Socialization & Identity (Week 2) Functionalism & Marxism

Question 1

Socialisation Biological explanation

Answer 1

Biology, rather than culture, may influence some of how we behave as we are programmed to some extent, by our genes. There are, for instance, drives for procreation and self-preservation.

Genetics suggests that behaviour may be guided by instincts on biological instructions that can be seen as part of ‘human nature’

Question 2

Instincts

Answer 2

• Instincts are fixed human features. These are things we are born knowing and our cultural environment plays little or no role in the development of these instincts, e.g the mothering instinct.
• A weaker expression of this idea is that people are born with certain capabilities.

Question 3

Sociobiological theories

Answer 3

• Sociobiology applies biological principles of natural selection and evolution.
  **Wilson (1979): **
• Human behaviour is strongly influenced by biological programming or biogrammars.
• Men and women are biologically programmed with different traits > they preform different cultural roles.
• Women are passive,nurturing, caring = child rearing.
• Male traits of agression best suit the providing role.

Question 4

Parsons

Answer 4

He argued that in most societies, family roles are organised to reflect the belief that…
* women play an expressive role – that of caring for others.
* Men play an instrumental role – with a focus on providing for the family.
* Both of these roles are based on evolutionary biological principles.
* Parsons believed, behaviour that opposes this biological instinct is seen as a less efficient way of organising human cultural relationships.
eg. men can take on the expressive role and women the instrumental role, but this is likely to cause social problems because it is not making the best use of the different capabilities of males and females.

Question 5

Primary socialistion

Answer 5

• First stage of socialisation
• takes place in the home environment with our family.
• Family is an agency of primary socialisation
• we learn to speak, eat, walk, share, manners
• Imperative stage for human interaction and building on instincts.

Question 6

Feral children

Answer 6

• These children have missed out on primary socialisation by humans.
• Been isolated or raised by animals
• Cases are rare
• Provide a chance to study children who have grown up with no guidance or support from human beings.
• Nature without the nurture

Question 7

Cases of feral children

Answer 7

• Saturday Mthiyane (monkeys)
• Genie (isolated)
• Oxana Malaya (dogs)

Question 8

Feral children significance

Answer 8

• when raised with no human contact they fail to show social and physical development we would expect.
• Children raised by animals behave like them > suggesting learn by imitation.
• If human behaviour is instinctive we would expect genie to be developed but she was not.
• It’s also expected that once feral children return to human society they would pick up human behaviours but this isn’t the case.
• If children miss out on early socialisation it cannot be corrected later.

Question 9

Primary socialisation - The family

Answer 9

• Many different roles are learn’t through the family. Played out over long periods. Involve complex forms of role development.
• Adults have to learn the roles of husband/wife, parent/step parent.
• Child development roles = baby, infant, child, teen, parent of own child.

Question 10

Sanctions

Answer 10

• Sanctions are ways of rewarding or punishing acceptable or unacceptable behaviour. These vary depending on the social situation.
  **Positive sanctions **– smiling, rewards, certificates, words of praise, pat on the back

Negative sanctions – frown, raised voice, punishment, fine, prison

Question 11

Family

Answer 11

• Functionalists see primary socialisation as a one-way process that passes from adults to children, however, it involves more.
• Children are socialised by being encouraged to copy behaviour but they are also actively involved in negotiating their socialisation.
• Children receive different socialisation messages – a relative may reward a behaviour that a parent would punish.
• Children have to learn that the same behaviour may receive a different sanction depending on the situation so they need to be able to judge what the reactions are likely to be.

Question 12

Peer groups

Answer 12

• Peer groups are made up of people of a similar age.
• primary agencies of socialisation
• personal interaction with them influences our behaviour. eg. chlothes, things we love and hate.
• Can also be secondary agencies because they may be used as a reference group. (Hughes)

Question 13

Peer groups - Subcultures

Answer 13

• In the recent past, these peer groups have included youth subcultures (hippies or punks).
• Although most people do not interact with groups as specific as this.
• we all have reference groups of people we identify with and whose appearance and behaviour we model on own own.
• social media influences our behaviour also and it may be that our ‘peer group’ is a range of influencers or personalities on platforms.

