Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Limits of Social Constructionism

The sociology of knowledge is a heterogeneous set of theories which generally focuses on the social origins of meaning. Strong arguments, epitomized by Durkheim's late work, have hypothesized that the very concepts our minds use to structure experience are constructed through social processes. This view has come under attack from theorists influenced by recent work in developmental psychology that has demonstrated some awareness of these categories in pre‐socialized infants. However, further studies have shown that the innate abilities infants display differ in systematic and theoretically significant ways from adults' explicit knowledge. This paper moves beyond the constructionist/nativist dichotomy by outlining the complex relationships between innate intelligence and explicit knowledge. I end by suggesting that there are four, distinct ways the social world influences thought‐ facilitation, division, specification, and construction.     

International News Selection by the Elite Press: A Case Study

This study examines the news factors influencing the selectionof international news for publication—frequency, threshold,unambiguity, meaningfulness, personal and national elitism,and negativity. The subject of investigation is The Times (London)during a two-week period (January-February, 1975). Comparisonsare made between published and unpublished news events, codedaccording to World Event/Interaction Survey event categories.To avoid some of the problems inherent in testing individualnews factors, the complementarity and additivity hypotheseswere also tested; both are supported by the data. In addition,relevance of the study to policy issues such as agenda settingby the press and recent Third World criticism of Western newscoverage is discussed.     

Historical Self-understanding in the Social Sciences: The Use of Thomas Kuhn in Psychology

Thomas Kuhn's (1962, 1970c) thesis concerning the structure of scientific change was critically examined in relation to the historical problems of social science. The use and interpretation of Kuhn's ideas by psychologists was reviewed and found to center around the proliferation of theoretical views as paradigms, the viewing of theoretical differences as paradigm clashes, and efforts to affirm particular conceptions of psychology's past or future. Such use was seen as curbing discussion of fundamental issues, and to reflect a continuing neglect of the foundational problems peculiar to social science. The relevance of Kuhn's work was seen to rest on a more critical view of his idea of "mature" science, better understanding of the type of social psychology upon which his thesis rests, and greater appreciation of his hermeneutic approach to social-historical analysis.