Agencies of Socialisation - Peer Groups

Question 1

what is peer group socialisation?

Answer 1

important during adolescence - enables young people to form an identity away from the family
- peer groups are linked to youth subcultures and deviance

Question 2

examples of peer group socialisation?

Answer 2

• following fashions, seeking popularity
• experimenting with drink, drugs, sex
• being excluded when you don’t do what they want = powerful tool for shaping people’s behaviour

Question 3

EVAL of peer groups as an agency of socialisation - functionalist view

Answer 3

Eisenstadt 1956 - argues peer groups help integrate young people into society
BUT
Cohen 1955 sees working class youths suffering from status frustration, forming deviant anti-school subculture

Question 4

EVAL of peer groups as an agency of socialisation - marxist view

Answer 4

different view
Hebdige 1979 - focuses on punk subculture, argues it is symbolic resistance to capitalism –> young people recognise the capitalist world as a terrible place and they don’t want anything to do with it
- they defy it through fashion, music, deviant forms of behaviour

Question 5

EVAL of peer groups as an agency of socialisation - feminist view

Answer 5

McRobbie and Garber 1976 - focus on ‘bed room culture’ of teenage girls, argue it is symbolic resistance to patriarchy