Does Social Construction Affects Reality?

Sociology is the study of how social forces influence individuals living within a society. Any society is made of norms, values and beliefs that have the effect of constraining individuals’ thoughts and behaviors. Through understanding and sociological imagination, individuals can remove or at least lessen the social forces’ impacts that are causing the constraints.

Society is constructed over different opinions and translations that individuals have over each other. The academic reading, “The Social Construction of Difference”, points out two different views that a group of people may have over another. In the academic reading the author, Allan G. Johnson, defines two different kinds of approaches that are known as privilege and oppression. Privilege is commonly defined as a group of certain people having more value from those who are not consider like one of them. Oppression is defined as privilege groups of people feeling superior in which leads to taking control over those who don’t share common identities with them. Based on the academic reading, “The Social Construction of difference”, the reality of social construction is based upon privilege and oppression.

The social construction theory is based on the reality that the society has created that may seem obvious to a person who agrees to it. In other words, our life experiences and interaction towards others is the way we create our reality through social interaction. This means that we were not born with this sense of knowledge, but was taught through social interaction and our life experiences (Orem 2001a, 7). Social construction is based on the categories of difference which are race, gender, and social class (Ore, 2011a: 8).

The phrase “social construction” is difficult to define as it encompasses a multitude of elements, but despite that, conventionally, social construction shows ways society has conceptualised expectations and ideals which can be related to specific sociological interested areas, such as the body. Social action has been shown to have an effect on the transformation of a biological individual, although bodies appear to be simply natural - eye colour, body shape, size of feet etc - a deeper context reveals that many social situations and factors contribute to the construction of bodies. How are we to make sense of people’s bodies? Theoretical traditions which highlight socially constructed bodies have been put forward by theorists such as Elias, Foucault, Goffman and Bourdieu, however, an alternative strategy of viewing socially constructed bodies could be to link these apparently contrasting theories together. This essay will focus upon ways in which the body appears to be a social construction, paying particular detail on the length individuals endure to perform socially constructed ideals with reference to gender and class.

Social validity was introduced by Wolf (1978), in which the need to measure the acceptability and impact of a programmed intervention in the society by the consumers. Since then, there have developed several models with different components of social validity (Carter, 2011). For example, Reimers, Wacker, and Koepple (1987) conceptualized a “decision-making” model of social validity, which focused on the level of understanding of an intervention. They created a six-level flow chart with numerous potential outcomes related to the implementation of an intervention to evaluate the acceptability of the intervention. Later, Schwartz and Baer (1991) described a model that was based on Wolf ‘s (1978) social validity, which emphasized the most significant variables influencing intervention acceptability. Despite the various models of social validity, the assessment of social validity in current studies rarely matches with one specific model to take into account as a scientific tool (Schwartz & Baer, 1991). Therefore, the purpose of the current paper is to critique how social validity was evaluated in Towery, Parsons, and Reid (2014) article using the models of social validity in Reinmer et al (1987), and Schwartz and Baer (1991). In addition, suggestions to improve their social validity assessment are discussed.

The connection between immigration policy and social construction is very motivating and worthwhile because social construction has an influence on immigration policy and the numerous factors in social construction also play a part in forming immigration policies. Immigration is the process of permanently entering a country. Social construction is the most common question that is debated is “what makes a person American or who gets to be called an America” (lecture). Immigration is the process of permanently entering a country. During the 18th and 19th century, America wanted to attract skilled immigrant workers so entrance to the United States was very encouraged.

In society, women are expected to be submissive, quiet, well mannered, and poised. The term “lady like” embodies these characteristics and is only applied to women. Men are expected to be dominant, strong, tall, and athletic. If a man does not have these qualities, he does not qualify as “masculine.” According to Carol Vance, author of Social Construction Theory and Sexuality, explains that femininity was achieved through socialization. This supports the claim that social construction demands women to act submissive and feminine. The expectations posed by social construction have a negative impact as they marginalize the LGBT community or any person who does fit these standards. This has caused issues such as bullying in schools which can lead to suicide. In this way, social construction forms a mold that men and women must feel the need to fit into out of the fear of being abnormal. From the evidence shown here, one can see how social construction does not positively impact sexuality and

Social inequality results from a society that is structured by hierarchy of different class, race, and gender. It is mostly distinguished by the inequality of income and access to educational resources plus the discrimination at individuals of color, immigrants, and sexual orientation. The textbook states an example of an African American Girl who is eager to go to college, but lacks the financial resources plus the right support system to apply to different universities. In this case the first agent is her family who does not encourage her to pursue a higher education.

The social construction theory describes race as an aspect of life constructed by humans, which affects our lives as social beings. How people are viewed in life, whether it is judged upon their gender, race, or even the style of clothing they wear, has an affect on various aspects of their life. Their education, career, salary, where they live, and their friends are all dictated by at least one aspect of social construction. Race has one of the strongest impacts in life, since there is an overbearing subconscious racial lens in the minds of most people. As social beings, these racial ideologies are embedded into our brains. Some people choose to ignore them, some act on them negatively against others, and some decide to challenge them head

The macrosystem is describing the cultural world along with ethnicity and the economic status. (Hutchison, 2016) Considering how I had a very wide range of diverse friends it helped me to develop and grow within my macrosystem. In my opinion, I feel that my macrosystem really needed to have a diverse background seeing as how when in the social work field, I will be working with all types of people, from different religious views and cultural background. I also feel the social constructionist perspective can go along with this system as well. According to Hutchison, social constructionist perspective helps see human understanding as the product and the driving force of social interaction. (Hutchison, 2016) During my junior leading up to my graduation

Social construction of reality/pg. 117: The use of background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real.

Social Realism has impacted the United States since the dark ages. It has impacted many different cultures all over the world. It does not matter what color you are. My ancestors before me had to struggle while growing up in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Social realism is still happening in the 21st century and it is going to get worse before it gets better. It is a sad thing to go through, but it makes you stronger. It makes you work hard to get what you want and need. My exhibition is unique because my family has dealt with struggles, hardship, and pain while they were being raised in the rural south and they went through the Great Depression. This is a personal topic for me. Luckily, my mother and father worked extremely hard so me and

Reality is not an objective thing that is imposed upon us, but is created by us. Reality does not exist externally but internally, as each individual or group interprets it, and is always changing. Due to these concepts sociologists often speak about the “social construction of reality” which is essential to understand when attempting to explain human social behavior. Since realty is the basis of people’s actions, W. I. Thomas states, “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”. The “social construction of reality”, human social behavior and W. I. Thomas’s statement are three concepts that fit hand in hand and are important when trying to explain one another.

According to social construction theory, gender is formed by our own beliefs and actions. For instance, many people would believe a farming job would be for a male but it can also be a female job as well. Usually women do house work while men do other duties outside such as landscaping. The definition of gender clearly states ‘“ the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex or one’s sex.”’. (Lecture 3, Page 2). Many people would believe that gender has to do with gonads or reproduction organs but it actually refers how an individual clearly view themselves. A female could be born by sex but then could identify the gender as a male because in their life, there could be masculine acts involved. Other words, socially constructed also means that “society or culture creates an idea, a physical object, a

In Society, people are classified according to many aspects whether it is by gender, race, or class. People are treated differently depending on these identities in their everyday lives. An Essentialist approach argues that people are born to fulfill these different statuses, that it is a natural order from their genes that classify them into these different groups. On the other hand, a social constructionist would argue that through society and the interaction with other people these statuses are created.