Social Construct Essay

Illness and disease are widespread across the world. As human bodies morph and change, management and defeat of these illnesses change as well. The cultural meaning of an illness is defining the illnesses that are stigmatized and those which are not. Culture defines whether the illness is treatable and can be defeated versus those which can’t be. Whether they are scientifically correct in this aspect, is irrelevant as society will conform to the cultural meaning of illness until consulting medical knowledge. Another common term is stigmatization of illness in culture. This is the factor that keeps the patient from seeking medical attention because they are told that the society and medical professionals will discriminate against their

Surroundings and opinions influence a person’s reality and understandings. This is explained by the social construction of reality theory. This theory explains how society creates and influences every aspect of life. From the time a person is born to the time of their death, they are given direction on how to think, speak, and act. With this type of thought process, it causes people to agree on many of the basic principles of the world today.

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).

Human beings are defined as ''social animals'' because in every aspects of life they live together, they form a variety of groups and improve relationships with each other. Interaction with others is a natural result of living in society. In the process of interaction, society and its rules has a social impact on each individual. If people face with any kind of social impact such as group pressure, great part of them show conformity by changing their behaviors, ideas, decisions in expected way. A person conforms if he or she chooses a course of action that a majority favors or that is socially acceptable. Some kind of conformity is natural and socially healthy but obeying all the norms, ideas, and decisions without thinking or accepting

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

Society is changing in the aspect of becoming more accepting and recognizing that although the sex of a person is biologically determined at birth, gender is a more fluid concept. Ones physical traits don’t determine a gender but ones personal beliefs, thoughts and emotions do. Social constructs are a subjective matter because each person is allowed to have their own attitude or mindset on certain situations, making their thoughts right in their own way. However, subjective social constructs of males and females and how they portray themselves have been enlightened in the recent years. Our culture today is more sensitive to the idea of accepting individuality and the characteristics or interests that makes people different and unique. Allowing people the freedom and acceptance of creating ones own identity, having an open mind, is one of the largest ways society has been changing throughout recent years. Along with society becoming more sensitive to the people, people in return feed off this change and have become more cautious and guarded, taking advantage of how they can evoke controversy or to get what they want. An example of people becoming more sensitive is the thought of assistance, such as gestures or chivalry, as a threat to a person’s independence. That a kind act actually has an underlying meaning such as manipulating a person and threating their self-sufficient abilities.

“Social theories are abstract generalizations that serve to define and give structure to human experience. They originate among collectivities of individuals who share a particular set of goals, activities, values, and interests and who thus construct their “regimes of truth.” They provided explanation, coherence, and moral direction for the life experiences of people. Witkin””. “There are four criterions that social theories follow: it should be explicitly critical, it should recognize that humans are active agents, it should account for the life experiences of the client, and it should promote social justice.”

The cultural backgrounds of China and India were also similar in the way that these two cultures were richer than the culture of Africa and the Americas which allowed them to grow rapidly. The Americas and Africa were just beginning to develop whereas China and India has established themselves and these countries had a deep history.

Throughout the semester I have explored many topics in sociology. While exploring these topics, three main theoretical perspectives were used. I will briefly illustrate each of the main theoretical perspectives of functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic Interactionism. During this semester I have watched two films, Food Incorporated and The Vernon Johns Story. I will describe how a theoretical perspective is used in each of these examples. Then I will provide my own two examples where concepts and theoretical perspectives can be illustrated. My First example is the Boston Marathon Bombings and the second is the Mass Media’s coverage of the Boston Bombings.

There are several theories created by many thinkers of our time that believes that societal, financial, and social arrangements and/or structures as the main cause of criminal behavior. In society, depending on where you are, there are usually some unwritten norms that are expected to be followed. It can be in a business corporation, out in the streets, at home. Usually there will be two sets of norms that is expected to be followed that causes an individual to feel torn. However, the feeling of being torn is the inner battle of doing the right thing, conscience or keeping yourself alive.

Social structures are constraints that affect the lives of both the affluent and the indigent members of society.  Each society has its own set of social arrangements for example; class, gender and ethnicity are all constraints that each society has to deal with in one way or another.  One of the most fundamental of the social structures would be class.  Class structure is found in all societies and is the key source of economical inequality.  Members of different class groups start their lives with unequal opportunities.  This means that when someone is born into a poor household   they will undoubtedly remain in the same economical situation they began in.  Gender is another important

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.

I feel that the social constructionist concept is valuable, and it’s important to remember the danger in not recognizing the fault of systems in place that shape our views. I like the thought (“…the world is not simply reflected back to us through systems of representation”), but I feel not everyone has access to create or critique systems that help us interpret media (“… we actually construct the meaning of the material world through these systems.”(page 13))

Social groups have existed throughout time. We know that small social groups have existed in the form of families throughout the history of human kind. Adam and Eve are said to have been the first social group. Social groups are defined as having two or more people interact and identify with one another. Some social groups include but are not limited to; the handicap, the homeless, the poor, the wealthy, the powerful, different religious groups, different races and even sexual orientation. There are several reasons why people join social groups. Most people join social groups because there are many benefits for belonging to a group. People like to feel connected and feel that they can relate to others. People tend to belong to groups

development, which are located in the state of Maryland. The predominant mode of transportation in Maryland are comprised of buses, light rails, subways, and privately owned motor vehicles. Recreational facilities in Maryland are also substantive to support the need for physical activities and entertainment of the population residing within the area.