Question

Describe the social constructionist perspective of psychopathology. How does it differ from other historical perspectives? What does it add to our understanding of psychopathology?

Answer 1

Social constructionism is concerned with the different processes that would be used for describing , explaining or accounting used in the world. According to the social constructivist perspective human knowledge would comprise of objective reality, external as well as factual representations.

According to social constructionism psychopathology is identified through the different social concepts that would be agreed upon through the world views that have been been established over time. According to this perspective, psychopathologies as well as mental disorders would be not be referred to as static entities or concrete entities.

These would only be defined on the basis of the factual properties which would be discoverable. His view does not state that pain in the psychological forms would not be existing, or that these thoughts could not be studied scientifically. Rather, it states that the psychological pain would be perceived and understood individually the manner in which diseases or disorders are constructed. These theories could not be proven in an absolute form, but, these concepts are more plausible than not on the basis of the plausibility or it’s meaningfulness.

To our understanding of psychopathology, it creates a doubts on the concrete ness of the various theories that have been put forward.