clear view of psychology as a reflexive human science, embedded in and shaped by particular socio-historical contexts Written in an accessible style using a range of pedagogical features - such as set learning outcomes, self-test questions, and further reading suggestions at the end of each chapter