The social constructionist movement in modern psychology.
Abstract
Recent decades have been marked by a steadily increasing emphasis on neural determinants of behavior.Concerns with socio-cultural processes have simultaneously been diminished.Given the significance of this shift toward a cortical explanation of human behavior-in terms of both the direction of research in psychology and the implications of this research for social practices and policy-critical reflection is essential.In particular, when significant conceptual flaws are brought into focus, we find good reason to reconsider the significance of sociocultural process.And, when we take into account major vistas of neuropsychological research, the conclusion becomes evident that not only is human action unintelligible in terms of neural activity, but the brain primarily functions in the service of cultural process.To be sure, cortical functioning may both enable and limit human activity.However, given the enormous variation in human conduct, and the dependency of such conduct on the generation of cultural meaning, the most promising conclusion, both for research and for societal practice, is to view the brain chiefly as an instrument for achieving socially originated ends.This is not to argue against inquiry into brain functioning, but to be more judicious about the domains of its utility, and critical in terms of what it offers for understanding human action. KEY WORDS: neural determinants of behavior
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Constructionist methodologies are more likely to explain voluntaristic action.
“Approaches to understanding voluntaristic action are, we suggest, more likely to be found in constructionist methodologies (Berger and Luckmann, 1967;Gergen, 1985), which seek to find explanations in how people meaningfully regard their actions.”
From ‘Relationships Mean Everything’; A Typology of Small–Business Relationship Strategies in a Reflexive Context (2002) · cites this paper as Gergen, 1985
Cites
The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception
Bornstein, M. H., & Gibson, J. J. (1980) · The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism · doi:10.2307/429816 · Cited by 22,935 · see citing works
Austin, J. L. (1975) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198245537.001.0001 · Cited by 21,496 · see citing works
A theory of social comparison processes
Festinger, L. (1954) · Human Relations · doi:10.1177/001872675400700202 · Cited by 20,926 · see citing works
On the psychology of prediction.
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1973) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/h0034747 · Cited by 6,202 · see citing works
The Endophenotype Concept in Psychiatry: Etymology and Strategic Intentions
Gottesman, I. I., & Gould, T. D. (2003) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.160.4.636 · Cited by 5,615 · see citing works
Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others
Singer, T., Seymour, B., O'Doherty, J. P., Stephan, K. E., Dolan, R. J., & Frith, C. D. (2006) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature04271 · Cited by 1,726 · see citing works
Romantic love: an fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice.
Fisher, H., Aron, A., & Brown, L. L. (2005) · Journal of Comparative Neurology · doi:10.1002/cne.20772 · Cited by 396 · see citing works
Psychological science in cultural context
Gergen, K. J., Gulerce, A., Lock, A., & Misra, G. (1996) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.51.5.496 · Cited by 370 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Meyer, I. H. (2003) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.5.674 · Cited by 14,736 · see citing works
Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method
Jørgensen, M., & Phillips, L. (2002) · doi:10.4135/9781849208871 · Cited by 4,118 · see citing works
What do people think they're doing? Action identification and human behavior.
Vallacher, R. R., & Wegner, D. M. (1987) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.94.1.3 · Cited by 1,802 · see citing works
Evolutionary Personality Psychology
Buss, D. M. (1991) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.42.020191.002331 · Cited by 930 · see citing works
Bibri, S. E., & Krogstie, J. (2017) · Sustainable Cities and Society · doi:10.1016/j.scs.2016.11.004 · Cited by 296 · see citing works
Miller, K. E., Kulkarni, M., & Kushner, H. (2006) · American Journal of Orthopsychiatry · doi:10.1037/0002-9432.76.4.409 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
Community Science, Philosophy of Science, and the Practice of Research
Tebes, J. K. (2005) · American Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1007/s10464-005-3399-x · Cited by 151 · see citing works
Cultural Bases for Self-Evaluation: Seeing Oneself Positively in Different Cultural Contexts
Becker, M., Vignoles, V. L., Owe, E., Easterbrook, M. J., Brown, R., Smith, P. B., Bond, M. H., Regalia, C., Manzi, C., Brambilla, M., et al. (2014) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167214522836 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Positive Psychology and the Illness Ideology: Toward a Positive Clinical Psychology
Maddux, J. E. (2008) · Applied Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1464-0597.2008.00354.x · Cited by 113 · see citing works
Ekkekakis, P. (2009) · International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology · doi:10.1080/17509840902829323 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Olympic and international level sports coaches’ experiences of stressors, appraisals, and coping
Didymus, F. F. (2017) · Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health · doi:10.1080/2159676x.2016.1261364 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Why involve families in acute mental healthcare? A collaborative conceptual review
Dirik, A., Sandhu, S., Giacco, D., Barrett, K., Bennison, G., Collinson, S., & Priebe, S. (2017) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017680 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Whither environmental psychology? The transpersonal ecopsychology crossroads
Reser, J. P. (1995) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/0272-4944(95)90006-3 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Relational ethics and epistemology: The case for complementary first principles in psychology
Hopner, V., & Liu, J. H. (2021) · Theory & Psychology · doi:10.1177/0959354320974103 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Pain communication: An agenda for communication researchers
Hintz, E. A. (2020) · Annals of the International Communication Association · doi:10.1080/23808985.2020.1843368 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Kelly, A., Nel, P. W., & Nolte, L. (2016) · European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling · doi:10.1080/13642537.2016.1214160 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Moving Beyond Residential School Trauma Abuse: A Phenomenological Hermeneutic Analysis
Dionne, D., & Nixon, G. (2014) · International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction · doi:10.1007/s11469-013-9457-y · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Watson, P. J., & Culhane, S. E. (2005) · Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1007/s10942-005-0003-0 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Fuller, T., & Lewis, J. (2002) · British Journal of Management · doi:10.1111/1467-8551.00249 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
- Authors
- Gergen, K. J.
- Corresponding author
- Gergen, Kenneth J.
- ORCID
- Gergen, Kenneth J.
- Venue
- American Psychologist
- Published
- 1985-03
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 266-275
- ISSN
- 0003-066X (ISSN-L)
- 1935-990X
- OpenAlex
- W2157525610
- Cited by
- 3,987
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 50 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 54 · 2023: 54 · 2022: 105 · 2021: 124 · 2020: 199 · 2019: 138 · 2018: 122 · 2017: 135 · 2016: 128 · 2015: 175 · 2014: 167 · 2013: 144 · 2012: 163
- FWCI
- 53.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Psychologist (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › General Psychology › Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Representations and Identity
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Keywords
- social constructionism, sociocultural processes, brain and culture, human action, neuropsychology, cultural meaning, critique of neuroscience, social policy implications
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
