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PSYC3004 Mind, Meaning & Discourse Lecture 1 & 2: The social
constructionist perspective /
"We forfeit three fourths of ourselves in order to be like other
people." The central theme that emerges in this module is the complex inter-relationship that exists between communication, mental processes and behaviour.
There have been several emerging perspectives of the human mind: N Social model of mind i.e. social constructionist/discursive/cultural psychology/human science.
! the cognitivist view - the organization of behaviour can be explained by an inner mental structure (cognitive processes, etc) ! the social theory of mind - the claim that higher mental processes in the individual originate in social/cultural processes. This second view is clearly closely related to the ideas of Wilhelm Wundt, Wilhelm Dilthey, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lev Vygotsky, Kenneth Gergen and Rom Harré. Rom Harré argues that psychologists must recognize that there are two quite different mutually irreducible sciences: " . . . there is a science of meanings, skills, strategies and rules (psychology), and there is a science of neural structures and processes and the genetic sources of the basic forms that these take (biology)". Jerome Bruner expresses this same idea by proposing: " . . .
that it is culture, not biology, that shapes human life and the human
mind, that gives meaning to action by situating its underlying intentional
states in an interpretive system" (Bruner, 1990; p.34). O Psychology and Social Constructionism! this perspective on psychology emphasises that human knowledge is a construction ! as such it offers a standpoint at considerable variance with the positivist-empiricist tradition of other approaches in psychology ! In addition, social constructionism offers a theory of human functioning with particular relevance to understanding identity, gender, experience, emotions, personality, health, social action, etc. ! as human beings we respond not to physical objects and events themselves but to the meaning of events ! meaning mediates practically every significant human action. ! meaning is not a property of the objects and events themselves, but a construction ! meaning is the product of the interaction between the human mind and events ! meaning is assigned and it is quite possible for more than one meaning, indeed several meanings, to be given to the same event ! meaning, too, is the product of the prevailing cultural reality in which all human behaviour and experience is placed ! meaning is the product of the social, linguistic, discursive and symbolic practices in which each individual shares. O Social ConstructionismThis offers a new perspective with respect to: G the central role of MEANING in human action and experience G counselling and psychotherapy, e.g. critical issues in clinical practice (Clegg, 1998) G a human science approach to research G theorizing the role of culture, i.e. human action as culturally and historically situated discursive constructions G understanding human identity and personality, emotions, health, gender, media influences, etc. G the discipline as a whole (e.g. postmodern perspectives)
The development of social constructionism in psychology has mainly been from two sources: Rom Harré and Kenneth Gergen F Harré, R. & Secord, P.F. (1972)" . . . much of experimental psychology and other empirical approaches in behavioural science are based upon three assumptions: (a) that only a mechanistic model of man will satisfy the requirements for making a science, (b) that the most scientific conception of cause is one which focuses on external stimulation and which excludes from consideration any treatment of the mode of connection between cause and effect, and (c) that a methodology based on logical positivism is the best possible approach to a behavioural science. All three are mistaken." (p.5) These three basic assumptions " . . have shaped the psychological experiment into a particular form. It will emerge that this is not the only possible way of developing an empirical basis for psychology. Psychologists are prone to view a human being as a complicated mechanism whose behaviour can be fully explained, in principle, by a combination of the effects of external stimuli and prevailing organismic states. [ . These assumptions] are so deeply rooted in the thinking of the majority of psychologists that it is as if we were wearing blinkers." (p. 30-33). F Gergen, K. (1985) Gergen proposes that the movement is based on four assumptions:-(1) The world does not present itself objectively to the observer, but is known through human experience which is largely influenced by language. (2) The categories in language used to classify things emerge from the social interaction within a group of people at a particular time and in a particular place. Categories of understanding, then, are situational. (3) How reality is understood at a given moment is determined by the conventions of communication in force at that time. The stability of social life determines how concrete our knowledge seems to be. (4) Reality is socially constructed by interconnected
patterns of communication behaviour. Within a social group or culture,
reality is defined not so much by individual acts, but by complex and
organized patterns of ongoing actions. F Burr (2003, p. 2-5) offers these four basic assumptions of the social constructionist position:(1) A critical stance towards taken-for-granted knowledge - The world does not present itself objectively to the observer, but is known through human experience which is largely influenced by language. (2) Historical and cultural specificity - The categories in language used to classify things emerge from the social interaction within a group of people at a particular time and in a particular place. Categories of understanding, then, are situational. (3) Knowledge is sustained by social processes - How reality is understood at a given moment is determined by the conventions of communication in force at that time. The stability of social life determines how concrete our knowledge seems to be. (4) Knowledge and social action go together - Reality is
socially constructed by interconnected patterns of communication behaviour.
