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Social constructionism: An Academic Paradigm

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Social constructionism is an academic paradigm, what are its basic tenets and is it supported or refuted by the insights of the psychology of perception?

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Social constructionism is an academic paradigm. This solution discusses its basic tenets and if it is supported or refuted by the insights of the psychology of perception?.

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Social constructionism or social constructivism is a sociological theory of knowledge based on Hegel's ideas, and developed by Durkheim at the turn of the century. It became prominent in the U.S. with Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann's 1966 book, The Social Construction of Reality. The focus of social constructionism and the basic tenets are:

1. Focus: To uncover the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the creation of their perceived reality.
2. It involves looking at the ways social phenomena are created, institutionalized, and made into tradition by humans.
3. Socially constructed reality is seen as an active ongoing, dynamic process
4. Reality is re-produced by people acting on their interpretations and their knowledge of it
5. Thus, reality is socially constructed.

For example, Berger and Luckmann argue that all knowledge, including the most basic, taken-for-granted common sense knowledge of everyday reality, is derived from and maintained by social interactions. When ...

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