“Gender is a social construct.”

“Race is a social construct.”

But this article isn’t about gender or race specifically. It’s going to be about social constructs: what they are, how they’re created, and how they contribute to key debates in psychology.

Let’s get started.

What Is A Social Construct?Examples of Social ConstructsWhat Is Not a Social Construct?Social Constructs Make Us As We Make ThemSocial Constructs in PsychologyAre You A Social Construct?

What Is A Social Construct?

Examples of Social Constructs

What Is Not a Social Construct?

Social Constructs Make Us As We Make Them

Social Constructs in Psychology

Are You A Social Construct?

Countries are a Social Construct

Here’s an example of a social construct: countries. Would countries exist if it weren’t for human interaction? No. The borders that we assign to countries and the institutions we set up to govern those countries are created, understood, and accepted only because of human interaction. If humans were to disappear off the face of the Earth today, there would be no such thing as “Mongolia” or “Argentina.”

Money is a Social Construct

In the 1700s, plastic cards with magnetic strips weren’t considered currency. You couldn’t go to the local cobbler and swipe a credit card to pay for some shoelaces. But the idea of currency has evolved with technology. The value that we give to a heavy, black credit card is much higher today than it was 50 or 100 years ago.

Marriage Is a Social Construct

Societies have the power to create social constructs, and they also have the power to change them or to take them away. This doesn’t happen overnight - just look at the fight for marriage equality. There are still people that believe that marriage only exists between a man and a woman. But it only existed between a man and a woman because society said it did so many years ago.

Other Examples of Social Construct

Social constructs run the way that we envision our lives, make decisions, and feel about others. They are all around us. Other examples of social constructs include:

It seems like everything is a social construct, only because human interaction is crucial to developing our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Think about it this way: if the human race where to be completely wiped out tomorrow, would the concepts of countries, age, or language exist? No, so these are social constructs.

If a person wants to “break free” from social constructs, they may be considered a rebel or an outsider. But if a whole movement decides to change the construct, then norms and society will change. This is another way that social constructs influence individuals just as much as society influences the creation and direction of social constructs.

Take the idea that “gender is a social construct.” Simply using this phrase is often a strategy for people making various points about gender and the existence and rights of transgender people. Reddit user Ness303 points out why it’s important tounderstand how social constructs are formed, and can change:

Social constructs tend to sit on the nurture side of the debate. Let’s go back to the idea that a country is a social construct. If a country is a social construct, then so is the idea that you are “an American” or “a Nigerian.” Could this label that we give ourselves (or rather, that society gives us,) impact our personality and behavior?

Over the past 20 years, psychologists have createdmassive studiesto determine whether “countries” had personalities. They sent out personality tests to tens of thousands of people around the globe. The results showed that countries did have higher or lower levels of theBig Five Personality Traits.

For example, a survey from 2005 revealed that Brazilians scored highest on levels of Extraversion. A survey from 2007 revealed that the Democratic Republic of Congo scored highest on levels of Agreeableness.

(Of course, these scores are based on the average score in the country. There are people in Brazil that are quite introverted and people in the DRC that are not so agreeable.) What do critics think influenced these scores? It’s not genes.

Factors like population density, climate, and healthcare could all influence these scores. Critics also believe that we tend to gravitate toward people who are similar to us - and that could influence how the citizens of one country find themselves in the same spot. Could it be that the country itself - and what it “means” to be American or what it “means” to be British, also have an influence on personality?

One person who wrote about the link between personality and social constructs was George Herbert Mead. In Mind, Self, and Society, he wrote: “In short, social reconstruction and self or personality reconstruction are the two sides of a single process — the process of human social evolution.”

Mead believed that theconcept of the self, or self-identity, was also a social construct. He also wrote, “The individual experiences himself as such, not directly, but only indirectly, from the particular standpoint of other individual members of the same social group.”

So if you want to see yourself in a different light, know that this is possible. “You” exist in an objective reality. Your identity isn’t permanent - so live the life you want to live!

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Reference this article:Practical Psychology. (2020, May).Social Construct (Psychology Definition + Purpose).Retrieved from https://practicalpie.com/social-construct/.Practical Psychology. (2020, May). Social Construct (Psychology Definition + Purpose). Retrieved from https://practicalpie.com/social-construct/.Copy

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Practical Psychology. (2020, May).Social Construct (Psychology Definition + Purpose).Retrieved from https://practicalpie.com/social-construct/.Practical Psychology. (2020, May). Social Construct (Psychology Definition + Purpose). Retrieved from https://practicalpie.com/social-construct/.Copy

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