This book examines social constructionism as a metatheory of
psychology. It does not consider constructionist accounts of
psycho-social phenomena, but it does assess certain assumptions
which are said to underpin those accounts, assumptions which are
primarily semantic and epistemological. The first part of the book
explains why the charges of relativism and self-refutation leveled
at social constructionism miss their target, and it considers a
constructionist attempt to defend the metatheory by appropriating
the concept of performative utterances. The second part of the book
challenges the generally accepted view that social constructionism
is antithetical to positivist philosophy of science. This is done
via an examination of the doctrine of conventionalism, constitutive
relations, dualism, Wittgenstein's meaning-as-use thesis,
verificationism, operationism, linguistic phenomenalism, and Kant's
limitations of human knowledge. It is shown that, in certain
respects, these topics unite social constructionism with its bAate
noire logical positivism, and that psychology's repeated
endorsement of these ideas hinders the development of a rigorous
psycho-social science. The book ends with a brief, speculative
section in which it is suggested that the skepticism and
internalism of social constructionist metatheory is an unconscious
strategy of survival against failure.
Fiona J. Hibberd is lecturer in the School of Psychology,
University of Sydney. She specializes in the history, theory and
philosophy of psychology, and in theories of personality, and has
published in theoretical journals in the social sciences.
General
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