1.02 Peter Berger's Social Construction of Reality

Action Item:  For our next class, please read this excerpt from Outliers.

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Meditation

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Spit vial or vile spit?

Note:  (This is a lesson first published in Teaching Sociology (2003) by Brouillette and Turner and updated in ASA's Trails.) 

Imagine that the school was still surveillance testing for Covid.   

Place some of your saliva in a spoon or a vial. Then, read about all the ways all of the ways that saliva is beneficial (For more on the health benefits of saliva, see WedMD, the NIH Library of Medicine and the ADA):

Saliva continuously moistens the linings of the mouth, throat, and general bronchial area. Saliva aids in the prevention of infection in these areas. Some cold remedies, for example, so dry out the linings that the microscopic cracks in the linings often bleed and are very susceptible to infection. Also, the admonitions of parents to their children to eat slowly and chew well is not just to prevent choking on large pieces of food. The leisurely eating of food mixes saliva with the food, which shortly thereafter is blended with the gastric acids in the stomach. This compound now sets the stage for a catalytic combination of saliva, food, and gastric juices, which produces optimal digestion. The addition of an adequate amount of saliva allows the body to extract needed nutrients throughout the digestive tract. Finally, saliva offsets the possibility of too much acid in the stomach, and therefore lessens the possibility of heartburn or ulcers. 

Now, after reading about all the ways that saliva is useful, if you arrived at school and student health services told you that your vial is not needed, would you open the vial and take your saliva back? Why? Why not? 

Is that gross? Why?

Big Group Discussion

Would you open the vial and take your saliva back? 

Why?

Why not? 

Is that gross? 

Why?

Simply put, the average American will be repulsed by the idea of spitting into a spoon and then swallowing it back again.  However, we are constantly swallowing our own saliva all day long and there is no biological difference between the saliva in your mouth and the saliva on the spoon.  However, we have learned from our society (parents, friends, media) that there is a difference between "saliva" and "spit";  Saliva is in our mouth and is not gross, whereas spit has left our mouths and is gross even if it has not changed at all biologically.  This makes us feel gross and repulsed by "spit".

In other words, the way that we have learned (from society) to think about the saliva affects how we feel about it.  In his 1966 book with Thomas Luckman, Peter Berger called this idea the "Social Construction of Reality".  To break the idea down:

Social - society/other people

Construction - create

Reality - feelings/experiences

 

In other words, our experiences or how we feel (our reality) is created (constructed) by others (society).  This is called the social construction of reality. 

Social Construction of Spitting Across Cultures

In the US most of us would consider spitting gross. However, we have learned that in some cases spitting is acceptable. For example:

• Many of us have been to baseball games and watched players spit all throughout the game. We didn't get repulsed by that.

In fact, during one World Series, Reggie Jackson averaged 19 spits per at-bat!  (see this 1985 article from LA Times about baseball spitters)

 

• Another example is when parents or siblings use their saliva to wipe off a baby's face. We don't find that repulsive, but if a teacher even accidentally drops saliva onto a desk it becomes gross. Can you imagine a teacher who spits like a baseball player?  We have been conditioned to accept spitting on the baseball field but not in a classroom.  Watching a teacher spit in a classroom would feel gross and disgusting because we have learned to think that this is unacceptable/gross behavior.  This can be true for many of our experiences; feelings of happiness, sorrow, stress, worry can often be created for us by our of the society.

Because our reaction to spitting is a creation of our society, the reaction to spitting in other countries is sometimes different - because it is a creation of a different society.  

For example, different types of spitting are so common that a British sociology professor, Ross Coomber and his team spent time studying the various types of spitting and he published this paper (2013).  From the BBC,

Ross Coomber, who is a professor of sociology at Plymouth University, will spend about a month visiting six Asian countries.
He said people should take historical and cultural influences into account before forming opinions about those who spit.
He added, in many nations it was an accepted part of their lifestyle.

In Africa, a study in the British Journal of Cancer identified many different spitting practices especially the ways that spit/saliva is used for healing!  From the journal, there are examples of:

(1) the use of saliva in healing and medical practices, 

(2) the use of saliva in initiation or ritual practices and 

(3) the use of saliva in feeding practices. 

Among some ethnic groups...it has been observed that part of the healing and treatment process involves using saliva to treat different ailments: 

Among the Somali, saliva is used in the treatment of all forms of disease (Helander, 1988, p 111)... 

