Socio-Cult: Enculturation

Question 1

What’s enculturation

Answer 1

Enculturation is the process of how we adopt the behaviors that are the norm for our culture. It is how we attain our cultural values and understand the norms of our culture.

Enculturation through gender roles helps to demonstrate the rigidness of gender stereotypes held by children because the constant observation of what is portrayed in the media, social interactions, and other experiences develops a child’s sense of the world.

Question 2

RESEARCHER & AIM

Answer 2

Fagot 1978: investigate the role parents play in gender-role development.

Question 3

PROCEDURE

Answer 3

24 families participated (12 with a boy and 12 with a girl.
Observers used a checklist of 46 child behaviors and 19 reactions by the parents. Five 60-minute observations were completed for each family over 5 weeks.
The observer took note of each child’s behavior every 60 seconds and the parent’s response.
After the observations, each parent was asked to rate the 46 behaviors as more appropriate for girls, boys, or neutral.

Question 4

RESULTS

Answer 4

parents gave more positive feedback when children played with “same-sex” toys.

Heavy motor activities were highly criticized by parents for girls. Fathers were more concerned with appropriate “sex-typing” than mothers, both parents found more behaviors appropriate for girls only than for boys. Moreover, on the questionnaire, the parents did not see asking for help as a “sex-preferred” behavior, but their actions showed otherwise, suggesting that parents are not fully aware of the methods they use to socialize with their children (done unconsciously).

Question 5

CONCLUSION

Answer 5

The study shows how behaviors can be adopted from our cultural norms with the help of parents, even though they might not be fully aware of what they are doing. The study also demonstrates that there are distinct stereotypical behaviors for boys and girls. Girls are stereotyped to play with dolls and be more “proper”, and vice versa for boys. The study also showed how boys were expected to be more independent, which generates trouble for men with opening up and asking for help.