Constructivism (psychological school)

In psychology, constructivism refers to many schools of thought which, though different in different branches of psychology using different techniques. Despite these differences, psychologists sharing a constructivist paradigm offer a common critique of previous standard approaches, such as behaviorism’s stimulus-reaction presentation of behaviour or associatism, "by which the mind is conceived as a passive system that gathers its contents from its environment and, through the act of knowing, produces a copy of the order of reality". In contrast to these old approaches, constructivism asserts that all psychological phenomena – from physical actions to cognitive processes – are being constructed (generated) every time anew based on the current state of the body, context, available resources, previous experience and habits, and many other factors Construction of behaviour proceeds as selection and sequencing of actions, emotions and percepts. The constructivism principles were observed and described in biology before the 20th century, and were reflected in the theories of evolution and genetics. Biological phenomena and behavioural are known for there generative nature, compositions and renovations of observed structures such as biomolecules, cell, human relationships, groups and organizations. The dependence of biological constructions from environment, past and current states and needs is seen in regeneration, DNA and Biosynthesis processes. In psychology, however, the behaviourism paradigm (presenting behaviour as passive reaction to stimuli after associations have been established) continues being prominent even nowadays and is not compatible with constructism principles. Experimental evidence for constructivism principles first emerged Nikolai Bernstein' work on habit formation and stages of action, which led to his “action construction” model and a theory. In 1930-s, Bernstein used his original tracking devices that were positioned on the bodies of experts and dilletants in various professions. These experiments described multiple examples of "repetition without repetition" in generation of actions, contrary to classical conditioning principles of behaviourism.