Sociological Approaches to Social Problems and Social Constructionism
Approaches to the Study of Social Problems
The Self-Evident Approach
Most sociologists traditionally approach social problems through a self-evident lens.
This approach assumes that social problems are obvious, objective issues that members of a society naturally agree upon because they represent challenges encountered in daily reality.
The Social Constructionist Perspective (1960s–1970s)
During the 1960s and 1970s, a group of sociologists challenged the self-evident approach, arguing that social conditions are not inherently problematic.
What is taken as a social problem in one historical era may not be considered problematic in a different era or culture.
Definitions of social problems are rooted in mental definitions, shared culture, and social consensus rather than inherent objective qualities of an event or behavior.
Historical and Cultural Relativity of Social Problems
Witchcraft Accusations
In the 1600s across certain communities in the United States, accusations of witchcraft were regular occurrences.
These accusations led to formal trials, severe torture, execution/death penalty, and ruined lives.
In certain contemporary global cultures, witchcraft remains viewed as an active force shaping everyday reality.
In modern secular contexts (such as Fredericksburg, Virginia in 2026, characterized by secular musicians), treating witchcraft as a social problem is viewed as nonsensical due to shifting cultural and historical eras.
The Red Scare and McCarthyism (1950s)
During the 1950s, a widespread belief existed among many Americans that a active conspiracy of communists existed within Hollywood, the military, academia, and high levels of government working to overthrow American democracy.
Accusations of communist ties led to immediate real-world harms: individuals lost their jobs, were blacklisted, and were permanently banned from practicing their professions.
Retrospective academic research demonstrated that many accusations in higher education were not based on actual security threats, but were interpersonal squabbles used strategically to remove rivals from university departments.
Satanic Messages in Heavy Metal Music (1980s)
During the 1980s, national news media regularly raised concerns regarding alleged hidden satanic messages embedded in heavy metal records via backmasking (playing vinyl records backwards).
This widespread scandal triggered public outcry, moral panic, and demands for censorship.
In retrospect, the incident was largely viewed as a minor tempest in a teapot, illustrating how intense social alarm can center on issues later evaluated as benign.
Objective Harm versus Social Recognition
A condition can cause objective harm without being universally recognized or defined as a social problem.
Contemporary Climate Change: Modern climate change is real and predominantly caused by human activity, specifically the burning of fossil fuels. Despite widespread objective environmental harm, it is not universally agreed upon or defined as a social problem across all groups.
The Social History of Tobacco and Smoking:
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, university settings operated under different social standards (e.g., racially segregated white-only institutions prior to Civil Rights movement integration, as well as women-only institutions).
Smoking tobacco was an unthinking, normal daily activity. Professors regularly smoked pipes during lectures, and university lecture hall desks (such as those at the University of Wyoming) were manufactured with built-in ashtrays.
While smoking was objectively harmful, causing lung cancers and shortening life spans, it was not understood or defined as a social problem at the time.
Scientific research in the 1960s established the carcinogenic and addictive nature of tobacco (much of which originated from the tobacco industry's own internal, hidden research).
It required an organized public health movement to redefine tobacco consumption from a normalized habit into a recognized social problem.
The Social Constructionist Framework
Core Premises
No condition is inherently problematic.
The existence of objective harm does not automatically convert a condition into a social problem.
A condition becomes a social problem only when a significant number of people within a society collectively define it as such.
The primary objective of social constructionism is not to measure the objective harm of a condition, but to analyze the social and cultural processes through which claims are made, definitions are established, behaviors are altered, and problems eventually fade from public salience.
Moral Relativity and Vantage Points
A common critique of social constructionism is that it leads to moral relativity by refusing to anchor definitions in objective harm.
Sociologists acknowledge that while individuals hold personal moral frameworks, judgments made about historical eras or other cultures are always constructed from the vantage point of one's own cultural immersion.
Dialogue and Q&A: Cancel Culture
Student Question (Bianca):
Question: Is social constructionism the reason cancel culture is so prominent today, where someone posts online, and a group immediately cancels them because they disagree with or problematicize what was said?
