determined solely by nature. They articulate their point in what has now become known as the Thomas Principle: “If people define situations as real, then they are real in their consequences” (Roy 10). Simply stated- the more people act as though something is real, them more consequential that definition of reality becomes. An example of this principle can be seen in the concept of race. Most biologists believe that the concept of race has no biological foundation: that there exists no great genetic boundary between those people that societies define as racially distinct. Nonetheless, people have long assumed that races are real and that people are really white, African American, Asian, or whatever. Due to the reality of the concept of race, labeling people as yellow, brown, black or white carries with it great social consequences. If a person is treated preferentially or discriminatory because of his or her race, then the consequences of this constructed realty are very real. Thus saying that the concept of race is a socially constructed reality makes it no less real than if it were found in nature (Roy 20). The Thomas Principle can also be applied to the realities surrounding the issue of teen pregnancy. Marriage, for example, is a socially constructed reality as are the concepts of premarital and extramarital sex; they do not exist in nature. However, the punishment colonial Americans faced for entering into a sexual relationship outside of marriage: public lashings, harsh fines, and incarceration are very real consequences. Illegitimacy is also a socially constructed reality that brought with it real consequences. Children deemed illegitimate were at one time unable to own land or hold office even though they had no natural difference from children born to married parents. Freud’s theory of the unconscious, though just a theory, was a socially constructed reality applied to the treatment of “...
