social constructionism

Meaning: Social constructionism holds that many features of social life get their meaning from shared interpretation among people, not from physical properties alone. Meanings are built, maintained, and changed through everyday interaction, language, and institutions. Because they are agreed on collectively, they differ between societies and across historical periods. The idea fits closely with symbolic interactionism, which studies how people create meaning through symbols in interaction.

On the MCAT: A passage describes a category or behavior defined differently across cultures or time. Examples are what counts as a mental disorder, how racial groups are defined by law, what a gesture signifies, or when adulthood begins. You are asked which perspective best explains it. Social constructionism fits when meaning comes from collective agreement and shifts with context. Questions may contrast it with functionalism, which explains social patterns by the function they serve, and with conflict theory, which explains them through power and competition for resources.

Common confusion: Students read "constructed" as "fake" or "not real." Constructed categories have real consequences. The Thomas theorem says that situations defined as real are real in their consequences. The claim is also not that biology is absent. It is that the meaning and boundaries attached to a trait, such as how racial categories are drawn, are socially created.