Response: The theoretical framework of social constructionism originated long before internet cancel culture. However, instant online communication accelerates and heightens the defining process. Social constructionists study both dynamics:
How an individual's online statement becomes defined as a social problem.
How the practice of cancel culture itself is constructed and defined as a social problem by society.
Application of Social Constructionism: Definition of Art
Conferring Meaning through Social Agreement
From a social constructionist perspective, objects and sensory experiences do not possess inherent meaning; meaning is conferred entirely through collective social agreement.
The Joshua Bell Subway Experiment
World-renowned violinist Joshua Bell performed at the Kennedy Center. Earlier that day, he played complex classical pieces on a rare, multi-million dollar Stradivarius violin in a busy Washington, D.C. Metro station, filmed by a Washington Post reporter.
Passersby continuously shuffled past without stopping or paying attention.
Only one listener stopped: a woman who recognized Bell because she already owned tickets to his formal performance at the Kennedy Center that evening.
Sociological Implications: Virtuosic music does not inherently register as "art" strictly through sound waves; its status as art relies on the social context and frame of definition.
Readymade Art and Marcel Duchamp
Artist Marcel Duchamp designated everyday manufactured items as art, including a store-bought urinal (Fountain), a bicycle wheel, and a snow shovel inscribed with the title Prelude to a Broken Arm.
Because these objects were placed in institutions like the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and framed by institutional authority, they were defined and treated as art by society.
Artificial Intelligence and Art (Jasper & Class Discussion)
Student View (Jasper): Argued that art requires an inherently human capability to create, whereas AI merely replicates.
Counter-Example (Théâtre D'opéra Spatial): An artist submitted an AI-generated image titled Space Opera into a Colorado graphic artist competition and won first place. The artist argued that the creative act existed in crafting the detailed, highly specific AI prompt.
Sociological Takeaway: Society is currently undergoing an active process of negotiating and defining whether AI-generated works qualify as art.
Contextual Art Experiment
Placing a half-attached bottle cap on a desk does not inherently constitute art.
If that same object is placed in an established art gallery (such as the campus art gallery at UMW), given a formal title, and treated by patrons as art, it becomes defined as art under the constructionist model.
Application of Social Constructionism: Taste and Sensations
Coffee Perception
Class surveys typically reveal split preferences regarding coffee (e.g., one-third loving it, one-third disliking it, one-third indifferent).
Coffee lovers are not biologically or genetically distinct from non-coffee drinkers.
Raw coffee is inherently bitter and unpalatable. People undergo a social and cultural training process—frequently rooted in family environments and morning routines—to reframe a bitter beverage as delicious.
Spicy Food and Capsicum
Capsicum in pepper plants evolved through natural selection as a defense mechanism to cause physical pain to mammals and deter consumption.
Birds lack the heat receptors for capsicum, allowing them to eat the fruit, fly around, defecate, and distribute the plant's seeds.
Human enjoyment of spicy food is a learned cultural definition: individuals train themselves to reframe physical pain signals into an enjoyable, interesting, and positive culinary experience.
The W.I. Thomas Theorem
Verbatim Core Theorem
"When people define something as real, it becomes real and has consequences."
Sociological Consensus
This statement serves as a central foundational principle universally accepted across theoretical lines in sociology.
It asserts that subjective social definitions directly determine real-world human behavior, institutional policy, and physical outcomes.
Questions & Discussion: Factors in Misinformation and Disinformation
Context: Discussion on the assigned reading titled Belonging is stronger than facts.
Prompt: Identify three factors mentioned in the reading that promote the spread of misinformation and disinformation.
Student Contributions:
Natalie: Social Media Infrastructure — The technological structure of social media platforms facilitates rapid spread.
Gavin: Bad Actors and Influencers — Political and social figures who intentionally construct and propagate false claims.
Mark: In-Grouping and Political Polarization — The social drive for group belonging and ideological alignment, where group cohesion overrides factual accuracy.