Sowing the seeds: Sociocultural resistance in the psychological sciences.

Objective: This article problematizes the use of resilience as a psychological and developmental indication of well-being. We base our argument on the possibility that resilience theories internalize responsibility for survival within the individual, and that survival is dependent on the ability to assimilate to injustice. Resistance, on the other hand, represents acts of intentional, active, and often collective survival which can expose and oppose social injustice. Method: Bringing together transdisciplinary scholarship on resistance, we propose a conceptual framework of sociocultural resistance. This framework seeks to forward studies of health that acknowledge the complexity of relationships, culture, and power constitutive of the human condition. Results: We provide examples of sociocultural resistance in the psychological and developmental sciences and suggest the use of diverse theory and methods in the study of resistance. Conclusions: Resistance research is a timely, necessary, and critical turning point in the social sciences with the potential to change unjust systems and promote a nuanced view of health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).