The World Is Like Middle School.
Realism: everyone knows about "those girls" - yeah, the popular ones, not a hair out of place, perfect clothes, perfect lives (or so we think). Their interests are clearly the only ones that matter to them. This attitude is not only defensive and realist, it can also be constructivist if everyone else acknowledges their standing in the school (see below). Really everyone in middle school is looking out for their best interests. It's just a matter of how much you want to do that or how much you want to fit in (again, see constructivism below).
Liberalism: when I was in 7th grade, I made a deal with a couple of the popular girls that I would take a girl in my group for our Toronto trip (a girl they didn't like, nobody did, but they were making a big deal about how it was going to ruin their trip to have them) if they let me sit at their lunch table for the rest of the year. While this may sound like a stupid trade now, remember that back then sitting at their lunch table meant a lot for me. They get rid of the "trip ruining" girl, I get a position of power; mutual benefit at its best.
Constructivism: When the aforementioned popular girls set their standards on how to dress, work out, style their hair, etc.; they also set a norm for the rest of the community. The community that follows them would be the group affected by the social norms they set (in my middle school at least, that meant basically everyone who wanted to be noticed by other kids and those girls, teachers, etc. or so it felt.) If you violated the standards you were just ignored and deemed unworthy of communication. Very constructivist.
All in all, coming up with this little model not only helped the guys understand for their midterm, but it helped me apply the concepts back to the world. I thought you might enjoy it.
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