Week Four or Five? Or 23? I'm confused!!

Hi folks!!

It's official-I'm an idiot. No really, a complete bonehead. I have lost the will to live trying to write this TMA-my mind knows what it wanted to say, but my hands don't seem to be able to type the words properly and I end up with something that Lennie from of Mice and Men would laugh at. I have also developed a fantastic TMA avoidance trick-lying on the sofa doing nothing-you should try it, it really works!!

Anyway, I believe I'd just finished the Tajfel experiment (something about boys and groups and scores right? lol), so next on the list is Social Constructionism. Hmmmm, how do I coherently explain this??

Oh, hang on....

...right I'm back with chocolate spread sarnie and a pack of rainbow drops-'twas a substantial lunch in the '80s and if it's good enough for Adam Ant it's good enough for me!

With social constructionism comes the age-old, virtually unanswerable question of nature vs nurture - How much of what, or more importantly in this case who, we are is predisposed and natural, and how much is created by our social environment?

There's no need to point out which side of the fence social constructionists sit on. Our identities are constructed through our everyday interactions with other people, how we are viewed by society, and importantly the language we use. The language that we use helps to categorise and define the things and people around us-to completely rip off the text book, a good example of this is the use of the terms 'freedom-fighter' or terrorist (a la Mr Mandela).

As people, we actively construct our own identities via the things and people around us. The book used the example of Gergen, the chap whose identity was formed around a pen (fair play to him, personally I'd rather form my identity around something a bit cooler-like a robot or a pogo stick). When the pen became obsolete as a writing tool with the introduction of the wonderful machine now commonly known as a 'computer' he noted a marked crisis in his identity, reluctant to adopt this new media for fear of losing his sense of self (he may be right-can you imaging Shakespeare knocking out sonnets on his commodore 64?), which is a good example of how our identities are formed by things external to ourselves-attachment to a pen is surely not a 'natural' state to find oneself in. Said writting instrument also indicates how his identity was affected by social relations around him, as using a pen was something he copied from his parents.

As time and out social relations change, so too does our identity. As our surroundings are adapted, we adapt ourselves around them-changes in relationships, employment, different experiences and social standing all effect our identity.

Another important factor in the s.c. view of identity is that how we present ourselves affects our identities, the language that we use to describe ourselves, or what we decide is essential to who we are. Mr. 'I love pens' Gergen could have described himself in a manner of ways -'writer' or 'man' or 'fan of guinea pigs' (you never know!)-but he chose pens.

*As an aside I would like to point out that I'm not entirely sure I buy this theory-according to s.c. there is no distinction between personal and social identity, but I find it hard to believe that we don't to some extent have a 'core' self. Maybe I'm being naive but I don't like to think of myself as someone who is constantly changing in all aspects-like JLo, I feel I am still just Candy from the Block lol. And now I shall leave my soap box and get on with it!! *

Onto discourse. In short discourses are ways of constructing meaning via language and thinking in the context of our culture. I think. Please feel free to correct me as this is one of many subjects that baffles me quite frankly! So the way in which people construct their identities vary depending on their culture. I think.

Also, we can adapt our identities depending on who we are with-we may for example act differently around our peers at work than we do around our families at home, meaning that we can use our identities as tools in our everyday interactions. We have multiple identities, which is understandable as we can relate to lots of different 'categories' of identity-race, religion, gender class etc etc. This in turn creates multiple power relations with the people around us.

And that's all i'm going to write about Social Constructionism-partly because thats as far as my understanding stretches, and partly because my two year old has been glued to The Tweenies for the past half an hour and I'm convinced she's going to start growing huge feet and weird hair (actually, the weird hair she already has. She gets that from me).

I'll try to write my next entry on the research methods book later, although X-Factor may get in the way. I know there's a break in the middle of the two programmes but in truth I use that time to drink wine and dance around the living room singing into my hairbrush. I'm a busy girl, I don't have time for this activity otherwise and it's my favourite one. That's right-we all do it when we think no ones watching-and sometimes when we think they are!

Candyflee xx

Ps. My Alvarez book finally arrived and so far it's really though provoking. It's taking me a while to get through it though as I only really understand about 50% of the words. I would definitely recommend it though.