Five Sociological terms and concepts

Nick Howard

The purpose of this paper is to talk about the five sociological terms, concepts or theories that I feel have impacted my understanding of the social world. These terms, concepts and theories include the social construction of reality, sociological perspective, observational research, operational definition and debunking. I will define each concept and then briefly explain how the concept helped me understand the process by which reality is socially constructed.
The first concept that impacted my understanding of the social world is the social construction of reality. The social construction of reality is our perception of reality is built for us by other people. It isn’t determined by other people but it is heavily influenced by other people. Things that influence our social construction of reality could be our parents, friends, neighborhoods we lived in, schools we attended and everybody and everything we came in contact throughout our lives. The social construction of reality helped me better understand how reality is socially constructed because it showed me how other people can influence an individual and shaped them into the person they are.
The second concept that impacted my understanding of the social world is the sociological perspective. A perspective is the way to see the world. There are many different perspectives that include anything from The Historical Perspective to The Psychological Perspective. Specifically, The Sociological Perspective states that the world doesn’t consist of a reality that everyone sees in the exact same way. Everyone views situations from different angles. With The Sociological Perspective, it doesn’t matter who is right and who is wrong. The Sociological Perspective is only concerned with whether they are seeing the big picture. The Sociological Perspective exists so that we can view social reality from as many perspectives as possible instead of looking at it from your own. The Sociological Perspective helped me better understand how reality is socially constructed because now I actively use it look at situations, I now try to view situations from other peoples perspectives. The third concept that impacted my understanding of the social world is observational research. Observational Research is a tool that sociologists use to gather data on certain subjects and theories. First there is Participant Observation. Participant Observation is the observation on a subject that is done personally the researcher. The second type is Naturalistic Observation. Naturalistic Observation is the observation of subjects in their natural environment usually without the knowledge of the subjects in order to get more accurate data. Observational Research helped me better understand how reality is socially constructed by producing data that opens our minds in the social world. The forth term that impacted my understanding of the social world is Operational Definition. Operational Definition is a definition that can be measured. Operational Definitions specify definitions as much as possible. It can be measured in many different ways, whether it be numerical or just a more specific definition of a word. Operational Definition helped me better understand how society is socially constructed by giving a more descriptive definition of different word that would otherwise would not have been measured. The fifth and final concept that impacted my understanding of the social world is Debunking. Debunking is one of Peter Berger’s motifs for sociological consciousness. Debunking is the examining of social beliefs to see if they’re supported by empirical evidence. It’s used to look beyond the facts and refers to looking at the behind-the-scenes patterns and processes that shape the behavior observed in the social world. Debunking helped me better understand how society is socially constructed by proving that things aren’t always what they look like until you look past the surface and see the things that shape our behavior in the social world. This paper's purpose was to talk about the five sociological terms, concepts or theories that I feel have impacted my understanding of the social world. The paper included social construction of reality, sociological perspective, observational research, operational definition and debunking, all of which impacted my understanding of how society is socially constructed.