Abstract

CASTANON, Gustavo Arja. Social construccionism: an epistemological critic. Temas psicol. [online]. 2004, vol.12, n.1, pp. 67-81. ISSN 1413-389X.

The influence of Postmodernism, on the development of contemporary Social Psychology was investigated through the analysis of a post-modern approach to Psychology, the Social Construccionism. The logical and philosophical validity of the following ontological and epistemological supposition of Social Construccionism were questioned: (1) social constructivism; (2) ontological anti-realism; (3) epistemological pessimism; (4) anti-fundacionism; (5) anti-representacionism; (6) object irregularity; (7) theoretical fragmentation; (8) partiality of scientific knowledge; (9) theoretical feedback; (10) epistemological pragmatism, and (11) anti-metodologism. It was concluded that this group of presuppositions is incompatible with the scientific activity. Such conclusion is a necessary derivation of a previous assumption: That we cannot give up the modern sense of the term science, a supposition that also applies for Psychology. The possibility of constitution of a postmodern Psychology is rejected as a contradiction of terms, and the need for a clear distinction between scientific Psychology and postmodern psychological theory is pointed out.

Keywords : Postmodernism; social construccionism; epistemology; social psychology; modern science.

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