Introducing Socialisation, Culture And Identity Flashcards
What is a culture?
Considers the whole system of behaviours and beliefs of a society or group, which includes knowledge, language, faith, art, music, fashion, morals, laws, customs, traditions, lifestyle etc.
Cultures vary hugely across the world.
Norms and values make each culture distinctive.
What are values?
Values are beliefs and ideas that society sees as important, and that are accepted by the majority of society. Values are things we believe in, strive to achieve, and that guide our behaviour.
e.g. in the UK we value family.
What are norms?
Expected patterns of behaviour that are based on the values of a culture. E.g. in the UK it is a norm to wear clothes in public (based on the value of modesty).
Norms and values can differ between cultures.
Values underpin norms.
Those who don’t obey the norms are viewed as deviant.
What is a subculture?
A culture within a culture. This is a smaller grouping of people who share distinctive norms and values within a wider culture.
A culture with many subcultures will be culturaly diverse.
What is cultural hydridity?
The merging of two or more cultures. E.g. chips and curry sauce.
What is high culture?
This is the culture of the elite or upper class.
The culture is formed by members of the elite who believe that only people with good breeding and with appropriate education can apprecuate this cultures artistic and easthetic quality.
Social closure - people who are not privilidges cannot acccess it.
These people are considered ‘cultured’ as they enjoy Polo, Shakespeare plays, ballet and Opera.
What is the spectacular subculture?
A social group who subscribes to the norms and values of the mainstream society but they may have some norms and values that are distinct from the rest of society.
They may developin opposition to authority, for example with youth subcultures. Other subcultures may develop because people looking for meaning in their lives actively search for cultures that subscribe to a distinct set of norms and values that mirror their own.
E.g. punks, hippies, goths and LGBTQ+ members.
What is the popular culture?
The culture of ordinary people. People who engage in this culture engage in many mass produced forms of entertainment such as watching Hollywood films, soap operas and programmes such as Britain’s Got Talent.
The media plays a big role in creating popular culture in the UK. It tells us what to consume and how to behave.
What is global culture?
They have emerged as a result of globalisation - the process by which the world have become inter-connected socially, politically and economically. Cultural homogeneity is a key feature.
Global culture has developed because of migration, trends in international travel and the spread of the worldwide media.
Some theorists argue that global culture is simply American culture (‘Americanisation’).
For example, MacDonalds and Coke can be found globally.
What is cultural diversity?
A culture that includes a diverse range of groups from different cultural backgrounds living SEPERATELY in society.
It is possible to have a society that is diverse but still agrees on the collective norms and values that bind them (value consensus).
This is a concept relating to culturally-embedded differences within society.
Parekh outlines three types of diveristy; class, ethnicity and sexuality.
For example, Brixton is a large Afro-Carribbean community and Brighton has a large LGBTQ+ community.
What is multiculturalism?
Refers to different cultures living equally in society. All different cultures are INTEGRATED.
Barker argues that multicultural socuety acknowledges and welcomes the presence of a range of different groups.
Multiculturalism promotes the view that all ethnic groups have the same status in society and have equal rights to preserve their own cultural heritage.
Different ethnic groups living side by side in society, mixing equally.
What is socialisaton?
The process of learning the norms and values of society. Socialisation is the way in which we learn to be members of society.
What are agents of socialisation?
These are the groups or institutions that play a part in our socialisation, through which we learn the norms and values of society.
What is primary socilsiation?
Our family acts as the agent of socialisation, teaching their children basic norms and values.
One way children learn is through imitation, as they see their parents as role models.
Children will also learn throguh trial and error. Prents will aplly sanctions to bahviour to show whether it is desireable or not - positive sanctions (such as praise) or negative sanctions (such as telling-off). This is a form of social control.
What are the agents of secondary socialisation?
Peer group Education Media Religion Workplace Work
How does our peer group act as an agent of secondary socialisation?
Individuals learn a lot about acceptable behaviour from peers, because of the desire to ‘fit in’ - known as conformity.
Peer groups can also be a source of rebellion - youth subcultures such as goths, emos and punks influence each other to resist the norms and values of wider society.
What reasearch was conducted on the influence of peer groups as an agent?
Judith Harris looked at the comparitive influence of parents and peer groups, concluding that the peer group can be more influential than the family in shaping children’s identities.
Tony Sewell uses the concept of ‘cultural comfort zones’ to describe the way in which we like to associate with those who are similar to ourselves - to stay in our comfort zones. He links this particularly to African-Carribbean boys, prefering to hang around in gangs with peers than to be in the white middle-class world of teachers.
How does education act as an agent of secondary socialisation?
We learn from the informal curriculum or ‘hidden curriculum’. This is all the other norms and values you are learning at school outside of your formal lessons.
E.g. you learn that there are sanctions for those who disobey, such as detentions.
You learn that society values success, and how it is measured.
What research was done on education as an agent?
Bowles and Gintis argue that the hidden curriculum brainwashes children into an obediant and unquestioning attitude that they will need in the world of work.
