Within psychology there are an infinity of concepts, aspects and ideas that it is necessary to be clear for their correct study and exercise. For example, you have surely heard of scientific psychology or sociogenesis, among many other concepts. As it can be somewhat complicated to differentiate and interconnect some of them, in this PsicologíaOnline article we are going to comment in depth on some of them, specifically the concepts of scientific psychology, sociogenesis, positivism and socio-constructivism.
Index
- What is sociogenesis
- Scientific psychology concept
- Positivism concept
- What is socio-constructionism
What is sociogenesis.
The Sociogenesis concept, unanimously, has been defined as the study of the social origin of psychology, that is, the influence of social factors on its constitution as a science and the way in which they influenced at the time, as well as continue to influence the different psychological perspectives. All this raised with a critical approach, questioning the approaches that have supported scientific psychology and raising the biases and assumed truths. Of relevance, interdisciplinarity and its criticality, as well as the promotion of a reflective stance regarding what has been given to us as absolute and true.
Scientific psychology concept.
Before entering into the concepts of Scientific Psychology, Positivism, Socioconstructivism, an attempt has been made to establish a definition of the Science concept.
The concept of science is, in itself, problematic and its discussion and in-depth analysis is a matter of the philosophy of science or epistemology. Several have been the definitions given in the debate in this regard, such as “... a way of acquiring and organize knowledge... ","... the most powerful tool we have to know why things like this happen in our world... as the only valid way that to date the human being has been able to create to interpret the phenomena that surround us and establish principles in order to organize our reality, avoiding possible subjectivity... ""... way of making generalizations based on investigations that are carried out through observations, analysis, comparisons, hypotheses, tests, experiments, etc... ""... the way of understanding ourselves and the world around us to acquire knowledge based on empirically demonstrable reasons... ""... as an activity that is strongly linked to the environment and the historical moment, as well as the scientist who performs activity... their values and beliefs, attitudes, perceptions of reality, strongly influence the direction of their work... ”.
There has also been talk of the "Club that proclaims itself to be an elite of thinkers", which imposes general rules - the scientific method - that determine and they circumscribe a trajectory to act in the context in which they are located, using a series of instruments created by themselves that legitimize them act like one.
As can be seen, basically, the answer to the question What is Science for you? has been what is a way to get the knowledge, who becomes a scientist and belongs to The science, when extracted from reality with precise methods and tools, integrating into a system of concepts, theories and laws: an ordered system of propositions derived from principles. Although it is clear that all knowledge links mental (subjective) procedures with practical (objective) activities, science seeks the predominance of the objective through congruent explanations, predictions and control of natural phenomena. Thus, scientific knowledge can be generalized and can be predicted. This knowledge will withstand confrontation with reality, discard metaphysical explanations, and use first-hand sources.
It is undeniable to think that science is an eternal idea, which can be considered with a permanent and eternal content of the world. The sciences are not eternal, but are themselves historical configurations. They are not uniform either, as there are very diverse contents, norms, institutions, etc ...
At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, in which new content and institutions began to conform, science appears in its modern sense, which is considered Science in the sense strict. Science comes to the fore during the 18th and 19th centuries, and in the twentieth century, will be recognized as a fundamental content of our world.
Positivism concept.
It is at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, when the Positivism, in a terrain fertilized by the technological changes of the Industrial Revolution, and the decay of the metaphysical and religious sense of knowledge. It is a doctrine that Comte summarizes through his Law of the Three Stages, marking the beginning of the Historicity of Human Knowledge. The term Positivism was used for the first time by Auguste Comte, however, some of the positivist concepts can be clearly pursued from Hume, Kant and Saint-Simon.
The general idea of the debate regarding Positivism has been that it does not admit as scientifically valid other knowledge, but those knowledge that comes from experience.
The fact is the only scientific reality and experience and induction the exclusive methods of Science. It privileges the experimental and statistical method as an element that guarantees the capture of reality in a pure way, excluding the participation of the scientist's subjectivity. What is not captured by the senses, which is not tangible, would be to do metaphysics. He conceives of "neutral" science, by eliminating subjectivity, the ideal scientist being the one who dispenses with his humanity.
As the most distinctive features of Positivism, the assumption of rationality, the attempt to measure everything, data as the maximum expression of scientific truth, the experimentation as sole judge, with a clear pragmatic orientation. As a central idea that science should use theories as instruments to predict observable phenomena and give up looking for explanations. Only the possibility of scientifically studying the facts, the phenomena, the data that can be experienced, the observable, the verifiable, in an attempt to define in the most objective way possible, regardless of the subjectivity of the researchers, of the origins and psychosocial conditions, using at all times the verification in the experience and in the observation of the phenomena.
This conception spread to all branches of knowledge, including social facts that are also treated as things.
Regarding the PsychologyOne of its biggest problems, as a particular discipline, has been that it lacks a natural and proper object, unanimous or at least widely accepted.
According to the concept of science, the claim to make scientific knowledge the only valid knowledge worthy of being considered as such is what has pushed Psychology to try to find a way to carry out its activity within the parameters accepted as scientists, such as the Positivism. In this context, the cultural and historical aspect, which we cannot deny, has disturbed psychology, and has caused confusion.
