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What are the central assumptions of social constructionism?

The term social constructionism carries with it a number of implications in psychological thought and the way psychology conducts itself as a science and research tool. There is no one single definition; however, it is useful to draw from Gergen’s (1973) argument as to how he regards social psychology and its practices. In his paper he argues that ‘all knowledge, including psychological knowledge is historically and culturally specific and that we therefore must extend our enquires beyond the individual into social, political and economic realms, for a proper understanding of the evolution of present psychology and social life. Mainstream psychology, traditionally looks for explanations of social phenomena from within the person, for example, by hypothesising the existence of attitudes, motives, mental cognitions, that act to produce different behaviours. However, social constructionists reject this view. Instead of looking at the underlying mental structures that cause behaviour, or formulate models of static components, social constructionists aim to look at the operation of power within the interactions between people and their ideas. The following discussion will concentrate on the central themes of social constructionism and what this means for social psychology as a discipline.

To address the central assumptions of social constructionism – Burr (1995) purposes a few statements that are ‘things you would absolutely have to believe in order to be a social constructionist’. A central assumption of social constructionism involves ‘a critical stance towards take-for-granted knowledge’. This means that the categories and concepts that human beings use do not necessarily correspond to the natural or ‘real’ categories or distinctions surrounding us at any given time. Belief in these such categories are referred to as anti-essentialism (i.e. the belief in social categories, rather categories based on nature). From a social constructionist point of view people are assumed not to have a core nature, there is a dispute whether they are derived from their genes or as a product of their environment. Furthermore, their psychology is open to interpretation. Therefore, Burr (1995) second point refers to the notion that the categories of which human beings use to understand the world and those around them must be understood in a historical and cultural context. Therefore, what we as people think to be true of other people is not a universal truth. People are often seen as ‘products’ of the cultural and historical background they are in or from. For example, someone who has lived through world war II is interpreted in a certain way by other people, and these other people’s impression of them also differ from each other and the interpretation of the individual who has experienced the war. Therefore ‘knowledge’ can not be regarded as a direct representation of a particular reality that is out there. Burr (1995), believes that ‘the disciplines of psychology and social psychology can therefore no longer be aimed at discovering the ‘true’ nature of people and social life’ due to the numerous interpretations that are available.

Such interpretations of human and social life are done through a process of social interaction between people through their everyday encounters within the world. Social interaction of all kinds, in particular, language, is of central importance for social constructionists. Language prescribes what we think; it gives us concepts that direct our thoughts. For example, it is very difficult to think about things that we have no linguistic concept for. However, language isn’t simply a channel through which information is conveyed. Language does things to people. It can serve to marginalise or exalt them, derogate or accuse them and excuse or justify them. By giving a central role to social interactions and seeing these as actively producing taken-for-granted knowledge of the world, it follows that language itself is more than simply expressing our thoughts and feelings. For example, when talking to each other, people construct their world through the application of language. Therefore, language is used as a form of action, that is, it has a ‘performance’ role. Social constructionists believe that knowledge and social action go together. These constructions are referred to as ‘negotiated’ understandings. ‘Knowledge is seen not as something that a person has (or does not have), but as something that people do together.’(Burr, 1995).Therefore, this has the implication that there are many social constructions that can be made within any given situation. This means that the ‘truths’ that we are told and which we accept, are used to justify social action – for example, when it was widely accepted (though not universally) during the Thatcher Years, that homosexuality was an un-natural ‘lifestyle’ that could be learned, the law then changed to prevent positive references to homosexual ‘lifestyles’ in schools.

The social constructionist theory was born out of a reaction to challenge the assumptions of the tradition discipline of social psychology. The people that advocate the beliefs of this theory are called critical social psychologists. Essentially critical social psychologist challenges the version of truth put forward by main stream psychology. The theory attempts to show that it is the subjective product of people with vested interested that drives the forces behind what is consider to be social knowledge and truth. Furthermore, it attempts to reveal other truths from the perspective of people who are marginalised and disadvantaged. Therefore, social constructionism aims to examine the biases and exclusions of social psychology, on the basis of race, social class and gender. Such works represents psychology as an abuse of power, that obscures the material and economical contexts that systematically disadvantage certain groups of people. Not all social psychologists that believe in constructionism believe in all of these aspects of social constructionism, but most critical social psychologist believes in most of the concepts.

The philosophical stand point of social constructionism has had an important impact towards developments in certain strands of psychology – particularly in the political arena – for example, feminism, socialism and anti-racism research and application. For example, for Stainton-Rogers et al, (1995), feminism is about us being able to ‘recognise the illusions which constitute our ‘social realities’ and not as really-real realities’. Thus feminism is concerned with trying to identify and challenge those illusory aspects within society that specifically relate to women. For example, Nicolson (1995) believes that the priorities of western society attaches to the scientific method (i.e. discovery of factual ‘truths’) is gender-biased, due to the relationship of science has with the media. In turn this influences human socialisation. To also add, social constructionism has made an important impact on the principles of social representation theory (SRT). This is essentially an extension of social constructionism – in that it encourages theorist to regard people as passive individuals who simply perceive or misperceive their social world – SRT argues that it is the social worlds that are constructions, and social representation is a device for doing this construction. For example, it allows someone to make sense of something potentially unfamiliar and to evaluate it. Therefore concepts, ideas and images are constantly circulating in people’s mind and around society. Thus, it is the social interactions within society that bring these concepts and ideas to light.

To conclude, the central themes of social constructionism are that knowledge and the concept of social truths are bound up in taken for granted knowledge. This taken-for-granted knowledge is produced through social interaction between each other and the different environments that we encounter. Knowledge can be changed through social interaction, strengthen through it, or weaken as a consequence of it. The impact of social constructionism has encouraged people and psychologists to challenge the traditional views of psychology and the way we see society. The concepts of social constructionism add scope for us to examine why certain sectors of society are disadvantaged, and how other sectors of society can justify their privileges. However, if one considers that there is no such thing as ‘truth’, how can one critically argue that people really are oppressed, that racism and sexism really exist, and that equality is better than inequality? Post-modernist theory would argue that aren’t social constructions of society simply stories – which can then be deconstructed to mean something different? Social constructionist would relate this to power – and how power is reflected in the language the people use to convey their information and beliefs. This can be demonstrated in the way historical and cultural beliefs have affected the way society has been portrayed over time and different countries – and by whom, for example, propaganda through the war, compared to the lived experiences of the army on the front line. Thus, social constructionism is important in the respect that it challenges the misuse of ideas in world and challenges the way psychologists analyse and interpret people’s actions.

References

Burr, V. (1995). An Introduction to Social Constructionism. London: Routledge

Gergen (1973). Social Psychology as history. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 26, 309 – 320

Nicolson, P. (1995) Feminism and Psychology. In Smith, J.A., Harre, R and Van Lanehove, L (Eds). Rethinking Psychology. London. Sage.

Stainton-Rogers, W., Stenner, P., Gleeson, K., and Stainton Rogers W, (1995). Social Psychology. A Critical Agenda. Cambridge. Policy Press.

Bibliography

Anderson, W.T. (1997). The truth about the Truth: De-confusing and Reconstructing the Post-modern World. New York. Putnam.

Gross, R. (2001). Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour (4th ed)
Hodder Arnold H&S