The Social Construction of Reality – Flashcards
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Thomas Theorem
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If human beings define situations as real, they are real in their consequences. People are attaching a subjective meaning informed by past experiences to a situation.
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Definition of the Situation
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The meaning we give to our immediate circumstances Ex. Parents "define the situation" for children by explaining what they're doing. "Now I'm going to put your shoes on lil buddy!"
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Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
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A false definition of a situation that is assume to be accurate. People behave as if that false definition is true, so the misguided behavior produces responses that confirm the false definition. What is believed is real is more important than what is factually correct. We create our own reality.
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Traditional cause-and-effect explanations vs. self-fulfilling prophecies
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Traditional: present event causes future event Self-fulfilling: future predicted outcome causes a present event which causes the predicted future outcome "the prophecy of the vent causes the event of the prophecy"
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Assigned Meanings (Phenomenology)
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Names and meaning are given to things around us that help us make sense of our world. Ex. We think rats are pests, other cultures do not.
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Zone Proximity (Phenomenology)
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Everyday life is divided into a continuum of zones. The zones closest to us are given most attention. Ex. What happens close by effects us more than far away, like 9/11 versus the war in Ukraine.
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Routine (Phenomenology)
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The usual ways of thinking and doing things. Unanticipated disruption to routine that challenge "reality" can be very problematic. Ex. Hurricane Katrina ruins people's routine and lives. It changed their reality.
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Barriers to challenging "reality" (Phenomenology)
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Language can hinder challenges to reality, because it is developed to represent a particular reality. Ex. There's not a word for male menopause so to us it doesn't exist. Ex. We only the the words "girl" and "boy" so that's why it's hard for people who feel like a different sex than they are biologically.
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Attribution Theory
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Examines the process by which people explain their behavior and that of others. People attribute cause to situational or dispositional factors.
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Dispositional Factors in Attribution Theory
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Things that people are believed to control, including personal qualities related to motivation, interest, mood, and effort.
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Situational Factors in Attribution Theory
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Things believed to be outside a person's control, such as the weather, bad luck, and another's incompetence. Usually people stress situational factors in explaining their own failures. Ex. "I failed the test because the teacher is terrible"
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Typifactory Schemes (or cognitive knowledge structures and schemata) as a mental framework
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Systematic mental frameworks that allow people to place what they observe into pre-existing social categories with essential characteristics. Ex. We think of black people as basketball players. If we see one that isn't, we regard it as an exception to the rule.
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Observations from close and far as a mental framework (Phenomenology)
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The more experience we have with people/groups, the better we are in a position to challenge typifactory schemes. We have more typifactory schemes about people we do not know.
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Imagining past and future as a mental framework (Phenomenology)
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We apply typifications to those who preceded us and will follow us. Ex. We have an image of what pilgrims wore
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Biological clock as a mental framework (Phenomenology)
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Reality created by locating ourselves in time Ex. We perceive reality differently and different ages because we have different experiences and knowledge of life at each age.
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Time as a mental framework (Phenomenology)
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A sense of time informs our daily reality. Ex. A woman in a coma for 20 years wakes up and still thinks she's 18 and has 18 year old thoughts even though she's nearly 40 because her sense of time is distorted
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Ethnomethodology
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An investigative and observational approach that focuses on how people make sense of everyday social activities and experiences. Basically a method of studying how people make sense of every day activities. Garfinkle supports this theory.
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Disrupting Social Order
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By disrupting order and observing how others work to restore it, ethnomethodologists gain insight into how order is organized and upheld and what happens when it is disrupted.
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Trust in Social Order
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The taken-for-granted assumption that in a given social encounter others share the same expectation and definitions of the situation and will act to meet the expectations.
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Fundamental Attribution Error
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Tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional factors on people's behavior and to underestimate situational factors.
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Ultimate Attribution Error
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Tendency to attribute successes of the in-group (we) and failure of the out groups (they) to dispositional factors. Tendency to attribute failure of the in-group and success of the out group to situational factors.
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Reference Group
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Any group whose standards people take into account when evaluating something about themselves or others, whether it be personal achievements, aspirations in life, or individual circumstances. Ex. family classmates, teammates, and co-workers
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3 types of reference groups
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(1) Normative reference groups (2) Comparison reference groups (3) Audience reference groups
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Normative reference groups
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Provide people with norms that they draw upon or consider when evaluating a behavior or a course of action. A person takes the norms into account but may or may not follow them.
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Comparison reference groups
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Provide people with a frame of reference for judging the fairness of a situation, rationalizing their actions or ways of thinking, and assessing the adequacy of their performance relative to others in the same situation
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Audience reference groups
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Consist of those who are watching, listening, or otherwise giving attention to someone. In addressing the audience people consider what the audience wants or needs and speak accordingly. Ex. Presidential candidate
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Ingroup
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The group to which a person belongs, identifies, admires, and or feels loyalty. Built on established boundaries and membership criteria.
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Outgroup
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Any group to which a person does not belong
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Moral Superiority
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The belief that an in-group's standards represent the only way. Can work in ways such as laws segregating an ingroup from the out group or engaging in violence toward the outgroup.
