Medical Ethics Education from a Socio-Cultural Perspective

Abstract

As I have discussed drawing on the insights offered by psychology is unavoidable in any attempt to articulate an interdisciplinary perspective on professional reproduction that encompasses and connects the ‘social’ and ‘pedagogical’ processes of socialisation and enculturation. The difficulty is not with holding a psychological discussion but with the assumption that psychology is a science of individuals. This ‘individualist’ presumption results in the charge of reductionism being leveled at social theories that discuss or draw on psychology. The criticism is that such social theories place to much weight on individuals and their psychology at the expense of social and cultural context. However, in fact, there is little reason to assume psychology is necessarily individualist in any reductive sense and many ‘psychological’ perspectives recognize the importance of the social dimension, particularly with regard to learning, development, socio-cultural practices and, increasingly, the nature of the mind.