socialisation Flashcards
Socialisation
The process of learning acceptable norms and values of any given culture. The process is divided into two processes; primary and secondary socialisation.
Key points:
Values within the socialisation process differ from culture to culture - have own set of norms, values, customs, language, statuses and roles.
Socialisation changes according to the environment or culture that an individual learns. Therefore, an identity is socially constructed through socialisation.
Socialisation is a lifelong process rather than one just restricted to the early years of learning basic norms and values.
The Civilising Process
Elias argues that socialisation has grown more influential throughout history and in contemporary society, culture exerts a greater civilising influence on individuals than at any period in history.
Re-Socialisation
the process whereby people are removed from their everyday situations and encounter new social environments which are governed by a different set of norms and values.
Goffman’s study of psychiatric hospitals and prisons
found that they are ‘total institutions’ that develop their own subculture based on the label that the institution has put on them.
Role models
parents provide a blueprint for social roles and behaviours that children imitate and learn from.
Identity
socialisation in the family provides children with an identity, according to Baumeister (1986).
Social control
socialisation involves encouraging conformity and social control, with positive and negative sanctions from parents.
Morgan (1996) suggests that socialisation involves social control and encouraging conformity.
socialisation helps children learn how to adapt their behaviour to specific situations
an example of instilling self-control in children to help them become accepted into society as “civilised” individuals
Formal social control
behaviour governed by written rules, reinforced by government, laws, and education.
Informal social control
unwritten rules based on social expectations, met with disapproval or approval from peers.
gender roles
Boys and girls are treated differently by their parents, leading to different normative behaviors and values. Boys tend to be given harsher punishments and allowed to play more freely, while girls are more tightly controlled and become more conformist.
social class and ethnicity
greatly influence the socialisation process. Different values are taught to working-class children compared to middle-class children, and different cultures have different socialisation practices.
feral children
evidence of what happens when socialisation fails. Feral children socialised by animals provide a different identity from being a human being, highlighting the importance of socialisation in shaping an individual’s identity.
Key examples of feral children include John Ssabunnya, Oxana Malaya, and Amala and Kamala, all of whom were socialised by animals before being rescued and reintegrated into society.
