1.02 How To Think Like a Sociologist: Peter Berger's Social Construction of Reality

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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, imagine that you arrived at school and student health services told you that your vial is not needed.

Big Group Discussion

Would you open the vial and take your saliva back? 

Why or 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; we are 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 - our 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 in the US

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.

Cross-cultural Examples of the Social Construction of Reality

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

 

Asia

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.

Africa

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)....

South America

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 Social Construction of Reality:

"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.  

Social Construction of Reality and Mindfulness

These cultural examples of the social construction of reality are particularly striking and, perhaps, amusing.  But the social construction of reality is a perspective that can help us understand so much about our own thoughts and feelings in everyday life, and it can help us understand others who might perplex us as we think how could those people do/think/feel that? 

Arlie Russell Hochschild explains that regardless of what the facts are, sociology can help us understand how other groups of people feel and perhaps, why they feel that way.  This is one of the ways that sociology is so valuable in understanding our social world. The ability to understand how and why others feel the way they do can help us, at the very least - understand the different ways that people feel but also, perhaps, address the most pressing polarized ideas plaguing our society. Regardless of whether we believe people are justified in their feelings, the social construction of reality can help us understand what those feelings are, how they experience the world and perhaps why they have those feelings.

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?  

One example of the social construction of reality is how we feel about our experience in the classroom and in the stadium; academically and athletically.  We might be around the same students on the same campus but we have constructed a way of acting and feeling that is very different in these situations.  

What the expectations of behavior are for the classroom?

What if the classroom was more like the basketball stadium?  Here are some ideas from Loyola basketball games:

• What if when students were answering questions, I put distractions up on the data projector?

• What if when students got a question wrong, the whole class shouted, "You let the whole class down!"?

• Or what if we took a break with 4 minutes left in class and did the swag surf?

• Other ideas might include: clapping for each other and high-fiving, talking smack, holding up signs in class, etc...

Here are some humorous takes on this idea:

Communications Arcadia's What if We Treated Teachers Like Pro Athletes?

Key and Peele's Teaching Center

As/Is If Teachers Were Football Players

Additional Reading:

Open Stax: Social Constructions of Reality

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