Intro To Sociology Flashcards
What is anthropology?
The study of different cultures eg. Tribes
What is socialisation?
The way in which we learn our norms and values in society.
What is primary socialisation?
Socialisation that happens to us as a young child from our parents/family
Secondary socialisation + 5 agents
Socialisation that happens throughout the rest of our lives. (School, work, religion, media, peers)
Formal socialisation
When people deliberately try to change the way you act/try to socialise you. Eg. Teachers try to make you work hard in school
Informal socialisation
Learning how to behave as you live your life. This could be socialisation that happens by chance. Eg. Learning to be tidy from Your family
Processes of socialisation definition
The WAY in which we are taught our norms and values BY agents
Examples of processes of socialisation
Manipulation Canalisation Social activities Language Modelling Toys and games
Processes: manipulation
Children are controlled into certain behaviour through praise and punishment
Processes: Canalisation
Children directed into certain interests. For example being taken to certain sporting activities based on gender or reading specific books to them.
Processes: Social activities
Children might be taken to play groups before they attend nursery. They will learn to play with other children, share toys and take turns. Boys will be encouraged to participate in team games
Processes: Modelling
Children will imitate their parents and act as they do. Adults are role models for children to copy. Albert Bandura said children copy from TV and children learn violence
Processes: Toys and games
Children are given gendered objects to play with. Girls offered pink toys that encourage them to care like barbie dolls whereas boys are given violent and practical toys such as swords and hammers.
Processes: Language
Adults speak to boys and girls in different ways. Phrases such as boys don’t cry are used. As well as calling girls princess or calling boys champ.
What is gender?
Gender is how masculine or feminine we feel we are-NOT BIOLOGICAL
What’s an Ethnic group?
An ethnic group is a group that shares a culture.
What is ethnicity? How are we socialised into our ethnicity?
Our ethnicity is the ethnic group we feel we belong too. Not the same as race.
We are socialised into our ethnic group through socialisation. For example in schools we are taught British values through an ethnocentric curriculum
What’s a feral child?
A child that hasn’t been socialised properly and lacks basic norms, values and skills of society.
Genie Wiley
Feral child from 1970s California
Severely neglected by her parents. She was 13 when she sat found but was the size of a 7 year old. She was unable to communicate and couldn’t put words together.
Oxana Malaya
Found in Russia, her parents ignored her and left her with the dogs in a kennel. She learned from the dogs and when she was found she was more like a dog then a human. Oxana still finds human contact difficult.
Nature vs Nurture debate
The debate between nature (we act as we do because we are born that way) and nurture (we act as we do because we are taught by others how to behave)
David Reimer
A twin boy who was circumcised at birth. The circumcision went wrong and the doctors told David’s mother to bring him up as a girl. David’s mother did this but David always felt like a boy. This shows that nature is a strong influence and is a big piece of evidence for the nature side of the NVN debate
David felt confused by life and killed himself.
Nurture evidence
Feral Children
Anthropological evidence shows peoples behaviours differ from
One culture to another
Historical evidence shows peoples behaviours changed over time (social construction)
What is social control?
How we are encouraged to follow the norms and values of our society through sanctions (rewards or punishments)
Formal social control
This is where we are encouraged to follow the law and the sanctions are formal punishments such as prison or fines.
Agencies of formal social control
Judiciary - people that enforce the law such as police and judges
Legislature - the government who makes the law
Informal social control
This is where we are encouraged to follow the norms and values of our society. The sanctions are informal such as detentions (negative) or being promoted (positive)
Agencies of informal social control
Schools Parents Peers Work Religion Media
Society + social rules
A group of people who share a culture (way of life)
Social rules - unwritten rules that people feel uncomfortable breaking, but aren’t illegal by law
Norms
A set of rules of expected behaviours for a society/group
Behaviours that are seen as completely normal for people to do for example say please and thank you
Morals/More
Idea of behaviour that is right or wrong. If a person breaks a more/moral it is seen as very bad
More/Moral is a belief about what behaviour is normal
Values
These are strong beliefs about society that most people share. Breaking a value is seen as very bad. In British society we value that we should care for our family
What happens when an unwritten rule is broken
People are seen as deviant when unwritten rules are broken
Culture
Is a way of life of a group of people. It consists of rules for expected behaviours.
Things that make up culture are: clothing, music, religion, language, history, art and food/cuisine
Cultural relativity
Something that is acceptable in one culture but may not be in another
For example French people eat snails and frogs legs
Cultural universals
Social behaviours that are found in all cultures. For example All cultures have some form of family life
Cultural diversity
Different cultures have a different set of rules
Anthropology is the study of different human cultures. Anthropology shows that people from different cultures may have ideas that are strange to us. For example many remote tribes find it normal to eat humans where as in Britain we do not believe this.
Margaret Mead
Was an anthropologist who looked at gender differences in tribes in New Guinea.
She found that in Mundagamore both males and females were aggressive and masculine
In Arapesh both men and women were seen to be feminine
And Tchambuli had traditional European male and female roles but reversed so men spend time making themselves attractive for women
Subcultures
Within every society and culture are smaller groups who have slightly different ideas and beliefs form most others around them. Some youth groups have slightly different views from mainstream society for example Emos, Goths and Hippies
4 ways people learn gender identity
Home
School
Sport & leisure
Mass media
5 ways people learn ethnic identity
Home School Sport and Leisure Religion Mass media
What is Social change
The way in which Norms and values change over time.
For example it used to be norm for women not to work and for there to be a nuclear family. Now more families are symmetrical and many women work.
Another example could be it used to be important to disapprove of homosexuality, now we value differences and homosexuality is widely accepted
Social change in work
Embourgeoisement of jobs such as plumbing (plumbers used to be a working class job but can now live a middle class lifestyle)
Proletarianisation of jobs such as administration clerks (the job used to be middle class but now doesn’t pay enough money for clerks to live a middle class lifestyle)
What is family
The people who socialise you
