LATIN AMERICAN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY:
A NEO-PARADIGMATIC RESPONSE
Margarita Robertazzi (2006)
Summary:
1. INTRODUCTION
Community Social Psychology, Critical Social Psychology and Liberation Psychology are part of an integrated paradigm that seeks a
psychology sensitive to social contexts. Originating in Latin America, these currents address the specific social and cultural
problems of the region, based on an inescapable historical-social perspective.
This paradigm also finds affinities with Argentine historical and psychoanalytic developments of the 1960s, which emphasize how
collective social processes subjectively affect people. In addition, they represent a neo-paradigmatic response that emerged in
Latin America since the mid-1980s, characteristic of an era of global transformation of science.
Facing the challenge of underdevelopment and its effects on people and social relations, these currents place a direct emphasis
on power and the possibilities of transformation in the face of situations of inequality and injustice.
2. A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Until the 1960s, Social Psychology in Latin America mainly adopted theories and methods from the United States and France.
However, since the 1970s, this dependence began to change significantly. Divergent phases in its evolution are identified, from an
initial stage to a phase of development characteristic of Latin American Social Psychology, marked by periods of crisis. In 1976, in
Venezuela, social psychologists expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of usefulness of their work to address the psychosocial
problems existing in society.
In this context, José Miguel Salazar and other colleagues proposed the idea of authoring a book that was finally titled "Social
Psychology", with the aim of contributing to the teaching of the discipline by adapting it to the Latin American reality, which the
existing texts did not adequately reflect. Simultaneously, new practices and theories began to be introduced, bringing Social
Psychology closer to the social sciences, abandoning its individualistic approach, and adopting new methods of research in natural
contexts, while gaining social relevance.
The discipline sought to establish a new paradigm, emphasizing methodological openness, the historical nature of the phenomena
studied, and the preference for research in natural contexts, rejecting the hegemony of models imposed from the natural sciences.
He argued that research subjects are active producers of knowledge, politically and socially committed, and recognized the
dynamic, dialectical and symbolic of social reality.
Latin American Social Psychology emerged as a recognized field, but with blurred borders, constantly generating new areas of study
such as Community, Political and Environmental Psychology, in addition to developing interdisciplinary approaches in health,
education and work. According to Páez (1994), it was characterized by addressing problems such as poverty, repression, and
domination, standing out for its critical and social approach to cultural diversity and resistance to the imposition of a single way of
doing science, distinguishing it from both European and American psychology.
3. MODALITIES OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN LATIN AMERICA
Community Social Psychology, Critical Social Psychology, and Social and Political Psychology of Liberation are three currents that
focus on the different configurations of power in Latin America, with the purpose of transforming societies, groups, individuals,
and their relationships. These currents influence each other because of their shared interest in social emancipation and justice.
According to Montero (2001; 2004a), these psychological expressions are based on the paradigm of critical construction and
transformation, highlighting the ethical and political dimensions that guide their theoretical and practical values, in addition to the
more traditional ontological, epistemological, and methodological dimensions. Central to these currents is the vision of the human
being as an active agent, society as an environment where they should live more justly, and the importance of collaborative
relationships for the production of knowledge.
1
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A NEO-PARADIGMATIC RESPONSE
Margarita Robertazzi (2006)
Summary:
1. INTRODUCTION
Community Social Psychology, Critical Social Psychology and Liberation Psychology are part of an integrated paradigm that seeks a
psychology sensitive to social contexts. Originating in Latin America, these currents address the specific social and cultural
problems of the region, based on an inescapable historical-social perspective.
This paradigm also finds affinities with Argentine historical and psychoanalytic developments of the 1960s, which emphasize how
collective social processes subjectively affect people. In addition, they represent a neo-paradigmatic response that emerged in
Latin America since the mid-1980s, characteristic of an era of global transformation of science.
Facing the challenge of underdevelopment and its effects on people and social relations, these currents place a direct emphasis
on power and the possibilities of transformation in the face of situations of inequality and injustice.
2. A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Until the 1960s, Social Psychology in Latin America mainly adopted theories and methods from the United States and France.
However, since the 1970s, this dependence began to change significantly. Divergent phases in its evolution are identified, from an
initial stage to a phase of development characteristic of Latin American Social Psychology, marked by periods of crisis. In 1976, in
Venezuela, social psychologists expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of usefulness of their work to address the psychosocial
problems existing in society.
In this context, José Miguel Salazar and other colleagues proposed the idea of authoring a book that was finally titled "Social
Psychology", with the aim of contributing to the teaching of the discipline by adapting it to the Latin American reality, which the
existing texts did not adequately reflect. Simultaneously, new practices and theories began to be introduced, bringing Social
Psychology closer to the social sciences, abandoning its individualistic approach, and adopting new methods of research in natural
contexts, while gaining social relevance.
The discipline sought to establish a new paradigm, emphasizing methodological openness, the historical nature of the phenomena
studied, and the preference for research in natural contexts, rejecting the hegemony of models imposed from the natural sciences.
He argued that research subjects are active producers of knowledge, politically and socially committed, and recognized the
dynamic, dialectical and symbolic of social reality.
Latin American Social Psychology emerged as a recognized field, but with blurred borders, constantly generating new areas of study
such as Community, Political and Environmental Psychology, in addition to developing interdisciplinary approaches in health,
education and work. According to Páez (1994), it was characterized by addressing problems such as poverty, repression, and
domination, standing out for its critical and social approach to cultural diversity and resistance to the imposition of a single way of
doing science, distinguishing it from both European and American psychology.
3. MODALITIES OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN LATIN AMERICA
Community Social Psychology, Critical Social Psychology, and Social and Political Psychology of Liberation are three currents that
focus on the different configurations of power in Latin America, with the purpose of transforming societies, groups, individuals,
and their relationships. These currents influence each other because of their shared interest in social emancipation and justice.
According to Montero (2001; 2004a), these psychological expressions are based on the paradigm of critical construction and
transformation, highlighting the ethical and political dimensions that guide their theoretical and practical values, in addition to the
more traditional ontological, epistemological, and methodological dimensions. Central to these currents is the vision of the human
being as an active agent, society as an environment where they should live more justly, and the importance of collaborative
relationships for the production of knowledge.
1
Made by MatyBuda
