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A Sociological Perspective on Contextualism
Author(s) -
Thomas Sydney Carroll
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of counseling and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.805
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1556-6676
pISSN - 0748-9633
DOI - 10.1002/j.1556-6676.1996.tb02288.x
Subject(s) - contextualism , epistemology , sociology , constructivism (international relations) , perspective (graphical) , symbolic interactionism , interactionism , social science , political science , interpretation (philosophy) , philosophy , international relations , computer science , politics , law , linguistics , artificial intelligence
Traditional organismic age‐stage theories of development have recently fallen into disrepute because of their failure to adequately explain research understandings of human development. Currently, new contextualist approaches are being advanced to rectify this problem. This article reviews the key assumptions of 2 new contextualist theories (constructivism and interactionism), examines the claims of these new contextualisms, and offers suggestions as to how a sociological analysis of human development can remedy some of the major theoretical failings while building on the basic strengths. The article concludes with a discussion of how a critical contextualism might inform the practice of counselors.