Summary: Authors Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann identify and explore the dynamics of how reality is socially constructed. We are made aware of how the patterns of our actions become “habitualized” (pg, 42) and subsequently, these habitualizations in time then become institutions within our society, or the society in question. As these actions become institutionalized; which is impart done through the use language, they are perceived as “reality” (pg, 47). Furthermore, through the process of “institutionalization” (pg, 42), “knowledge” (pg. 49) is developed and must be both conveyed and preserved by future society to ensure that the institutions in place remain “real”.
Our particular social location, also, affects our attitudes, experiences, and beliefs. Group dynamics, or how groups affect individuals and how individuals affect groups (Fall, 2011) within these attitudes, experiences and beliefs, confers a specific set of social roles, and privileges, which heavily influences our social identity and how we view the world around us. Our cultures introduce and teach us different roles, aspirations, values, and norms in society. The ascribed statuses, that is positions that an individual inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life (Fall, 2011), may affect most if not all of our values, norms, and roles whether we like it or not. In this paper I will be exploring and examining how my social location has affected me and
Course #: ENG 1101 September 15, 2011 Conformity is an adaptation in behavior due to the real or imagined influence of others. Conformity is the tendency to support our manner, beliefs, and behaviors with those around us. It's a powerful energy that can take the form of observable social force or subtler unconscious. As much as we like to think of ourselves as individuals, the fact is that we're determined to fit in, and that frequently means going with the flow. Conformity is a social observable fact that affects people’s behavior and opinion.
In other words, reality is not fixed, it is socially constructed. Social construction of reality was introduced by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann to identify the process by which people creatively shape reality through social interaction. Human worlds are socially produced, changed and modified. And as one person presents himself in terms that suits his purpose and as other do the same, a complex reality emerges. People become social through the process of socialization-lifelong social experience by which individuals construct their personal biography, acquire daily interactional rules and patterns of their culture.
[1] Society is made up of social institutions that together form the building blocks needed to create a culture, a belief system, a religious belief, a set of values, rules, laws, regulations, and how we're expected to behave and conduct ourselves. When we are born we are surrounded by social institutions that will impact our personality and lifestyle. These are: • the family • the education system • the income available • the environment • the political system • the culture or sub-culture • the religious beliefs • our peers These factors have a major influence on us as we grow and develop. This is also known as 'stratification'. Social class is the system of status layers.
Interpellation is where ideology functions in constructing identity and creating a particular position for an individual in society. The role of interpellation and subjectivity can be said as important in creating identity to an individual. Thus, the process of identification creates an identity, where ‘You identify me and I become that me that you have identified’ (Judith Butler , 2009). The connection between interpellation and subjectivity can be seen through Louis Althusser’s depiction of the interpellative function of Ideological State Apparatuses: "[I]deology 'acts' or 'functions' in such a way that it 'recruits' subjects among the individuals (it recruits them all), or 'transforms' the individuals into subjects (it transforms them all) by the very precise operation which I have called interpellation or hailing, and which can be imagined along the lines of the most commonplace every day police (or other) hailing: 'Hey, you there!'”. With the comment, Althusser stress on the close relation of how interpellation functions in constructing subjectivity.
Then there is the socialisation process. This is the process whereby individuals learn the norms and values of the groups they belong, so that they are ready for social interaction. (www.socialsciencedictionary.com). In other words, it means the process whereby culture is passed from one generation to another. Socialisation starts at birth and ends at death and is very powerful in shaping individuals.
The impact on the personality of the individual, it has the characteristics of participation in the life of the community. The variety of contacts, relationships and active participation in the life of the surrounding general give shape to the human personality. There are two types of social structure, macro and micro which allows the individual to notice, whatever man is constantly in contact, which affects the shape of humans’ personality. One of the most important perspectives of sociological theories is the distinction between structural and social action. Structural action, in other words structuralism, is a perspective which is concerned with the overall structure of society and sees individual behavior molded by social institutions like the family, the educations, the mass media and work.
Introduction Culture determines people’s way of thinking. It dictates what makes sense. It is responsible for holding people together by providing a set of shared norms, ideas, values, beliefs and a common language. People live entangled in this cultural web. Culture affects how people relate with each other, tastes and preferences, habits, dreams and desires.
Sociology and the Family SOC101: Introduction to Sociology (GSP1114A) Instructor: Abstract Sociology is an area of study based on reality. Its observations and applications are founded in reality, and its theories have been derived out of various experiences of reality and now affect common perception of the same reality. The three main theories of sociology are the theories of Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Interactionism. They give credibility to a different understanding of and toward the different sociological institutions that are in place. By understanding the concepts of the each theories a person can see how they can affect the social institution, such as the family, differently and can present a more much better understanding of the concepts as they apply to reality.