Social constructionism and ethics: implications for counseling.(Case study)

Social constructionism is set forth as an epistemological framework from which to establish an ethical base for the field of counseling. The development of the social constructionist movement in counseling is described. Implications of a social constructionist position are considered in relation to ethics. A case example is provided to illustrate implications of a social constructionist position.

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Throughout history, ethics has been broadly applied in the social world. In the field of counseling, the term ethics has been used in various ways. For example, Hill (2004) has suggested that "when professional counselors refer to ethics ... it is often not clear whether they are referring to codes of ethics, moral values, legal limitations on behavior, community standards, or to some general sense of the term that is meant to encompass any one or all of these" (p. 186). In recent years, professionals in the field have only begun to recognize that ethics is a complex domain that creates conflicts between ethical codes, on the one hand, and the personal values of counselors, on the other (Cottone, 2001; Hill, 2004). These conflicts have been occasioned by a gradual shift in the counseling field from a modern to a postmodern perspective.

Postmodernism is an intellectual movement that has been developed as a reaction against modernist conceptions of objectivity, certainty, and reason (Lyotard, 1979). In particular, social constructionism has become a postmodern zeitgeist in counseling (Cottone, 2001; Guterman, 1994; Rudes & Guterman, 2007). Put simply, social constructionism holds that people create their ideas of what is true in conversations with other people (Berger & Luckmann, 1966). From a social constructionist perspective, it follows that knowledge is not an objective (i.e., independent of the observer) representation--a view that corresponds to a modernist formulation--but, rather, is largely the result of intersubjective communication (Rudes & Guterman, 2007).

In this article, we take the position that social constructionism presents implications for counseling's ethical base that contrast significantly from traditional modernism. From a modernist perspective, general laws are gradually uncovered and applied universally to all people and across cases. Accordingly, counselors operating from a modernist perspective seek a single, correct interpretation of any given ethical code (e.g., Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 1998; Welfel, 1998). In contrast, from a social constructionist perspective, it is understood that ethical codes are cocreated by people in relationships (Cottone, 2001). According to Cottone, a "social ... [constructionist] approach to ethical decision making places the ethical decision out in the open--in the interaction between individuals" (p. 40). Counselors operating from a social constructionist position view themselves as participant-observers who influence and are influenced by clients, events, and dominant social realities that inform the counseling profession, including ethical codes, laws, and community standards (Cottone, 2001; Guterman, 1994). From a social constructionist perspective, ethical codes are responsive to context, are culturally dependent, and are always local.

The purpose of this article is to describe social constructionism as an epistemological framework from which to establish an ethical base for the field of counseling. The organization of this article is as follows. First, the development of the social constructionist movement in counseling is described. Next, implications of a social constructionist position are considered in relation to ethics in the field of counseling. Then, a case example is provided to illustrate implications of a social constructionist position in relation to ethics in the field of counseling.

Social Constructionism and Counseling