Theory of Constructivism
General Purpose: The general purpose of constructivism is to provide understanding for how individuals actively create and participate in their social world.
Specific Purpose: The specific purpose of constructivism is explain functional communication competence by first identifying individual differences in social cognitive processes and the differences in the ability of individuals to effectively accomplish social goals through communication. Within this theory, functional communication competence recognizes that individuals differ in how they construct their reality, organize knowledge and meaning, and accomplish individual and relational goals.
Key terms, concepts, and definitions:
The constructivist perspective shares a history with symbolic interactionism and the theories of George Kelly, George Herbert Mead, and Jean Piaget, and other branches of knowledge also use the term constructivism but in differing ways. The constructivism for human communication has three philosophical assumptions:
There are two key theoretical terms and two variables as part of constructivism:
Social Cognitive Abilities is the first theoretical term, associated with the variable Interpersonal Cognitive Complexity. Social cognitive abilities recognizes that individuals vary in how the view the world, participate in reality, and manage their knowledge about the social world in particular. The variable operationalizing social cognitive abilities is Interpersonal Cognitive Complexity (ICC).
Interpersonal cognitive complexity captures how individuals see their social world in terms of interpersonal relationships, interpersonal reactions, and social conditions, roles, and relationships. Lower scores reflect relatively simple views of the social world; while higher scores reflect relatively complex views of the social world. ICC is measured using a writing instrument called the Role Category Questionnaire, where individuals are asked to describe a liked peer and disliked peer, and the constructs described are thought to provide a sample of the total number of constructs individuals have to describe their social world. The way in which individuals write about liked and disliked peers represents constructs (bipolar cognitive dimensions). This measure not only captures the number of constructs (differentiation), but can also be used to capture how refined or articulated (abstraction) a system is, and also how cohesive and organized (integration) a system is. An individual’s system of interpersonal cognitive complexity emerges through the influence of development, parenting, and social experiences.
Effective Communication Competence is the second theoretical term and it recognizes how individuals are able to effectively recognizes the perspectives and goals of other people in their messages. The variable of Verbal Person Centeredness (VPC) captures the ways in which messages can be more or less attuned in responses to a conversational partner. Initial work in this area recognized these messages as listener-adapted, meaning these messages adapt to the goals, thoughts, feelings, and ideas of the conversational partner. Typically, the research on these VPC messages focus on either persuasive messages, discipline messages, or supportive messages.
VPC messages are described on three levels, with low messages representing less adaptation to the listener and almost no recognition of their perspectives. Messages low in verbal person centeredness do not adapt to the listener, these messages deny or directly criticize the perspectives of the listener. Messages moderate in verbal person centeredness attempt to recognize the feelings, thoughts, and perspectives of the listener but do so only in a general way, versus recognizing the unique position, perspective, and experience of the listener. Messages high in verbal person centeredness attempt to achieve multiple perspectives, where the specific thoughts, feelings, and experiences of a listener are explicitly recognized and named.
What does the theory do? This theory seeks to explain why the various ways in which individuals see their social world, and use their knowledge of the social world in interacting with others. By focusing on outcomes where individuals persuade, comfort, discipline, constructivism focuses on functional communication where our messages function to accomplish these various outcomes more or less effectively through incorporating both primary and secondary goals while attending to the particular needs of another individual.
Where can it be applied? Constructivism in interpersonal relations can be applied to a variety of different areas of research depending on each which operationalization and which construct is of interest. Interpersonal cognitive complexity has been employed in studying other individual differences like recall of information, listening comprehension, social perception, perspective-taking, and communication apprehension. Verbal person centeredness has been employed in studying the comforting process, and parent-child interactions in particular.
Summary sources:
Bodie, G. D., & Jones, S. M. (in press). Constructivism. In W. Donsbach (Ed.), International
Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Communication, Vol 4. (pp. TBA). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Lindlof, T. R. (2008). Constructivism. In W. Donsbach (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of
Interpersonal Communication, Vol 3. (pp. 944-950). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Burleson, B. R., Bodie, G. D. (2008). Constructivism and Interpersonal Processes. In W. Donsbach
(Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Communication, Vol 3. (pp. 950-954).
Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Exemplar articles:
Burleson, B. R., Delia, J. G., & Applegate, J. L. (1995). The socialization of person-centered
communication: Parents' contributions to their children's social-cognitive and communication
skills. In M. A. Fitzpatrick & A. L. Vangelisti (Eds.), Explaining family interactions (pp. 34-76). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Crockett, W. H. (1965). Cognitive complexity and impression formation. In B. A. Maher (Ed.),
Progress in experimental personality research (Vol. 2, pp. 47-90). New York, NY: Academic
Press.
O'Keefe, B. J., & Delia, J. G. (1979). Construct comprehensiveness and cognitive complexity as
predictors of the number and strategic adaptation of arguments and appeals in a persuasive
message. Communication Monographs, 46, 231-240. doi: 10.1080/03637757909376009
Jones, S. M., & Guerrero, L. K. (2001). The effects of nonverbal immediacy and verbal person
centeredness in the emotional support process. Human Communication Research, 27, 567-596. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2001.tb00793.x
Specific Purpose: The specific purpose of constructivism is explain functional communication competence by first identifying individual differences in social cognitive processes and the differences in the ability of individuals to effectively accomplish social goals through communication. Within this theory, functional communication competence recognizes that individuals differ in how they construct their reality, organize knowledge and meaning, and accomplish individual and relational goals.
