Socialization & identity (Week 1) Culture,roles,values,beliefs

Question 1

Comte

Answer 1

• Founder of sociology and positivism.
• He influenced a lot of people eg. Karl Max
• He created and defined the term “altruism”

Question 2

Durkheim

Answer 2

• He is commonly known as > the father of sociolgy
• He believed in studying social phenomena as social facts that could be objectivly analysed
• Proponent of structural functionalism.

Question 3

Definition of Sociology

Answer 3

“Sociology is the systematic and scientific study of human behaviour, social groups and society”

Question 4

Define Society

Answer 4

Physical space: a distinctive geographical area marked by some kind of border or a made up line that marks where one society ends and another begins.
Mental space: which separates people based on the beliefs they have about what they have in common with people in ‘their’ society and the differences from people in other societies

Question 5

Definition by Anderson (1983)

Answer 5

• Anderson describes societies as ‘imagined communities’.
• ‘the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion.’

Question 6

Socially constructed

Answer 6

Societies are mentally constructed by:
* Geographical borders that set physical boundaries.
* A system of government
* Common language and traditions people share
* A sense of belonging and identification that involved developing the view that ‘our’ society is different from others.

Question 7

Definition of Culture

Answer 7

Culture refers to a ‘way of life’ that is learnt through primary and secondary socialisation

Cultures are dynamic and constantly changing.

Question 8

Cultures

Answer 8

All cultures have 2 parts:
1. Material culture (cars,phones,books) that society produces and it reflects their cultural knowledge, skills and interests.
2. Non-material culture = knowledge and beliefs valued by a particular culture > religious and scientific beliefs
Eg. Clothes function in two ways - warmth and status symbols.

Question 9

Cultural Interaction

Answer 9

• The idea that cultural objects can have different meanings suggests that cultural interaction is both sophisticated and complex. The more sophisticated the interaction in any society, the more open it is to misunderstanding.
• To make sense of cultural interaction we create structure.
• For society to function it has to have order and stability; to get this peoples behaviour must display patterns and regularities.
• Cultures may develop differently they are all constructed from the same basic matterials.

Question 10

Roles

Answer 10

• Roles exist in relation to other roles. eg. A mother plays a role to a child.
• Roles contribute to the creation of a culture because they require social interaction.
• Help form groups and communties
• Roles come with expectations and responsibilities.
• Every role has a label or name which identifies what is expected of behaviour in a situation.

Question 11

Values

Answer 11

• Values are beliefs or ideas that are important to the people who hold them.
• A value expresses a belief about how something should be.
• Values are common expectations that provide predictability.
• Playing a role is guided by values. eg. A mother should care for her child.
• Values provide guidance on how to behave.
• eg. courage, accountability, honesty, boldness

Question 12

Norms

Answer 12

• Norms are specific rules showing people how to act in a particular situation.
• Merton points out that without order and predictability, behaviour becomes risky and confusing.
  Anomiethe term Merton used to describe a state of normlessness where people fail to understand what the norms are or refuse to follow them.
  e.g. standing in line, eating with mouth closed

Question 13

Goffman (1959)

Answer 13

• Goffman argues that norms are open to negotiation and interpretation, meaning they can quickly adapt to changes in the social environment.
• We can interpret our roles differently.
• Norms can change overtime depending on social change and what’s accepted and not accepted.

Question 14

Beliefs

Answer 14

• Beliefs are behind a lot of norms and values.
• Beliefs are more important, deep-rooted ideas that shape our values and shaped by them.
• They are more general behaviour guidelines that include ideas, opinions, views and attitudes.
• eg. All human beings are equals.
• eg. To believe in god

Question 15

Structural factors

Answer 15

• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Class
  These are social factors which influence our culture and our experience within our culture.

Question 16

The importance of socialisation in influencing human behaviour

Answer 16

Definition: socialisation is the lifelong process of learning the culture of our society.
It describes how we are taught the behavioural rules to need to be an able social actor.
There are two types of socialisation:
Primary – our family
Secondary - other agencies such as schools, religious organisations, and the media.

Question 17

Primary socialisation

Answer 17

• first stage of socialisation
• essential for us to develop as human beings. Through this process we learn language, toilet training, how to eat, how to share and other basic aspects of being a social creature.

Question 18

Family

Answer 18

• In the family setting we learn a range of roles: baby, toddler, teen, adult, parent
• Being in this environment we are loved and cared for which means we can learn and develop.

Question 19

Secondary Socialisation

Answer 19

• involves secondary groups after the age of 3
• Parsons (1959) argued that one of the main purposes of secondary socialisation is to ‘liberate the individual from a dependence on the primary attachments and relationships formed within the family group.’
  *primary socialisation involves ‘emotionally charged identification’, secondary socialisation is characterised by ‘formality and anonymity’.

Question 20

Secondary socialisation

Answer 20

• School is a place where we learn to ‘limit our individual desires’ and think about the needs of others.
• first time we become separated from our parents for any length of time.
• generally receive opportunities we might not in our family setting.
• learn about authority figures.
• We learn more of societies norms and values that is a step higher than those learnt in the family setting and this process of secondary socialisation adjusts our primary socialisation so that we start to understand our wider roles as social beings.
• other forms: Mass media, Advertising

Question 21

In-direct long term effects of the media

Answer 21

• Through media we accept natural values of social life that are a social construction.
  Consumerism - the ever-increasing and active pursuit of goods and services that define our lifestyle and identity in contemporary capitalist societies is learnt as ‘natural’ behaviour.
  Fear – experience of negative and violent media can lead people to overestimate the extent of crime or their chances of being a victim of crime.
  Agenda setting – Philo et al (1982) argue that the media determine how something will be debated.

Question 22

Religion

Answer 22

• Plays a significant role in the socialisation process particularly in ceremonial functions such as marriage and funerals.
• Moral values and strong beliefs are learn’t through religion
• unacceptability of certain behaviour stem from religious values.
• Religion can be reguarded as ‘a design for living’ providing help and guidance and a source of conflict.

Question 23

Identity

Answer 23

• Identityis the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks and/or expressions that make a person or group.
• it is made up of who we see ourselves as and our social selves, how others see us and what they reflect back to us about who we are.

Question 24

Sociological Perspectives

Answer 24

A perspective in sociology is a way of explaining and observing society. 3 perspectives:
1. Interactionist
2. Marxist
3. Functionalist

Question 25

Interactionist’s

Answer 25

George Herbert Mead (1934)
Goffman (1959)
Cooley (1909)