As Heidbreder E said: "At all times, especially in the United States, psychology has tried by all means to be science; and in principle, science refrains from all speculation not penetrated and consolidated by the facts. However, in all of psychological science there are not enough facts to found a single and solid system". ("Twentieth century psychologies", p. 17.).
Thus, the Psychology Scientist Positivist, which is instituted in terms of true knowledge as posited in the debate, has rejected any concept that does not come from experience, Being the made the only scientific reality. Through observation and experimentation, he tries to explain reality by formulating laws, establishing connections that are generalizable between variables, using the hypothetico-deductive method. One of the characteristics, in my opinion highly criticizable, of Positivist Scientific Psychology, is the fact that objects are denied social content. investigated, following the guide of scientific rationality for which there is no particularity and the concrete, in a search for explanations generalists.
It does not deal with emotions, motivations or consciousness, with an eminently subjective and unobservable weight, being eliminated as an object of study. All these eliminations can be interpreted as a means to establish a more "scientific" method. possible or as close to what is called "scientific" in its struggle to establish itself as science experimental.
As an example of positivist scientific psychology, the objective psychology of the Russian reflexology by Pavlov and Bekhterev, Throndike with the law of effect and his stimulus-response theory, Behaviorism A behaviorist would say: "what I cannot account for in empirically observable terms (scientifically) is not part of my inquiry as a scientist".
As an example, Watson affirmed the need to completely detach from concepts such as consciousness and mind because they lack sense in terms of the requirements of the scientific method and replace them with others that do meet them, such as the conduct; he said: "If psychology wants to become a science, it must follow the example of the physical sciences, that is, become materialistic, mechanistic, deterministic, and objective.". This way of studying behavior negates the really important factors in understanding human behavior, emptying the knowledge of reflection and turning it merely into a descriptive discipline with the sole purpose of being able to be applied.
From these sectors, typically positivists and experimentalists, the character of science is denied to the psychoanalysis (and its variants), existential-phenomenological psychology, comprehensive, humanistic and transpersonal. Everything that does not respond strictly to the scientific parameters of positivism, is qualified generically, from this particular perspective, as "speculative", "aprioristic", "non-empirical" and "not verifiable ".
There has been talk in the debate that it is "logical" to remain a positivist scientist, among others, for reasons of professional recognition and to be considered truly scientific. In positivism there are no hidden or non-measurable variables, so the scientists' union only admit these facts as true, with validity and reliability when the test can be repeated with the same results. Quantitative psychology is much simpler than qualitative, but human beings are not only composed of mathematical or logical and experimental systems, but they go much further. In this sense, there has been consensus.
What is socio-constructionism.
The Socioconstructionism, which is not presented in the article by Tomás Ibáñez, was defined by Kenneth Gergen as a “movement”, a set of elements theoreticians in progression, lax, open and with changing and imprecise contours, rather than as a strongly coherent theoretical doctrine and stabilized. It privileges its instituting dimension over its instituted dimension, its character of process over its character of a product, more or less finished.
Knowledge is not in the minds of individuals, nor are words the reflection of either the mind or a pre-existing nature. Following Gergen, “the main source of the words we use about the world lies in the social relationship. From this angle what we call knowledge is not the product of individual minds, but of social exchange; it is not the fruit of individuality but of interdependence”. (Gergen, 1989, p.19).
A) Yes, reality would be built on the meaningful interaction that human beings carry out and, for this reason, it moves away from Positivism that limits itself to using, as I have commented previously, a methodology based on observation, experimentation, contrasting, etc. This dynamically constructed reality is internalized by individuals through socialization. It introduces the historical factor and the interpretive character of the human being. Language as a powerful constructor of reality.
As has been made explicit in the debate and following Tomás Ibáñez, the constructionist perspective is that who rejects that reality is the one that dictates the discourses about reality and who selects those that are suitable. Knowledge is simply relative. Constructionism comes to dissolve the subject / object dichotomy, affirming that neither of these two entities exists properly independently of the other, they do not constitute separate entities, questioning the very concept of objectivity. Socioconstructionism emerges as a critical approach, concerned with how the predominant scientific determinism affects knowledge and invites us to reflect criticism, to change our lenses and to observe the world in a completely different way than we have been taught and breaking the characteristics of what institutionalized.
What we have highlighted the most from Ibáñez's article has been the critical argumentation that he realizes all the prevailing myths as well as his risky bet positioning himself in the most complex part. Offers new insights for science, with the recognition of subjectivity.
In general, all the components of the debate have positioned ourselves in favor of socio-constructionism.
By way of conclusion, there has been a general consensus on all the aspects raised in the debate.
We are immersed in a society that reinforces a more orthodox and rigid form of reasoning, so it is important that each individual begins to put on their own glasses. There is no single truth and only one way of seeing the world.
To enable this new approach, the socio-constructionist movement is perfect because it opens perspectives and looks broadly and critically.
The researcher is necessarily influenced by his environment, his beliefs, his values, his attitude, etc. The social fact or the historical character cannot be denied.
Finally, in my opinion, multidisciplinarity is essential and for this reason, Psychology should not ignore or renounce variables that are not demonstrable in an emipiric way in order to be equated with other sciences and thus obtain the title of "Science".
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