Key terms, concepts, and definitions:
The constructivist perspective shares a history with symbolic interactionism and the theories of George Kelly, George Herbert Mead, and Jean Piaget, and other branches of knowledge also use the term constructivism but in differing ways. The constructivism for human communication has three philosophical assumptions:
- Active Construction of Reality: This assumption of constructivism recognizes that individuals interact in their world and contribute to shaping reality. This view stands in contrast to a view of the world where individuals are passive and do not interact or change the world around us.
- Meaning is always shifting: This assumption of constructivism recognizes that individuals think - and our knowledge shifts depending on factors like situation, purpose, roles, and experience. While it is tempting to think that there is factual information “out there” waiting to be discovered, based on the first assumption, even “factual” knowledge is still the product of interpretation and shifting knowledge.
- Concern with the role of science. With the second assumption based on what is (or is not) “out there,” constructivism seeks to recognize the role of different scientific discourse and how different discourse results in different interpretations of the information observed, described, and interpreted. This final assumption recognizes that how information is out talked about in different scientific conversations can influence how individuals recognize and think about knowledge.
There are two key theoretical terms and two variables as part of constructivism:
Social Cognitive Abilities is the first theoretical term, associated with the variable Interpersonal Cognitive Complexity. Social cognitive abilities recognizes that individuals vary in how the view the world, participate in reality, and manage their knowledge about the social world in particular. The variable operationalizing social cognitive abilities is Interpersonal Cognitive Complexity (ICC).
Interpersonal cognitive complexity captures how individuals see their social world in terms of interpersonal relationships, interpersonal reactions, and social conditions, roles, and relationships. Lower scores reflect relatively simple views of the social world; while higher scores reflect relatively complex views of the social world. ICC is measured using a writing instrument called the Role Category Questionnaire, where individuals are asked to describe a liked peer and disliked peer, and the constructs described are thought to provide a sample of the total number of constructs individuals have to describe their social world. The way in which individuals write about liked and disliked peers represents constructs (bipolar cognitive dimensions). This measure not only captures the number of constructs (differentiation), but can also be used to capture how refined or articulated (abstraction) a system is, and also how cohesive and organized (integration) a system is. An individual’s system of interpersonal cognitive complexity emerges through the influence of development, parenting, and social experiences.
Effective Communication Competence is the second theoretical term and it recognizes how individuals are able to effectively recognizes the perspectives and goals of other people in their messages. The variable of Verbal Person Centeredness (VPC) captures the ways in which messages can be more or less attuned in responses to a conversational partner. Initial work in this area recognized these messages as listener-adapted, meaning these messages adapt to the goals, thoughts, feelings, and ideas of the conversational partner. Typically, the research on these VPC messages focus on either persuasive messages, discipline messages, or supportive messages.
VPC messages are described on three levels, with low messages representing less adaptation to the listener and almost no recognition of their perspectives. Messages low in verbal person centeredness do not adapt to the listener, these messages deny or directly criticize the perspectives of the listener. Messages moderate in verbal person centeredness attempt to recognize the feelings, thoughts, and perspectives of the listener but do so only in a general way, versus recognizing the unique position, perspective, and experience of the listener. Messages high in verbal person centeredness attempt to achieve multiple perspectives, where the specific thoughts, feelings, and experiences of a listener are explicitly recognized and named.
What does the theory do? This theory seeks to explain why the various ways in which individuals see their social world, and use their knowledge of the social world in interacting with others. By focusing on outcomes where individuals persuade, comfort, discipline, constructivism focuses on functional communication where our messages function to accomplish these various outcomes more or less effectively through incorporating both primary and secondary goals while attending to the particular needs of another individual.
Where can it be applied? Constructivism in interpersonal relations can be applied to a variety of different areas of research depending on each which operationalization and which construct is of interest. Interpersonal cognitive complexity has been employed in studying other individual differences like recall of information, listening comprehension, social perception, perspective-taking, and communication apprehension. Verbal person centeredness has been employed in studying the comforting process, and parent-child interactions in particular.
Summary sources:
Bodie, G. D., & Jones, S. M. (in press). Constructivism. In W. Donsbach (Ed.), International
Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Communication, Vol 4. (pp. TBA). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Lindlof, T. R. (2008). Constructivism. In W. Donsbach (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of
Interpersonal Communication, Vol 3. (pp. 944-950). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Burleson, B. R., Bodie, G. D. (2008). Constructivism and Interpersonal Processes. In W. Donsbach
(Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Communication, Vol 3. (pp. 950-954).
Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Exemplar articles:
Burleson, B. R., Delia, J. G., & Applegate, J. L. (1995). The socialization of person-centered
communication: Parents' contributions to their children's social-cognitive and communication
skills. In M. A. Fitzpatrick & A. L. Vangelisti (Eds.), Explaining family interactions (pp. 34-76). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Crockett, W. H. (1965). Cognitive complexity and impression formation. In B. A. Maher (Ed.),
Progress in experimental personality research (Vol. 2, pp. 47-90). New York, NY: Academic
Press.
O'Keefe, B. J., & Delia, J. G. (1979). Construct comprehensiveness and cognitive complexity as
predictors of the number and strategic adaptation of arguments and appeals in a persuasive
message. Communication Monographs, 46, 231-240. doi: 10.1080/03637757909376009
Jones, S. M., & Guerrero, L. K. (2001). The effects of nonverbal immediacy and verbal person
centeredness in the emotional support process. Human Communication Research, 27, 567-596. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2001.tb00793.x