Introduction to Constructivism for Social Workers

Constructivism is based on the principle that our personalities, behavior, and society are organized by the ways in which we attribute meanings to events, and act upon those meanings. It provides a philosophy, an epistemology, and methods that are especially congruent with the central values of social work, particularly client self-determination. In this volume, Dr. David D.V. Fisher introduces social workers to constructivism, a perspective which is becoming increasingly popular in the social sciences, and which has already been embraced by clinical psychologists, communication researchers, and cyberneticians. Fisher explains constructivism as an epistemology, shows the consequences of adopting a constructivist epistemology in contrast to operating from within the traditional objectivist epistemology, demonstrates the ethical appropriateness and practicality of constructivism for social work, and explicates a number of specific applications of constructivism to social work.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part consists of an introduction and then explains and expands the theory of constructivism and its relationship to social work. The second part shows how constructivist principles may be applied in social work practices. Constructivist principles are applied to selected aspects of assessment, intervention, and interviewing--using immediate experience as a guide to action and the creation of professional responsibility. An Introduction to Constructivism for Social Workers will be of particular interest to social workers and psychologists involved in theory and research.

David D. V. Fisher is a private consultant in career development and human relations with Educom International Inc. of Victoria, British Columbia. He has worked in a variety of settings, including with the Innuit people on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic and with different peoples in Malaysia, before taking up a teaching position at the University of Calgary in Canada. His PhD research in Social Psychology at the University of Exeter in England introduced him to constructivism. Since that time, he has conducted research and taught social work courses in human development and interviewing from a constructivist perspective. His research has focused on the role of personal identity in the generation of personal problems and marital conflict.