We'll seethat the social constructionist perspective isespeciallyuseful
inexamining social behavior, as we emphasize several timesthroughout
thistextbook.Accordingto thesocial constructionist approach,we construct
or invent our own versionsof reality, basedon prior experiences, social
interactions,and belief s. Thesocial constructionistapproachof tenf ocuses
on language asamechanismf orcategorizingour experiences-for example,
ourexperiences about gender (Eck ert
&
McConnell-Ginet,2003;K.
J.
Gergen
&
Gergen, 2004).
Acolleagueprovidedanexcellentexample of the way we construct
personality characteristics (K.Bursik ,personalcommunication,1997).
Quickly answer thefollowingquestion: Whoaremore emotional, men or
women?Most peopleimmediatelyrespond,"Women,of course"
(J.
R.Kelly
&
Hutson-Comeaux,2000).But what kinds of emotionsdid youconsider?
Only sadnessandcrying? Whydon'tweincludeanger, one of the primary
humanemotions? Whenaman pounds hisf ist intoa wall in anger, we don't
comment,"Oh, he'sso emotional." Our cultureconstructstheword
emot ional
to emphasizethe emotionstypically associatedwithwomen.
Notice,too, thatwe interpretabehavior dif ferently, dependinguponwho
isdisplaying thebehavior.Suppose thatyouare walk ingtoa classroom, and
youseesomeone sitting aloneandcrying. If theperson is amale,youarelikely
tothink that heisupsetabout agenuinelyimportant problem (L.Warner
&
Shields,2007).Now imaginethat the person isa f emale. Wouldyou judgeher
problem to be equallyimportant?
As we'llsee in thefinalsection of this chapter, socialconstructionismalso
shapesthewayweviewaggression; wedefinethe word
aggr ession
primarilyin
termsof the kindsof aggression associatedwithmen. The social constructionist
approach forcesusto consideralternativeinterpretations of viewing ourlan-
guageand our social interactions(K.
J.
Gergen
&
Gergen,2004).
Everyday,we constructwhat it meansto be male andfemale in our
society. Whensocialconstructionists examine gender,they focus ona central
question: Howdoesour culture creategender andmaintain itin our inter-
personal relationships andcommunicationpatterns (M. M. Gergen, 2001;
Shields, 2002)?
Youand I donotconstructgender independently.Instead, our culture
providesus withschemas andotherinformation.All thisinformation operates
like a set of lensesthroughwhichwecan interpret the eventsin ourlives (Bem,
1993;Shields,2002).InChapters2 and 3,weexamined howthemedia provide
cultural lensesforbothadultsandchildren.Females aretypically represented
asgentle, nurturant,and submissive,whereas menare representedas inde-
pendent,self -confident, and aggressive. Our culture has establisheddiff erent
socialroles for womenand men, so we shouldf ind that peopleusually wantto
uphold theseideals(Eagly,2001;Poppet aI., 2003; Shields,2005).
As youread thischapter,k eep in mindsomeof thegendercomparison
issues we raised inChapter5. For example,we sawthat the social setting
influencespeople'sself -confidenceand theirattributionpatterns. However,
the socialsetting hasarelativelymodest impact on cognitive andachievement
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