Social Constructionism

Question 1

positivism

Answer 1

considers knowledge to be measurable and corresponding to the truth

Question 2

social constructionism

Answer 2

concerned with knowledge being contingent on culture, history and language

Question 3

constructs

Answer 3

metaphors of lenses/frames that we hold up against our social/personal worlds

Question 4

what did SC originate from?

Answer 4

postmodernism, which challenges views of modernism as scientific knowledge is constructed and sense-making occurs through linguistic rules

Question 5

what is SC aligned with?

Answer 5

relativism- reality is dependent on the ways we come to know it

Question 6

the four tenets of SC

Answer 6

1. scepticism
2. historically and culturally situated
3. language and social interaction
4. knowledge is active

Question 7

scepticism

Answer 7

must be critical and question ‘taken-for-granted’ understandings, as observations are only perceptions and not the true nature of phenomena

Question 8

historically and culturally situated

Answer 8

knowledge is a social product based on existing frameworks and artefacts of previous societies

our understanding is not the best

Question 9

language and social interaction

Answer 9

language is sustained through social interaction and provides frames of understandings, as representations and constructions of specific cultures

Question 10

knowledge is active

Answer 10

different constructions invite different responses, and some are considered to be ‘better’ than others

knowledge dictates power in social relationships

Question 11

applications of SC

Answer 11

professional socialisation

Question 12

professional socialisation

Answer 12

the internalisation of practices, norms, values, attitudes, skills, and identities of the profession

an ongoing process done formally and informally

Question 13

critiques of SC

Answer 13

of death and furniture

meaningless

moral relativism

lack of need for psychology

self-defeating

Question 14

of death and furniture

Answer 14

some issues go beyond (de)construction

social constructionism argues about the importance of questioning this tacit knowledge.

Question 15

furniture

Answer 15

objects external to talk; easy targets that avoid the nebulous

Question 16

death

Answer 16

emblem for the invocation of important values and morality outside of culture.

Question 17

meaningless

Answer 17

gergen (2009) considers the dark side of postmodernism and the point in fighting equality if everything is a construction

Question 18

moral relativism

Answer 18

SC seems to tolerate anything and stand for nothing

however, there are multiple ways of thinking about social objects which leads to empowerment and liberation

Question 19

lack of need for psychology

Answer 19

if human behaviour, experience, and language is a product of SC, then the need for psychology is lost

Despite this, SC does not undermine experience, but sits in parallel to these issues

this allows for consideration of subjective experience and drives

Question 20

self-defeating

Answer 20

in order to be sceptical, we must forego the foundations of scepticism

if all realities are constructed, how can constructionism be true?

SC exists on the theoretical and metatheoretical level