1.1 Process of Learning and Socialisation- Theorists Flashcards
Theorist statements regarding and/or explaining subsections of this topic
Anderson
Defining Society
Describes societies as imagined communities- things that only exist in a mental space, he points out that the members of even the smallest nation would never come to know, meet, or even hear of their fellow residents, yet in all of their minds lives an image of their communion.
Merton
non-material and material culture
Objects such as cars, houses and clothes can function in two ways:
1. their manifest purpose for which they exist
2. their latent function may be hidden- material objects may be used as status symbols-owning something a culture desires.
Durkeim
socialisation
coined the term anomie
Anomie comes from the Greek anomos meaning “lawless,” so anomie means a lack of moral standards, or a sense of lawlessness, or sometimes the anxiety that comes from being in a lawless place.
Merton
importance of norms
without order and predictability, behaviour becomes risky and confusing, he used the term anomie to describe a condition where people who fail to understand the norms in a particular situation react in a range of ways- from confusion, through fear to anger.
Goffman
norms
Argues that norms are more open to interpretation than either roles or values, they are more adaptable to changes in social environments.
Billikopf
insignificant cultural difference
found from his time in Russia that when a man peels a bana for a lady it displays romantic interest.
Wojtczack
Significant Cultural Difference
Victorian women lived in a state little better than slavery. women’s sole purpose was to marry and reproduce. this is not a situation we can recognise in present day British Society.
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George Herbert Mead
the ‘i’ and the ‘me’
argued that advanced social skills had to be taught and learnt in the same way as basic human skills. he claimed that the social context in which behaviours occur conditions people how to behave. while self-awareness- viewing ourselves the way others view us, is often seen as an instinctive skill, Mead argues it is taught. this incudes developing a concept of Self, what sets us humans apart from animals.
mead believes there are two related aspects to the Self:
1. an ‘I’ based around our opinion of ouselves as a whole, Mead calls this the unsocialised Self.
2. a ‘Me’ aspect consists of an awareness of how others expect us to behave in a given situation, Mead calls this the social self, as it deveops through socialisation.
Goffman
self awareness
he argued that who we believed ourselves to be- our sense of identity- is also constructed socially through how we present ourselves to others.
Goffman
Model of Identity Performance.
Proposed a model of Self and Identity in which he described social life as a series of dramatic episodes.
people are actors, sometimes they write their own lines or -improvise, this is their personal identity. sometimes they follow lines which are written for them- the external influences which inform how people behave in particular situations and roles.
Goffman also suggests that when we adopt a particular identity, we ‘perform’ to others in order to ‘manage’ the impression they have of us. identity performance is about achieving a desired result.
Each agency of socialisation has its own theatre. A theatre is an environment which a person operates. Each theatre has its own rules, which are called ‘doxas’. Doxas can change and are fluid and we measure our ability to survive in a theatre by our success in that environment e.g. if we have lots of friends and are popular, we could argue that we have mastered the doxas of the environment
Cooley
Looking Glass Self
50 years before Goffman, Cooley suggested that in the majority of social encounters other people are used as a looking glass self. they are like mirrors reflecting ourself as others see us- looking into a mirror of the person other people think you are- suggested through their behaviour.
Podder and Bergvall
socialisation
observation that culture “isn’t something we’re born with, it is taught to us. The human being is a social creature and we need rules for interaction with one another”. Since it can be argued that culture can lead to us creating our identity, the significance that socialisation can have on us is clear.
Wilson
Biogrammars
+Parsons
argued that biological principles of natural selection and evolution are applied the ‘human animal’ to produce a biological basis for all human behaviour - he claimed that although human behaviour is not genetically determined, it is strongly influenced by ‘biological programming’ or biogrammars.
biogrammars suggest that humans are likely to act in specific ways. (eg; traditional male and female traits, influenced Parsons-family roles)
Parsons believeved, over-riding the biogrammar is a less-efficient way of organising human cultural relationships. does not make the best use of their pre-existing capabilities.
Cooley
Primary Socialisation
primary groups that contain intimate relationships and face to face are fundamental in creating the nature and ideals of an individual. The primary relationships we form is with our parents, followed by our peers and then with other adults e.g. marriage.
Parsons
Primary Socialisation
states that primary socialisation is crucial in socialising newborns into being children who can function in society.
