Do you act the same way when you are in school, talking to your teachers, when you are at home chatting with your friends and when you are out on a date? The answer is likely no.
Sociologists point out that we all act differently according to the roles we possess in different situations. Through these roles, situations, interactions, and presentations of self, we create different realities.
That is what sociology refers to as the social construction of reality.
- We will look at the definition of the social construction of reality.
- We will look at Berger and Luckmann’s social construction of reality.
- Then, we will consider the social construction of reality theory in more detail.
- We will discuss examples of the social construction of reality.
- Finally, we will include a summary of the social construction of reality.
Social Construction of Reality: Definition
The social construction of reality is a sociological concept arguing that people's reality is created and shaped by their interactions. Reality is not an objective, 'natural' entity, it is rather a subjective construction that people develop rather than observe.
The term 'social construction of reality' was coined by sociologists Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann in 1966, when they published a book with the phrase in the title. Let's examine this more below.
Berger and Luckmann's Social Construction of Reality
Sociologists Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann wrote a book in 1966 titled The Social Construction of Reality. In the book, they used the term ‘habitualization’ to describe how people construct society through their social interactions.
More precisely, habitualization means the repeated performance of certain actions that people treat as acceptable. Simply put, people perform certain actions, and once they see others’ positive reactions to them, they continue to perform them, and others start to copy them to get the same reactions. This way, certain actions became habits and patterns.
Berger and Luckmann argue that people create society through interactions, and they keep to the rules and values of society because they see them as a habit.
Now, we will study one of the key theories on the social construction of reality: symbolic interactionism.
Symbolic Interactionist Theory of Social Construction of Reality
Symbolic interactionist sociologist Herbert Blumer (1969) pointed out that social interactions between people are extremely interesting because humans interpret each other’s actions rather than react to them. People react to what they think the meaning of another’s actions is.
Thus, people shape reality according to their own perceptions, which are influenced by the culture, belief system, and socialization process they experienced from childhood.
Symbolic interactionists approach the concept of the social construction of reality, focusing on symbols like language and gestures present in everyday social interactions. They argue that language and body language reflects the values and rules of the society we live in, which differ between societies worldwide. Symbolic interactions in society influence how we construct reality for ourselves.
Symbolic interactionists point to two important aspects in how we construct reality through social interactions: firstly, the formation and importance of roles and status, and secondly, the presentation of the self.
Roles and Statuses
Sociologists define roles as acts and patterns of behavior signifying one's occupation and social status.
Status refers to the responsibilities and privileges a person experiences through their role and rank in society. Sociologists differentiate between two types of statuses.
Ascribed status is given to a person at birth. An example of ascribed status is the royal title.
Achieved status, on the other hand, is the result of one’s actions in society. ‘High school dropout’ is an achieved status, as well as ‘CEO of a tech company’.
Fig. 2 - The royal title is an example of an ascribed status.
Usually, a person is associated with multiple statuses and roles in society as they get involved in more things in life, whether personal or professional. One can play both the roles of ‘daughter’ and that of ‘student’ depending on the social situation. These two roles carry different statuses.
When the responsibilities of a role become too overwhelming, one can experience what sociologists call a role strain. A parent, for example, who has to deal with many things, including work, domestic duties, childcare, emotional support, etc., might experience role strain.
When two of these roles are contradictory to each other - in the case of a parent's career and childcare, for example - one experiences role conflict.
Presentation of Self
The self is defined as the distinct identity that separates people from each other, making every one unique. The self constantly changes according to the experiences one has throughout their life course.
According to symbolic interactionist Erving Goffman, a person in life is like an actor on stage. He called this theory dramaturgy.
Dramaturgy refers to the idea that people present themselves to others differently based on their situation and what they want others to think about them.
For example, a person behaves differently when they are at home with friends versus when they are in the office with coworkers. They present a different self and assume a different role, says Goffman. They do not necessarily do this consciously; most of the performance of the self, described by Goffman, happens unconsciously and automatically.
Other Theories of the Social Construction of Reality
Let's now look at other theories on the social construction of reality.
The Thomas Theorem
The Thomas theorem was created by sociologists W. I. Thomas and Dorothy S. Thomas.
It states that people’s behavior is shaped by their subjective interpretation of things rather than by the objective existence of something. In other words, people define objects, other people, and situations as real, and thus their effects, actions, and consequences are also perceived as real.
Thomas agrees with Berger and Luckmann that societal norms, moral codes, and social values have been created and maintained through time and habit.
For example, if a student is repeatedly called an overachiever, they might interpret this definition as a real character trait - even though it initially was not an objectively 'real' part of themselves - and start acting as if it were part of their personality.
This example leads us to another concept created by Robert K. Merton; the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Merton's Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Merton argued that a false idea can become true if people believe it to be true and act about it accordingly.
Let us look at an example. Say a group of people believe that their bank will go bankrupt. There is no real reason for this belief. Nevertheless, the people run to the bank and demand their money. Since banks do not usually have such large amounts of money at hand, they will run out and eventually go genuinely bankrupt. They thus fulfill the prophecy and construct reality from the mere idea.
The ancient story of Oedipus is the perfect example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
An oracle told Oedipus that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus then went out of his way to avoid this fate. However, it was exactly those decisions and pathways that brought him to the fulfillment of the prophecy. He did indeed murder his father and marry his mother. Just like Oedipus, all members of society contribute to the social construction of reality.
Examples of the Social Construction of Reality
Let's look at an example to make the concept of habitualization even clearer.
A school exists as a school not only because it has a building and classrooms with tables, but because everyone associated with it agrees that it is a school. In most cases, your school is older than you, meaning it was created as a school by people before you. You accept it as a school because you have learned that others perceived it as such.
This example is also a form of institutionalization, as we see a process of conventions being built into society. This, of course, does not mean that the building itself is not real.
Fig. 1 - A school exists as a school because the building has been associated with the term by many for a long time.
Social Construction of Reality: Summary
Sociologists have noted that the more power a group has in society, the more dominant their construction of reality will be for the whole. The power to define social rules and values and construct a reality for society is one of the most crucial aspects of social inequality, as not all groups have it.
This was demonstrated through the civil rights movement of the 1960s, various women's rights movements, and further movements for equality. Social change usually comes through the disturbance of the current social reality. The redefinition of social reality can bring about social change on a big scale.
The Social Construction of Reality - Key takeaways
- The social construction of reality is a sociological concept arguing that people's reality is created and shaped by their interactions. Reality is not an objective, 'natural' entity, it is rather a subjective construction that people develop rather than observe.
- Symbolic interactionists approach the concept of constructed reality by focusing on symbols like language and gestures in everyday social interactions.
- The Thomas theorem was created by sociologists W. I. Thomas and Dorothy S. Thomas. It states that people’s behavior is shaped by their subjective interpretation of things rather than by the objective existence of something.
- Robert Merton argued that a false idea can become true if people believe it to be true and act about it accordingly - the self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Sociologists note that the more power a group has in society, the more dominant their construction of reality will be for the whole.
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