Social Constructionist Theory Essay

“From a postmodern/social constructionist perspective, individuals construct their own reality-based on languages and narratives passed on from culture to culture” (Nystul, p. 263, 2010). The metaphor used in social constructionist/postmodernist theory is textual as opposed to systemic. This textual metaphor says “people narrate their lives to create meaning using the social discourses available to them”(Becvar & Becvar, p.45, 2013), as opposed to the systemic metaphor that states, “a family is a system a group of individuals who were meeting meaning in their understanding of the world” (Becvar & Becvar, p.45, 2013).
Major Theorist “The origins of social constructionism can be traced in part to an interpretivist approach to thinking” (Andrew,
Not knowing, is a concept found in Collaborative Therapy n as a part of collaborative language systems, developed by Harlene Anderson and Harry Goolishian, where a therapist enters into every session without defined concepts of the way things should be (Guise, 2009). “Not-knowing refers to the attitude and belief that the therapist does not have access to privileged information, can never fully understand another person; and always needs to learn more about what has been said or not said… not-knowing means the therapist is humble about what he or she knows”(Anderson, p. 502, 2005). This concept has been the subject of controversy among Anderson and Goolishian’s colleges and many of them feel that the concept is undermining the therapist expertise (Anderson, 2005).
Impact on Marriage and Family Therapy
Social construction/postmodernism essentially turned the field of family therapy upside down. The basic premise of it challenges the “philosophic foundation on which MFT ideas and practices have been built” (Guise, p.14, 2009). The MFT model is based on a philosophy of modernism and the idea that truth is based on a known set of facts that can be seen or determined. Social construction/postmodernism however is based on a philosophy that suggests that there are no truths only points of view. This concept drastically changed the dynamics of family therapy (Guise, 2009).
Early feminist focused on gender as a source of inequality, but there with recognition of larger societal processes” (Beitin & Allen, p. 21, 2005). Social justice and inequality were not topics usually dealt with in cybernetic/systems focused therapies. Marriage and family therapy is based on the theory of systems and their methods. These methods focus on systems as opposed to individuals, and how the system is affected by internal factors such as intergenerational conflicts or differentiation issues (Beitin & Allen, 2005).
Social constructionism/postmodernism “challenge the concept that norms cannot be fairly established because these norms are created by one group within the society and do not fairly capture the lived experience of others in their society and even less so the reality of other groups or cultures” (Gehart, p. 48, 2014). By design social constructionism/postmodernism is set up to promote social justice through the various therapies and techniques used. This has had an overwhelming impact on most other therapies because it makes them cognizance of the issues with diversity (Gehart,