One hundred years of discrimination research in the Journal of Applied Psychology: A sobering synopsis.

ABSTRACT

Employment discrimination-a legal, social, moral, and practical problem-has been a persistent focus of narrow scholarship in the Journal of Applied Psychology since its inception. Indeed, this article identifies the environmental characteristics, conceptual underpinnings, dominant methodologies, research questions and findings across 508 articles published on discrimination in the journal over the last 100 years. Emergent themes document signs of stability and change in 3 eras an era wherein discrimination research was itself discriminatory (1917-1969), the heyday of discrimination research (1970-1989), and an era of unsteady progress (1990-2014). This synthesis suggests that, although increasingly sophisticated methodological approaches have been applied to this topic, the targets of focus and theories driving research have largely been static. Additionally, research published on discrimination in the Journal of Applied Psychology has often trailed too far behind the times. Specific recommendations for advancing the psychological study of employment discrimination in applied contexts are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record