Family therapy

 
 

Social constructionism

Social constructionism and social constructivism are sociological theories of knowledge that consider how social phenomena or objects of consciousness develop in social contexts. A social construction (social construct) is a concept or practice that is the construct (or cultural artifact) of a particular group. When we say that something is socially constructed, we are focusing on its dependence on contingent variables of our social selves rather than any inherent quality that it possesses in itself. The underlying assumptions on which social constructivism is typically seen to be based are reality, knowledge, and learning.[1]

Social constructs are generally understood to be the by-products of countless human choices rather than laws resulting from divine will or nature. This is not usually taken to imply a radical anti-determinism, however. Social constructionism is usually opposed to essentialism, which instead defines specific phenomena in terms of inherent and transhistorical essences independent of conscious beings that determine the categorical structure of reality.[2]

A major focus of social constructionism is to uncover the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the construction of their perceived social reality. It involves looking at the ways social phenomena are created, institutionalized, known, and made into tradition by humans. The social construction of reality is an ongoing, dynamic process that is (and must be) reproduced by people acting on their interpretations and their knowledgeof it. Because social constructs as facets of reality and objects of knowledge are not "given" by nature, they must be constantly maintained and re-affirmed in order to persist. This process also introduces the possibility of change: what "justice" is and what it means shifts from one generation to the next.

Ian Hacking noted in "The Social Construction of What?" that social construction talk is often in reference not only to worldly items, like things and facts – but also to beliefs about them.[3] It is relevant to note that this perspective is often correctly closely connected with many contemporary theories, perhaps most notably the developmental theories of Lev Vygotsky and Jerome Bruner.[1]

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Social constructionism vs. social constructivism edit | edit sourceAlthough both social constructionism and social constructivism deal with ways in which social phenomena develop, they are distinct. Social constructionism refers to the development of phenomena relative to social contexts while social constructivism refers to an individual's making meaning of knowledge within a social context (Vygotsky 1978). For this reason, social constructionism is typically described as a sociological concept whereas social constructivism is typically described as a psychological concept. However, while distinct, they are also complementary aspects of a single process through which humans in society create their worlds and, thereby, themselves.Social constructivism has been studied by many educational psychologists, who are concerned with its implications for teaching and learning. For more on the psychological dimensions of social constructivism, see the work of Ernst von Glasersfeld and A. Sullivan Palincsar.[4]Constructionism became prominent in the U.S. with Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann's 1966 book, The Social Construction of Reality. Berger and Luckmann argue that all knowledge, including the most basic, taken-for-granted common sense knowledge of everyday reality, is derived from and maintained by social interactions. When people interact, they do so with the understanding that their respective perceptions of reality are related, and as they act upon this understanding their common knowledge of reality becomes reinforced. Since this common sense knowledge is negotiated by people, human typifications, significations and institutions come to be presented as part of an objective reality, particularly for future generations who were not involved in the original process of negotiation. For example, as parents negotiate rules for their children to follow, those rules confront the children as externally produced "givens" that they cannot change. Berger and Luckmann's social constructionism has its roots in phenomenology. It links to Heidegger and Edmund Husserl through the teaching of Alfred Schutz, who was also Berger's PhD adviser.During the 1970s and 1980s, social constructionist theory underwent a transformation as constructionist sociologists engaged with the work of Michel Foucault and others as a narrative turn in the social sciences was worked out in practice. This had a particular impact on the emergent sociology of science and the growing field of science and technology studies. In particular, Karin Knorr-Cetina, Bruno Latour, Barry Barnes, Steve Woolgar, and others used social constructionism to relate what science has typically characterized as objective facts to the processes of social construction, with the goal of showing that human subjectivity imposes itself on those facts we take to be objective, not solely the other way around. A particularly provocative title in this line of thought is Andrew Pickering's Constructing Quarks: A Sociological History of Particle Physics. At the same time, Social Constructionism shaped studies of technology - the Sofield, especially on the Social construction of technology, or SCOT, and authors as Wiebe Bijker, Trevor Pinch, Maarten van Wesel, etc.[5][6] Despite its common perception as objective, mathematics is not immune to social constructionist accounts. Sociologists such as Sal Restivo and Randall Collins, mathematicians including Reuben Hersh and Philip J. Davis, and philosophers including Paul Ernest have published social constructionist treatments of mathematics.Social constructionism and postmodernismedit | edit sourceSocial constructionism can be seen as a source of the postmodern movement, and has been influential in the field of cultural studies. Some have gone so far as to attribute the rise of cultural studies (the cultural turn) to social constructionism. Within the social constructionist strand of postmodernism, the concept of socially constructed reality stresses the on-going mass-building of worldviews by individuals in dialectical interaction with society at a time. The numerous realities so formed comprise, according to this view, the imagined worldsof human social existence and activity, gradually crystallised by habit into institutions propped up by languageconventions, given ongoing legitimacy by mythology, religion and philosophy, maintained by therapies and socialization, and subjectively internalised by upbringing and education to become part of the identity of social citizens.

