Emotion in career contexts: Challenges for theory and research

In this article I argue that we need a greater understanding of the role of emotion in career development and career management. Notions of careers as sequences of events and experiences and new relational approaches to organizational career development suggest opportunities for exploring the experience, expression, and management of emotion within individuals’ careers. Also, ideas about emotional labour can inform career counselling practice. I also explore how far research into emotions in career contexts requires a constructivist or constructionist approach, and discuss some of the methodological issues in working within positivist, and non-positivist (specifically constructivist and constructionist) paradigms. Both have their strengths, and we should not lose sight of these in furthering our understanding of individuals’ careers and of ways to intervene effectively in career development.     

Social constructionism in the study of career: Accessing the parts that other approaches cannot reach

In this article we consider the contribution of a social constructionist perspective to our understandings of career. We examine this approach in relation to two studies: a study of women's career transition from organizational employment to portfolio work, and a study of the careers of research scientists. Within the career literature a dichotomy has emerged between what are seen as “traditional” and “new” careers. On the face of it these studies seem to neatly illustrate this dichotomy. However, when examined from a social constructionist perspective, questions are raised about the viability of this binarism. In this article we argue this approach enables us to transcend dualisms which have prevailed in career theory, facilitates analyses of the relationship between careers and the social contexts in which they are embedded, and illuminates issues of power and ideology which are often eclipsed by more positivistic research approaches.     

The construction of career through goal-directed action

The thesis of this article is that occupational career is constructed through a system of intentional, goal-directed processes in the form of actions and projects as well as other careers, such as the family career and relationship careers. A contextual action theory of career is proposed as an approach that reflects a constructionist stance and at the same time addresses fundamental issues raised by social constructionism, such as issues of meaning, interpretation, and agency. The discussion is illustrated by reference to a research program on the family career-development project that examines the joint action of parents and adolescents relative to the adolescent’s future. It is further suggested that this approach leads constructionism beyond its epistemological critique to a positive formulation of professional and everyday activity.     

Relational consciousness and the conversational practices of Johnella Bird

In this article we review Johnella Bird's notion of relational consciousness, explaining it in terms of an ethnomethodologically informed social constructionist theory. We extend this notion to her conversational practices in therapy, examining first her general practice (and focus) on relational language‐making. We then turn to describing three of her specific conversational practices – negotiating conflicting discursive positions between partners in a relationship, exploring a partner's experience of hurt in a relationship, following unspoken assumptions, and negotiating power relations. We conclude by relating relational consciousness to an attendance to language as it is used by clients and by therapists in dialogue with clients.     

Kenneth Gergen’s Social Constructionist Contributions to Counsellor Education

Kenneth Gergen??s seminal contributions to social constructionist thinking have substantial implications for the practice of counselling and psychotherapy, and thus for the training of practitioners as well. This article takes up the latter point, exploring the many deviations from traditional approaches to foundational counselling skills training that arise when educators are informed by constructionist philosophy. The article is written in the form of a dialogic exchange in recognition of Gergen??s emphasis on the relational aspect of knowing, with contributions from two educators accustomed to training graduate level practitioners in basic counselling and psychotherapy practice.     

Personhood in a World of Forgetfulness: An Ethnography of the Self-Process Among Alzheimer's Patients

This article assesses the self-construct of Alzheimer's patients residing in a care facility, using qualitative research methods to determine whether a sense of personhood was retained despite the deteriorative consequences of the disease. Through systematic observations of patient actions and interviews with family members and staff, the study assessed the patients' experience of self. The self was conceptualized in social constructionist terms emphasizing how patients configure meaning in seemingly trivial everyday aspects of residential care. The research developed ways of understanding the patients' humanity, confirming that a self-process was sustained despite the effects of the disease. The article explores implications of a contemporary approach to treatment of patients as transformed, yet distinctive, human beings with valid relational and cultural lives.     

Gendered contours of contemporary South Asian religious practices in the context of migration: second-generation Jain women and men in Britain and the US

Viewing religion through the social constructionist lens and adopting the methodological approach of ‘lived religion’, this article draws attention to the gendered contours of contemporary Jain practice. Although Jain dharma is a non-theistic, non-institutionalised religion, gender differences are embedded within lay practice in India. In contrast, analysis of qualitative data (interviews conducted with 50 second-generation, middle- and upper middle-class Jain women and men in Britain and the US) reveals a gender convergence in patterns of everyday religious practice and performance. I argue that the social turn in late modern societies, together with the dominance of a neo-orthodox approach among diasporic Jains, facilitates this convergence. Further, shifting patterns of religious practices suggest that religion is an important site for the negotiation of gender identities in the context of migration. The construction of Jain religious selves enables young Jains—both women and men—to navigate multiple and contradictory femininities and masculinities and to display more affective, relational, and compassionate selves in late modern societies.     

