S u m m a r y

Ihanus J & Lipponen L (1997)

Jerome Bruner, cultural psychology and narrative thinking

Psykologia 32/4 (253-260). Rauma ISSN 0355-1067.

 

The article presents the eminent psychologist Jerome Bruner and his cultural psychology. First, the article describes the life and work of Jerome Bruner whose career in the field of psychology spans more than sixty years. Second, it reviews some of the core concepts (culture, intention, meaning) and themes (constructivism, functionalism, and the social construction of knowlege) of Bruner's psychological thinking. Third, the article explores how the concepts and themes are actualized in the new Brunerian cultural psychology. Fourth, it reveals the role of narratives and narrative thinking in folk psychology.

According to Bruner, the task of cultural psychology is to study the mediating role of folk psychology in everyday meaning making. There are four universal modes of making meanings: the intersubjective, actional, normative and propositional mode. Based on these, each culture creates it's own folk psychology, which is constructed and expressed in narratives. Narratives and the narrative mode of thought are powerful folk psychological instruments.

 

Keywords:

Jerome Bruner, cultural psychology, folk psychology, meaning, narrative.

 

Juhani Ihanus, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 4, FIN - 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland.

Lasse Lipponen, M.Ed, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, P.O. BOX 13, FIN - 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland.