What is Constructivism in Psychology?

This set of psychological theories talks about the way we learn from experience.

It is well 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 of psychology. there is no unifying theorythat is to say, a theoretical pillar on which all the knowledge extracted by researchers is based.

Instead, there are many schools of thought and approaches and starting points that are totally different and, to a large extent, contrary to each other. Constructivism is one such set of academic currents, and historically it has been of great importance, especially in educational psychology.especially in educational psychology. Let us see why.

The constructivist approach

It is quite 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 is closely related to postmodern thought. This philosophical constructivism emphasizes the interpretative component of everything we come to know, instead of stressing the importance of aspiring to 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 believe we know, and another radical constructivism according to which reality is, directly, the construction we make from our interpretations. That is, that reality, as we usually understand it, does not exist, because it is not independent of our thoughts and cannot be separated 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 deals with 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 a different type of questions, although, as we shall see, it has several similarities.although, as we shall see, it has several similarities with its philosophical relative.

Psychological constructivism: what is it?

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

In this way, the idea of "knowledge construction" used in psychology's constructivism is less abstract than that of its analog in educational psychology. than that of its analogue in philosophy, and its raison d'être lies 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 concrete problems (in particular).

Thus, constructivism in psychology can be defined as a set of theories and schools of thought. 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. an active role in which they create unique systems of meaning and whose value is not in and whose value is not in resembling reality more or less.

Two examples: Piaget and Vygotsky.

Among the researchers who are usually 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 driving force of knowledge creation from which learning develops is interaction with the environment (and, in the case of Vygotsky, with the society in which one 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 his understanding of childhood, a stage marked by the forced creation of meaning systems that, although they do not reflect reality at all well, are very useful to continue learning quickly from previous experiences. are very useful for continuing to learn quickly from previous experiences, which allows learning to exist in a very short period of time.which allows learning to exist. We may not live with reliable images of what is happening, but at least they allow us to deal correctly with the 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 set of very heterogeneous ideas that are only united by a very broad nexus that is quite complicated to delimit. In other words, the concept of constructivism in psychology is broader than that of the definitions of the typical psychological currents, such as behaviorism or behaviorism.such as behaviorism or cognitivism.

And, of course, it is perfectly possible that there are several theories that can be encompassed within constructivism and yet are hardly compatible with each other or that cannot even be connected through applied psychology. In the end, 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 constructivist psychology that isand there is nothing in the definition of constructivism that implies embracing various very specific commitments about what is to be done and how it is to be done.

Constructivism in 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 for the way in which constructivism points out that the value of the meaning systems we create to generate knowledge have value in their own right to move from being a purely scientific stance (and therefore useful for reaching certain goals) to a philosophical and moral stance without us even realizing it. 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 high position.

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 of grouping of theories that, because of its breadth, lies between philosophy and the currents of psychology.

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

In any case, using one or the other words to refer to the same thing, the important thing is that, in practice, constructivism has generated types of psychological and psycho-pedagogical interventions in which greater autonomy is given to students and patients, also promoting personalized treatment, which is necessary to understand the systems of meaning constructed by each individual. Of course, these contributions are not exempt from criticism, but it is clear that they have left a significant mark in the educational contexts of recent decades.