Joseph White
American clinical psychologist and a founder of Black psychology
Psychologist at the University of California, Irvine who helped found the Association of Black Psychologists in 1968 and wrote the 1970 Ebony article Toward a Black Psychology. He became known as the godfather of Black psychology.
Why this person matters
White argued that psychology built on white samples could not adequately describe African American life. He worked with other founders of the Association of Black Psychologists and with students such as Thomas Parham, who later led the association, to build a field that started from the strengths of Black communities.
Main contributions
Toward a Black Psychology
His 1970 article in Ebony questioned traditional psychological theories that did not adequately explain African American culture. UC Irvine says it helped start the modern era of African American and ethnic psychology.
Association of Black Psychologists
He helped found the association in 1968, during the civil rights movement. It gave Black psychologists a professional body to define their own field.
Books and programmes
He wrote The Psychology of Blacks: An African-American Perspective (1984). He helped create the California Educational Opportunity Program with Willie Brown and helped found the UC Irvine Cross-Cultural Center, the first of its kind in the University of California system.
Context and limits
The sources used here are university tributes. They do not assess the empirical record of his claims or report criticism of them. The UC Irvine account says the Ebony article helped start the modern era of ethnic psychology; that is the university's judgement, not a measured finding.
In your introductory course
Culture and diversity.Appears in culture and diversity chapters and in the history of ethnic minority psychology. Students meet him as the voice behind the case that psychological theories must be tested in the communities they describe.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 1.3. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1961
Became the first African American to earn a psychology PhD at Michigan State University.
- 1968
Helped found the Association of Black Psychologists.
- 1970
Published Toward a Black Psychology in Ebony.
- 1984
Published The Psychology of Blacks: An African-American Perspective.
Sources
- University of California Senate, In Memoriam: Joseph WhiteUniversity. Institutional biography inspected.
- UC Irvine School of Social Sciences, Honoring the godfather of Black psychologyUniversity. Institutional biography inspected.