Social Construction of Reality
Theory Development
The social construction of reality was a sociological idea that had never fully been addressed until Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann wrote about it in 1966 in their book, The Social Construction of Reality. They wanted to address the idea of sociology of knowledge.
Theory
The social construction of reality is the theory of knowledge and learning people encounter on a daily basis. They learn from their habitual actions because “Any action that is repeated frequently becomes cast into a pattern which can then be reproduced” Berger & Luckmann, 1966). In reality, the social contact with others in conversation is beneficial to a person. People can learn some aspect of reality by communicating about it with other people over a period of time. The social construction of reality includes one’s personal understanding and their accepted knowledge of the world around them.
