Social fact Personal fact
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
The concept of social fact and personal or psychological fact can help us better understand ourselves and enhance interpersonal relationships if correctly understood and properly utilized. The concept can be applied in a variety of social settings, such as workplace, school, culture, or on a more personal level such as romantic relationship or friendship.
"A social fact is an abstraction external to the individual which constrains that individual?s actions."1 The term which was introduced by Emile Durkheim, a sociologist who viewed sociology as the scientific study of reality, accounts for the things that force individuals to carry out certain behaviors. It describes human behaviors that are not the individual's natural or normal characteristics, but rather are a result of a social influence or force. Thus it involved every way of acting, fixed or not, that is not part of the individual's personality. One example that I believe will illustrate this concept is the reaction Ethiopian culture or society has towards single women using red nail polish to paint their nails.
Amongst the people of the Ethiopian society that I was raised in, it was a well believed, accepted, and practiced moral rule that single women did not polish their nails red. It was believed that prostitutes and girls with no morals painted their nails red to draw the attention of men for sex...