ABSTRACT

If we take on board the social constructionist arguments concerning the nature of personhood, the role of language in identity, subjectivity and social life, the relationship between the individual and society, and the historical and cultural specificity of traditional psychology and social psychology, it becomes evident that the aims and practices of social enquiry must be transformed radically. We cannot investigate the psychological and social world using our old assumptions and practices, because their focus on internal psychic structures and processes such as attitudes and personality traits is inappropriate. We must also build into our new practices of scientific enquiry our understanding of how the ‘knowledge’ produced within the traditional scientific paradigm is a function of a power imbalance between researchers and the objects of their study. Above all, our new research practices must take language as their focus of interest, since the uses and effects of language are of central importance to social constructionists.