Pupils are taught to accept their place in society, and led to belive that eveeything is meritocratic.
What resarch was done in rleation to the media as an agent of secondary socialisation?
Mulvey uses the concept of the ‘male gaze’ to describe how the camera in films ‘eyes up’ female characters, encouraging viewers to assess their bodies and their attractiveness, from a male perspective.
It has created a consumer culture where we are encouraged to buy products based on cleebrity endorsements.
What is a consumer culture?
A culture in which the consumption of goods and services is the norm.
A consumer culture is based on cultural and economic factors.
The media plays a key role in teaching us what goods and services we should buy in order to portray our identities. the economy creates jobs for people so that they have a disposable income in order to do this.
Another example of consumer culture is the existence of different forms of shopping that are now available. E.g. online shopping is more accessible.
How does the workpace act as an agent of secondary socialisation?
Formal socialisation in the workplace will be in the form of learning the code of conduct, acceptable dress codes, bahvaiour and other expectations. This will be enforeced by formal sanctions such as a formal warning or being fired, and positive sanctions such as a promotion or pay rise.
Informally, colleagues will help to resociliase an individual in a similar way to peers at school, by making it clear what is expected and by sanctioning unacceptable behaviour. For example, if an employee is ‘sucking up’ to the boss too much, or informing on his colleagues, it will be made clear to him by informal sanctions such as the ‘silent treatment’ that this is not acceptable.
What does the term ‘canteen culture’ mean?
The term ‘canteen culture’ has been used to descrbe the set of norms and values that people who work in a particular organisation will be socialised to accept, so that certain language, behaviours and attitudes become the norm.
This has been used in a critical way to describe the culture of racism within the police.
What is social control?
The agencies of social control can also be seen as mechanisms of social control: ways through which our behaviour is controlled. Behaviour is controlled and reinforced by sacntions. These are used to either positively reinforce a behaviour in order to encourage it or to negatively reinforce a behaviour in order to discourage it.
What are formal mechanisms of social control?
The police, courts, the criminal justice system, the government and the military. Through the passing of laws, these institutions directly control the behaviour of the population. Education also has a formal element to its control, with legal requirements in terms of attendence and behaviour codes.
Examples include:
Warnings from the police, sentences from the court, dismissal from work and exclusion from school.
What is formal social control?
It is explicited and obvious - people are aware it is happening. Formal agents conduct it.
What are informal mechanisms of social control?
These control our behaviour more ‘subtly’ - they would include peer groups, education, religion, family, workplace and media.
Different types of sanctions might include:
socially excluding a person from a peer group
disappointed reactions from parents
being passed over for promotion at work
celebrities being criticised in magazines.
What is nature?
The idea that social behaviour is biologcal or innate
What is a role?
A role is a part you play in society. People may ahve more than one role at the same. Each role has a set of norms or patterns of behaviour attchaed. These may be different in different societies or change over time.
What is conspicuous consumption?
The idea that the media targets middle aged people as they have the highest disposable income and they often define their identity and what they own and show this off. This idea of culture affecting identity is discussed by Saunders.
Define validity
An indication of how sound your reasearch is. Validity in data collection means that your findings truly represent the phenomenon you are claiming to measure.
Define reliability.
The extent to which results are consistent over time is referred to as reliability and if the results can be reproduced under a similar methodology, then the research intrument is considered to be reliable.
Define representitiveness.
A representative sample is a small quantity of something that accurately reflects the larger entity.
Define generalisability.
Generaliseability described the extent to which research findings can be applied to settings other than that in which they were originally tested.
What is a structured interview?
The reasearcher reads out a lift of closed questions from an interview scedule and writes/ticks the respondents answer according to pre-set fixed categories.
What is a semi-structured interview?
A mix of structured and unstructured interviews. They contain lots of closed questions to generate facts but also some open questions. There is flexibility for the reasearcher to probe and the respondent to ask for clarification.
What is an unstrctured interview?
An informal interview which is a guided conversation. The interviewer plays an active role in that he/she manages the questions to ensure that the respondant keeps to the subject of the research.
What is a focus group?
People getting toegther t discuss an issue, rather than simply giving an answer to a question.
What is a theoretical approach?
Sociologists have different ideas about which classes exist and WHY e.g. Marxists suggest there are two social class groups:
- those who own the means of production
- those who need to sell their labour.
What is a descriptive approach?
Ranking people into a hierarchy based on a number of social indicators. E.g. The Registrar Generals Scale and the NSSEC or now The BBC Class Calculator.
What is The Registrar Generals Scale?
This model was used from 1911-1990s This model suggests a 2 class model MANUAL and NON-MANUAL.
What is the NSSEC?
This model has been used from 1997.
Ranks occupations according to their similarities of qualifucations, training, skills and experience.
What is a subjective approach?
Ask people to rate themselves.
What is an objective approach?
Uses a measurement of class by asking respndents questions based on indicators such as income and occupation.
What are the different classes according to the BBC class survey?
Elite Established middle class Technical middle class New Affluent workers Traditional service workers Emergent working class Precariat
What did King and Raynor say about the middle class?
