Constructing the Social [Paperback]

Leading psychologists and sociologists ground theory with practical examples to clearly illustrate the view that human beings are principally social agents rather than passive reactors or information processors. Each chapter analyzes the historical and cultural contexts implicit in a wide range of key issues including anxiety, the family, intelligence, ageing and depression.This comprehensive volume explores the concrete implications of social constructionist theory, and provides a clear overview of how to do social constructionist research and analysis.

Leading psychologists and sociologists ground theory with practical examples to clearly illustrate the view that human beings are principally social agents rather than passive reactors or information processors. Each chapter analyzes the historical and cultural contexts implicit in a wide range of key issues including anxiety, the family, intelligence, ageing and depression.`Provides diverse examples of constructionist analysis in practice, thereby illuminating both its virtues and its vices' - Reviewing SociologyPrologue - Theodore R Sarbin and John I Kitsuse
PART ONE: PUBLIC DOCUMENTS AS SOURCES OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS
The Social Construction of Personal Histories - Mary Gergen
Gendered Lives in Popular Autobiographies
The Social Construction of Pregnancy and Fetal Development - Carol Brooks Gardner
Notes on a Nineteenth-Century Rhetoric of Endangerment
Correspondents' Images of Martin Luther King Jr - Stephen J Lilley and Gerald M Platt
An Interpretive Theory of Movement Leadership
PART TWO: SOCIOPOLITICAL FACTORS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL CAlƒ°