社会建构论与心理学理论的未来发展

Social Constructionism and the Future of Theoretical Research in Psychology

社会建构论是当代西方心理学中的一股重要学术思潮。它认为知识不是一种科学发现,而是一种社会建构。知识的生产过程不是个体理性决定的,而是一种文化历史的过程,是社会协商和互动的结果。有关心理现象的分类、心理活动的形式方面的知识都是一定文化历史条件的产物。从社会建构论的视角看心理学的研究成果会有许多新的收获。从社会建构论的观点来看,理论不是经验事实的概括和抽象,而是一种社会建构。理论先于经验观察,也高于经验观察,这种观点将理论建构置于经验工作之首,为心理学理论的未来发展开辟了全新的视角。

Social contructionism is an important academic movement in psychology in Western countries. Social contructionism claims that what we take to be knowledge of the world and our selves is not the discovery we make, nor is it a product of induction or the testing of general hypotheses, instead, it is a social construction, and takes place in historically situated interchanges among people. Traditionally, psychological science was based on three assumptions： the centrality of individual rationality, the determination of experiential observation and language as a truthful representation. Social constructionism, instead, criticizes the three modernist assumptions, and has brought three transformations into psychological science： （i） from individual reason to communal rhetoric. The individual deemed rational only if he or she has taken the language or discourse common to his or her particular culture at a particulartimes. （ii） from experiential observation to social construction. Because observation always loaded with theory, the observation does not guarantee what we get is a truth. Therefore, we should take the world as the socially constructed. （iii） from a language as a truthful picture to a language as a action. Language does not mirror or map the reality, instead, language constructs the reality and language also has effects on social practices. From the point view of social constructionism, theory is not a product of experiential induction, nor does theory come from observation. Theory, as social constructionism suggested; is a social construction, which has enormous implications for the future of theoretical rsearch. As a social construction, theory comes before observation, and all the observations are confined by theory. Just because theory is a product of cultural construction, theory is different in different culture at different historical periods, which also means theoretical research in psychology is not value-free science. It is value-loaded and serves the society and culture where it is grounded. As a social construction, not only does theory serve the function of rethinking and criticism, theory also has the power of action, it does has effects on psychological research.