Social Knowledge: What Is It And How Do We Acquire It?

We can all see that social phenomena are naturally very different from physical phenomena. Because we don’t just look at them in a different way. We also handle it differently. But what exactly is social knowledge? And how do we build it up in our mind? Well, throughout history, psychologists have tried to answer exactly these questions.

The study of social knowledge is a very broad and highly relevant field of research. It is a very broad field of interest. Moreover, it can be viewed from different points of view. For the starting points can be psychological, educational and epistemological. In this article we discuss two specific aspects: the construction of representations of social reality and the nature of social phenomena.

Building social knowledge

A key aspect of social knowledge is understanding how it is constructed. We humans build representations or models by observing how the world works around us. Those representations then explain what we observe. This helps us to make sense of what is happening around us. In addition, it creates our own models that are very useful as a framework for action.

Indeed, these representations make it possible to anticipate what will happen. Then we can act accordingly. We can easily see here the great adaptive value of having an ability to create and modify valid, reliable models. For example, when we understand how electricity works and what damage it can cause, we give up the idea of ​​sticking our fingers in the socket!

Our social environment is one core aspect of the human species. Because we live in a society, we must be able to adapt to a hostile environment, even if people have natural shortcomings. So we have acquired a wide range of social models. They help us to know how to behave in the social structure every day.

The three main categories

Psychology calls these  representations  or  models  of society  social knowledge. Here we find three main categories:

The knowledge of others and of oneself

Through our experiences with others, we design models that allow us to get to know ourselves and other people. Knowing how other people’s minds work and how they think helps us anticipate their actions. Studies on the so-called “theory of the mind” are in this section.

Moral knowledge and knowledge of the norms and values

A person acquires the rules or the norms that regulate the relationships he has with others. Knowing these guidelines thus allows us to adapt to our community and to live with others. In this field, the psychologist  Lawrence Kohlberg has  studied the development of morality in the human being.

The knowledge of the institutions

Another important aspect of social knowledge is that we understand the roles that people play in society. Here we are talking about the representations and models that we have about the behavior of different people in our society. These could be shop assistants, bank managers or politicians. This helps us to perform certain social acts without having to know the person in front of us. Because we know what role that person should play.

The nature of social phenomena

It may seem obvious that there are differences between a physical phenomenon and a social one. But describing those differences can get complicated. You can describe physical facts as  objective  and  independent of the subject/person  and social phenomena as  subjective  and  dependent. But from the standpoint of social constructivism, this distinction makes no sense.

One attempt to understand what social phenomena are composed of is the proposal of the philosopher  John Searle.  In order to understand the representations about the social world, he introduces three elements. Formative rules, the assignment of functions and collective purposefulness.

Just as a game is made up of rules, Searle argues that so are settings. The importance of these rules is that without them the game or the settings cannot exist. For example, when we play chess, it is the rules that tell us what we can and cannot do.

If these rules did not exist, the game would have no meaning. Well, the same thing happens with our institutions. They exist insofar as we  say  they exist.  One clear example is the means of payment. There are rules that say how much a note is worth and under what conditions it can be exchanged. If they didn’t exist, money would just be metal or paper.

Assign functions

When we talk about assigning functions, we refer to giving functions to objects or to people. We say chairs are for sitting and we use forks to eat with. But these are not essential properties of the objects involved: we give them their function.

This attribution is largely collective and it creates shared knowledge. The role of collective targeting is important. Because it is important that we understand the function of people and objects in society. This entails that people share beliefs, desires and intentions.

All these things allow us to act within a framework where cooperation is possible. It opens the door for us to live together in a society that is safe and adaptable for all members. Social knowledge helps us to understand and know how to act in society.

The study of social knowledge has great value. It also allows us to trade at different levels. We give a final example: education. The more we understand this area, the better models or pedagogical measures we can design. This helps us on the road to creating a more just and collaborative society.