EVALUATION OF THE SCIENTIFIC PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL IDENTITY APPROACH FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF POSITIVISM, SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM AND CRITICAL REALISM

Year 2019, Issue: 28, 405 - 420, 29.12.2019

Serap Akfırat

Abstract

This study discusses the scientific philosophy (i.e. the ontological and
epistemological outlook) of the social identity approach. Social psychology was
dominated by positivism for a longtime. In 1970’s during “the period of crisis” in the
discipline, main objective of social psychology, its assumptions and methods were
questioned. Owing to these debates, the social constructivist approach that
epistemologically and ontologically differentiated itself from the positivistic
approach. Concurrently, along with Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory and later
Turner’s Self Categorization Theory (1987), groups and group processes came to
occupy a place in social psychology that represent an alternative to the dominant
positivist approach’s individualistic analysis level. In this study the concepts of
ontology and epistemology are introduced, then the respective ontological and
epistemological approaches of positivistic, social constructionist and critical
realistic science philosophies. The basic premises of the social identity approach are
discussed in terms of the ontological and epistemological stands of positivism, social
constructionism and critical realism currents. 

Keywords

Social identity approach, critical realism, social constructivism, positivism

SOSYAL KİMLİK YAKLAŞIMININ BİLİM FELSEFESİNİN POZİTİVİZM, SOSYAL İNŞACILIK VE ELEŞTİREL GERÇEKÇİLİK AÇISINDAN DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ

Abstract

Bu
çalışmada, 1970’lerden itibaren grup süreçlerini ve sosyal kimlikleri
açıklamaya yönelen, o tarihten bu yana gruplar arası çatışmalardan önyargıya,
kolektif eylemlerden liderliğe, oldukça geniş bir yelpazede yer alan sosyal
psikolojik kavram ve olgu üzerine çok sayıda çalışmaya temel olan Sosyal Kimlik
Kuramı’nın (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel ve Turner, 1979; Turner ve ark., 1987)  bilim felsefesi (ontolojik-epistemolojik
yaklaşımı) tartışılmaktadır. Bu doğrultuda, çalışmanın ilk bölümünde ontoloji
ve epistemoloji kavramları tanımlanmakta; ikinci bölümde pozitivist, sosyal
inşacı ve eleştirel gerçekçi bilim felsefelerinin ontolojik ve epistemolojik
yaklaşımları sunulmakta; üçüncü bölümde Sosyal Kimlik Kuramı’nın temel
varsayımları pozitivizm, sosyal inşacılık ve eleştirel gerçekçilik akımlarının
ontolojik ve epistemolojik yaklaşımları çerçevesinde değerlendirilmektedir.

Keywords

sosyal kimlik yaklaşımı, eleştirel gerçekçilik, sosyal inşacılık, pozitivizm

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