Week 2: Nature and the Social and Socialization

C&S: Berger and Luckmann 7-14; C&S: Sandstrom 15-22, BB: Handel, Cahill and Elkin; C&S: Fields 126-136, BB: Becker #2

I have always wondered how what I see, think, do, and say is interpreted by others. I also wonder if others know what I mean when I say something. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann give some insight to these questions as they discuss how reality is constructed by individuals and by society. It is by socialization that we all learn what different things mean and what our shared reality is. People are “inducted” into society though socialization. It is though language and conversation that people share experiences and define and construct reality.

If this theory is applied, then that would mean that, without language, no one else would be able to understand what I mean. In my life, I see this in action as I socialize with different types of people and different groups. Because I spend more time with my sorority sisters, there are different words, phrases, and symbols I have picked up and come to understand. However, when I use them around people who are not in my sorority, they don’t know what I mean. This is also an example of the symbolic insteractionist perspective as discussed by Sandstrom, in that the meanings associated with different words come from our social interaction with others. As I interact with my sisters, I learn the meanings of different things, but because other people do not interact with them they do not understand those things. I also see a real disconnect between the ‘realities’ of the two groups; what seems important to one group and what has meaning to another is quite different. The two groups have different values. Though both are groups of people in college, around their 20s, most are single, and are students, there are still differences because one group has gone through a specific type of secondary socialization. A sorority is an institution and a “sub-world” of college in which there are specific expectations, roles, and behaviors, most of which are taught by being in constant conversation with other members of the group. Because the two groups are not in constant conversation, they often don’t understand parts of the other group and they differ in their subjective realities and identities. The people in the different groups identify themselves by the group(s) that they are a part of, and their values, attitudes, language, and appearance exemplify this. Their social environments help shape the individuals. Because I belong to both groups, I often go through alternations, even on several occasions in the course of one day. It is quite interesting when the two combine and interact with each other, though on rare occasions, and I find myself explaining a lot of things about one group to the other. I once tried explaining what pomping was to a friend outside of my sorority, and had to go into lengthy detail about how it is a type of decorating with tissue paper that we use for house decorations for homecoming, but that led to lengthy explanations of house dec's and what we do for homecoming and homecoming traditions, which led to questions of whether or not it was fun, how much time it took, why we do it, and what it looks like. I eventually gave up and told him he would just have to wait until homecoming to try to get an idea, though he will never understand all of the feelings and nuances and jokes associated with pomping that my sorority sisters understand. Because the two don’t interact with each other, they perceive homecoming and pomping differently, and their perceived realities of pomping differ.