DOCSLIB.ORG

Bridging Constructivism and Social Constructionism: a Dialogical and Relational Approach to Narrative and Meaning Making

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Bridging Constructivism and Social Constructionism: a Dialogical and Relational Approach to Narrative and Meaning Making Bridging Constructivism and Social Constructionism: A Dialogical And Relational Approach To Narrative And Meaning Making Berta Vall Castelló Supervisor: Dr. Lluís Botella García del Cid Image from the title page: it has been created with the Wordle application. This application generates a cloud with the words that appear in one specific section of the text (in our case the introduction section). Following a similar rationale than the one used in the Grounded Theory, the words that appear the most in the text are seen in a bigger size in the cloud of words and vice versa. Since words are the basis of this thesis, we thought that this title page would be the most appropriate. Taking a look at the picture it is possible to figure out a first taste of our own narrative regarding research. TESI DOCTORAL Tittle: Bridging Constructivism And Social Constructionism: A Dialogical And Relational Approach To Narrative And Meaning Making 90) - 02 - úm. 472 (28 472 úm. Written by Berta Vall in the Faculty of Psychology, Educational and Sport Ciencies. Ramón Llull University in the Department of Psychology Supervised by Dr. Lluís Botella García del Cid C.I.F. G: 59069740 Universitat Ramon Lull Fundació Privada. Rgtre. Fund. Generalitat de Catalunya n Catalunya de Generalitat Fund. Rgtre. Privada. Fundació Lull Ramon Universitat 59069740 G: C.I.F. C. Claravall, 1-3 08022 Barcelona Tel. 936 022 200 Fax 936 022 249 E-mail: [email protected] www.url.es Bridging Constructivism and Social Constructionism: A Dialogical and Relational Approach to Narrative and Meaning Making Doctoral Dissertation Berta Vall Castelló July 2013 FPCEE Blanquerna Universitat Ramon Llull Supervisor Dr. Lluís Botella García del Cid CONTENTS CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................15...................... Introduction CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................61...................... Narrative assessment: Differences Between Anxious and Depressed Patients CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................97...................... Making sense of Immigration Processes: Overcoming Narrative Disruption CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................133...................... Complexities of Dialogue in Therapy for Intimate Partner Violence: Addressing the Issue of Psychological Violence CHAPTER 5 ................................................................................................183.................... Increasing Responsibility, Safety, and Trust through a Dialogical Approach: a Case Study in Couple Therapy for Psychological Abusive Behavior CHAPTER 6 ................................................................................................233.................... Conclusions CHAPTER 7 ................................................................................................253.................... Closing Remarks REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ LIST OF TABLES LIST OF TABLES Table 1. The Narrative Assessment Grid................................................................78 ............. Table 2. NA-Grid scorings’ distribution on each narrative dimension of both groups (A & B) ................................................................................................82 ........... Table 3. Na-Grid scorings’ percentage comparison of groups A & B in each narrative dimension ................................................................................................84 ... Table 4. Biographical Grid: Means of Both Groups in Each Dimension .............................115 Table 5. Biographical Grid: Significance of the Means of Both Groups in each Dimension ................................................................................................116 .................. Table 6. Narratives Analysis: Ratings on Changes in Intersections of Each Chapter ................................................................................................119..................... Table 7. Results of the Grounded Theory: Adjectives used in the Narratives ................................................................................................121.......................... Table 8. Results of the Grounded Theory: Adjectives according their Connotation ................................................................................................122....................... Table 9. Dimensions Analyzed and Percentage Results for Each Session ..........................152 Table 10. NPCS General Percentages for Sessions 2 and 3 ................................159 .............. Table 11. NPCS and DIHC Percentage Results for Sessions 2 and 3 ................................163 LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Intelligibility/Narrative form ................................................................88 ............... Figure 2. Narrative Position of the Self ................................................................89 .............. Figure 3. Example of the Rating Included in the Sketch at the End of Each Chapter ................................................................................................113 .......... ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This is probably the best part of the thesis, having the opportunity to thank all the diverse people that has mentored, helped, inspired and supported me in many different ways, and without whom this thesis wouldn’t have been possible. First of all, I want to thank my supervisor, Lluís. We know each other for around seven years now. I remember how inspiring it was to have you in class, it was the first time I heard about constructivism and I got totally amazed for this theory, which (I still think that nowadays) suits my view of the world so well. You were my supervisor in the research project in the second year of the Bachelor’s, and ever since then I have done all the research projects with you. So, thank you for discovering me this cosmovision. I also wanted to thank you for your help and support through all these years, and for giving me the opportunity to attend several congresses with you which have helped me to become part of the research community. Second, I want to thank my research group “Research Group in Psychology, Person