In Tanzania, among the Bena, for the treatment of a boil, the traditional healer chews traditional herbs (mhefefa and munepa) and subsequently uses the chewed and softened herbs to treat wounds (Culwick, 1935, p. 395)... 

Among the Masai of East Africa, the juice of the plant ol giloriti (Acacia abyssinica) is chewed and spit onto the wound by a healer as an astringent (Merker, 1910, p. 247)... 

Among the Azande of Sudan the patient's body is sucked vigorously by the traditional healer (Rattray, 1923, pp 248–250)... 

Also among the Igbo of Nigeria, it is observed that a traditional healer (dibia) will suck the arms, head or abdomen of a new-born baby...

Among the Wolof of West Africa, when a baby is born, it is reported that an elderly woman will visit the mother and infant and subsequently give the infant a blessing by spitting on its face and kissing it....

Among the Nuer of Southern Sudan, it is noted that men spit on the heads of their children on returning from trips and young girls who have not seen each other for some time spit on each other as a form of greeting (Huffman, 1931, p 87)....

In Peru, shamen may use spitting to purify a person with a spiritual bath like the way this shaman did to Anthony Bordain:

The point is that people have learned what to expect from their social groups and those expectations shape how individuals react to situations.  Related to this is the Thomas Theorum which was published by the University of Chicago Professors William Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas.  The Thomas Theorum says, 

"If people define situations as real, then they are real in their consequences."

3. Which example of saliva being used around the world is most striking? 

4. Explain Berger's idea of the social construction of reality.  

Other Examples of the SCR:

"Bath Rooms" as a Social Construction

Please do not let the example of spit/saliva make you think that the rest of the world is gross while our culture is normal.  Instead, there is no objective normal, there is only the way that each society has affected it's people to feel.   For example, here is an example that you might not realize about how another culture would be grossed out by American culture.  

The Japanese would be grossed out by the typical American bathroom. In Japan, toilets are located in a different room than the shower and bath. Instead, the Japanese "bathroom" is literally a room for bathing.  And not only is the toilet separate from the bathroom, but within the bathroom the shower is always separate from the bath. They see the shower for cleaning and the bath for soaking after you have cleaned.  Instead, Americans freely bath their children in bathtubs and it is seen as a pleasant and cute experience. But many Japanese would feel repulsed by the idea of bathing in one's own filth.

"Food" as a social construction

Other examples of the social construction of food are:

these recipes from Time Magazine or these from AtThirstForFirst.  

How would you feel about eating mountain chicken or closer to home is this recipe for Rocky Mountain oysters.

5. Can you explain, in your own words, how one of the examples above is a social construction?  Just choose one:  spitting, bathing, bathrooms, food.  

In Conclusion

What is Berger's Social Construction of Reality?  

Can you apply it to your own life?

6. Think about something from your own life; your religion, sports, fashion, college (or being a college student), or something else.  What are some feelings you have about this that you might share with other people/especially strangers? How are your feelings/experiences shaped by what you have learned from people/society?  

Recommended Reading:

Open Stax: Social Constructions of Reality

Meditation 1: Listen for Where the Ringing Ends and the Silence Begins

 

Listen for where the ringing ends and the silence begins.

This will force your mind to tune into the present moment.  Be aware of the moment you are in; do not surrender this present moment to the past or the future. Let this remind you to turn off distractions that pull your attention from being in the moment. 

From Medium, 

Are you listening?
Do you take the time to simply stop and listen — to yourself?
Our world has so many distractions. Some are important. Most can be a total waste of time and genuinely rob us of who we are meant to be. 

Distractions rob us of our ability to be at our best. Research indicates that silence gives us the space to be creative and think deeply about what matters. And yet, where do we find silence today? And, do we even want to experience silence? Modern studies indicate we do not. Why?
Our brains are constantly seeking dopamine. These distractions can use up all of our time and keep us from knowing what we should spend our limited and precious time on. What is the solution? Silence is our best hope for success.

From Huffington Post Listening to Silence; 

Silence speaks the international language of reflection. In many ways, it allows us to become more self-aware, to think about profound and trivial matters. Lawrence Durrell, a British author, said, "Does not everything depend on the interpretation of the silence around us?" Most of us have experienced conflict that can arise from a lack of restraint in speech. Are there such faults associated with silence? Gandhi said, "It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart." If you see the wind in its calmness, it has a peaceful and pleasurable quality to it but the same wind once in motion can turn violent in stormy weathers. The same can be said of words.

