Why Should Psychologists Be Interested in Poststructuralism and Postmodernism - Literature review Example

Psychologist Should Be Interested In Poststructuralism and Postmodernism The poststructuralist theory has notable roots within continental psychology and philosophy. The theoretical dissertation in turn undertakes an exploration of the traditions in continental philosophy through the study of hermeneutics and structuralism, phenomenology and humanism as well as the psychic image representations. Postmodern critiques on psychology question the empirical researchers on the more pragmatic accounts of each of their efforts. It includes the ways in which psychological inquiry has benefits to humankind as well as the possible detriments. This paper establishes the importance of a psychologist developing interest in postmodernism and poststructuralism. It will also explain the strengths and limitations of the critical frameworks within The aim of the literature review is finding how the critical theories of poststructuralists understanding came to be. In broader strokes, such dissertation is an illustration of how language philosophies have a poststructuralism basis. There are proposals that depth psychology is a derivative from the same and ultimately contributes to the language philosophies informing the poststructuralist theories. For poststructuralism, the issue of language remains the unconscious. According to Hardy (2006), the theorists adhering to divergent degrees of this viewpoint have their views on the review of such literature. Poststructuralism as described in the psychological theories by means of chapters for the revolutionary events is eminent. The poststructuralist discourse ideas are perceived through the psychologists’ words. Their story is a presentation on poststructuralism as responses to the deprivation of the language’s poetic meaning as well as in life. The revolution becomes a critique for consumerism as well as capitalism while the Western ego becomes the affirmation of overall imagination and desire for communication. The happenings on a cultural level are a reflection of the relationship between personal subjectivity and language. Therefore, poststructuralism is relevant to the depth psychology study while the conceptual aspect of depth psychology approaches archetypal psychology. According to Shepard (2001), there are parallels drawn between archetypal psychology ideas and the poststructuralist’s beliefs. In seeking a more understanding of the concern on the language for in-depth psychology currently and reading post-Jungian and post-Freudian writers, psychologists may dismiss poststructuralist notions are relevant. Critical theories direct their emphasis on depth connection of psychology with language as well as the unconscious. Poststructuralists develop such efforts with an impossible subversion of by emotional ambiguities. At this point, the stakes across developing a distinction between aspects of poststructuralism and structuralism have significant lessons in the poststructuralist positions. The position is that all efforts for rational ordering will solely lead into critical impasse and serious abuses of power while human experiences or attributes do not fit in master systems are forcibly suppressed or rendered invisible. An illustration for this is the ordering described through the gender topic. For structuralism, there are systems of genders having roles and patterns of behavior coupled with social functions for places with significant meanings for each of them. According to Miller & Fox (2007), the poststructuralist understanding finds such categories and characteristics of socio-cultural definition as well as the binary distinctions being arguable and objectionable. Poststructuralists stand for the various deviations across different norms. The ambiguities have an impact on gender assumptions and personal experiences while regarding matters of perspective. In this way, poststructuralist concerns are associated with different works including feminist and queer theories. The poststructuralists assess the assumptions producing and reproducing what needs fixing in meaningful categories. Unlike the structuralism, there is recognition that they do not have a stand outside the conceptual frameworks that they attempt to explain. According to Wise & Sanson (2000), while poststructuralists seek attention towards an inclusion of the conceptual frameworks, the archetypal psychology and poststructuralist similarities are notable. The evidence gathered supports a hypothesis as well as rhetoric nature of arguing it through the cast parts of an archetypal constellation. Further, the "objective" ideology in the data pattern includes that of embracing "subjective" ideas through which data is seen. Each of these statements has similar grounds (Hoffmann, 2005). They illustrate a crisis for the meaning of myths in modernity failing while elements of objectivity are disputed. From the sociological theory point of view, psychological related studies develop several limitations. First, with respect to their fundamental methodological individualism, they have an element of under-theorization for the wider social practices. It includes economic and political processes without the confines of the work area. According to Toth (2010), while reviewing most