Postmodern psychology

Postmodern psychology is an approach to psychology that questions whether an ultimate or singular version of truth is actually possible within its field.

It also challenges the modernist view of psychology as the science of the individual,[1] in favour of seeing man as a cultural/communal product, dominated by language rather than by an inner self.[2]

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Postmodern psychology relies on using a range of different methodologies rather than a singular approach, to embrace the complexity of reality and avoid oversimplification. Post-modernism challenges a systematic, analytical approach to the understanding of the human psyche, as inherently flawed by the impossibility of taking a detached, 'objective' position; and favours instead a transmutable position which may maintain the possibility of taking conceptual hold of a self that is itself decentered.[3]Some would maintain that the very project of a postmodern psychology is self-contradictory,[4] in the wake of the deconstruction of the unified self[5] - the fading or aphanisis of the subject that psychology is traditionally supposed to investigate.[6]Tetrad and transmodernedit | edit sourcePostmodern psychology has also been linked to the Tetrad of Marshall McLuhan:[7] "Tetradic logic" supposedly allowing us to accept knowing without knowing in the context of changingness.Paul Vitz refers to yet a further development, that of "transmodern" psychology, as a "new mentality that both transcends and transforms modernity ... (where) psychology would be the handmaid of philosophy and theology, as from the beginning it was meant to be"[8] - aspiring to cure mental problems through integrated intervention into the human mind and body combined.

See alsoedit | edit sourceM. C. EscherKenneth J. GergenG. H. MeadVygotskyCritical theoryIdentity politicsPostpositivismSocial constructivismReferencesedit | edit source↑ S. Kvale ed., Psychology and Postmodernism(1992) p. 40↑ L. Holtzman/J. R. Moss eds., Postmodern Psychologies, Societal Practice and Political Life(2000) p. 179↑ J. Childers/G. Hentzi eds., The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (1995) p. 71-2↑ Kvale, p. 201↑ G. Gutting ed., The Cambridge Companion to Foucault (2007) p. 340↑ Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis (1994) p. 207-8↑ The Tryptic Tetrad↑ Paul C. Vitz, "Psychology in Recover," First Things(March 2005)External linksedit | edit sourcehttp://www.postmodernpsychology.com/Postmodern psychology

Narrative theory

Narrative therapy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to searchMichael WhiteNarrative therapyMeSHD062525[edit on Wikidata]

Narrative therapy is a form of psychotherapy that seeks to help patients identify their values and the skills associated with them. It provides the patient with knowledge of their ability to live these values so they can effectively confront current and future problems. The therapist seeks to help the patient co-author a new narrative about themselves by investigating the history of those values. Narrative therapy claims to be a social justice approach to therapeutic conversations, seeking to challenge dominant discourses that it claims shape people's lives in destructive ways. While narrative work is typically located within the field of family therapy, many authors and practitioners report using these ideas and practices in community work, schools and higher education.[1][2]Narrative therapy has come to be associated with collaborative as well as person-centered therapy.[3][page needed]

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History[edit]

Narrative therapy was developed during the 1970s and 1980s, largely by Australian social worker Michael White and David Epston of New Zealand,[4][5] and it was influenced by the work of philosopher Michel Foucault.[4][6]

Conversation maps[edit]

Re-authoring identity[edit]

The narrative therapist focuses upon assisting people to create stories about themselves, about their identities, that are helpful to them. This work of "re-authoring identity" helps people identify their values and identify the skills and knowledge to live out these values by way of the therapist's skilled use of listening and questioning.[7] Through the process of identifying the history of values in people's lives, the therapist and client are able to co-author a new story about the person.[8]:24

The story people tell about themselves and that is told about them is important in this approach, which asserts that the story of a person's identity may determine what they think is possible for themselves. The narrative process allows people to identify what values are important to them and how they might use their own skills and knowledge to live these values.[8]:36

This includes a focus on "unique outcomes" (a term of Erving Goffman) or exceptions to the problem that wouldn't be predicted by the problem's narrative or story itself.[citation needed]

Externalizing conversations[edit]

The concept of identity is important in narrative therapy. The approach aims not to conflate people's identities with the problems they may face or the mistakes they have made. Rather, the approach seeks to avoid modernist, essentialist notions of the self that lead people to believe there is a biologically determined "true self" or "true nature". Instead, identity, seen as primarily social, can be changed according to the choices people make.[9][page needed]