How much can you bend before you break: An experience of using constructionist consulting as a tool for organizational learning in the corporate world

This article reflects upon the experience the authors had in the process of designing and facilitating a year-long leadership development class within a division of a high-tech manufacturing corporation in the USA. The design reflected narrative (Simons, 1997; Epston & White, 1990), feminist (Ferguson, 1984; Ramsey & Calvert, 1994), and constructionist principles, and was implemented as a “learning-in-organizing process” (Abma, this issue). We have structured the article to capture the dynamic nature of this process. This includes a discussion of how we as “outsider” class instructors and “insider” participants negotiated and renegotiated the design of the class as well as the effects of these “relational negotiations” on our collective learning. We end with a consideration of the implications of our “learning-in-organizing” for other constructionist consultants (Campbell, Caldicott, & Kinsella, 1994) who are translating organizational learning theories into practice.     

Ambiguity and the dialogical self: In search for a dialogical psychology

Abstract

It is intuitively felt that ambiguity plays a crucial role in human beings' everyday life and in psychologists' theoretical and applied work. However, ambiguity remains essentially non-problematised in psychological science since its foundation. This article analyses positivist and social constructionist perspectives on ambiguity in the context of their epistemological and ontological fundamental assumptions. The relational thesis of social constructionism is further analysed and it is argued that it constitutes a “weak thesis” concerning the relational constitution of human beings. In the second part, a dialogical alternative is elaborated. In this perspective, ambiguity is placed in the context of relationship and both are brought to an ontological ground. Therefore, it is argued, ambiguity is a fundamental property of human experience and plays a fundamental role in the constitution of (inter)subjective processes. The impact of this thesis on dialogical perspective on self is elaborated.     

Discourse, action, rhetoric: from a perception to an action paradigm in social psychology

This article provides a personal account of how discursive social psychology has been used to understand social and political change in South Africa and to reflect on the strengths and limitations of the approach. While celebrating the shift from the perception paradigm to the genuinely social constructionist focus on discursive interaction, the article also argues for an expanded focus on embodied action.     

The self beyond words: comment on ‘Is there a place for individual subjectivity within a social constructionist epistemology’

Roy‐Chowdhury (2010) is on a quest to reclaim the subject in constructionist practice, specifically therapeutic practice. His argument rests on the claim that there is no subject, no self, no individual outside language in social construction. To be sure, the notion of a self‐contained, privately cognizing individual is dismissed within social construction, noting instead that knowledge of self and world is a byproduct of relational interchange. As Lock and Strong (2010 , p.7) put it, ‘meaning and understanding have their beginnings in social interaction, in shared agreements as to what these symbolic forms are to be taken to be’. The relational self – social construction's version of the self – is very much alive and well. The relational self is very much a person.     

FINISHED AT 40 Women's Development within the Patriarchy

Psychological theories of women's lives in middle age and beyond are restricted, negative, and scarce. An overview of women's adult development in textbooks and the professional literature indicates that (a) the prevailing focus of concern is the woman as a biological creature, especially as a mother; (b) the proposed lifecycle trajectory is one in which the woman's life goes into decline after approximately age 40; and (c) little attention is paid to the particular character of women's life narratives. Such treatments of adult womanhood are advantageous to a patriarchal system of power. For future inquiry a social constructionist approach is proposed. Recommended are theories that: liberate interpretations of women from an exclusive focus on their reproductive roles; support methodologies along feminist valuational lines; give preference to relational networks over autonomous individualism; create new narrative life forms for women that are multiple and non-linear; and support a critical function both within psychology and in the society at large.     

The emergence of new intentions in subjective experience: A social/personal constructionist and relational understanding

As part of the larger project to revision vocational psychology for a new era, a process referred to as the emergence of new intentions in subjective experience is defined and described. It is proposed that this process is central to the ongoing construction and reconstruction of lives in the changing landscape of the times. Following an elaboration of the meaning of emergence of new intentions in subjective experience through comparison to related constructs and theories, a social/personal constructionist and relational understanding of this process is developed. The article concludes by addressing implications for vocational psychology practice.     