 

From Time magazine,

Across disciplines—from neuroscience to psychology to cardiology—there’s growing consensus that noise is a serious threat to our health and cognition. And that silence is something truly vital—particularly for the brain.

“Noises cause stress, especially if we have little or no control over them,” explains Mathias Basner, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in sound processing and rest. “The body will excrete stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol that lead to changes in the composition of our blood—and of our blood vessels, which actually have been shown to be stiffer after a single night of noise exposure,” Basner says.

From TED, When Did You Last Take Some Time to Do Nothing?

1.01 A Sociological Introduction

WELCOME SOCIOLOGY SCHOLARS!

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Student Demographics Survey 

I want to get to know each of you better as an individual, so please answer this demographic survey.  Please share as much info as you are comfortable sharing, but please know that all of the information is private and only for me to see.

Syllabus

After you finish the demographic survey above, please begin reading the syllabus.

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Start of class meditation - meditation number one

Introducing...The Class

 

Syllabus 

 Importance of college syllabus in general

 Our syllabus

 

What questions do you need answered to be confident that you can do well in the class?

Fired Up? [Ready to Go!] come to class each day fired up and ready to go. 

Be Present; Mindfulness

Mindfulness is an awareness of yourself.  To start each class, I use a mindfulness meditation.  I will ring a bell to signal that we are starting class. This is a reminder to center your thoughts and limit distractions.  This present moment is a gift (that's why it's called the present!) I want you to be in this moment.  I will also give you a thought to meditate on and help you develop your own personal mindfulness.

Mindfulness and Learning

Being mindful means having an appreciation and a focus for the present moment. In this case, we are in class, together. Be present. I value your presence and I feel that each of you can be a teacher for all of us - we are all students and teachers of each other!

There is a lot of evidence that electronic devices and social media are a distraction for not only you but for those around you. One study calls social media the second-hand smoke of learning. So, please mindful of your presence in class. Please try to be in the moment for our class - this is yet another group that we are connected to and an example of how intricately we are connected to other people.

In short: Have something to write on/take notes with but if it is a digital device, work hard to not distract yourself or classmates from the present moment.

Touchscreen

Watch slam poet Marshall Soulful Jones perform his poem called touchscreen.   

(Here are the lyrics)

This slam poem resonates with me because I want students to understand the effects of digital devices on learning generally, but I also want students to connect with each other personally through our class. I have tried to personalize the class in both how I present the content using examples from my own life and how I assess student understanding of the content by asking students to apply and personalize the content to their own lives.

Today's lesson:

I had you fill out the survey above because I wanted to get to know you as an individual.  My question now is, are you, in fact, an individual?  What makes you an individual? 

Introducing You...

Introduce yourself to one or two of your peers.  Please say your name and where you are from and then share:

1.  Do you think you are an individual?  Why or why not?  What makes you unique?

2.  What do you think it means to be an individual?

If you are absent from class, the Google Form for this lesson is here.  Absent students must fill out the Google form to even be considered for participation credit.  If you are present in class, you do not have to do the Google Form.

Big Group Discussion:  Are you an individual? 1 and 2.

At first glance, it might seem like you are unique.  In my case, I am a Loyola University graduate, a professor and a Chicagoan;  I like basketball, the Cubs, skiing, mountain biking, golfing, gardening, and cooking.  I am a husband and I have three daughters.  All of this might make me sound unique, but all of it also is a result of my connection to others and at the same time, it connects me to others.  We are intimately shaped by other people and society at large, but our culture's fascination with individuality often hides this connection.  Sociology will help us explore this reality.

3.  Now think about how you arrived at this moment in this class.  How did you get here?  Who are all the people that helped you get here today?

3.2 After you answer that, think even more creatively about who those people are that have made it possible for you to be here today.

Introduce yourself to one or two different peers.  Please say your name and where you are from and then share:

Small groups:  Share the people that you came up with. What was one answer that someone said that you had not thought of?

Mindfulness and Sociology

How many different people did you come up with? Did you think of your parents? Probably.  How about your grandparents or great-grandparents?  How about the people who built the roads or the engineers who designed them; The architects who built the building you are sitting in;  The doctors who helped you stay healthy until you reached this age or the dozens of teachers who have taught you over the years. There are so many people who have affected your ability to be here and now.  Sociology will make us aware of our connections to other people.  Michael Schwalbe called this awareness of our connection to others "Sociological Mindfulness."  Throughout our class, you will see that sociological mindfulness is woven into the lessons and assessments.  