Within a social group or culture, reality is defined not so much by
individual acts, but by complex and organized patterns of ongoing actions. F Gergen (1985) concludes his paper:-"New theoretical tools are required - concepts that lie between the problematic explanatory domains of psychology and sociology. The functions of language, both as a system of reference and as a form of social participation must be elaborated. [ . . ] For such tasks dialogue is essential between psychologists and like-minded colleagues in sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy and literary studies. Should such dialogue occur, we might reasonably anticipate the development of new theoretical departures, metatheory for a new conception of science, and a general refurbishment of intellectual resources."
(2) Rethinking psychology ". . . there is no such thing as human nature independent of culture." (Geertz, 1973).
O Psychology as a cultural and human scienceJerome Bruner offers a definition of CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY which sees it as concerned with the "meaning-making process". i.e. It is concerned with the relationship between culture and mind, with such questions as how mind is shaped by culture, as well as how culture is shaped by mind. (Also, note Charles Peirce's equation: SIGN = MIND). In Acts of Meaning (1990), Bruner argues that a psychology which ". . . concerns itself centrally with meaning, . . . inevitably becomes a cultural psychology (which) must venture beyond the conventional areas of positivist science with its ideals of reductionism, causal explanation and prediction." (Bruner, 1990; p.xiii). "The symbolic systems that individuals used in constructing meaning were systems that were already in place, already 'there,' deeply entrenched in culture and language" (Bruner, 1990; p.11). "It is man's participation in culture, and the realisation of his mental powers through culture that make it impossible to construct a human psychology on the basis of the individual alone. (. .) Given that psychology is so immersed in culture, it must be organised around those meaning-making and meaning using processes that connect man to culture. (. .) By virtue of participation in culture, meaning is rendered public and shared. Our culturally adapted way of life depends upon shared meanings and shared concepts and depends as well upon shared modes of discourse for negotiating differences in meaning and interpretation" (Bruner, 1990; p.12-13). Wilhelm Wundt's original view of
psychology was as both an experimental science, and a cultural
science; viz - the mind can be studied by its cultural products
i.e. such products as:- language, narratives, customs, beliefs,
traditions, social institutions, indeed the totality of human culture.
Wilhelm Dilthey held a similar view in his recognition of psychology as
both a natural and cultural science. G Vygotsky: Cultural embeddednessLev Vygotsky (1896 - 1934), an important Soviet psychologist, stresses the social embeddness of human behaviour, in particular its development in childhood. This concept, perhaps better expressed as cultural embeddedness, stresses that human behaviour, human action, and all meaning-making processes are embedded within a cultural context, i.e. not determined by the social/cultural, but embedded within it. O The Second Cognitive RevolutionF Harré, R. & Gillett, G. (1994):-"The new and different strand of psychology was found, most influentially, in the later writings of Wittgenstein (1953). He argued that we understand the behaviour of an individual when we grasp the meanings that are informing that person's activity. . . Once one sees the task of understanding human behaviour as involving interpretation and empathy rather than prediction or control, the self-reports of the people one is studying become very important in any psychological research project." (p. 18-21) "In this view, our delineation of the subject matter of psychology has to take account of discourses, significations, subjectivities, and positionings, for it is in these that psychological phenomena actually exist." (p. 22) G Harré & Gillett's Main Principles of the Discursive Turn (2nd Cognitive Revolution) (p. 27):-1) Many psychological phenomena are to be interpreted as properties or features of discourse, and that discourse might be public (behaviour)or private (thought); 2) Individual and private uses of symbolic systems, which in this view constitute thinking, are derived from interpersonal discursive processes that are the main feature of the human environment; 3) The production of psychological phenomena, such as
emotions, decisions, attitudes, personality displays, and so on, in
discourse depends upon the skill of actors, their relative moral standing
in the community, and the story lines that unfold. "It is both remarkable and interesting that the old psychologies continue to exist alongside the new ones. [ . . . ] It is quite unique, as far as we know, in the history of science, that old, outdated, and manifestly inadequate ways of doing research, and untenable theories, have persisted alongside new and better theories and methods." (p. 2) O Context and Human ActionWhat distinguishes human action from human behaviour is:- HUMAN ACTION: G has goals and purposes G is organized by rules and conventions G is to be read like a "text" CONTEXT is: G occasioned (Social) G historical (Cultural) G bound by cultural rules and expectations (Cultural) G human significance (Cultural/existential) O
Rom Harré quoted by van Langenhove in Smith et al (1995a; p. 10):-
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