Topic 3- Socialisaiton Process And The Roles Of The Agencies

Question 1

Resocialization

Answer 1

Is the learning of appropriate norms and values to enable people to operate in a new&different society (or where life circumstances change)
E.g prison(new rules: cutting hair, removing personal possessions)

Question 2

Different between nature and nurture

Significance of nurture

Answer 2

Nurture(socialisation and upbringing) rather than nature (biology) in making people fully social members of society 
Feral children (without nurture)

Question 3

Social construction

Answer 3

Means that the important characteristics of something e.g statistics are created and influenced by the attitudes, actions and interpretations of members of society

Question 4

How is identity socially constructed

Answer 4

created by the socialisation process, the individual and actions of people and isn’t something that is given by biology e.g:
-being male or female only has significance in society because people attach some importance to these characteristics and define people in terms of these categories

Question 5

What Jenkins believes about how identities are formed

Answer 5

• identities are formed in the socialisation process
• through learning their culture, through their involvement with other individuals, social groups and subcultures, people develop ideas about what makes them similar/ different from other and their identities are formed

Question 6

Primary socialisation

Answer 6

Is socialisation during the early years of childhood and is carried out by the family or close community
-when children first begin to learn their basic norms and values and acquire a sense of who they are as individuals

Question 7

Secondary socialisation

Answer 7

socialisation which takes place beyond the family and close community e.g through education system, the peer group, the workplace, the mass media and religious institutions

Question 8

Secondary socialisation:

1. The education system

Answer 8

• children learn a great deal of knowledge about society in which they live
• values and norms to which they will be expected to conform to as adults

Question 9

Secondary socialisation:

2. The peer group

Answer 9

• The desire for approval and acceptance by peers is a powerful socialising influence,
• peer group pressure to conform and the fear of rejection by peers>conformity to wider norms of society

Question 10

Secondary socialisation:

3. The workplace

Answer 10

Learning about&conforming to the social rules governing work,e.g getting there on time
-workplace= important source of the individual and social identities of adults as what people do for a living affects people’s views of themselves&the kind of lives they lead outside of work

Question 11

Secondary socialisation:

4. The mass media

Answer 11

-major source of information,ideas, norms and values as well as spreading images of e.g fashion, music, role models and lifestyle that can influence peoples values and behaviour

Question 12

Secondary socialisation:

5. Religious institutions

Answer 12

Spread beliefs which influence people’s ideas about right and wrong behaviour, important values&norms> affect peoples behaviour

Question 13

Socialisation

Answer 13

Is the process of learning norms and values

Question 14

Functionalist view on socialisation e.g Durkheim and Parsons

Answer 14

• See learning culture through socialisation as a benevolent process-individuals are integrated into the societies to which they belong
• socialization acts as a social glue, with shared values& norm
• a value consensus bonding people together and enabling them to live in relative harmony

Question 15

Marxists view on socialisation

Answer 15

• Marxists there is no value consensus, but instead that people are socialised into the beliefs and values of the dominant social class in society (dominant ideology)
• socialisation process is seen as a form of social control

Question 16

Feminist view of socialisation

Answer 16

• socialization can often reinforce & reproduce patriarchy (dominance of men over women)
• recognise that it is culture and socialization that forms the integrating link between an individual and society

Question 17

Criticisms of structural approaches

-garfinkel

Answer 17

• individuals are seen as puppets (cultural dopes) passively consuming & accepting norms & values, with little input from the individual.
• structural approaches don’t recognise that individuals have free will& can make choices, challenge and disobey social rules &have a role in forming their own identity

Question 18

Social action approaches/interpretivists and interactionalist theories

Answer 18

• focus more on the individual and everyday behaviour rather than the overall structure of society
• identity is something individuals can create
• norms, values and roles are not orders but guidelines
• individuals and identity are produced by interaction between individuals&the culture &society to which they belong

Question 19

‘The looking glass self’ Cooley

Answer 19

• idea that our image of ourselves is reflected back to us in the views of others
• people may modify or change their views of themselves due to other peoples reaction
• > may modify our behaviour and try change people’s views on ourselves

Question 20

Goffman: the presentation of self and impression management

Answer 20

• society like a stage, with people acting out performances like actors do in a play
• good actors are able to persuade audiences or viewers that they really are the characters they are playing>in society people try to project particular impressions of themselves (presentation of self)
• impression management: the way individuals try to convince others of the identities they wish to assert by giving particular impressions of themselves to people

Question 21

Symbols of identity which reveal how we see ourselves, and act as signs or signals to others of the type of person we’d like them to see us as
Symbols and signs include things like

Answer 21

• the way people speak and the words they use
• styles of clothing and jewellery e.g designer labels
• body adornment e.gbody piercing, tattoos&hairsty
• choice of leisure activities
• choice in consumer goods
• choices in media& technology e.g magazines

Question 22

What bourdie believes about the symbols and signs

Answer 22

-these are symbols of taste, lifestyle and identity through which we try to present a particular impression to others, and which become the basis for the social judgment of others

Question 23

Goffmans view on the way symbols act as signs o signals to take hers of the type of person we’d like them to see us

(Front and badkstage)

Answer 23

• everyone is engaged in this process of manipulating others&being manipulated by them to give the best possible impression of themselves
• goffman compares the performance of individuals to the front and back regions of theatre
• front stage: people aim to give particular impressions to audience
• backstage: where actors stop performing&are themselves e.g when individuals are at home into the privacy of their bedroom can stop performing

Question 24

Why their impression management doesn’t always succeed

Answer 24

• mainly with stigmatised identities e.g someone in a wheelchair may not wish to give the impression that they are primarily a disabled person, but rather a muslim, a woman but other people may continue to define them in terms of their impairment
• people’s failure to establish their chosen identity through such Impression management then spoils their preferred identity

Question 25

Criticisms of social action approaches (e.g meed, Bourdieu, Goffman)

Answer 25

• that individuals are seen as having too much control over their identity formation, and not enough emphasis is given to the importance of:
  
  • power inequalities in society
  • the role of social institutions in limiting and controlling the identity that individuals can adopt

Question 26

Third way structuration (Giddens)

Answer 26

• argues that there is a middle way between these structure and action approaches(structuation)
• agrees that social structures limit how we act& form identities in the first place(also sees that they make it possible to form identities)

Question 27

The reflexive self

Answer 27

idea that an individuals identity is formed and develops through a process of reflecting on, or thinking about, her or his identity in interaction with other individuals and the agencies of socialization

Question 28

Clarke and Saunders views

Postmodernists views

Answer 28

• Suggest that social class is declining today as a source of identity as classes become fragmented into a range of differs groups e.g gender, religion ethnicity and consumer lifestyle
• identities have become more changeable and people can now pick n mix and chop and change any identities. Consumer culture has replaced class culture as the major influence on people’s identity

Question 29

Why it is now not true that people can choose any identity they may desire and is now formed around peoples choices in leisure

Answer 29

-those who assume this don’t take adequate account that these are not free choices but are influenced by income. Things such as exotic holidays, swimming with dolphins are not lifestyle options available to everyone but require income

Question 30

How is social class still important

Answer 30

• still the major influence on lifestyle, standard of living, their chances of educational success, their health and life expectancy, their home ownership, their risks of unemployment and poverty
• people may be able to not express their identities in traditional terms of social class but believing there is no influence of social class on identity formation is false