A Social Constructionist Model of Therapeutic Factors

Evidentiary support for the efficacy of therapeutic models has been a contentious issue since the professionalization of psychology. Despite advances in evidence-based practices in psychology and common factors research, discontent still exists among postmodern psychotherapists in that evidence is mainly defined in modernist/positivistic terms, thereby excluding therapeutic models based on alternative nonpositivistic epistemologies. I proposes a model, which is based on social constructionist theories, for investigating the therapeutic efficacy of various approaches. This article evaluates and differentiates between two models for viewing the efficacy of psychotherapy, namely outcome versus process efficacy. A social constructionist model of therapeutic factors is proposed as a means to incorporate therapeutic factors into psychotherapy processes that are consistent with a social constructionist theory of change. Three main therapeutic elements, which are identified as central to an effective psychotherapy process, are outlined in the model. The proposed model may be useful as a guide to efficacious psychotherapy and as a means for investigating the efficacy of social constructionist therapies.     

Stressors Experienced by Women Within Marine Corps Families: A Qualitative Study of Discourse Within an Online Forum

The social constructionist perspective frames this exploration of the socioemotional and relational aspects of stress experienced by significant others of active duty Marines. Interpretive methods were applied to data from an online forum for Marine Corps wives, fiancées, and girlfriends. Open coding revealed six stressors: (a) stuck in a state of flux, (b) going through changes, (c) relational uncertainty, (d) loneliness, (e) alienation, and (f) anxiety related to deployment. Axial coding revealed three properties underlying these stressors: (a) issues of control and helplessness, (b) concerns over privileging individual or relational goals, and (c) the matter of locus of blame.     

A narrative social constructionist approach to therapeutic empathy

The concept of empathy has been a centrol conceptual element in approaches to counselling and psychotherapy that emphasise exploration of meaning in the context of a facilitative relationship. However, the existing literature on therapeutic empathy lacks theoretical coherence. a narrative social constructionist perspective represents a theoretical approach that enables the integration of diverse strands of clinical observation and research into the creation of empathic understanding in counselling. From a social constructionist position, therapeutic empathy can be understood as a relational process, a step-by-step co-construction by counsellor and client of the life-narrative of the client. In this paper, the Barrett-Lennard (1981) cyclical model of empathy is used as a fremework for examining the counsellor and client actions, strategies and tasks that constitute empathic engagement around the task of emploring and re-authoring life-narratives. Constructionist analysis of the cultural origins of the concept of empathy suggest some limitations of this way of conceptualising what happens in therapy. The implications of these ideas for theory, training and research are discussed.     

‘Polyphonic dialogue’ as a means for teaching systemic and social‐constructionist ideas

The paper presents the idea of using ‘polyphonic dialogue’, namely Jaakko Seikkula's development of the reflecting team approach, as a way to introduce systemic–social constructionist ideas in the context of academic teaching to ‘audiences’ with little or no familiarity with such ideas.     

UNPACKING ESSENTIALISMS IN THERAPY: LESSONS FOR FEMINIST APPROACHES FROM NARRATIVE WORK

The narrative approach to therapy founded by Michael White and David Epston offers important contributions to feminist constructionist therapies. Feminist and narrative ideas in the therapy world often challenge essentialist, or naturalized, understandings of gender. However, both forms of therapy, at times, retain essentialist elements which often prove to be problematic. This article shows how certain readings of--and new directions in--narrative therapy allow for an effective approach to lingering essentialisms in constructionist therapies, both feminist and narrative. At the same time, and in keeping with the goals of feminist therapy, narrative practitioners do not fall into an anarchical or radically relativistic perspective on the self or social life. The conclusion suggests that narrative ideas about unpacking essentialisms provide insights for constructionist theories of identity, culture, and power that apply to a number of different disciplines.     

DONNA HARAWAY'S METATHEORY OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION: CYBORGS, TRICKSTER, AND HERMES

Abstract. This article is a close reading of two essays by Donna Haraway on feminist philosophy, the biophysical sciences, and critical social theory. Haraway's strong social constructionist approach to science is criticized by colleague Sandra Harding, resulting in an epistemological reconceptualization of objectivity by Haraway. Haraway's notion of “situated knowledges” provides a workable epistemology for all social and biophysical sciences, while inviting the reintegration of religions as critical conversation partners in an emancipatory hermeneutics of nature, culture, and technology.     

Social Constructionism and Ethics: Implications for Counseling

Social constructionism is set forth as an epistemological framework from which to establish an ethical base for the field of counseling. The development of the social constructionist movement in counseling is described. Implications of a social constructionist position are considered in relation to ethics. A case example is provided to illustrate implications of a social constructionist position.