Culture, Identity and Socialisation Flashcards
Culture
The way of life of a society.
Beliefs
Statements that people hold to be true.
Values
Standards shared by members of a culture and used to judge wether behaviour is right or wrong.
Norms
The behaviour that societies expect of their members in particular situations.
Social interaction
Any situation in which two or more people have social contact with each other.
Customs
Norms in a particular society that are widely accepted and carry on over time.
Laws
Rules that are given force by being formalised by governments.
Status
A position that someone has in a society; status can be ascribed (fixed by others) or achieved.
Role
The patterns of behaviour expected of someone because of their status in society.
Social institutions
Parts of society that have their own sets of norms and values, such as the family and the school system.
Social identity
Individuals’ perception of themselves, based partly on ideas about how others see them.
Gender
The roles and expectations associated with being male or female.
Stereotype
The attributes that people think (often wrongly) characterise a group.
Social control
Ways in which members of society are made to conform to norms and values.
Rewards
A positive sanction so that someone is praised or is better off.
Sanctions
Ways of rewarding or punishing acceptable or unacceptable behaviour, usually used in the sense of punishment (negative sanctions).
Sub-culture
A group within a larger culture that has its own distinctive norms and values.
Youth sub-culture
A sub-culture of adolescents or young adults that is usually distinguishable by their style, dress and musical preference.
Value consensus
General agreement across a society on a set of values.
Social conformity
Acting in accordance with norms and social expectations.
Informal social control
Ways of controlling behaviour imposed by people without a formal role to do so (such as peers).
Peer group
People of the same status (for example, they are the same age).
Ostracism
Excluding someone from the community or group.
Formal social control
Social control imposed by a person or organisation (such as a teacher or a police officer) who has the authority to implement rules or laws.
Agencies of socialisation
Institutions in which people are socialised.
Primary socialisation
The first and most important period of socialisation in which the individual learns the basic norms of behaviour.
Hidden curriculum
What pupils learn in schools apart from the content of lessons, such as the importance of following rules and the consequences of not doing so.
Peer pressure
The influence that a peer group has to force or persuade its members to conform.
Coercion
The use or threat of force or violence.
Social order
The ways in which societies and their institutions remain stable over time.
Childhood
The period before adulthood, in which individuals are not granted full adult rights.
Adulthood
When an individual is accepted by their culture as a full member.
Masculinity
The expected behaviour associated with being male.
Ethnic minority
An ethnic group that is relatively small in number compared with the majority in a society and is seen as different.
Globalisation
The complex process by which different cultures around the world are increasingly aware of, interact with and influence each other.
Global culture
The idea that as a result of globalisation there is or will be a single culture shared by people all around the world.
Diversity
Where there are many differences; cultural diversity refers to the wide differences between human cultures.
Lifestyle
The typical way of life of an individual, group or culture.
Cultural relativism
Considering all cultures on their own terms rather than from a Western point of view.
Multicultural society
A society in which many different cultures or sub-cultures exist alongside each other.
Ethnicity/race
Ethnicity refers to cultural differences such as language and religion as well as place of origin; race refers to supposed biological differences between different groups of people.
Social construction
The idea that social situations and events are constructed - made - by societies: they do not exist in nature as independent things.
Age groups
Ways in which people of the same or similar age share a status and associated roles.
Elderly
Belonging to the age group of those advanced in years.
Child-centred
A society in which children are highly valued and a lot of time and effort are devoted to their well-being.
Secondary socialisation
Later socialisation, usually involving learning more specific norms for particular statuses and roles.
Imitation
Young children learning by copying the behaviour of others.
Role modelling
Acting as an example so that this behaviour is copied by others.
Sex
Being male or female (based on biological indicators such as XX and XY chromosomes).
Manipulation
How parents and others encourage some behaviour and discourage other behaviour.
Canalisation
Channeling children towards activities that are considered appropriate for them (for example, because of their gender).
Social class
A form of social stratification in which people are grouped at different levels in the social hierarchy, the most common of which are the upper, middle and working class.
Inadequate socialisation
When socialisation is incomplete or ineffective.
Feral children
‘Wild’ children who have not been socialised.
Nature
The influence of biological factors on human behaviour in the nature/nurture debate.
Nurture
The influence of society and culture on human behaviour in the nature/nurture debate.
Role conflict
When someone finds that the demands of two or more of their roles clash with each other.
Adolescence
The period of growing up between childhood and adulthood.
Femininity
The expected behaviour associated with being female.
