Social Constructionism

Antecedents of Social Constructionism

While social constructionism as a formal philosophical system sprang to life in the 1960s, earlier theoretical approaches helped to pave the way for social constructionism as a viable method of reasoning and argumentation. The theory of social constructionism traces its origins to the work of Max Schiller in the 1920s, whose “sociology of knowledge” promoted the understanding of reality as a social construct. The sociology of knowledge focuses on demonstrating ways thought can be viewed as a social product in which ideas, values, and attitudes stem from social and historical situations.

Even before the term sociology of knowledge was coined, there was ample philosophical precedent for the development of a scientific approach that explored the social context of thought processes. Karl Marx, for instance, seemed to be very much concerned with the nature of knowledge. Marx proposed that social being and consciousness are inextricably linked to one another and believed that human consciousness is rooted in the ways people experience social relationships.

Social psychologist George Herbert Mead was an early pioneer of the philosophical approach known as symbolic interactionism, which is thought to have influenced the development of [Page 1624]social constructionism. Symbolic interactionism contends that meanings are in fact social phenomena that derive their interpretations from subjective human experience. Symbolic interaction was later taken up by the pragmatists, notably Paul Watzlawick, who argues that a whole assortment of human interactions, situations, and social systems arise from patterns of human communication. Watzlawick’s work provides a scientific understanding of ways communication can lead to pathological behavior. Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychoanalysis, had earlier expressed a similar belief. Freud understood that neurosis appears to be the result of hidden psychological mechanisms that interfere with people’s ability to recognize the effect of their early personal experiences on their overall perception of reality. Freud depended on his patients remembering and communicating about those experiences. Freud believed that language is critical to a psychotherapeutic method in both unlocking memory and gaining insight into people’s motivations. By drawing together scientific and philosophical technique, Freud established a discipline of psychoanalysis that depended on scientific inquiry blended with philosophical analysis. Among other key findings in his investigations, Freud acknowledged that people do not live independently of their needs. These needs, whether fulfilled or unfulfilled, generate the situations in which people exist and largely act as the motivations behind people’s behavior.

...