Reflexions on the concept of scientific social responsibility: The case of Brazilian Psychology

Abstract

In Brazil, the concept of social responsibility has been largely discussed in the past few decades. Due to the polysemy of this notion, in this paper, I sought to discuss and problematize some of its current uses, taking as a case study papers and books in Psychology. To do so, I conducted a literature review on physical and virtual databases and organized the information produced in two analytic frames: the first one presents the ways the notion of social responsibility is addressed in each of the texts and the second presents a synthesis of the previous frames. The analysis of these materials suggests that there are many objectives, justifications, methods and theories that support social responsible practices. So it is important not to only say someone is socially responsible, but explicit what one means when uses this expressions, as well as the epistemological, ontological and political precepts that underlies it.