Sociological Mindfulness is also all of the people that we influence in society. We are both products and agents of society.

4. Think about the people who you may have had an impact on in your journey to Loyola. Who have you influenced? In what ways?

Small Group Discussion

Find 2 or 3 people who you did NOT discuss with earlier. Share your answers with them. Tell them how you arrived at Loyola and ask them how they think that YOU may have influenced people along the way.

Introducing You and Sociology

Sociology is a discipline that examines all the ways that individuals are affected by their social memberships - the groups that that they inhabit. A group can be as few as two or as many as millions of people.  As long as those people can identify with each other in some way, they can be considered a group.  

This lesson will ask you to list your groups.  

On a notes sheet, put yourself in a circle in the center and then around the outside,  list the most important groups that you are a part of.  (Remember that a group can be as small as two people or as large as millions.)  Some groups interact with you and others shape your perception of who you are. 

What are the groups that influence you?  

What are all of the groups that shape your identity and how you see yourself?  

What groups do you identify with?

Another way to think about this is who do you spend your days with?  You are not alone.  Think about who you are with in the morning, daytime, afternoon,  and evening.  And then who are you with during the week, on weekends, and in different seasons?

Status
Status is our position(s) within each group, for example, in my group, family, I hold the positions of husband and father, etc... Next to each group list your status(es) within it.  Note that in some groups, like family, you might have multiple statuses.

Master Status
After you list all of your statuses, choose your master status.  A master status is an individual's most important, most defining status.  It is a status that he/she takes with them everywhere they go.  There are two ways that you might think about master status:

It might be a status that is always present in his/her mind.

Or it might be a status that everyone else sees her/him with.   

Look at ALL of the statuses that you listed across your whole sheet.  Choose 1 or 2 statuses that are your master status right now (master status can change throughout your life or even based on your schedule).  Mark your master status(es) with a star.

Large Group Activity

As I call out groups, please stand if you listed a status or group that I name.  Then remain standing if you starred it as a master status.

Conclusion
I am always interested by all of the groups that students are influenced by and especially the unexpected groups that surprise me along the way. Sometimes it is someone who I never thought to be religious and they list a religion or sometimes it is someone who I never realized was black who lists her race as an important influence on her. All of these groups we belong to are the complex way we as individuals are made up and that is the way sociologists understand individuals; through their groups.  For example, I am part of a family, a school, a group of friends and a neighborhood. In each of these groups I have a status (dad, teacher, friend) and each of these statuses comes with a role that is expected of me (make dinner, show up prepared for class, return a phone call, etc...). 

These groups shape my life. Each group creates expectations for your actions.  These expectations are called roles.  For example after becoming a dad I will never be the same. I can't help looking at kids through the eyes of a parent; I think about music lyrics differently; I am overly critical and cognizant of my own behavior and manners etc... These groups can also come into conflict in an individual's daily life.  For example, if I have to go home and cook dinner and my daughter demands attention, it is very difficult to get grading and lessons prepared for the next day, and if a friend calls to socialize or to get together, that becomes a third conflict.  My roles as a parent, teacher and friend are all conflicting. This is called role conflict.  There are also times when I experience what sociologists call role strain.  That is when I am having difficulty meeting the expectations of one role.  An example of this might be parenting. I have never been a parent before and so when my daughter is challenging me, I am not always certain how to react; do I give in, ignore or punish her?  Some statuses we choose (achieved statuses) like those I already mentioned, but sometimes we are not given a choice (ascribed statuses) like that of being bald, or white, or a son.

Example of sociology

Note each of the "individuals" in class is really made up of various groups - connections to other people. All of these groups shape the way we see ourselves and the way others see us. They also contribute to our opportunities and obstacles that we encounter.

Example of sociological mindfulness in class
I hope this exercise helps students see that our class might seem homogeneous but really it is quite diverse. The unique diversity comes from each person's membership in different groups. I hope this is another way we can become sociologically mindful of each other in the class; that is, we can appreciate each person's unique membership in different groups.  This way we can be more understanding of each other and more compassionate for each other. 

Conclusion (What you should be able to do/explain after this lesson and what the final assignment will ask you to do):

• Why is the syllabus important?
• What do sociologists study?
• What is sociological mindfulness?
• Why does sociological mindfulness matter?
• How do sociologists define "group"?
• What is a master status?