What is Constructivism in Psychology?

It is known that psychology is a young science, which has not yet fully matured. One of the aspects in which this is most evident is the fact that within psychology there is no unifying theory, that is to say, a theoretical pillar on which all the knowledge that is extracted from the researchers is based.

On the other hand, there are many schools of thought and totally different approaches and starting points, and to a large extent, contrary to each other. Constructivism is one of these sets of academic currents, and historically it has had great importance, especially in the educational psychology. Let's see why.

The constructivist approach

It is very possible that people who have studied philosophy are familiar with the term "constructivism", because it can be used to refer to a philosophical current that emerged in the twentieth century and closely related to thought postmodern. From this philosophical constructivism, emphasis is placed on the interpretive component of everything that we come to know, rather than stressing the importance of aiming for objectivity and realism.

Thus, there is a moderate constructivism that limits itself to maintaining that reality cannot be known directly and that our totally subjective interpretations will be the foundation of what we think we know, and another radical constructivism according to which reality is, directly, the construction we make from our own interpretations. In other words, reality, as we usually understand it, does not exist, because it is not independent of our thoughts and cannot be detached from our mental activity.

The difference between moderate and "extremist" constructivism is that the former does not deny the existence of a material reality beyond ideas, while the latter does. However, both are part of a current of thought that addresses epistemological and ontological problems, and that is why they formally belong to philosophy and not to psychology. The constructivism of psychology is something that arises from other types of questions, although as we will see it has several similarities with its philosophical relative.

Psychological constructivism: what is it?

If philosophical constructivism is in charge of trying to answer the question of what it is that we can get to know and in what way this knowledge is related to "reality", the constructivism of the psychology is much more pragmatic and focuses on studying how learning is carried out and the generation of meaning schemes in our way of thinking to be able to apply these scientific discoveries, especially, in two branches of psychology: psychotherapy and psychology educational.

In this way, the idea of ​​"knowledge construction" that is used in the constructivism of psychology is less abstract than that of its analogue of philosophy, and its reason for being is in the need to create scientific theories capable of predicting part of what will happen in people's behavior (in general), and of providing solutions to specific problems (in particular).

Thus, the constructivism of psychology can be defined as a set of theories and schools of thought (belonging to this scientific field) that are based on the idea that the way in which individuals generate knowledge from their experiences is through an active role in which they create unique meaning systems and whose value is not in resembling more or less reality.

Two examples: Piaget and Vygotsky

Among the researchers who are normally considered part of constructivism in psychology are two of the great figures in the history of developmental and educational psychology: Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky.

Both started from the idea that the engine of knowledge creation from which learning develops is interaction with the environment (and, in Vygotsky's case, with the society in which he lives), driven by curiosity. Therefore, it is not a task based on internal activities, but something that arises from the relationship with the immediate context.

This idea is reflected in their way of understanding childhood, a stage marked by the forced creation of systems of meaning that, although they do not reflect reality at all, do they are very useful to continue learning quickly from previous experiences, which allows learning to exist. We may not live having reliable images of what happens, but at least these allow us to develop in a correct way with those problems that assail us, regardless of the stage of life in which we find ourselves.

To read more about these two researchers, you can visit this pair of articles:

• “Jean Piaget's Theory of Learning"
• “Lev Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory”

Between theoretical currents and philosophy

As we have seen, constructivism is a very heterogeneous set of ideas that are only united by a very broad nexus that is quite difficult to define. In other words, the concept of constructivism in psychology is broader than the definitions of typical psychological currents, such as the behaviorism or cognitivism.

And, of course, it is perfectly possible that there are several theories that can be encompassed within constructivism and that despite this, they are hardly compatible with each other or that they cannot even be connected through psychology applied. After all, being part of this bundle of theories does not imply using the same methods or the same tools, and there is nothing in the definition of constructivism that implies embracing various very concrete commitments about what to do and how it should be done.

The constructivism of psychology may be a set of theories, but it is such an abstract category that it is only one step away from entering the realm of philosophy. In fact, it is very easy that the way in which constructivism indicates that the value of the systems of meaning that we create to generate knowledge have value by themselves goes from being a purely scientific position (and therefore useful to reach certain objectives) to a philosophical and moral position without us giving ourselves account. Sometimes it can become a political discourse on how education should be based solely on a certain scale of values ​​in which the idea that students should have a lot of freedom occupies a position high.

A meta-psychology?

So if psychological constructivism is neither a philosophical stance nor a psychological current, much less a school of psychology, what is it? One way to answer this question would be to conclude that constructivism is simply a type grouping of theories that, due to its breadth, is between philosophy and the currents of psychology.

Another way of looking at it is to conclude that constructivism is a meta-psychology., something that many times is also said about psychoanalysis. That is to say, it would be a kind of step backwards that several psychologists and researchers have taken to see their scope of work with a certain distancing and, from that position, to be able to make decisions about what to do and how to understand the individual, returning then to work.

In any case, using one or other words to refer to the same thing, the important thing is that, at the In practice, constructivism has generated types of psychological and psychopedagogical interventions in what greater autonomy is given to students and patients, also promoting a personalized treatment that is necessary to understand the meaning systems that each individual constructs. Of course, these contributions are not without criticism, but it is clear that they have left a significant mark on educational contexts in recent decades.

Bibliographic references:

• Carretero, M. (1994) Constructivism and Education. Buenos Aires. Aique.
• Norman, D. (1981) Perspectives from cognitive science. Barcelona. Paidos.
• Piaget, J. (1985) Treatise on logic and scientific knowledge: Nature and
  methods of epistemology. Vol. 1. Tr. M. Prelooker. Mexico. Paidos.
• Vygotsky, L. S. (1977) Thought and language. Buenos Aires: The Pleiade.