Question 14

Secondary socialisation

Answer 14

These include; schools, religous organisations and the media

Question 15

Education

Answer 15

Education involves two kinds of curriculum:
1.** The formal curriculum**: specifies the subjects, knowledge and skillschildren are taught in school.
2. A hidden curriculum: the things that we learn form the experience of attending school. eg.dealing with strangers, listening to adult authority.
School promotes value consensus and social solidarity – Functionalists see these as being essential for society to be stable.

Question 16

Education - roles

Answer 16

• school involves a range of roles, such as teacher/student which are themselves related to a range of roles and role-sets.
• further extends the idea of cultural relationships because we become fixed into a range of expected behaviours.

Question 17

Education sanctions

Answer 17

• daily attendance, always being in the right place at the right time, listening to those in authority - are backed up by positive sanctions that include gaining grades, qualifications and prizes as well as praise and encouragement.
• school uses punishment for non-conformity: detentions, suspensions and exclusions.
• These sanctions prepare children for work

Question 18

Mass media

Answer 18

• Media is an impersonal agency.
• Media has a short-term effect on our behaviour.
• Imitation - Copying behaviour seen on Tv or social media.
• Desensitisation - the constant repeated experience of something lowers our emotional reaction.
• Learning - we are introduced to new ideas and places.

Question 19

Mass media

Answer 19

• responsible for supporting or weakening values.
• It helps promote certain values over others
• Potter suggests that media influence comes about through the process of habituation: the more people experience certain images and ideas, the more likely it is they will add them to their personal value systems.
• In relation to norms, the media have what Durkheim (1912) called ‘a boundary-marking function’ – it promotes acceptable and unacceptable forms of behaviour to strengthen perceptions of expected behaviours.
  They may try and preserve particular ways of being to bring about change in behaviour.
• The media uses its own sanctions to reinforce their message: praise, positive pictures or negative posts, public criticism etc

Question 20

Religion

Answer 20

• Religion provides important moral values.
• unnacceptability of some crimes is emphasised by world religions.
• Religious values are powerful forces for those who believe.
• religion itself can be seen as a’ design for living’ – a force that provides help and guidance to live a life as God wishes
• religious beliefs can be a source of conflict as well

Question 21

Religious values

Answer 21

• Religious values can be displayed through styles of dress, eg. Muslim hijab or something else that indicates religious values or identity.
• Many world’s religions promote patriarchy through their general organisation.
• can also promote concepts of love and care, provide a sense of shelter and safety and help bring people together.

Question 22

Religious sanctions

Answer 22

Positive sanctions - on their followers in different ways eg. Hinduism involves a belief in reincarnation based on how well you obey religious laws.

Negative sanctions – in Catholicism, excommunication is a sanction for committing suicide whilst in Islam there are punishments for breaking Shari’ah law.

Question 23

Consensus structuralism

Answer 23

• **Functionalists **focus on how order and stability is maintained through social institutions working together in harmony.
• Durkheim argues that society all work together and are dependent on one another, just as different parts of the body work together. (organic analogy).
• Parsons argues that every social system consists of 4 ‘functional sub-systems’ > political, economic, cultural, family.
• individuals fit into the structure of society on the basis of functional prerequisites.
• Functionalists see society as working for the benefit of all it’s members.

Question 24

Key Terms: Marxism

Social class

Answer 24

the divisions of society into socio-economic groups, with different levels of power and wealth.

Question 25

Key terms: Marxism

Relations of production

Answer 25

the relationship between the people involved in production, such as the owners and the workers.

Question 26

Key terms: Marxism

Forces of production

Answer 26

the ways in which capital can be transformed through technology and people’s labour into goods for sale

Question 27

Key terms: Marxism

Ideology

Answer 27

a set of ideas and ideals which explains how society works or should work.

Question 28

Key terms: Marxism

Capitalism

Answer 28

an economic system based on the private ownership of property and the pursuit of profit.

Question 29

Conflict Structrialism

Answer 29

Marxism is the leading conflict structuralist approach and sees that is an economic terms with different social classess fighting each other.
**2 classes: **
1. The bourgeoisie
2. The proletariat

Question 30

Conflict

Answer 30

• Workplace key area of conflict because of it’s organisational structure.
• production owned by the bourgeoisie
• proletariat own nothing
• the bourgeoisie become rich by profits

Question 31

Historical materialism

Answer 31

• For Marxists work is the most important activity in society
• Marxists refer to a relationship between the ‘base’ and the ‘superstructure’ - this is the relationship between the economic base on which society is based and the other institutions that rest on the base.