I am excited about the posts this week. I find this chapter very useful for a number of reasons. The first relating to the question posed about the Social Constructionist Perspective. The Social Constructionist Perspective assumes we see the world in a certain way and because of certain things. We build our world through our experiences and our symbolic, constructed reality.
Would you agree that we see our world through cultural blinders?
Do we follow 'social rules'? If so, what are examples of rules?
Does this approach have limitations?
Until later...
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Hi Professor Perez,
ReplyDeleteJust a few thoughts about the questions you have posted. I definitely agree we see our world through cultural blinders. For example, many women's ideal body image would be what we see in the media and in magazines-- ultra thin, symmetrical,beautiful people with zero flaws. For the most part, that's what we try to achieve by consuming cosmetic products, clothing textures and wear our hair a certain way etc. I feel these are the cognitive customs that form our cultural traditions. However, that's American culture, if we were to go to another country who has an entirely differnt culture... their idea of beauty probably is outlined differently therefore suggesting that there are cultural blinders. If we knew that in some other country our flaw is considered beautiful... maybe we would not be so blinded to think it's just a bad attribute all together.
I think we follow most social rules, like the fact that it's "wrong" to walk around in the nude... although it is against the law, we have built a world that says being naked is bad and that one should always wear clothing in public. Privacy is one of our culture's values.
As for the limitations, the textbook states that many people criticize this approach "because it places too much emphasis on the social self and not enough on the individual self". I would have to disagree with that, as a Sociology major, I am a little biased I suppose... but I do think that our individual self is formed through a chain of interactions with society from birth until the present. The social nature of humans are generally similar, and although individual unique qualities are there-- they are probably not substantial enough to rule out why people do the things they do. But that's just my opinion! :)