SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY

When sociologists speak about the "social construction of reality” there are a few things that we should know. First we should understand the main principles and issues of human nature. How does an individual define what is real? One does it through ones perception of the world, which is based on learned interpretations. This learning is social: we learn from and among persons in social interaction. The main vehicles which convey this meaning: symbols, including language, cultural myths -- larger social meanings of objects, actions, signs, episodes, the structure and practice of our institutions, our rules for congruent action. These vehicles of meaning together construct: our world-view -- our sense of how the world works, what is valuable, why things are the way they are. Our sense of ourselves, our identity, purpose, our ideologies -- our sense of the appropriateness of, the structure of, and the exercise of, power, action and roles in society. Our selves, our societies, our institutions change continually, through interaction. The "real conditions" of our existence are not subjective, however, they only have meaning through soci...