Social constructionist perspective Flashcards
Lecture 18
What ways to appreciate reality?
Objective -> nature doesn’t care what anyone things.
Subjective -> what I think matters.
Inter-subjective -> what we think matters.
What is social constructionsim?
No one singluar definition.
Principly concerned with explicating the processes by which people come to describe, explain, or otherwise account for the world (including themselves) in which they live. It attempts to articulate common forms of understanding as they now exist, as they have existed in prior historical periods, and as they might exist should creative attention be so directed.
The claim that most psychological phenomena are created in and have their primal being in social encounters. Social encounters are processes of interactions.
Our essential nature is social
We make ourselves out of the raw materials we have.
Silent agreement between us is what makes us who we are:
- Humans have behavioural tendencies.
- By joint acitivty between mother-child - babies born to us need to grow up to be what we think of as human.
Mother as double agent:
-She acrs both on her own behalf, and, on her infant’s behalf in what goes on.
- Mothers help their infant develop self-consciousness and an understanding of its feelings, emotions, etc. by acting in the social exchanfes as a ‘double agent’.
Vygotsky
Two planes of cultural development:
- Social plane: development among people (inter-mental).
- psychological plane: development within the individual (intra-mental).
What are the four assumptions of social constructionsim per Burr (2003)?
- A critical stance towards knowledge.
- Knowledge sustained by social processes.
- Historical and cultural specificity.
- Knowledge and action are interconnected.
Assumption 1: a critical stance taken toward knowledge.
Challenges view that knowlesge is based on objective, unbiased observation of the world.
All descriptions are positional/perspectives.
We construct the world we see.
If our knowledge of the world and ourselves is not derived from the nature of the world as it really is, then where does it come from?
“the process of understand is not automatically driven by the forces of nature, but is the result of an active, co-operative enterprise of persons in relationship”.
Our knowledge of the world is not objective in the positivist sense but determined by culture, history and social context.
Born into a world of ideas - born into system with beliefs.
Assumption 2: knowledge is sustained by social processes
Understanding comes from past and present people.
This, often implicit, social agreement can be even more evidence in psychology.
Language:
The greatest means by which we interact.
Provides us with the concepts and ideas we need to engage in thought.
Traditional view:
- Merely reflects the world.
- Merely expresses views.
- Merely describes world and self.
Constructionist view:
- Actively produces, construct, and shapes world.
- Speaking is doing.
Language constructs reality.
Therefore, it means we need to focus on discourse (the way we talk):
- Discourse analysis: looks at how talk constructs analysis.
- Critical psychology: different versions of reality can be excluded/marginalised.
Assumption 3: historical and cultural specificity
Since social processes constantly changing, what it means to be a human being depends on where and when in the world you happen to live.
Ways of understanding the world localised -> concept of self is culturally specific.
e.g homosexuality.
Harre (1986): the social construction of emotion
Ways to classify/understand emotions may not reflect real biological functioning.
Accidie = extinct, obsolete emotions.
Basic idea was boredom, dejection or even disgust with fulfilling ones religious duty.
Assumption 4: knowledge and action go together
Knowledge invities a particular response.
Temperance movement on alcoholics: originally alcohol inherently evil (disease concept) - seen as sin; now alcohol seen as an addiction.
Homosexuality (first seen as illness, now seen as normal).
How do the assumptions go against social cognitive approach.
Assumption 1: a critical stance taken toward knowledge.
Challenges idea behaviour can be measures, predicted and controlled.
Assumption 2: knowledge is sustained by social processes; importance of language.
Knowledge not based on internal, individualistic cognitive processes.
Assumption 3: historical and culturally specificity.
See psychology, especially social psychology, as ‘history’ not science.
Assumption 4: knowledge and action go together.
Knowledge not neutral, but incites certain actions, hence moral (and political).
