Connections With Disability Studies

As I was reading I could not help but make a few connections with a course I took last semester. It was SPED 237 which had a large emphasis on disability studies, which focused on the person with the disability instead of the label of a diagnosis. It is some great stuff that tries to connect people with disabilities -no matter how severe or mild- to better lives. What reminded me of this was the objectivity and subjectivity of developmental psychology.

While empirical data is used to reveal truths, I really like the fact that some subjectivity is utilized, because empirical data tends to reduce people to numbers, which is great for figuring out some pieces of information. In a social science such as developmental psychology, however, I feel like it is vital that there be a little subjectivity to ensure that the need for cold and detached empirical data does not overrun the need for warmth toward individuals suffering from developmental abnormalities or the ethics needed to be absolutely sure that individuals are not harmed mentally, physically, or emotionally like many with disabilities were before the Civil Rights Movement.

Subjectivity, while it can be a double edged sword of grasping at straws and hitting the nail on the head, is important to keep the humanity along with the black and white empirical data. As long as we have a balance, I think that more will be learned about developmental psychology without losing anything along the way.