7 Social constructionism as a metatheory of psychological science

Question 1

Who introduced the doctrine of social constructionism to psychology in the mid-80s?

Answer 1

Kenneth Gergen

Question 2

What is the social constructionist take on psychological phenomena?

Answer 2

They don’t exist. All terms that we think involve psychological processes are in fact social – contingent on social processes. There are no purely psychological phenomena.

Question 3

Can psychological phenomena be observed as they are, according to Gergen?

Answer 3

No. Observations we make in psychology are theory-dependent. No psychological observation is independent.

Question 4

Can research methods, such as the empirical method, be used to accrue knowledge about psychological phenomena, according to Gergen?

Answer 4

No. Research methods are misleading, justificatory devices.

Question 5

In discarding knowledge claims that are false, does science progress?

Answer 5

No. Scientists simply shift their way of seeing the world –change in perspective, not accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge is not cumulative.

Question 6

By what means are the ‘facts’ of psychology socially constructed?

Answer 6

The knowledge claims accepted by psychology are constituted by human actions –persuasion, negotiation, rhetoric. The facts are produced by social process.

Question 7

When psychologists talk about aggression, say, what are they actually talking about?

Answer 7

The discourse simply reflects the social context and conventions of the psychological community. No ontological claims are possible.

Question 8

What’s the difference between Kuhn’s idea of paradigm/framework and Gergen’s?

Answer 8

Kuhn claims there is a conceptual/cognitive framework that defines what you see.

Gergen has rejected cognition, along with all psychological phenomena, so his framework must be linguistic.

Question 9

On what grounds does Gergen state that theoretical statements in psychology are not descriptive?

Answer 9

No statements we make about psychological events are true or false, because there is no such thing as a psychological event.

Question 10

Gergen: Any statement we make in psychology is mediated by our _________ conventions.

Answer 10

Any statement we make in psychology is mediated by our socio-linguistic conventions.

Question 11

What are the two tenets of social constructionism’s linguistic paradigm?

Answer 11

1) Language in general (and psychology’s theoretical language in particular) is not descriptive – it does not refer to any independent, objective truths.
2) Knowledge is mediated by socio-linguistic conventions

Question 12

Can we know objective reality, according to Gergen?

Answer 12

We can never know reality as unmodified, as we are bound up in a closed system of language. There is no direct access to a language-independent world.

Question 13

How have Gergen’s theories influenced psychotherapy?

Answer 13

Has influenced mostly psychodynamic and family therapy. By accentuating the importance of language and conversation.

Question 14

What is the corrollary for psychotherapy of Gergen’s ideas?

Answer 14

There are no diagnostic categories, disorders or even minds –just talk about them.

Question 15

What is the patient’s ‘narrative’ in psychotherapy, according to a social constructionist viewpoint?

Answer 15

Just a narrative. It doesn’t refer to any generalities or to any independent objective truths.

Question 16

According to a social constructionist viewpoint, in a clinical setting there is no extratherapy, objective reality to be known –what is known is modified by, and so dependent on, the _____________.

Answer 16

According to a social constructionist viewpoint, in a clinical setting there is no extratherapy, objective reality to be known – what is known is modified by, and so dependent on, the narrative.

Question 17

Gergen: “Because disquisitions on the nature of things are framed in language, there is no grounding of science or any knowledge-generating enterprise in other than ____________ __ ______________.”

Answer 17

Gergen: “Because disquisitions on the nature of things are framed in language, there is no grounding of science or any knowledge-generating enterprise in other than communities of interlocutors.”

Question 18

Our supposed knowledge of the world is in fact constructed by….?

Answer 18

Language and social processes

Question 19

What DOESN’T follow from the fact that all statements are grounded in language and social processes?

Answer 19

That everything we say is false. Our knowledge claims can still sometimes be objectively true.

Question 20

In what way are Gergen’s arguments self-refuting?

Answer 20

If there is no knowable reality, then Gergen’s claim that ‘there are no psychological processes’, say, cannot reflect reality. He states the way things are while denying the possibility of doing so.

Question 21

If Gergen states it is impossible to state that something is or is not the case, what follows for his theory?

Answer 21

That it is neither true nor false.

Question 22

We can never know reality as ____________, as we are bound up in a ________ system of language. There is no direct access to a _________-____________ world.

Answer 22

We can never know reality as unmodified, as we are bound up in a closed system of language. There is no direct access to a language-independent world.

Question 23

According to Gergen, there is no ___________ reality. No ___________ claims are possible.

Answer 23

According to Gergen, there is no knowable reality. No ontological claims are possible.