SumBlog 11: Peter Berger and the aspects of Social Construction of Reality

  This week in class we continued to talk about Sociologists who focus on phenomenology, which means that these Sociologists think that phenomenons happen in a society and they need to be explained, which is in opposition to the previous Sociologist we learned about who thought society acted as a machine. One concept we talked about was Peter Berger's social construction of reality and the cycle that happens within it, and this cycle basically enhances certain social constructions, which can be positive or negative. The cycle begins with Externalization, which is where your attitude about something or your way of thinking begins impacting the people around you. This then escalates to Habituation, which is when an action that is taken for granted or thought of unconsciously becomes routine. Finally this leads to Institutionalization, which is when there is an impact on larger social institutions and when the action is being taught or socialized. The concept of the social construction of reality is most definitely present in our society today, along with the three aspects of it. This is proven because in class we discussed many different examples and applications of the components to the social construction of reality, including a Seinfeld clip, racism, and examples we came up with in our group activity. I think that gender is a good example and is applicable to each of the aspects of the social construction of reality.
  I would say that gender is one of the most prominent social constructions of reality because gender itself is socially constructed. We can say that we are male or female because society puts those labels on us and we are expected to act in certain ways because of these labels. For Externalization, we perpetuate certain ideas about gender to others, meaning that we use personal pronouns such as he or she and we wear clothes that reflect our gender. People can see these things and they are affected by them. For example, if a person would come into this world not knowing what gender is, they would learn very quickly just be watching how people act and listening to the things they say. When people become so accustomed to knowing what gender is and acting in certain ways to reflect their gender, Externalization turns into Habituation. We fall into routines of dressing in either 'male' or 'female' clothes and we do it unconsciously. When we pass people on the street we don't have to actively think about what their gender is, we just know, and if we were to go up to someone and talk to them, we would instinctively call them 'he' or 'she'. Eventually these routines will become so customary that they will become Institutionalized in our society. We learn about gender in school, mostly in our health education classes. There are distinctions made between male and female, and these distinctions are taught to us a an early age. Also, the governments in many states have stepped in regarding gender, especially when it comes to same sex marriage. Gender roles are clearly defined by the government, and a marriage can legally be between a man and a woman. Seeing as society forms the basis for gender identification, marriage is also socially constructed, but that is a whole other topic. Anyways, our society has formed what gender is and what it means to be male or female, and it was formed through those three steps.

These pictures represent an example within my gender example. When we are born, our parents are presented with pink clothes if they're having a girl and blue clothes if they're having a boy. This is the moment when Externalization begins because when we are dressed in those pink or blue clothes, our gender's are on display for everyone to see, which alters people's perception of us. Then we become Habituated to seeing these pink and blue colors that we don't even think twice about buying gender specific clothes for a baby shower.