and Context” for their help and inspiration. Most of the members have also been my teachers during my Bachelors and Masters studies, and day-by-day their enthusiasm has permeated in me. Third, I strongly want to thank Jaakko for receiving me in Jyväskylä and for giving me the opportunity to work with him and his research group. It has been a great experience and it has given me the opportunity to learn about the Dialogical approach, which seemed to me very interesting. Furthermore, it has enriched my understanding of psychology. Your supervision and guidance has been very inspiring, and I hope we can collaborate further in the future. Thanks also to Aarno for his time and help, I hope our collaborations will continue in the future. I also want to thank all the people that have collaborated in this research, the patients in the SAAP, the teenagers who always treated me so well, and the couple in Finland, thanks to all of them to make this research possible. Finally, last but not least, I want to thank my friends (Viole and Laura) and to my family, who has always supported me during this unstable period of the writing up of the thesis, as well as during my whole life in general (sometimes it seems you don’t have life outside the thesis). Thanks to my father and all his family, thanks to my cousin, Sandra, who is like my soulmate, thanks to my grandparents who have always been very present in my life, thanks to Carles for rising me like his daughter, but above all, thanks to the most important persons in my life: my sister, Judit, and my mother, both of them successful researchers; what other path could I have taken if it was not the research one? Thank you for your help, your advices, and basically, thank you for your love, I know I can always count on you. Finally, thanks to Sergi for his patience with me and my “research” crisis, thanks for being always next to me (even in Finland!), but especially thank you for your happiness, which makes my life so joyful. I know we will do great things together! INTRODUCTION 15 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION (…) We are beings in transit, and airports are an adequate metaphor of the post-modern times we are living. They are transient points of arrival and a privileged space for departing in various directions. Psychotherapy can be understood as the boarding gate. In an airport there are no correct or wrong flights, there is just a multiplicity of proposals. The quality of an airport, as the quality of psychotherapy, depends on the multiplicity of routes that it enables. Gonçalves (1995a). The goal of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of human meaning making processes and their relation to psychological 16 CHAPTER ONE well-being. This contribution is drawn from constructivist, and social constructionist approaches, heavily relying on narrative theory. Although constructivist and social constructionist approaches share the basic assumption that meaning making processes are embedded and constructed in interaction in specific sociocultural contexts, both paradigms differ
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Supervisor-Subordinate Directional Age Differences And
    Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses Winter 2-7-2013 Supervisor-Subordinate Directional Age Differences and Employee Reactions to Formal Performance Feedback: Examining Mediating and Moderating Mechanisms in a Chinese Sample Gabriela Burlacu Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons, and the Work, Economy and Organizations Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Burlacu, Gabriela, "Supervisor-Subordinate Directional Age Differences and Employee Reactions to Formal Performance Feedback: Examining Mediating and Moderating Mechanisms in a Chinese Sample" (2013). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 662. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.662 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Supervisor-Subordinate Directional Age Differences and Employee Reactions to Formal Performance Feedback: Examining Mediating and Moderating Mechanisms in a Chinese Sample by Gabriela Burlacu A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Psychology Dissertation Committee: Keith James, Chair Donald Truxillo Todd Bodner Mo Wang DeLys Ostlund Portland State University 2013 DIRECTIONAL AGE DIFFERENCES IN CHINA i Abstract As a result of changing demographic trends in today’s workforce, employees of all ages can now be found in all career stages. Consequently, the pairing of a younger supervisor with a relatively older employee is becoming increasingly more common.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction 2 Positivism: Scientific Explanations of Violence
    Notes Introduction 1 In Britain, for example, we have had surveys on a national level (see Hough and Mayhew, 1983; Chambers and Tombs, 1984; Hough and Mayhew, 1985; Mayhew eta/., 1989; Kinsey and Anderson, 1992; Mayhew eta/., 1993, Mayhew eta/., 1994; Mirrlees-Black eta/., 1996; Mirrlees-Black eta/., 1998) and on a local level (see Kinsey, 1985; Jones eta/., 1986; Lea eta/., 1986; Lea et al., 1988; Painter eta/., 1989; Painter eta/., 1990a; Painter eta/., 1990b; Crawford eta/., 1990; Jones eta/., 1990; Mooney, 1992). 2 Self-complete questionnaires were used in Manchester's Crime Survey of Women for Women (Bains, 1987) and McGibbon et al.'s (1989) survey of domestic violence for Hammersmith and Fulham Council. 3 This framework is derived from that utilized by Young (1981; 1994) in order to analyse traditional and contemporary paradigms of criminological theory and that of Jaggar (1983) in relation to feminist political theory. However, it should be pointed out that this structure will result to some extent in the cre­ ation of ideal types - we must be aware that there are theorists who lack con­ sistency and others whose work falls between the different theoretical strands. 2 Positivism: Scientific Explanations of Violence 1 Other early biological determinist work on female criminality includes that of Adams (1910), Thomas (1923) and Pollak (1950). 2 In Crime: Its Causes and Remedies, Lombroso did, however, comment on other factors that might be relevant. For example, on women and urban crime: 'women are more criminal in the more civilized countries. They are almost always drawn into crime by a false pride about their poverty, by a desire for luxury, and by masculine occupations and education, which give them the means and opportunity to commit crimes such as forgeries, crimes against the laws of the press and swindling' (1918 ed: 54).
