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sun. And so on. We do not say, at this time, on this day, science tells us that the earth
rotates around the sun. The world view is accepted that the earth revolves around the
sun. This is normalised, through our education and socialisation processes and therefore
makes up part of our objective reality.
In this way the new paradigm becomes the normal objective reality within the scientific
community. This process may not be fully complete until the new generation of
scientists has totally succeeded the old generation (Emory n.d., p. 16). The man who
continues to resist after his whole profession has been converted has ipso facto ceased
to be a scientist (Kuhn, 1996, p. 159).
Berger and Luckmann’s process of objectivication
Earlier, I briefly considered the process proposed by Berger and Luckmann which they
call objectivication. Kuhn’s process of normalisation and Berger and Luckmann’s
process of objectivication have startling similarities, and their theory explains how our
socialisation processes fix value judgements about how we should behave. Their theory
compliments and supports Kuhn’s theory of socialisation.
Berger and Luckmann describe objectivication as the process “by which the
externalized products of human activity attain the character of objectivity” (1966, p.
78). Berger and Luckmann argue that the achievement of objectivity may be through
institutionalisation (p. 80). They also suggest that objectivication may be achieved
through a process of socialisation and the internalisation of the roles and attitudes of
significant others into general rules about how to behave (p. 152–153). They use the
example of a boy who learns that it is not generally acceptable behaviour to spill soup.
Firstly, the mother expresses negativity and anger towards her son for spilling soup.
The boy internalises this command and first thinks it is only his mother who is negative
towards soup spilling. He then goes through a process of generalisation whereby he
realises that it is not just his mother who is against soup spilling. The boy recognises
that everybody is against soup spilling. The social norm is generalised and the boy
learns that “one does not spill soup – one being himself as part of a generality that
includes, in principle, all of society in so far as it is significant to the child” (p. 153).
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