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06 May 09

Personal Construct Psychology, Constructivism, and Postmodern Thought

Epistemic values: justification vs subjective preferences

www.massey.ac.nz/...Construc.htm - Preview

Método y metódica Epistemología Constructivismo Positivismo

metatheory should be a theory that deals with the nature of theories, i.e., with
the nature of epistemic assumptions implicit in theory construction.
Metatheories are superordinate to the content of any particular theory, and
include two basic sets of assumptions on: (a) the nature of knowledge, and (b)
epistemic values.
As for the nature of knowledge, constructivist metatheory assumes that knowledge
is a hypothetical (i.e., anticipatory) construction.
17 more annotations...
- This constructivist epistemic assumption can be traced back to Kant's philosophy
  and to Popper's notion that no knowledge originates in pure observation, since
  every act of observation is theory laden (see Popper, 1974).
- explanations" (p. 135). Questions on epistemic values rarely arise in
  objectivist metatheory, since knowledge is viewed as a representation of reality
  and, consequently, explanations are chosen according to their truth value--i.e.,
  their correspondence with the external reality they represent. The objectivist
  conception of knowledge and truth are thus closely linked and, as noted by
  Mahoney (1991) imbued science with justificationism--the reliance on the
  authority of facts to justify a given knowledge claim. Later on in this paper I
  will discuss some significant shortcomings of both correspondence theory and
  justificationism as highlighted by constructivist theorists.
  
  Constructivism cannot rely on the original/copy correspondence metaphor,
  since it departs from a representational conception of knowledge. Justification
  by means of the authority of truth is then regarded as an illusion, a
  "never-achieved ideal or horizon-concept" (Howard, 1986, p. 134). This
  non-justificationist position leaves constructivist metatheory facing the task
  of articulating an alternative set of epistemic values, taking into account that
  values are, by definition, subjective preferences.
- ). Some constructivist theories have, nevertheless, incorporated epistemic
  values traditionally alien to scientific reasoning. For instance, narrative
  psychology and, to a certain degree, social constructionism, adopt aesthetic and
  rhetorical criteria to assess the quality of knowledge claims
- "varieties of constructivist experience".
- Radical constructivism as discussed by Maturana and Varela (1987), von Foerster
  (1984), and von Glaserfeld (1984), rejects the possibility of objective
  knowledge, since "all knowledge depends upon the structure of the knower" (
- Social constructionism (see Gergen, 1985) focuses explicitly on the role of
  social processes in the construction of meaning. Consequently, Gergen (1982,
  1985) rejected both exogenic and endogenic epistemologies. Endogenic
  epistemologies are those that emphasize the role of the individual mind in the
  construction of meaning, while exogenic epistemologies emphasize the role of
  external reality. Social constructionism places knowledge neither within
  individual minds nor outside them, but between people.
- While both radical constructivists and social constructionists share the
  critique to representation and justificationism, the latter prefers the term
  constructionism to emphasize their mutual differences. Hoffman (1991), aptly
  notes that, while radical constructivism tends to promote an image of the
  nervous system as a closed unity, social constructionism sees knowledge as
  arising in social interchange, and mediated through language.
- Developmental constructivism as originally discussed by Piaget (e.g., Piaget and
  Inhelder, 1969) and further elaborated by researchers of postformal development
  (e.g., Commons et al., 1989, 1990) also views knowledge as a proactive
  construction of the knowing organism. According to developmental constructivism
  (particularly Piaget's version of it), knowledge is an active construction of
  the knowing subject, triggered by the quest for equilibrium--i.e., by the
  cognitive system's need for order and stability.
- Parenthetically, Piaget's anti-empiricist argument is identical to the one
  discussed by the Spanish social constructionist Ibáñez (1992). Ibáñez notes that
  knowledge cannot logically be viewed as a representation or a copy of reality,
  since in order to know whether something is a good copy of something else we
  need to independently access both versions so as to compare them. However, how
  could we possibly have access to reality independently of our knowledge of it?
- Assimilation theory as originally proposed by Ausubel (1963, 1968) and further
  elaborated by Ausubel, Novak, and Hanesian (1978) represents an alternative
  constructivist approach to Piagetian ideas in educational psychology.
  Assimilation theory equates meaningful learning with the learner's deliberate
  effort to relate new knowledge to concepts he or she already possesses. Thus,
  learning is equated with meaning making instead of information processing,
  thereby emphasizing the proactive role of the learner's construction processes
  in the creation of new knowledge.
- In assimilation theory terms, the usefulness of a new concept depends on its
  being relatable to other concepts in the subject's knowledge system--i.e., its
  being assimilated
- Personal Construct Psychology (Kelly, 1955/1991) can be defined as a
  constructivist theory to the extent that one accepts the characterization of
  constructivist metatheory discussed above. Kelly's theory of personal constructs
  was the first attempt to devise a theory of personality and psychotherapy based
  on a formal model of the organization of human knowledge. Kelly's philosophy of
  constructive alternativism asserts that reality is subject to many alternative
  constructions, since it does not reveal to us directly but through the templets
  that we create and then attempt to fit over the world (Kelly, 1955/1991).
- Even this sketchy discussion of different constructivist theories shows some
  features of the contemporary constructivist scene that I will focus on in the
  next pages.
  
  First, not all of the constructivist approaches have the same theoretical
  status. Some of them constitute formal theoretical systems (e.g., PCP, Piaget's
  theory), while others are younger and, therefore, less developed.
- The awareness of multiplicity and of the impossibility to have a direct access
  to reality constitute core notions of constructivism and PCP. However,
  relativism, incredulity, ambivalence, and disbelief are not necessarily
  corollaries of these core notions. Hence a basic discrepancy between
  postmodernity and constructivism, to which I will go back later on
- Modernist epistemology found its more articulated expression three centuries
  later, in the program of the Vienna Circle. This selected group of philosophers
  and scientists contributed to renew the epistemic foundations of XIX century
  positivism by incorporating the logico-mathematical notions developed by Russell
  and Whitehead. Paradoxically, the Vienna Circle's attempt to elucidate the
  epistemic ground of scientific knowledge (particularly as carried out by Popper)
  contributed to literally cut this very ground from under science's feet. Again,
  the underlying theme in the raising of a postmodern consciousness echoes the
  notions of loss of faith (Polkinghorne, 1992), incredulity (Lyotard, 1993),
  ambivalence (Bauman, 1993), and disbelief (Anderson, 1990) towards the modernist
  program.
- How Postmodern is Constructivism?
  
  The main attempts to relate constructivist metatheory to postmodern thought
  come from social constructionist and narrative approaches (cf. Kvale, 1992a;
  McNamee and Gergen, 1992). Positivist views of scientific knowledge have been
  equated with modernist psychology (e.g., Gergen, 1992) and, consequently, their
  abandonment or overcoming has been termed postmodern psychology. Thus, since the
  main epistemic alternative to positivism is represented by constructivism, it is
  tempting to conclude
- In our interpretation, the constructivist framework insists that (1) everyone
  has personal preferences, (2) people are entitled to express those preferences,
  and (3) such choices should not be 'disguised' as objective truths or realities.
  For us, a 'truth' is a set of opinions widely shared. (p. 201).