Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Positivism-Plus: A Constructivist Approach To Teaching Psychopharmacology To Counselors, Cecile Brennan, Elliott Ingersoll

Cecile Brennan

In this positivism-plus approach, the chemical and neurobiological bases of psychopharmacology constitute a pervasive, positivist construction of a reality that influences client behavior. However, is it argued that this biological version of reality must be integrated into the work of counseling, that is, it must be adapted to the environmental and intrapsychic contexts that clients and counselors co-construct. This chapter reviews the relationships among the medical model, constructivism, and counselor training, describes the general components of the psychopharmacology course, then discusses more specifically the relationship between the positivist and positivist-plus elements