of these studies, there is recognition of the impact of social interactions among different social groups and the importance in forming the self. They succeed in providing an analytical framework with a capacity of addressing different ways that societal (political, economic, and social) relationships can construe the individual. Additionally, social relations in this respect have an inclusion of the general and abstract approaches to background parameters. Second, social psychological methodologies with similar description adopt uncritical and management-biased departure points. According to Gare (2006), the issue of power becomes a systematical downplay favoring a comprehensive search for diverse sets of principles facilitating the management objectives through optimizing psychosocial conditions within production processes. They face obvious criticism from the Marxist inspired sociologists, as they appear crude ideological writings in serving the management’s interests and those of the capitalist classes. There is sustained influence and strength of particular methods in Organizational Psychology and Human Relations for the management practices irrespective of their often-low epistemological consistency levels. Without a doubt, there is a strong link in seeking resolutions of industrial conflict while optimizing productivity against restructuring social relationships for the individuals. According to Parker (2000), the significant effects and components are overlooked in case the methods take the view of mere ideological schemes. Various reform programs from these studies amount to having significant impacts to contemporary thinking modes while and acting in accordance to work. According to Gupta & David (2005), this does not call for traditional responses of empirical psychology generating the basic knowledge of the behavior and care. In the postmodern vantage point, the psychologist appreciates that information has a relation to a given tradition. The relevant questions in relation pertain to the local tradition values for of social investigations comprise of the society generally. Here attention is drawn towards the more pragmatic questions regarding the impacts of traditional findings, methods, and theories. According to Gubrium & Holstein (2003), while the psychological theories have an export to cultures with a general concern, the reverberations for cultural life are dire. While holding the primary ingredients for the mind as cognitive, behavior is viewed to be genetically prepared. In distinguishing between normalcy and pathology, the doors open within the psychology culture of behavioral science. For example, the recent positive psychology emphasis preserves the special concerns of psychologists promising in view of culture a compared to the traditional deficit focus. According to Schuetze & Slowey (2000), social life becomes more enhanced while focusing the on positive possibilities above possible failings. Psychologists have an amassed sophistication in the array of methods to the generation of predictions. The underlying question is the kinds of utility that the existing prediction forms have to the external culture. For example, in most people’s view, the predictions kinds sought in the health psychology field of (with dependent variables of life and death consequence) can be quite valuable to many people in a given culture. There are the much fewer concerns about the culturally and artificial isolated predictions of behaviors used in evaluating abstract hypotheses about the mental functioning. According to Reason & Bradbury (2000), the issue is not is the hypotheses has a true or false implication in its ultimate sense, but on is the predictions have substantive utilities way from the local scope of truth. As seen, the postmodern empiricism replaces "truth game" with the search for culturally relevant findings and theories having significant meaning of culture. Effective empiricism will require postures for the culturally, politically, and ethically informed the pragmatism. It is in order to appreciate the psychology contributions to the modern forms of social practice. For the modernist perspective, hierarchical and strong distinctions are drawn across application of knowledge and knowledge generation within practice. In the view of postmodernism, the distinction has a wider erasing. The theoretical global accounts have no mirror reflections for the current world and more of discursive actions across communities. In turn, the theory is by itself a comprehensive practice approach. According to Wood (2004), this brings up the argument that, such a discourse becomes enormously relevant in constituting invitations to acting in different ways, unlike others. In the sense theory, there are constitutive components of the cultural life. However, how people press past such a discursive scope of academic professions and the direct enrichment forms in practice might cause the betterment in serving the society (Yerxa, 2008). In having psychology as an inevitable body of methods of a culture, the psychologist is in a position of augmenting the entire scope of the available aspects. It includes the elements to be said and about the other profession majority coupled with interests of those engaging in therapy, education, counseling, organizational work and testing. Even