The Social Construction Of Culture

Question 1

What is culture?

Answer 1

Culture is a term used to describe the way of life of a group of people. It refers to how they are expected to behave, what they tend to believe, and how they think. All individuals are part of a culture; they may even belong to more than one culture

Question 2

Why do modern sociologists tend to be more interested in culture than society?

Answer 2

Culture differs from society. Culture refers to the beliefs, traditions and ideas that people share. The people who share these ideas come together to form a society, thus making culture a broader term than society. Modern sociologists are therefore more interested in culture than society as they feel it is culture that creates society.

Question 3

What is material culture?

Answer 3

Material culture refers to the physical things that people create and attach meaning to. They are often not just objects but symbols of something important

Question 4

What are some examples of material culture?

Answer 4

Clothing, houses, cars, food.
- The wearing of certain items of clothing to a football match means more to some fans than protecting their body from cold

Question 5

What is non-material culture and why is it important?

Answer 5

Refers to the ideas that people share, for example their rules, traditions, languages and history.
- Non-material culture is important because it helps people understand the world around them and provides them with guidelines on how to behave

Question 6

What is a social construction?

Answer 6

A social construction is any idea that is created and given special meaning by people

Question 7

Why is culture a social construction?

Answer 7

Culture is a social construction because it varies from social group to social group. Cultures can vary quite significantly in what they see as normal and what they believe to be the correct way to act

Question 8

What are collectivist cultures? Give examples

Answer 8

Cultures which tend to emphasise belonging to the group as more important than personal freedom
- China and Japan are typically seen as collectivist cultures

Question 9

What are individualist cultures? Give examples

Answer 9

Cultures which tend to emphasise individual freedom and personal gain, sometimes at the expense of others
- European and North American cultures tend to be individualistic

Question 10

What are twelve aspects of culture?

Answer 10

• Ideas
• Beliefs
• Food traditions
• Clothing
• Government
• Education
• Language
• Religion
• Art
• Music
• Shared history
• Laws

Question 11

What is meant by cultural diversity?

Answer 11

Cultural diversity is a term used to describe the differences in behaviour between cultures and how cultures change over time.
Cultures can be very diverse and things that seem normal in one culture may be deemed unacceptable in another. This is known as cultural diversity.

Question 12

What is a deviant?

Answer 12

Someone who breaks social rules

Question 13

What is a subculture?

Answer 13

When entire social groups behave differently from most people

Question 14

What is social control?

Answer 14

Social control refers to the idea that people’s behaviours and thoughts are regulated by society. Within social control there are written and unwritten rules that we follow.

Question 15

What is formal control?

Answer 15

The deliberate training of people to follow rules. It is typically enforced by institutions which force people to behave, such as the legal system and police. If these rules are broken, people can expect formal sanctions, e.g. prison sentence or fines

Question 16

What is informal control?

Answer 16

The control of people through the internalisation of moral codes. It consists of people following unwritten rules such as norms, morals and values. People typically are influenced by informal control through the family, education, and peer groups

Question 17

What did Functionalist writer Travis Hirschi point out about social control?

Answer 17

Pointed out that breaking rules can give people considerable advantage in life, but despite this, most people do not commit serious crime. He believed that criminals and deviants lacked proper socialisation.

Question 18

What are norms?

Answer 18

The expected behaviours for a culture. A norm in one culture may not be normal in another

Question 19

What are mores?

Answer 19

Ways of behaving that are seen as good, or moral

Question 20

What are values?

Answer 20

Linked to the concept of non-material culture, values are the basic rules shared by most people in a culture. They reflect what people feel should happen in society

Question 21

What is an example of a value?

Answer 21

People feel that they should have the right to say what they feel about a government, thus freedom of speech is a value

Question 22

What are beliefs?

Answer 22

Beliefs are generally individual to the person, but they may influence how we act. People often take their beliefs from their culture or religion

Question 23

What are roles?

Answer 23

The expected behaviour for any situation that we may find ourselves in. They are very influential in controlling our behaviour as we don’t question roles very often

Question 24

What is status?

Answer 24

A person’s standing or position in society. It is based on respect. (Eg doctors and the freedom they are granted to do things we would not allow others to do)

Question 25

What is social change?

Answer 25

Any differences in the way that people generally think or act

Question 26

How do functionalists and Marxists view social change?

Answer 26

Functionalists view social change as a problem, while Marxists believe it to be a normal state of affairs for society

Question 27

What is cultural diversity?

Answer 27

Cultural diversity is a term used to describe differences in behaviour between cultures. This is more complex than simply comparing cultures, though anthropologists have done this and shown how infinitely complex and different human cultures are.

Question 28

Explain nativism

Answer 28

Nativists take an extreme position with regards to genetics. They argue that the social characteristics of people have arisen through evolution

Question 29

Give examples of challenging political opinions nativism can lead to.

Answer 29

Women are hard-wired to domestic labour and child-rearing while men are sexually aggressive
- Such arguements have been used to justify both the oppression of women and extreme racist opinions

Question 30

What is the position of nature theories?

Answer 30

Originating alongside theories of evolution, the position is that people are governed by instincts

Question 31

What are instincts?

Answer 31

Fixed patterns of behaviour that are inherited and influence human actions

Question 32

Evaluate nature theories in relation to intelligence passed between parents and children?

Answer 32

There is evidence drawn from psychologists which seems to suggest that certain characteristics such as intelligence are highly inheritable from parents to children
- However, the evidence is not so strong when one considers that intelligent parents may also have brought up their children in a way that reflects their intelligence

Question 33

What are biological imperatives?

Answer 33

The certain things all animals do to survive and reproduce

Question 34

What are examples of biological imperatives for humans?

Answer 34

Eating and sleeping

Question 35

What do nature theories suggest about biological imperatives?

Answer 35

Humans are ruled by biological imperatives and therefore do not have free will, meaning they have no choice in their actions

Question 36

What is nurture theory?

Answer 36

The view that society and culture override human genetics and instincts. It is argued that social expectations lead to humans controlling their actions

Question 37

Why does sociology tend to support nurture theory?

Answer 37

Sociologists tend to argue that cultural imperatives override biology and that humans must learn their culture from others, through a process known as socialisation. Therefore, sociology tends to support nurture theory

Question 38

Where does one of the strongest arguments in favour of nurture theory come from?

Answer 38

The study of feral children

Question 39

Why does the study of feral children support nurture theory?

Answer 39

Nature theories suggest that many of the children in the case studies should act in a human fashion as behaviour is instinctive.
- The reality is that many of these children are seriously damaged and do not behave according to the cultural norms for their society

Question 40

Explain the case of Gene Wiley

Answer 40

• 13 years old when she was discovered in the 1970s
• Her father kept her isolated from others for her whole life. He often tied her up to prevent her from moving about
• As well as being malnourished when she was found by child protection officers, she had failed to develop the language and social skills expected of a teenager, providing evidence of the importance of nurture

Question 41

Explain the case of Oxana Malaya

Answer 41

• When she was three years old, her alcoholic parents left her outside one night, so she crawled into a hovel where they kept dogs
• Her behaviours have now developed to reflect those of a dog
• It is possible that in some cases, an animal may have ‘raised’ the child as its own. However, there is no real evidence of this. In Oxana’s case, it is more likely that she copied the dog’s behaviour in order to survive