Construccionismo social kenneth gergen biography

He had three brothers, one of whom is David Gergen , the prominent political analyst. After completing public schooling, he attended Yale University. Graduating in , he subsequently became an officer in the U. He then returned to graduate school at Duke University, where he received his PhD in psychology in His dissertation advisor was Edward E.

Gergen went on to become an assistant professor in the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University , where he also became the chairman of the board of tutors and advisors for the department and representative to the university's Council on Educational Policy. In , Gergen took a position as chair of the Department of Psychology at Swarthmore College , a position he held for ten years.

After his retirement emeritus in , he took the position of Senior Research Professor. At Swarthmore, he spearheaded the development of the academic concentration in interpretation theory.

Construccionismo social kenneth gergen biography

In an attempt to link his academic work to societal practices, he collaborated with colleagues to create the Taos Institute in He now serves as the president of the institute. Gergen is married to Mary Gergen , professor emeritus at Penn State University , and a major contributor to feminist psychology and performance inquiry. She is the author of over 50 articles and is the co-author with Ken Gergen of books on social construction, and performative social science.

They publish the Positive Aging Newsletter with a readership of around 20, [ 1 ]. Gergen's earliest studies challenged the presumption of a unified or coherent self. A major point in Gergen's career was his article "Social Psychology as History". In the article, he argues that while empirical research attempts to establish general laws or principles, the empirical support is always derived from historically situated observations.

Yet, because patterns of human action undergo continuous change, support for any principle may wax or wane over time. Further, the scientific knowledge the laws and principles of social interaction are variable over time, and that the scientific knowledge generated by social psychologists actually influences the phenomena it is meant to passively describe.

For example, studying obedience to authority may reduce the likelihood of obedience. They draw attention to the relational aspect of knowledge and meaning and reflexive cooperation. They argue that descriptions and explanations are accomplishments of coordinated human action, and relationships provide various forms of choices for going forward, and are also impacted significantly by the choices made.

Taking to a different plane of deliberation Kwee, a Buddhist scholar and practitioner, argues that the psychology of relational Buddhism is a cutting-edge practical understanding of life. In the context of the theory of dependent origination, to act is to inter-act and to be is to inter-be. This deep insight goes well with the assumptions of social constructionism.

Priya has addressed the problem of suffering and healing and offers a critique of the Western biomedicine that focuses on diagnosis and treatment of the symptoms of a disease. Using a social constructionist paradigm as a meta theory, the human experiences of suffering and healing are explicated and connected with the works of Eric J. Cassell and Arthur Kleinman.

It is argued that suffering and healing experiences are socio-historically contextualized. In this framework the dialogic partnership between the researcher and the participant becomes a meaningful medium to understand such experiences. Both have just presented papers at a conference and are boarding a train to return to their respective places.

The author meets them as they are travelling from Morgantown. Their conversation ignites ideas that would propel Gergen into abandoning metatheories and lighting the spark that began the concept of social constructionism. The conversation represents the interface between old ideas of grand theories and the birth of new ideas inspired by the possibilities of a smaller, more intimate world view.

Jones uses retrospective imagining supported by narrative biographical theory. He extends these to the illusory biographies of others constructed within a sense of other as created by an imaginative projection of self onto their worlds. Her narrative offers a deeply reflective account of the person that Ken is, his zeal for writing, sharing and relating through dialogue.

Amidst diverse moves, turns, challenges, and collaborations Ken has been continuously engaged in appreciating the complexities of human life as it unfolds. The constructionist view is increasingly being used by a range of researchers and practitioners. It is assuming the form of a paradigm. However, it makes no claims for one truth.

It opens the door to multiple ways of engaging in knowledge. The consciousness of multiplicity is indeed an emerging global sensitivity. In this context various relational processes like dialogues, collaborations, networks and negotiations are critical. The social constructionist move from monologue to dialogue, from isolated to relational rationality, is the future.

They seek to explain the dialogical nature of the social world. This issue PS is our attempt to contribute to the efforts in this direction and to recognize the accomplishments of a brilliant academic leader. We present this issue with the hope that it will ignite a spirit of productive and useful deliberation for making human lives more fulfilling through an open minded dialogue and reflexivity.

Acknowledgments We thank Ken, Mary and the authors who contributed papers to this issue. References Gergen, K. Social psychology as history. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26, — Gergen, K. Toward transformation in social knowledge. The social constructionist movement in modern psychology. American Psychologist, 40, — Realities and relationships.

Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press. Social construction in context. London: Sage. The relational being: Beyond self and community. New York: Oxford University Press. The acculturated brain. Theory and Psychology, 20, 1— Psychological science in cultural context. American Psychologist, 51, — Tesis de Licenciatura Carito Tavera Medina.

Symbiodinium thermophilum sp. Indigenous autonomy matters: what's wrong with the Australian government's 'intervention'in Aboriginal communities Sarah Maddison. Language, games and language games Mihnea Moldoveanu. It is argued that suffering and healing experiences are socio-historically contextualized. In this framework the dialogic partnership between the researcher and the participant becomes a meaningful medium to understand such experiences.

It is built around the fictive historical dialogue between a German developmental psychologist, Klaus Riegel and Kenneth Gergen, an American social psychologist. Both have just presented papers at a conference and are boarding a train to return to their respective places. The author meets them as they are travelling from Morgantown. Their conversation ignites ideas that would propel Gergen into abandoning metatheories and lighting the spark that began the concept of social constructionism.

The conversation represents the interface between old ideas of grand theories and the birth of new ideas inspired by the possibilities of a smaller, more intimate world view. Jones uses retrospective imagining supported by narrative biographical theory. He extends these to the illusory biographies of others constructed within a sense of other as created by an imaginative projection of self onto their worlds.

Her narrative offers a deeply reflective account of the person that Ken is, his zeal for writing, sharing and relating through dialogue. Amidst diverse moves, turns, challenges, and collaborations Ken has been continuously engaged in appreciating the complexities of human life as it unfolds. The constructionist view is increasingly being used by a range of researchers and practitioners.

It is assuming the form of a paradigm. However, it makes no claims for one truth. It opens the door to multiple ways of engaging in knowledge. The consciousness of multiplicity is indeed an emerging global sensitivity. In this context various relational processes like dialogues, collaborations, networks and negotiations are critical. The social constructionist move from monologue to dialogue, from isolated to relational rationality, is the future.

Gergen, K. Social psychology as history. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26 , — Article Google Scholar. Toward transformation in social knowledge. The social constructionist movement in modern psychology. American Psychologist, 40 , — Realities and relationships. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press. Social construction in context.

London: Sage. The relational being: Beyond self and community. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar. The acculturated brain. Theory and Psychology, 20 , 1— Psychological science in cultural context. American Psychologist, 51 , — Download references. We thank Ken, Mary and the authors who contributed papers to this issue. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar.

Correspondence to Girishwar Misra. Reprints and permissions. One of Gergen's most famous works is "Social Psychology as History," in which he argues that the laws and principles of social interaction are constantly changing over time and that scientific knowledge created by social psychologists actively influences the phenomena they describe, rather than passively describing them.

This article has been highly controversial, receiving both criticism and support from various social psychologists. Kenneth Gergen American psychologist. Supporter of the theory of social constructionism.