Social constructionism: what it is, its fundamental ideas and authors

This theoretical perspective proposes that human beings are the result of social processes.

Social constructionism, or socioconstructionism, is a theoretical perspective that arose in the mid-20th century as a result of the epistemological and methodological crisis that emerged in the mid-twentieth century as a consequence of the epistemological and methodological crisis that the social sciences have undergone.

It considers that language is not a simple reflection of reality, but rather the producer of it, thus moving from the idea of representation that dominated science to that of discursive action.

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 the field of social constructionism. is defined as a theoretical movement in which different works and proposals are grouped together.. We will now take a look at some of the antecedents and definitions of social constructionism, as well as the repercussions it has had on social psychology.

Social constructionism: a theoretical-practical alternative

Since the 1960s, and in the context of the crisis of modern thought, the epistemological foundations of the social sciences have undergone some important changes. have undergone some important changes.

Among other things, these changes arise as a critique of the representational model of science, where language is understood as an instrument that faithfully reflects mental contents, whereby the mind itself contains accurate representations of the external world (of "reality").

In the same context, a critique of absolute truths and of the methods of investigation by means of which it was believed that such truths could be accessed arose. Thus, the application of positivist methodology in the social sciences was questioned in an important way, the application of positivist methodology in the social sciences and the omission of the socio-historical processes that and the omission of the socio-historical processes that frame them.

In other words, in the face of the tendency of traditional scientific thought to present itself as an absolute reflection of the reality it studies, social constructionism says that reality does not exist independently of our actions, but that we produce it through language (understood as a practice).

Reactions to traditional science

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

It also establishes a reaction to the apparent timelessness that had characterized the traditional way of doing science. This is so because such timelessness has had as a consequence that historical events are understood that historical facts are understood as anecdotal and, therefore, non-scientific. and therefore, not scientific.

Finally, he questioned the supposed truths about human beings that have been taken for granted through the implementation of 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; of behaviorism and cognitivism in theory and experimentalism in methodology; the trilogy that founds the core of the intelligibility of modern psychology" (p. 32).

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

Anti-essentialism: the primacy of social processes and discursive practices 2.

The practices that make up a reality are maintained by the establishment of a social order, which occurs through human activity, without any ontological status.This happens through human activity, without any ontological status. From the moment we become accustomed to these practices, human activity itself becomes institutionalized and shapes a society. For this very reason, everyday life, which had been neglected by the traditional social sciences, takes on special importance for socioconstructionism.

At the methodological level, socioconstructionism considers the unpredictability of human behavior and social reality as something that is constructed in everyday life and from a reciprocity between society-person, with which psychology must locate the cases it studies or attends to in specific social contexts. 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 hypothetico-deductive method in the social sciences, which had initially been systematized for the natural sciences, and which had been transferred as the model for psychology.

2. Relativism: the historical and cultural specificity of knowledge

This theory argues 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 socio-constructionist current made it possible to question the use of the hypothetico-deductive method in the social sciences, which had initially been systematized for the natural sciences. initially systematized for the natural sciences, which had been transferredand which had been transferred as the model for psychology.

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

3. Knowledge and action as two phenomena that go together

Social constructionism sets out to explain how knowledge and social reality are constructed on the basis of the activity (discursive capacity) of the (discursive capacity) of the subjects. It emphasizes the reflexive quality of the researcher. In other words, it stresses the constructive power of language in the framework of social relations.

On this basis, socioconstructionism proposes to develop alternative perspectives to the individual approach to knowledge (i.e., to the idea that everything that is known is known individually), making it possible to analyze the importance of shared knowledge in the production of a particular reality.

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

4. A critical stance, i.e., attentive to the effects of language in terms of power.

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

To think of the human being outside the qualities that are assumed to be universally shared thanks to the "paradigm of the average man", but to consider the social context in which explanations emerge and the places assigned to each person.

Key authors and background

Although social constructionism is a heterogeneous perspective where different authors may and may not fit, Kenneth Gergen is considered to be one of the leading exponents of theespecially since his article 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 had a major influence on Gergen's work and is therefore also considered key to the development of socioconstructionism.

The latter authors propose that reality is "a quality proper to phenomena that we recognize as independent of our own volition" and knowledge "the certainty that phenomena are real and possess specific characteristics". That is to say, they question the belief that reality is a thing that exists independently of our actions.society being an external entity that shapes us, and that we can know it absolutely.

Among the theoretical antecedents of social constructionism are poststructuralism, discourse analysis, the Frankfurt School, the sociology of knowledge and critical social psychology. 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 criticisms of socioconstructionism

Among other things socioconstructionism has been criticized for the tendency to discursive radicalization of a good part of its theories..

Broadly speaking, these criticisms 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 possibilities of action in the signification of the world? In the same sense, it has been criticized for excessive relativism that can sometimes make it difficult to assume or defend vindictive positions.

Finally, several decades after the emergence of this theoretical perspective, constructionism has had to adapt to 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 Network Actor Theory, Performativity, or some materialist and feminist positions.

Bibliographical references:

• Gosende, E. (2001). Between social constructionism and realism, a dead end? Subjectivity and Cognitive Processes, 1(1): 104-107.
• Iñiguez, L. (2005) New debates, new ideas and new practices in social psychology in the 'post-constructionist' era. Athenea Digital, 8: 1-7.
• Sandoval, J. (2004). Representation, discursivity and situated action: A critical introduction to the social psychology of knowledge. Chile: Universidad de Valparaíso.