To separate people's identities from the problems they face, narrative therapy employs externalizing conversations. The process of externalization allows people to consider their relationships with problems; thus the narrative motto: "The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem."[4][page needed] A person's strengths or positive attributes also are externalized, allowing people to engage in the construction and performance of preferred identities.[citation needed]

An externalizing emphasis involves naming a problem so that a person can assess the problem's effects in their life, can analyze how the problem operates or works in their life, and in the end can choose their relationship to the problem.[citation needed]

"Statement of Position Map"[edit]

In a narrative approach, the therapist aims to adopt a collaborative therapeutic posture rather than imposing ideas on people by giving them advice. Michael White developed a conversation map called a "Statement of Position Map" designed to elicit the client's own evaluation of the problems and developments in their lives. Both the therapist and the client are seen as having valuable information relevant to the process and the content of the therapeutic conversation. By adopting a posture of curiosity and collaboration, the therapist aims to give the implicit message to people that they already have knowledge and skills to solve the problems they face. When people develop solutions to their own problems on the basis of their own values, they may become much more committed to implementing these solutions.[10]

Re-membering practice[edit]

Narrative therapy identifies that identities are social achievements and the practice of re-membering draws closer those who support a person's preferred story about themselves and dis-engages those that do not support the person.[clarification needed][citation needed]

Absent but implicit[edit]

Drawing the work of Jacques Derrida, Michael White was curious about the values that were implicit in people's pain, sense of failure and actions.[citation needed] Often people only feel pain or failure in relation to their values, how they would prefer their relationships or life to be. Further, often there are stalled initiatives that people take in life that also are guided by implicit values.

Outsider witnesses map[edit]

In this particular narrative practice or conversation, outsider witnesses are invited listeners to a consultation.[citation needed] Often they are friends of the consulting person or past clients of the therapist who have their own knowledge and experience of the problem at hand. During the first interview, between therapist and consulting person, the outsider listens without comment.

Then the therapist interviews them with the instructions not to critique or evaluate or make a proclamation about what they have just heard, but instead to simply say what phrase or image stood out for them, followed by any resonances between their life struggles and those just witnessed. Lastly, the outsider is asked in what ways they may feel a shift in how they experience themselves from when they first entered the room.[11]

Next, in similar fashion, the therapist turns to the consulting person, who has been listening all the while, and interviews them about what images or phrases stood out in the conversation just heard and what resonances have struck a chord within them.

In the end, an outsider witness conversation is often rewarding for witnesses. But for the consulting person the outcomes are remarkable: they learn they are not the only one with this problem, and they acquire new images and knowledge about it and their chosen alternate direction in life. The main aim of the narrative therapy is to engage in people's problems by providing the alternative best solution.[citation needed]

Therapeutic documents[edit]

Narrative therapy embodies a strong appreciation for the creation and use of documents, as when a person and a counsellor co-author "A Graduation from the Blues Certificate", for example.[12] In some instances, case notes are created collaboratively with clients to provide documentation as well as markers of progress.

Social-political therapeutic approach[edit]

A strong awareness of the impact of power relations in therapeutic conversations, with a commitment to checking back with the client about the effects of therapeutic styles in order to mitigate the possible negative effect of invisible assumptions or preferences held by the therapist.[13] There is also an awareness of how social narratives such as femininity and masculinity can be corrupted and negatively influence peoples identities.[8]:23–38

Eating disorders[edit]

Narrative therapy has made numerous contributions to the field of eating disorders. David Epston, Stephen Madigan and Catrina Brown have made the most significant contribution to bringing a depathologizing approach to this issue.[8][page needed]

Men and domestic violence[edit]

Narrative therapy has also been applied to work with men who abuse their female partners. Alan Jenkins and Tod Augusta-Scott have been the most prolific in this field. They integrated a social-political analysis of the violence, while at the same time engaging men in a respectful, collaborative manner.[8][page needed][14][page needed]

Community work[edit]

Narrative therapy has also been used in a variety of community settings. In particular, an exercise called "Tree of Life" has been used to mobilize communities to act according to their own values.[15]

Criticisms[edit]

See also: Psychotherapy § General critiques

There have been several formal criticisms of narrative therapy over what are viewed as its theoretical and methodological inconsistencies, among various other concerns.[16][17][18]

  • Narrative therapy has been criticised as holding to a social constructionist belief that there are no absolute truths, but only socially sanctioned points of view, and that Narrative therapists simply privilege their client's concerns over and above "dominating" cultural narratives.[17][19]

  • Several critics have posed concerns that narrative therapy has made gurus of its leaders, particularly in the light that its leading proponents tend to be overly harsh about most other kinds of therapy.[17][19]

  • Narrative therapy is also criticized for the lack of clinical and empirical studies to validate its many claims.[20] Etchison & Kleist (2000) stated that narrative therapy's focus on qualitative outcomes is not congruent with larger quantitative research and findings which the majority of respected empirical studies employ today. This has led to a lack of research material which can support its claims of efficacy.[20]

See also[edit]

Theoretical foundations

Related types of therapy

Other related concepts

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Winslade, John; Monk, Gerald (2000). Narrative Mediation: A New Approach to Conflict Resolution. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0787941921. OCLC 42598442.

