The field of applied social psychology is often defined as the application of theories, methods, and findings from social psychology to real world problems. This definition makes the development of solutions to real world problems highly dependent on prevailing paradigms in social psychology. In this presentation, I argue that with some notable exceptions, dominant lab based and experimental approaches to social psychology do not serve as a sound foundation for applications that might address some of the most pressing problems of our time. To a large degree, social psychological knowledge production is based on a distorted emulation of methods and epistemological principles from the natural sciences. In particular, social and psychological phenomena are typically understood through mechanistic models that neglect individual and collective human agency; knowledge production relies on positing variables without deeper ontological reflections about the nature of the phenomena being studied; research questions are typically limited to quantifying associations between variables, while failing to attend to socio-cultural meanings that shape human experiences; the analytical unit of interest in social psychological theories is predominantly the individual which neglects contextual cultural and institutional factors; knowledge claims are typically intended to be universal thus failing to understand human phenomena as situated historically, socially, and culturally. To move beyond a narrow scope of the discipline whose relevance and effectiveness is obstructed by flawed epistemological premises, I offer a pluralistic vision for applied social psychology that encompasses three distinct streams of scholarship: 1) intervention research that is based primarily on experimental design and social-cognitive approaches, 2) critical approaches that attend to unequal power relations and aim at their amelioration, and 3) participatory approaches that prioritise community well-being and engagement above epistemological goals. I provide an overview of available methodologies and practices for such an expanded vision of applied social psychology.