Poverty is a main theme in Brazil. Psychology, as a welfare profession, and given its historical concerns with social actions, could not be away from this theme. The purpose of this paper is to examine the literature on this subject, analyzing the propositions, the intervention's limits and impacts. We carried out a three stages document-based study: (1) online databases survey (312 papers identified); (2) 109 scientific abstracts accessed; (3) 47 scientific papers selected, read and analyzed. The production about the main theme (poverty) is dispersed, heterogeneous, and related to other fields of knowledge. In general, it appears that Psychology has improved the scientific production and experiences with poor population. However, it is necessary to build up theories and technical innovations and also to understand structural boundaries for professional practice.
poverty; psychologist's professional role; scientific production; documental research