  2. ^ Nylund, David; Tilsen, Julie (December 2006). "Pedagogy and praxis: postmodern spirit in the classroom". Journal of Systemic Therapies. 25 (4): 21–31. doi:10.1521/jsyt.2006.25.4.21.

  3. ^ Malinen, Tapio; Cooper, Scot J.; Thomas, Frank N., eds. (2012). Masters of Narrative and Collaborative Therapies: The Voices of Andersen, Anderson, and White. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203806999. ISBN 9780789038258. OCLC 703208854.

  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c White, Michael; Epston, David (1990). Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393700984. OCLC 20828023.

  5. ^ Payne, Martin (2015). "Narrative therapy". In Nelson-Jones, Richard (ed.). Nelson-Jones' Theory and Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy (6th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications. pp. 360–382. ISBN 9781446295564. OCLC 897445861.

  6. ^ Combs, Gene; Freedman, Jill (October 2012). "Narrative, poststructuralism, and social justice: current practices in narrative therapy". The Counseling Psychologist. 40 (7): 1033–1060. doi:10.1177/0011000012460662. ISSN 0011-0000.

  7. ^ Bavelas, Janet B.; Coates, Linda; Johnson, Trudy (December 2000). "Listeners as co-narrators". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 79 (6): 941–952. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.79.6.941. PMID 11138763.

  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Brown, Catrina; Augusta-Scott, Tod, eds. (2007). Narrative Therapy: Making Meaning, Making Lives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 1412909872. OCLC 64688794.

  9. ^ White, Michael (2007). Maps of Narrative Practice. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 139. ISBN 9780393705164. OCLC 76792066.

  10. ^ White, Michael (1995). Re-Authoring Lives: Interviews & Essays. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications. p. 39. ISBN 9780646227351. OCLC 34403483.

  11. ^ White, Michael (2004). Narrative Practice and Exotic Lives: Resurrecting Diversity in Everyday Life. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications. p. 15. ISBN 9780957792999. OCLC 60583048.

  12. ^ Payne, Martin (2006). Narrative Therapy: An Introduction for Counsellors (2nd ed.). London; Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. p. 106. doi:10.4135/9781446213322. ISBN 9781412920124. OCLC 62178252.

  13. ^ Madigan, Stephen (2019). Narrative Therapy. Theories of Psychotherapy Series (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. p. 81. doi:10.1037/0000131-000. ISBN 9781433829864. OCLC 1056201760.

  14. ^ Augusta-Scott, Tod; Scott, Katreena; Tutty, Leslie M., eds. (2017). Innovations in Interventions to Address Intimate Partner Violence: Research and Practice. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315532776. ISBN 9781138692268. OCLC 948558557.

  15. ^ Denborough, David (2014). Retelling the Stories of Our Lives: Everyday Narrative Therapy to Draw Inspiration and Transform Experience. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 11–21. ISBN 9780393708158. OCLC 855507198.

  16. ^ Fish, Vincent (July 1993). "Poststructuralism in family therapy: interrogating the narrative/conversatinal mode". Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. 19 (3): 221–232. doi:10.1111/j.1752-0606.1993.tb00983.x.

  17. ^ Jump up to: a b c Minuchin, Salvador (October 1998). "Where is the family in narrative family therapy?". Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. 24 (4): 397–403. doi:10.1111/j.1752-0606.1998.tb01094.x. PMID 9801999.

  18. ^ Madigan, Stephen (March 1996). "The politics of identity: considering community discourse in the externalizing of internalized problem conversations". Journal of Systemic Therapies. 15 (1): 47–62. doi:10.1521/jsyt.1996.15.1.47.

  19. ^ Jump up to: a b Doan, Robert E. (Fall 1998). "The king is dead; long live the king: narrative therapy and practicing what we preach". Family Process. 37 (3): 379–385. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.1998.00379.x. PMID 9879006.

  20. ^ Jump up to: a b Etchison, Mary; Kleist, David M. (January 2000). "Review of narrative therapy: research and utility". The Family Journal. 8 (1): 61–66. doi:10.1177/1066480700081009.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychotherapy

https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Neuroconstructivism