Social Construction Of Reality.
The social construction of reality is a theory that suggests that humans create their own understanding of reality, through their interactions and communications with others. This includes the way we see and interpret the world around us, as well as how we interact with others.
Social constructionism holds that the meaning of acts, behaviors, and events is not an objective quality of those phenomena but is assigned to them through social interactions. In this view, meaning is socially defined and organized and thus subject to social change.
The theory was first proposed by sociologists Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann in their 1967 book The Social Construction of Reality. In it, they argued that society is created by humans and human interaction, which they call habitualization.
According to the concept of habitualization, “any action that is repeated frequently becomes cast into a pattern, which can then be … performed again in the future in the same manner and with the same economical effort” (Berger & Luckmann, 1967).
The social construction of reality is a helpful way to understand how humans create meaning in their lives. It can help to explain why people see the world differently, and why they behave in certain ways.
For example, social constructionism can influence whether or not something is seen as a crime, its severity, and the extent to which it is feared. How societies define and remedy crime is the outcome of numerous complex factors between different groups of actors.
In terms of identity, social constructionism is used to illustrate the view that an individual's character is not totally given, but is built up by the individual in terms of different conceptions of gender, ethnicity, sexuality etc., which are influenced by personal preference and the reactions of others.
Source: https://simplysociology.com/social-construction-of-reality.html
