Personal and Social Identity: Socialisation

Question 1

Socialisation

Answer 1

The process of learning to deal with the social world by gaining knowledge and understanding of the rules and expectations for the social situations to become a functional member of society.

The way in which individuals
act in society and perform their expected social roles.

Question 2

Primary Socialisation

Answer 2

The knowledge that we gain from our family.

Question 3

Secondary Socialisation

Answer 3

Includes influences outside the
family, such as peers, religion, school and the media.

Question 4

What are the agents of socialisation?

Answer 4

Family and Kinship
Ethnicity and Culture
Gender
Sexuality
Beliefs
Location, Class and Status
Peers
School
Media

Question 6

Family Size

Answer 6

Significant decline in birth rate over the past 50 years.

Families halved in size in the past 30 years. Fewer than 2% have five or more children.

76% of families have 1-2 children.

Question 7

Birth Order

Answer 7

There are arguments that birth order can be of more significant in more authoritarian families where there is a definite hierarchical structure.

Significance is reducing due to changes in traditional roles, smaller family sizes and blended families.

Question 8

Ethnicity and Culture

Answer 8

Cultural identity is ‘ethnicity’, which is distinct from race as it ethnicity is about culture and lifestyle, whereas race is an attempt to categorise groups of people according to perceived understandings of their biological features.

The process of taking on rights and responsibilities in any social group requires knowledge of the rules, customs, and the manners of that group.

Question 9

Features of Distinctive Ethnicity

Answer 9

Language
National origin
Cuisine
Religion
Styles of dress
Sense of common historical heritage

Question 10

Gender

Answer 10

The socially constructed characteristics that distinguish between what it means to be masculine or feminine.

Affects an individual’s development of personal and social identity, starting from birth and continuing into older age.

Sex and gender are DIFFERENT.

Associated constructs are evolving as people openly identify outside of the gender binary.