though most psychological methods are tightly conventional, this forms the practice domain that is found within the postmodern dialogues of psychology having made most of the impact there is. In therapeutic communities, for example, there are multitudes of subsequent methods based on treatment conception as a meaning reconstruction. The narrative therapies have obvious exemplars as well as the current practices across the globe. The narrative therapies have a typical bias to the relevance of such stories through which individuals understand as well as experience their respective lives. According to Siraj-Blatchford (2004), this also focuses on the functional (and dysfunctional) impacts of these discourses across the cultural milieu. Brief and postmodern therapies, as well as systemic therapies, have a direct outcome on the language importance for the construction of the realities through which people live. With a close tie to several developments for the treatment, there are different methods of rethinking of diagnostic procedures and categories. Extensive deconstruction and criticism of the traditional methods coupled with drastic concerns for the dialogic procedures giving voice to broader wider circles of the parties (Lavelle, 2008). Forward thinking therapists abandon the psycho-diagnosis while picking up teams comprising of representatives across different professions together with community and family knowledgeable components. The teams allow for reflection on the possible ways, to understanding individuals in their particular contexts as well as how best to proceed. In rejecting grand-narratives from the modern times, there is a defining aspect of the postmodern conditions in psychology within the society’s approaches towards finding new legitimizing principles. Major principles are gaining prominence irrespective of the fact that their limitations are notable, and their alternatives sought. According to Gallagher (2007), utility, appropriateness, and efficacy are some of the dimensions used in describing this legitimizing principle. In the end, they avail rise into notions that such theories only have a good or ‘true’ reflection in the event that meet set objectives. Such features are reflections of the historic switch while emphasizing on a means to an end. For the empirical methodology in modern times, the most received approach to finding ultimate truth for human behavior is through this. According to Reis & Judd (2000), the gains coming from the emphasis on results, unlike techniques, have a reflection on the postmodern psychology and not on the diverse ethical issues. The postmodernist psychotherapy for various offers has greater solutions and techniques plurality (Schmittau, 2003). While identifying solutions, postmodern psychotherapy uses the design of central goals in meeting the desired outcomes of clients and not preordained perceptions of ‘happiness’ by any means. To this point, postmodern psychotherapy provides multiple methods or ‘perspectives’ in approaching such desired results. According to Elleström (2002), in case of clients seek to understand how such childhood issues keep influencing their behavior, the psychodynamic dimension is deemed appropriate while in use by psychologists. As an alternative, while clients seek to have quick relief away from grief, part of the cognitive methods becomes even more effective. For example, individuals suffering from grief are given drug prescriptions in curing the symptoms. According to Prasad (2005), societal focus to effectiveness remains to be of critical interest to the individuals believing it amounts to unethical societies. The concerns are expressed through the use of curing the symptoms. Immediately after, it could not fall in as healthy but in the end, the society can avoid problems through taking the prescription drugs. In practice, the effectiveness prioritization without a concern for ‘ethics’, is disastrous. In appreciating the anti-depressant tablets increase in the prescription, it is notable that there are budget constraints as not all patients’ needs are primary factors behind prescribing the drugs. According to Elliott (2004), the private healthcare industry also has incentives towards prescribing the euphemistically ‘tablets’. This postmodernism feature leads humanity onto dangerous territories through ignorance of standards and their absence, which overlook a wider scope of actions not taken. In the end, while society legitimization has its basis on utility, all ideologies have a possibility of becoming hegemonic (Moraru, 2005). The mental illustrations highlight the manner through which the language games issues can operate in societal disciplines, as well. For example, behaviorist therapies have a high appreciation due to its internal rules that demand the applicability of empirical studies. According to Banathy & Jenlink (2006), there is conclusive proof that patients can be restructured through training out of a number of phobias. The theory garners dire criticism from a number of psychologists. For postmodern contexts, such disagreements are senseless. Because this is that postmodernists have a belief that people only understand information in case they understand the belief’s social justification. It means that an understanding can only be reached in the event that a particular