    [Show full text]
  • Social Constructivism and Technology in Instructional Technology and Teacher Education Muktha B
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1999 Theory into practice: social constructivism and technology in instructional technology and teacher education Muktha B. Jost Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Instructional Media Design Commons, and the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Recommended Citation Jost, Muktha B., "Theory into practice: social constructivism and technology in instructional technology and teacher education " (1999). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 12202. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/12202 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.
    [Show full text]
  • Basics of Social Network Analysis Distribute Or
    1 Basics of Social Network Analysis distribute or post, copy, not Do Copyright ©2017 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. Chapter 1 Basics of Social Network Analysis 3 Learning Objectives zz Describe basic concepts in social network analysis (SNA) such as nodes, actors, and ties or relations zz Identify different types of social networks, such as directed or undirected, binary or valued, and bipartite or one-mode zz Assess research designs in social network research, and distinguish sampling units, relational forms and contents, and levels of analysis zz Identify network actors at different levels of analysis (e.g., individuals or aggregate units) when reading social network literature zz Describe bipartite networks, know when to use them, and what their advan- tages are zz Explain the three theoretical assumptions that undergird social networkdistribute studies zz Discuss problems of causality in social network analysis, and suggest methods to establish causality in network studies or 1.1 Introduction The term “social network” entered everyday language with the advent of the Internet. As a result, most people will connect the term with the Internet and social media platforms, but it has in fact a much broaderpost, application, as we will see shortly. Still, pictures like Figure 1.1 are what most people will think of when they hear the word “social network”: thousands of points connected to each other. In this particular case, the points represent political blogs in the United States (grey ones are Republican, and dark grey ones are Democrat), the ties indicating hyperlinks between them.
    [Show full text]
  • Studia Politica 42015
    www.ssoar.info The politics of international relations: building bridges and the quest for relevance Braun, Aurel Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Braun, A. (2015). The politics of international relations: building bridges and the quest for relevance. Studia Politica: Romanian Political Science Review, 15(4), 557-566. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-51674-8 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC-ND Lizenz This document is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence (Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung) zur (Attribution-Non Comercial-NoDerivatives). For more Information Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de The Politics of International Relations Building Bridges and the Quest for Relevance 1 AUREL BRAUN The 21 st Century sadly is proving to be a volatile and violent one where the hopes of the immediate years of the post-Cold War era have proven to be ephemeral. International Relations, (IR) at first blush, appears to be ideally positioned as a discipline to help us understand or even cope with the extreme dissonance of the international system. A discreet academic field for a century now, but in fact one of the oldest approaches, IR seems to brim with promise to offer explanation, identify causality and enable cogent prediction. After all, in an era where we emphasize interdisciplinary studies and across-the-board approaches IR appears to be a compelling intellectual ecosystem.
    [Show full text]
  • A Brief Overview of Alexander Wendt's Constructivism Written by Zhan Mengshu
    A Brief Overview of Alexander Wendt's Constructivism Written by Zhan Mengshu This PDF is auto-generated for reference only. As such, it may contain some conversion errors and/or missing information. For all formal use please refer to the official version on the website, as linked below. A Brief Overview of Alexander Wendt's Constructivism https://www.e-ir.info/2020/05/19/a-brief-overview-of-alexander-wendts-constructivism/ ZHAN MENGSHU, MAY 19 2020 For decades, the theory of International Relations was dominated by two approaches: realism and liberalism. Constructivism had been marginalized by these mainstream theories because it focused on social construction instead of material construction (Barkin, 2017). The turning point came late in the 1980s as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War made people reconsider the explanatory ability of mainstream theories (Hopf, 1998). Consequently, a new debate emerged. Under this, the development of Alexander Wendt’s constructivist theory gained attention in academia and began to stand out (Lapid, 2007). Wendt published ‘Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics’ in 1992. In this paper he revealed the limitation of the concept of anarchy from the neorealist and neoliberal theories in explaining international relations (Wendt, 1992). In 1999 he further developed the theory in Social Theory of International Politics. In the book, Wendt opened up a moderate lane in the development of constructivist theory (Guzzin & Leander, 2001) and essentially created a ‘thin’ constructivism. That is, Wendt recognizes the main points of materialism and individualism, as well as a scientific methods of social inquiry.