They suggest that parents socialise middle class idenities by reinforcing attitudes and values about the importance of educational success through the use of role models, positive and negative sanctions and imitation. They suggest child centredness is a distinctive feature of middle class families.
What did Bordieu say about the middle class?
Suggests that schools helps to socialise people into middle class identities through the use of role models, imitation, rewards, sanctions and the whole environment of school being similar to aspects of their homes. He suggests that the middle class have values, knowledge, leisure interests, levels of language and skills at home that are similar to how schools is set up, and this serves to advantage their children in the education system. This is called 'cultural capital'. Therefore, the education system could be said to reinforce a middle class identity that has already been constructed by the family and other agents of socialisation.
What did Goodwin suggest about the middle class?
Goodwin suggests that many middle class mothers define their identities by peer approval. The new breed of ‘Yummy Mummies’ are no longer passive or traditional types of hegemonic females, but are now defined by peer approval on maternal capabilities, glamour and the styles and experiences of their children.
What did Saunders suggest about the middle class?
The New Right Sociologist suggests that those who satisfy their needs through ownership of various goods are influenced heavily by advertising and the media. The media targets the middle class as they are the group with the highest disposable income and they often define their identity by what they own.
What did Wright suggest about the middle class?
The Neo-Marxist Wright argues that the middle class occupy a contradictory class position - this means that they are both exploited (taken advantage of) by the upper class and also exploit the working class. Wright suggests that they are in this position due to the fact that they have managerial roles.
What did Willis suggest about the working class?
Studdied the lads who formed a counter school subcultures and opposed the schooll’s values. They saw manual work as superior to mental work.
Their behaviour from school was adopted in their work life later on. He found that the counter school culture prepared them for the boredom and mnotony of the work. Similar to school, during work they would mess around and doing the minimum.
The boys were seen to follow in their father’s footsteps.
What did Mac and Ghail find about the working class?
He noted that boys from working class backgrounds generally followed their fathers int traditional working class, manual labour job roles. One of these subcultures was named as the ‘Macho Lads’.
De-indistrialisation led to the Macho Lads facing a crisis of masculinity.
The decline of the traditional, manual jobs led to a shift to more part-time roles that were office based and traditionally suited to the “life of women”.
For those who could no longer gain these traditional wokring class jobs they had these options:
- becoming upwardly mobile to gain the new working class, white collar jobs
- to face the prospect of low-paid work
- face long-term unemployment.
The majority of the working class didnt have the qualifications needed in order to move into the new working class job roles.
As a result, women became the breakwinner in some cases, this alongside having no medium for displaying their working class macuinity further reinforced this “crisis of masculinity”.
What did Bowles and Gintis say about the working class in education?
Bowles and Gintis argue that the education’s function is to maintain, legitimise and reproduce class inequalities in wealth and power. They believe that it does this by transmitting ruling class values disguised as common values in the hidden curriculum. They suggest that education is for the ruling class and encourages children from wokring class backgrounds to be obedient and passive workers in the future. This means that education is teaching the next generation or workers to accept exploitation and alienation by encouraging conformity to a ruling class ideology.
What did Mertens and D’Haenens say about the media?
Studies the digital divide in Brussels and found a clear link between class and internet usage. Those from lower social classes use the internet less. They also found a difference in how the devices were used. Those from lower social classes used technology as a form of entertainment, whereas the middle class used their devices more to boost their knowledge and to research different information.
What did Murray say about the underclass?
Murray claims that the underclass are lazy, workshy, immoral, criminal and dependent on benefits. He suggests it is their own fault they are in this position because they have a culture based on idealness, failure and criminality.
What did Jordan say about the underclass?
He argues that the underclass have the same values and attitudes as everyone else in society and most of them would work if they had the chance. He suggests they feel a sense of shame bevause they cannot provide for their families. The underclass are a disadvantaged group who want to break the cycle of poverty.
What do Postmodernists suggest about class?
Postmodernists such as Pakulski and Waters suggest that there has been a shift from production to consumption in the defining of identities. We are now definied by what we buy, not what we do.
What does Offe say about class?
Offe argues that in todays society, fewer and fewer individuals share a common, unifying experience of full time work - the experience that used to shape the culture of social classes. The days when people had a job for life have gone and we are all able to create our own identities regardless of the social class of our families and the particular level of qualification or job we have at any one time.
Why is class changing?
The contemporary UK gives choices and opportunities to everyone, which may have been limited to the privilidged few in the past, such as the possibility of going to University. Decline in manual work, the number of people employed in traditional heavy industries such as minings have fallen rapidly since the 1980s. This means that the sense of working class identity has changed and solidarity has weakened.
What did Skeggs find out about the changing working class?
Skeggs found that working class women had instrumental attitudes to work, their jobs didn’t influence their identities they were simply a means to and end.
The new working class also saw capitalism as effective in rising their living standards and therefore had no sense of class injustice or political loyalty. They see society as meritocratic. The new working class believe in individualism.
They develop identities based around popular culture, conspicuous consumption and consumer culture.
