The document discusses Thomas Luckman and Peter Berger's concept of the social construction of reality. It states that while things in the social world seem real, they are actually social constructions that we take for granted. It provides examples of social institutions like marriage, education, and the economy that have been constructed through our shared imaginations. It also discusses the role of primary and secondary socialization in teaching individuals what is considered real and important according to their society. Finally, it explains how the internalization of social norms and the "generalized other" allows people to develop a stable identity and view of reality that corresponds to what is socially constructed as real.

1. The concept and discussion is
credited to Thomas Luckman
and Peter Berger

2. The notion of the social construction of
reality is not to say that things in our
social world are not real. They are. But
they are constructions—social
constructions that we often take for
granted.
We have built them from our
imaginations.

3. This is particularly applicable to social
institutions.
Marriage, education, the economy come to
mind.
Think of some more social constructions.

4.  Religion
 The Polity
 Gender (as opposed to sex)
 Race (as non-biological)

5. The social construction of reality is part
and parcel to the process of socialization
itself.
It is in our socialization process that we
learn what to consider real, important,
valuable and necessary.

6. Two concepts:
Primary Socialization
And
Secondary Socialization

7. The first socialization that is undergone in
childhood through which he becomes a
member of society.
This is the most important form of
socialization.

8. Any subsequent process that inducts an
already socialized individual into new
sectors of the objective world of his
society.
This process is most critical in cases like
the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) .

9. Every individual is born into an objective
social structure within which he
encounters the significant others who are
in charge of his socialization.

10. Consider Berger and Luckman’s
discussion of the child born into a lower
class level of the social strata.
Not only is the child poor materially but he
or she comes to internalize this as the
norm.

11. Primary Socialization included much more
than purely cognitive learning.
Thus consider the internalization process.
The child identifies with the significant
other in a variety of emotional ways.
Internalization occurs only as
identification occurs.

12. As the child internalizes the world of his
significant others, s/he becomes capable
of self identification, of acquiring a
subjectively coherent and plausible
identity.

13. This is done with the help of what are
called “Agents of Socialization.”
Such agents could be members of the
family, school teachers, mentors, peers,
and even the mass media.

14. Assimilation of the social world occurs
as the child’s consciousness grows.
Consider the example of “Mummy is
angry with me now,” and “Mummy is
angry with me when I spill the soup.”
Eventually the child discovers that all
significant others are angry with the
soup is spilt.

15. According to Berger and Luckman, this
means that “the individual now identifies
not only with concrete others but with a
generality of others, that is, with a
society.”
Only with this generalized identity does
does his own self-identification attain
stability and continuity.

16. Finally comes the time with the child
understands that everybody is against
soup spilling, and the norm is
generalized to “one does not spill soup.”
The is the precursor to Mead’s notion of
“The Generalized Other”

17. • This all entails a dialectic between
identification by others and self-identification,
between objectively assigned and subjectively
appropriated identity.
External and internal realities.

18. Additionally, the child is not only taking on
the roles and attitudes of others, but in
the same process takes on their world.
“All identifications take place within
horizons that imply a specific social
world.”

19. This formation of the generalized other
marks a decisive phase in socialization:
It implies the internalization of society as
such and of objective reality while at the
same time subjective establishment of a
coherent and continuous identity.

20. “Society, identity, and reality
are subjectively
crystallized in the same
process of internalization.”

21. “When the generalized other has been
crystallized in consciousness, a
symmetrical relationship is established
between objective and subjective reality.
What is real ‘outside’ corresponds to
what is real ‘within.’”

22. This is what gives permanence to the
impermanent.
Consider the dollar bill.
What is it?

23. Consider that most of us don’t even use
money any more.
Get the debit or credit card out.
Now what is that?

24. Indeed, where is the money?
It only exists because we say it does.
Maybe it is in the Matrix.