    [Show full text]
  • A Social Constructionist Informed Thematic Analysis of Male Clinical Psychologists Experience of Working with Female Clients Who Have Experienced Abuse
    A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST INFORMED THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF MALE CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGISTS EXPERIENCE OF WORKING WITH FEMALE CLIENTS WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED ABUSE Omar Timberlake A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of East London for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology 1 May 2015 Acknowledgements I would like to thank all those who have supported me in my endeavours to complete this research project and the doctorate in clinical psychology. I would also like to thank my mother and grandmother for all their support and my supervisor Pippa Dell for ‘hanging in there’ with me, even when I was a pain. 2 Abstract This research sought to explore how male clinical psychologists talked about their experiences of working with women who have experienced abuse and whether such gender difference in the context of therapeutic work problematized them or had implications for their practice and subjective experiences. Eight male clinical psychologists were recruited and interviewed using a conversational style and co-constructed interview schedules. All participants had experience of working with clients who had experienced abuse and were working in the National Health Service (NHS) in a variety of different settings, which included psychosis teams, child services and learning disability services. The data corpus was analysed using a social constructionist thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) also informed by the work of Michel Foucault (1972), set within critical realist ontology. From the analysis two main themes were generated (Gender difference in trauma work; Male clinical psychologists’ perspectives in the wider context) and six sub- themes (Male clinical psychologist as associated with the abuser; Gender difference as therapeutic; Female clinical psychologists as problematized by gender; Supervision and peer support; Service constraints; Maleness as a minority in clinical psychology).
    [Show full text]
  • Dynamics of Dyads in Social Networks: Assortative, Relational, and Proximity Mechanisms
    SO36CH05-Uzzi ARI 2 June 2010 23:8 Dynamics of Dyads in Social Networks: Assortative, Relational, and Proximity Mechanisms Mark T. Rivera,1 Sara B. Soderstrom,1 and Brian Uzzi1,2 1Department of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208; email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] 2Northwestern University Institute on Complex Systems and Network Science (NICO), Evanston, Illinois 60208-4057 Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2010. 36:91–115 Key Words First published online as a Review in Advance on Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2010.36:91-115. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org embeddedness, homophily, complexity, organizations, network April 12, 2010 evolution by NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - Evanston Campus on 07/13/10. For personal use only. The Annual Review of Sociology is online at soc.annualreviews.org Abstract This article’s doi: Embeddedness in social networks is increasingly seen as a root cause of 10.1146/annurev.soc.34.040507.134743 human achievement, social stratification, and actor behavior. In this arti- Copyright c 2010 by Annual Reviews. cle, we review sociological research that examines the processes through All rights reserved which dyadic ties form, persist, and dissolve. Three sociological mech- 0360-0572/10/0811-0091$20.00 anisms are overviewed: assortative mechanisms that draw attention to the role of actors’ attributes, relational mechanisms that emphasize the influence of existing relationships and network positions, and proximity mechanisms that focus on the social organization of interaction. 91 SO36CH05-Uzzi ARI 2 June 2010 23:8 INTRODUCTION This review examines journal articles that explain how social networks evolve over time.
    [Show full text]
  • Constructivism, Education, Science, and Technology
    Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology Volume 29(3) Fall / automne, 2003 Constructivism, Education, Science, and Technology Moses A. Boudourides Author Moses A. Boudourides is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics of the University of Patras, Greece. His research interests include mathematical sociology, Internet research and Science & Technology Studies (STS). Communication regarding this article should be addressed to Dr. Moses A. Boudourides. Address: Mathematics Department, University of Patras, 265 00 Rio­ Patras, Greece. Phone/Fax: +30­2610­996318. E­mail: [email protected] Abstract Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to present a brief review of the various streams of constructivism in studies of education, society, science and technology. It is intended to present a number of answers to the question (what really is constructivism?) in the context of various disciplines from the humanities and the sciences (both natural and social). In particular the discussion will focus on four varieties of constructivism: philosophical, cybernetic, educational, and sociological constructivism. Résumé: Cet article a pour objectif de passer brièvement en revue les différents courants de constructivisme dans les études sur l'éducation, la société, la science et la technologie. Il a également pour intention d'offrir un certain nombre de réponses à la question « Qu'est­ce réellement que le constructivisme ? » dans le contexte de diverses disciplines appartenant aux lettres et sciences humaines, ainsi qu'aux sciences (naturelles et sociales). La discussion se centrera tout particulièrement sur quatre variantes du constructivisme: philosophique, cybernétique, éducatif et sociologique. Introduction It is generally acknowledged that constructivism constitutes a very important, although often contested, practical and theoretical perspective in current education research.1 A first `mild' (or ` .
