title: Social construction: vistas in clinical child and adolescent psychology.
abstract: We explore here the potentials of a social constructionist orientation to knowledge for research and clinical practice. Dialogues on social construction emphasize the communal origins of knowledge. They stress the cultural basis of knowledge claims, the significance of language, the value saturation of all knowledge, and the significance of relationships as opposed to individuals. An initial illustration of constructionism in action centers on adolescent risk behavior. Such behavior is often constructed negatively within popular writings and the social science and thus ignores the meaning of such actions to the adolescents themselves. Discourse analysis indicates that for adolescents risky behavior serves important functions of enhancing group solidarity and establishing positive identity. A second illustration, exploring the implications of constructionism for therapy, places a strong emphasis on the therapist as a collaborator in the building of meaning. Traditional investments in diagnosis and treatment are replaced with the collaborative creation of new possibilities for action.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081, USA. kgergen1@swarthmore.edu
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Gergen
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lightfoot
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sydow
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D003071:Cognition; D003469:Culture; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007802:Language; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior