Gergen K J
Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081, USA.
Am Psychol. 2001 Oct;56(10):803-13. doi: 10.1037//0003-066x.56.10.803.
Postmodern scholarship poses significant challenges to pivotal assumptions of individual knowledge, objectivity, and truth. In their place, an emphasis is placed on the communal construction of knowledge, objectivity as a relational achievement, and language as a pragmatic medium through which local truths are constituted. Although these developments in understanding may seem opposed to psychological science, they are not. Rather, they invite a new range of questions about the potentials of traditional research. These questions are vitally concerned with the significance of such inquiry in cultural life. More importantly, this emerging view of psychological science opens new and exciting vistas of theoretical, methodological, and practical significance. Increasing manifestations of movement in these directions suggest the possibility of profound change in the profession.
后现代学术对个人知识、客观性和真理等关键假设提出了重大挑战。取而代之的是,强调知识的社会建构、客观性是一种关系性成就,以及语言是构成地方真理的实用媒介。尽管这些理解上的发展似乎与心理科学相悖,但实则不然。相反,它们引发了一系列关于传统研究潜力的新问题。这些问题至关重要地关乎此类探究在文化生活中的意义。更重要的是,这种新兴的心理科学观开启了具有理论、方法和实践意义的全新且令人兴奋的前景。朝着这些方向的运动表现日益增多,暗示着该专业可能发生深刻变革。