Disability Representation in Social and Personality Psychology Research: A State-of-the-Art Review

Abstract

We conducted a systematic state-of-the-art review examining disability representation of three flagship social and personality psychology journals between 2017 and 2022. First, we examined the 2,343 articles published in that time frame and found that 192 (8.19%) of them used at least one instance of disability-related terminology. Second, we examined patterns of disability-related terminology use and found that these concepts were most often used extraneously (e.g., in parenthetical phrases). Only 3 (0.13%) articles were primarily focused on disability. This is the first systematic investigation to examine how and to what extent social and personality psychology research addresses topics related to disability. These findings highlight a need for substantive change in the representation of disability within social and personality psychology. We close with recommendations for researchers.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2026 · DOI ↗