Gergen, Kenneth

Generic

Start date:

Commentary

Gergen (1935 - ) is an American Social Psychologist. He began teaching at Swarthmore University in 1962 after bring an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University.
Possibly his most well-known publication is Social Psychology as History (1973) which emphasises Gergen’s position as a social constructivist. In this paper and others, he argues that social psychology is engaged with informing and constructing, as well as documenting, cultural social life. His went on to argue that knowledge was socially constructed and that knowledge as well as the self are relational. He criticised the view that knowledge empirical and certain. The paper is highly cited and can be considered a turning point in critical Psychology and how the history of Psychology was viewed.

Relationships

People

Perspectives

Methods