Topic 3- Socialisaiton Process And The Roles Of The Agencies Flashcards
Resocialization
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)
Different between nature and nurture
Significance of nurture
Nurture(socialisation and upbringing) rather than nature (biology) in making people fully social members of society Feral children (without nurture)
Social construction
Means that the important characteristics of something e.g statistics are created and influenced by the attitudes, actions and interpretations of members of society
How is identity socially constructed
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
What Jenkins believes about how identities are formed
- 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
Primary socialisation
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
Secondary socialisation
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
Secondary socialisation:
1. The education system
- 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
Secondary socialisation:
2. The peer group
- 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
Secondary socialisation:
3. The workplace
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
Secondary socialisation:
4. The mass media
-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
Secondary socialisation:
5. Religious institutions
Spread beliefs which influence people’s ideas about right and wrong behaviour, important values&norms> affect peoples behaviour
Socialisation
Is the process of learning norms and values
Functionalist view on socialisation e.g Durkheim and Parsons
- 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
Marxists view on socialisation
- 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
Feminist view of socialisation
- 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
Criticisms of structural approaches
-garfinkel
- 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
Social action approaches/interpretivists and interactionalist theories
- 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
‘The looking glass self’ Cooley
- 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
Goffman: the presentation of self and impression management
- 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
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
- 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
What bourdie believes about the symbols and signs
-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
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)
- 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
Why their impression management doesn’t always succeed
- 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
