PSYC 3125 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social Constructionism

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3125
• Professor: Alexandra Rutherford

Document Summary

To put present concerns, debates, practices, and findings in their historical context to gain perspective and understanding. To help us avoid reinventing the wheel when it isn"t necessary. Because it is a method for understanding psychological matters in their own right. The principles, theories, methods and history of historical writing. History has previously been written by external views, internal social workings of history are often ignored. Presentist: history is used to show that the author"s present position is the correct and best one, history is used to prove correctness/superiority of the present. Reflexivity: in psychology, it is the production of knowledge that has the potential to change how humans actually think about themselves. Social constructionism: the general view that knowledge is produced by/is a reflection of social processes, rather than the discovery of unchanging facts. In psychology, that social context influences the content and form of psychological knowledge.