Bellringer: 11/18/16 Why is service / volunteering an important part of our society? How does service bring people closer together?

Social Constructs of Reality Sociology Social Constructs of Reality

Habitualization In 1966, the sociologists Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann wrote a book titled The Social Construct of Reality. They argued therein that society is created by humans and our interactions, aka habitualization, because most of these interactions are habits. For example, take our school. It has existed since before you came it. It was created, and continues to exist, because people agreed that it should and thus it does. It exists by consensus, both past and present. This is an example of institutionalization, or the act of implementing a norm / idea / thing into society and thus existence. If everyone agreed in our society that schools or education should take another form, that way of doing things would become the norm, and become a different example of institutionalization.

Another way to look at it… Noted sociologist W.I. Thomas’ Thomas Theorem explains it in another way: “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” Thus, no matter what objective reality may be, the perceived reality will have real and meaningful consequences. This is what is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy, where even a false idea can become true if it is acted upon. VID, One example he gives is of a “bank run.” Say for some reason, a number of people falsely fear that their bank is soon to be bankrupt. Because of this false notion, people run to their bank and demand all of their cash at once. As banks rarely, if ever, have that much money on hand, the bank does indeed run out of money, fulfilling the customers’ prophecy. Here, reality is constructed by an idea. VID

Next Time: Next time, we’ll continue our discussion of the way we see the world around us. In the meantime, use the rest of class to finish your assignments, or do the Extra Credit: Service Opportunity! Happy Thanksgiving!