Context and individualism: Critical issues for contextualist counsellors

Abstract

Constructivist and interactionist models have been heralded as part of a new contextualist trend for counselling. They were developed in reaction to traditional organismic agestage theories of development ~vhich neglected important environmental influences. This paper will show that these new approaches are limited in the same way that the earlier developmental theories are: that they absolve and discourage looking at destructive social circumstances and arrangements that lead to problems that get defined in individualistic terms. Thoughtful attention to the concepts of "context" and "individualism" is essential to establishing the criteria that a more adequate contextual theory must satisfy.Counsellors' remedial and preventive efforts in assisting individuals throughout the life course are informed by their most basic assumptions about the normal ways in which human beings develop. At their best, counsellors serve as advocates for students, teachers, and families; and as systems consultants, by helping to facilitate the positive development of students in educational settings. But counsellors realize this potential all too rarely. Why? Because inadequate theoretical assumptions inform how decisions are made, often unreflectively, about which programmatic initiatives are advanced in schools and how they are applied. Developmental discourse classifies, orders, and organizes stages of growth and defines what is "healthy" development and what is "pathological". Theory provides an interpretive template which frames how counsellors view children and determines subsequent interventions. However, many of the theories that have dominated the counselling profession have implicitly reduced socially produced problems to "private troubles" within individuals; they have tended to neglect or obscure the importance of context in the shaping of the life course.Of course, traditional organismic "age-stage" theories have often been criticized by sociologists, psychologists, and human development theorists for assuming that the course and timing of human development are universal

Overcoming modern-postmodern dichotomies: Some possible benefits for the counselling profession

“…In addition, there has recently been a call for more critical contextualising approaches in the field: approaches which may account for the ways in which the counsellor's basic epistemological assumptions (i.e. the reality of culture and the individual) might be applied to therapeutic practices, and which will lead to an understanding of oppressive relationships and power structures (Thomas, 1996).…”

Individualism and Collectivism: What Do They Have to Do With Counseling?

“…Given the individualistic roots in the history of the counseling profession, it is hardly surprising that the concept of individualism has received considerable exploration. Thomas (1997) acknowledged that individualism as a philosophical concept has come under much attack recently in its devaluing of social commitment and its focus on high levels of competitiveness. Furthermore, in this era of individualism-collectivism, many researchers have recently included this variable in their analyses (Kagitcibasi, 1997).…”