What is social determinism?

Social determinism is a theory that credits society and social constructs as being what create behaviors. This theory ignores the effects of environment, technology and genetics. Nature, technology, and genetics would be dismissed as social constructs.

As an example of social determinism, lets consider sexual orientation. A pure social determinist would call homosexuality a purely social construct and say it exists because of the media, what teachers taught them, society, and the parents' teachings. Indeed, there are LGBT persons who do believe that. They would dismiss the arguments against choice saying that their interactions led them to conclude that being gay/lesbian is a noble choice -- on par with fighting an unpopular war or belonging to a religion where persecution is highly likely. That is just one example, and the theory of social determinism encompasses nearly any behavior.