... groups. Relations between social groups can have far reaching and persuasive effects on the behaviour of member of those groups, effects that go well beyond situations of face-to-face intergroup encounters. Social construction is used to describe how we as humans understand how the world is constructed in and through social relations; there are many different ways of understanding the same issue, rather than there being an objective reality. Our behaviour is regulated by guidelines, which make everyday life predictable and understandable causing us to behave in a certain way the way that is seen as the 'norm'. Housework provides a good example of a social construction being seen as the 'norm'; in "Western societies many people thought that it was 'natural' for women, rather than men, to do all the housework" (Phoenix, 2002). "It seemed natural because that was what usually happened and had happened for as long as people remembered. ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now