Cultural Deprivation - Barry Sugarman (1970)

Question 1

What do some sociologists believe about cultural deprivation?

Answer 1

That the attitudes and values that parents and families hold are more significant than material factors

Question 2

Characteristics of culturally deprived parents (4)

Answer 2

• lack ambition for children’s future
• provide little encouragement for education
• fail to stimulate a child’s interest in books & learning
• lack interest in ensuring that their child excels academically

Question 3

What does Sugarman say exists in society? What are the 4 key features? (5 points in total on this card)

Answer 3

• **lover-class subculture in society that working-class pupils are often born into
• fatalism
• collectivism
• immediate gratification
• present-time orientation

Question 4

Define fatalism

Answer 4

Fatalist mentality: a belief that there is nothing they can do to change their status, lack of ambition

Question 5

Define collectivism

Answer 5

Value being part of a group and prioritising friendships and socialisation instead of doing work and revising

Question 6

Define immediate gratification

Answer 6

Seeking immediate pleasure and reward and are unable to defer and wait for better, long-term rewards and successes

Question 7

Define present-time orientation

Answer 7

Working-class pupils view the present as more important than the future, so they don’t form long-term goals

Question 8

Eval against Sugarman’s ideas (1)

Answer 8

• sweeping generalisations about working-class values — he doesn’t explain why some underachieve while others don’t
• Billionaires such as Richard Branson of the Virgin Group left school with no qualifications but made a success of himself
  
  • Sugarman presents a deterministic relationship between cultural dep & underachievement

Question 9

Second Eval of Sugarman (1)

Answer 9

• accused of imperialism
• makes value-judgements about the working class people and life in those communities
• critics see the term ‘cultural deprivation” offensive as they argue that one cannot be deprived from their own culture

Question 10

Define determinism

Answer 10

Believing that everything that happens must happen as it does and could not have happened any other way

Question 11

Define value-judgement

Answer 11

An opinion that is swayed by personal preference and ones own set of values