Social constructionism: what it is, fundamental ideas and authors

Social constructionism, or socioconstructionism, is a theoretical perspective that arises in the middle of the 20th century as a consequence of the epistemological and methodological crisis that the social sciences have gone through.

He considers that language is not a simple reflection of reality, but that it is the producer of itself, with which, it passes from the idea of ​​representation that dominated science, to that of action discursive

The latter allows us to question the set of "truths" through which we had related to the world, as well as to create new theories and methods of knowledge.

In addition to being considered as a theoretical perspective, socioconstructionism is defined as a theoretical movement in which different works and proposals are grouped. Next we will take a tour of some background and definitions of social constructionism, as well as the repercussions it has had on social psychology.

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Social constructionism: a theoretical-practical alternative

Since the 1960s, and within the framework of the crisis of modern thought, The epistemological foundations of the social sciences They have gone through some major changes.

Among other things, these changes arise as a critique of the representation model of science, where language is understood as a instrument that faithfully reflects the mental contents, with which, the same mind contains exact representations of the external world (of "the reality").

In the same context, a critique of absolute truths and the research methods through which it was believed to access said truths arises. So, the application of the positivist methodology in the social sciences is questioned in an important way and the omission of the sociohistorical processes that frame them.

That is to say, given the tendency of traditional scientific thought to present itself as an absolute reflection of the reality it studied; social constructionism says that reality does not exist independently of our actions, but that we produce it through language (understood as a practice).

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Reactions to traditional science

One of the approaches that had marked the social sciences, and before which socioconstructionism puts an important distance is the disqualification of methodologies other than hypothetical-deductive and positivists. From there, social constructionism questions the dominance of the experimental model, where it is assumed that knowledge is acquired based on the control that an "external" experimenter has on the situation studied, which in turn assumes the existence of variables that are stable and controllable.

Likewise, a reaction to the apparent timelessness that had characterized the traditional way of doing science is established. This is so because said timelessness has had as a consequence that historical facts are understood as anecdotal and therefore not scientific.

Finally, he questioned the supposed truths about human beings, which have been taken for granted through the implementation of the methodologies used in the natural sciences.

A psychosociological project and its repercussions for psychology

In relation to what we explained above, authors such as Sandoval (2010) consider that socioconstructionism is not properly a theory but "a metatheoretical attempt to build an alternative to the hegemony of empiricism in epistemology; behaviorism and cognitivism in theory and experimentalism in methodology; the trilogy that underlies the core of the intelligibility of modern psychology” (p. 32).

In short, four principles that define socioconstructionism and that impact modern psychology are:

1. Anti-essentialism: the primacy of social processes and discursive practices

The practices that make up a reality are maintained thanks to the establishment of a social order, which occurs through human activity, without any ontological status. From getting used to these practices, the same human activity becomes institutionalized and shapes a society. For this reason, daily life that had been dismissed by traditional social sciences, takes on special importance for socio-constructionism.

At the methodological level, socioconstructionism considers the unpredictability of human behavior and social reality as something that is built in life. and from a reciprocity between society-person, with which psychology must locate the cases it studies or attends in social contexts determined. In this same sense, people are the product of specific social processes.

Likewise, the socio-constructionist current made it possible to question the use of the hypothetical-deductive method in the social sciences, which had initially been systematized for the natural sciences; and that it had moved as the model for psychology.

2. Relativism: the historical and cultural specificity of knowledge

This theory defends that the knowledge obtained by the social sciences is fundamentally historical, and because it is highly variable, it cannot resort to the methods of study of the natural sciences.

Likewise, the socioconstructionist current allowed us to question the use of the hypothetico-deductive method in the social sciences, which in the beginning it had been systematized for the natural sciences; and that it had moved as the model for psychology.

In this same sense, what we know as "reality" does not exist separately from knowledge or from the descriptions we produce about it.

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3. Knowledge and action as two phenomena that go together

Social constructionism sets out to explain how knowledge and social reality are constructed from activity (the discursive capacity) of the subjects. It highlights the reflective quality of the researcher. That is, it underlines the constructive power of language within the framework of social relations.

From there, socioconstructionism proposes to develop alternative perspectives to the individual approach to knowledge (that is, to the idea of that everything that is known is known individually), allowing us to analyze the importance of shared knowledge in the production of a reality particular.

Social constructionism is a perspective that continually questions the truths we have taken for granted, questioning how we have learned to look at ourselves and the world.

4. A critical stance, that is, attentive to the effects of language in terms of power

The consideration that there is no neutrality in the production of knowledge, which makes it recognized the active role of people as constructors of their own reality, including the researcher himself, and the psychologist is a facilitator of social change.

Thinking of the human being outside of the qualities that are supposed to be universally shared thanks to the "paradigm of man average”, but to consider the social context in which the explanations emerge and the places that are assigned to each who.

Key authors and background

Although social constructionism is a heterogeneous perspective where different authors could fit and not fit, Kenneth Gergen is considered one of the greatest exponentsespecially from your article Social psychology as history (Social psychology as history) published in 1973.

Within the framework of this reformulation of the social sciences, Berger and Luckmann had already published the book The social construction of reality in 1968, a work that significantly influenced Gergen's work for what is also considered key to the development of socio-constructionism.

These last authors propose that reality is "a quality proper to the phenomena that we recognize as independent of our own volition” and knowledge “the certainty that phenomena are real and have characteristics specific”. That is to say, challenge the belief that reality is a thing that exists independently of our actions, being society an external entity that shapes us, and that we can know it in an absolute way.

Among the theoretical antecedents of social constructionism are post-structuralism, the discourse analysis, the Frankfurt School, the sociology of knowledge and social psychology criticism. Broadly speaking, these are theories that reflect on the interdependence between knowledge and social reality.

Likewise, social constructionism has been related to authors such as Latour and Woolgar, Feyerabend, Kuhn, Laudan, Moscovici, Hermans.

Some critiques of socio-constructionism

Among other things, socioconstructionism has been criticized for the tendency towards discursive radicalization of a good part of his theories.

Broadly speaking, these critics say that social constructionism can be immobilizing, because if everything that exists is constructed by language, what is the place of the material and what are its action possibilities in the meaning of the world. In the same sense, he has been criticized excessive relativism which can sometimes make it difficult to assume or defend claims positions.

Finally, after several decades of having emerged this theoretical perspective, constructionism has had to adapt to the new forms of social organization. For example, some proposals that have been inspired by constructionism but have added important elements for current debates are the Actor Network Theory, Performativity, or some materialist and feminists.

Bibliographic references:

• Gosende, E. (2001). Between social constructionism and realism, trapped with no way out? Subjectivity and Cognitive Processes, 1(1): 104-107.
• Iniguez, L. (2005) New debates, new ideas and new practices in the social psychology of the 'post-constructionist' era. Digital Athena, 8: 1-7.
• Sandoval, J. (2004). Representation, discursiveness and situated action: A critical introduction to the social psychology of knowledge. Chile: University of Valparaiso.