methodology is known and of what it seeks to prove. Therefore, the disciplines under construction against the different rules and aims constrain the forms of methodology while using each within them differently (Peters & Burbules, 2004). This attention cannot pass judgment on the findings from other disciplines without a degree of bias. This postmodernism understanding plays well into importance of putting on drastic utilities. For postmodern psychology, methodology plurality takes the attention of beneficial and focused dimensions. It stems from the postmodern psychologists recognizing the different forms of restrictiveness in achieving a mono-disciplinary aspect (Ritchie, 2003). The postmodern psychologists within the ‘integrative school’ come in handy in the promotion of specializations in psychology like cognitive psychology or neuroscience. In addition, they come together in teaching psychologists of their inherent forms of biases to a given theory or another while helping them develop choice of the most effective approach to each patient. It seeks at eventually reaching the aim of extensive eradication of the mental health issues. According to Arter & McTighe (2001), the language itself gives the world meaning and structure while underpinning ironic responsibility for the truth. It also generates aspects of general perceptions in reality. The postmodernists do not share the belief that experience mirrors the objective truth as without language as ways of describing reality, the world’s reality does not exist. On this understanding, there needs to be ironic commitments to different truth disciplines. According to Watson (2003), this means that, in objective truth absence, people need to appreciate that the disciplines’ conclusions are not true but rather contingent. In the end, there is no need to allow data regarding the construction of reality cause diversion of attention away from the essence of seeking ‘truth’ (Rodgers, 2005). The postmodernist meaning of the ‘truth’ is becoming interchangeable to mean ‘effective’. This way, the ironic commitment to the truth where it has an implicit understanding of the truth is lacking, this is a simple acknowledgement of all disciplines seeking maximum effectiveness. It has a comprehensive reflection on the modern psychology. In Neuroscience, there is the recognition that while brain scans have color (highlighting areas of the brain with more stimulation than others do) the coloring becomes a social construction suiting the people’s aims without representing the objective truth. According to Anning (2004), irrespective of all this, neuroscientists and psychology disciplines are still essential, as they are causal links proposed through several methods useful in the achievement of the goals that humanity set for them. Within the intellectual world, psychologists have a notorious trend in setting absence from major debates within the past decades. In effect, risks incurred through the enormous success include self-organization as a point of irrelevance as well as ultimate degeneration (Rogoff, 2003). Instead of closing avenues, for new ideas and criticisms around the psychology realm there are extensive strengths gained in encouraging constructive dialog. As demonstrated in this paper, through careful and judicious sifting of such arguments, there is an emergence of more effective and richer psychology as compared to what is present currently. According to Apfelbaum (2000), this is psychology repletion with vast conceptual resources with high sensitivity to history and ideology hence higher levels of innovation about its inquiry methods. It also ensures a continuing font for new and more efficient practices. It is a psychology that the colonialist universalism replaces the global conversations across equals. Importantly, it is a form of psychology, having unparalleled contributions towards different cultures as well as the world in general. As demonstrated, there are strategic beginnings towards such psychology. On the other hand, the future is still hanging in the balance. The overall inertial forces within such routine, as well as the appropriate feeling for the realities within the previous acceptance, are enormous. The developments in information, in the two categories allow transformative dialogues to take place. While speaking together, people continue creating their future. To ascertain this, a number of arguments for the traditional kinds are placed forth, for example, they follow different conventions for rational argument while referring to assumed realities. However, this is not aimed at impressing them with the truth. It only engages in cultural practices for making sense. Individuals can rarely stand outside the traditions of others and still effectively communicate. Importantly, the psychologists must not make the mistake of the different forms of constructionist arguments within their respective functions. Such an attempt for the arguments does not necessarily generate other philosophies or foundations of replacing the precedents. In construing the proposals through such an approach, is giving them modernist readings. While entering the postmodern dialog, there is a start off looking at the arguments in particular pragmatic capacities. References Anning, A. 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