    [Show full text]
  • Bridging the Gap: Toward a Realist-Constructivist Dialogue
    International Studies Review (2004) 6, 337–352 THE FORUM Bridging the Gap: Toward A Realist-Constructivist Dialogue EDITED BY PATRICK THADDEUS JACKSON School of International Service, American University Editor’s Note: J. Samuel Barkin’s International Studies Review article ‘‘Realist Con- structivism’’ (2003) makes the important point that the opposition between realist and con- structivist schools of thought in international relations (IR) may not be as clear-cut as is commonly supposed. In doing so, he focuses on how certain classical realist notions are compatible with constructivist sensibilities about the role of norms and other intersubjective factors in producing social and political outcomes. In effect, Barkin proposes a fusion of certain elements of realism and constructivism to produce a novel IR perspective. Although Barkin is not the first or only scholar to advocate a more evenhanded dialogue between realism and constructivism, his piece is one of the most comprehensive attempts to articulate points of agreement between the two approaches and to delineate the contours of a ‘‘realist- constructivist’’ research program. As such, Barkin’s piece provides an excellent opportunity for exploring and elaborating the nature of and possibilities for ‘‘realist constructivism.’’ Barkin’s emphasis on the tension between normative transformation and the limits imposed by power in the international arena is one way to initiate a dialogue between realism and constructivism. The contributors to this Forum are each trying, in their different ways, to further this dialogue and to explore the possibilities raised by dissociating constructivism from the liberal tradition. They share Barkin’s basic contention that realism and constructivism are not implacably opposed.
    [Show full text]
  • LMX Dyad Agreement: Construct Definition and the Role of Supervisor
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2002 LMX dyad agreement: construct definition and the role of supervisor/subordinate similarity and communication in understanding LMX Barbara Dale Minsky Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Business Commons Recommended Citation Minsky, Barbara Dale, "LMX dyad agreement: construct definition and the role of supervisor/subordinate similarity and communication in understanding LMX" (2002). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1530. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1530 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. LMX DYAD AGREEMENT: CONSTRUCT DEFINITION AND THE ROLE OF SUPERVISOR/SUBORDINATE SIMILARITY AND COMMUNICATION IN UNDERSTANDING LMX A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy In The Interdepartmental Program in Business Administration By Barbara Dale Minsky B.A., Brooklyn College, CUNY, 1968 M.S., Brooklyn College, CUNY, 1971 M.B.A., University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, 1994 December 2002 © Copyright 2002 Barbara Dale Minsky All rights reserved ii Acknowledgements This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my brother, Ira Robert Cossin. He always believed in me, and was supportive of everything I attempted. He would have been very proud of my accomplishment. I would also like to thank several people for their help and support during my quest for a Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Constructivism
    Jackson, Robert and Sorensen, Georg. Introduction to International RelationsTheories and Approaches. 3rd edition. Oxford university press, 2006. CHAPTER 6 Social Constructivism Introduction 162 The Constructivist Research Programme 175 The Rise of Constructivism in IR 162 Constructivism as Social Theory 164 KEY POINTS 176 Constructivist Theories of International QUESTIONS 177 Relations 168 GUIDE TO FURTHER READING 177 Critiques of Constructivism 172 WEB LINKS 177 ❚ Summary This chapter introduces social constructivist theory of IR. We first clarify where constructivism comes from and why it has established itself as an important approach in IR. Constructivism is examined both as a meta-theory about the nature of the social world and as a substantial theory of IR. Several examples of constructivist IR-theory are presented, followed by reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of the approach. 06-Jackson-Chap06.qxd 30-6-06 4:32 PM Page 162 162 Introduction to International Relations Introduction The focus of social constructivism (in shorthand: constructivism) is on human awareness or consciousness and its place in world affairs. Much IR-theory, and especially neorealism, is materialist; it focuses on how the distribution of material power, such as military forces and economic capabilities, defines balances of power between states and explains the behav- iour of states. Constructivists reject such a one-sided material focus. They argue that the most important aspect of international relations is social, not material. Furthermore, they argue that this social reality is not objective, or external, to the observer of international affairs. The social and political world, including the world of international relations, is not a physical entity or material object that is outside human consciousness.
    [Show full text]