To what extent do you construct your reality?

Question

HI. My social psychology book has two axioms, one of which is:
"People construct their own reality"

Do you believe this is true? To what extent does reality construct you?
Can you give concrete examples where you constructed your own reality?

Answer 1

People don't consciously construct their own reality, but it happens. The culture we grow up in and the symbols that surround us are a construction of what we percieve reality to be. This explains why people experience culture shock when they drastically change their settings, as their basic foundation has been shook. For example, someone who goes to war is not the same basic person as they were in their civilian life because of the outside influences around them. If you have ever heard of the Stanford prison study, their reality changed instantly. Fellow students that were designated as guards symbolized power to the "inmates" even though they were actually nothing more than students. In short, reality is only what we percieve it as, and that perception is influenced by what we surround ourselves with, or situations that we have been forced into that make us change our perception of reality in order to be able to cope.

Answer 2

Reality is part of a persons perception. And no two perceptions are alike. My psychology instructor always said," One persons reality is anothers fantasy."
Do I believe this statement? somewhat. I believe that we are all put on this earth for a reason or a lesson so be it. so I do believe that no two realities are the same but, I believe that you can create your own reality. An example would be: Is life truly confusing or is it the individual themselves that make life confusing? reality is what you perceive as real.

Answer 3

I assume your textbook also goes into cognitive dissonance, halo effect, and a host of other cognitive biases people have for themselves.

For example, Karma, people believe that Karma exists because it soothes them to think that something is equalizing the world, and not that we only have a small sphere of control in the world. They believe that the world is just, and discount all proof that interferes with that.

In fact, replace the words between "believe" and "and" in the last sentence, and you have a prime example of how people shape their "reality."

Answer 4

I guess since reality is the way that you do things then yea. It sort of does construct you. You do certain things in certain ways. To you that is realistic. So I guess that is true.

Answer 5

Exterminate all rational thought.

Answer 6

reality is for losers