Exploring Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Key Words, Phrases and General Revision

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  • Created by: emillee
  • Created on: 05-04-12 12:07

Key Words + Defintions

Norms: 
- Actions or Behaviours expected in a culture/society.
- Social Expectations: detailed guides to behaviour.

Values:
- Beliefs: what the right thing to do is.
- General standards or ethical principles which are highly prized.

Status:
Ascribed: Social position which we have no choice in being..e.g. Sisters - you are placed without doing anything.
Achieved: Social position which individuals have some control..e.g. working your way up in a company.

Identity:
- Groups we feel part of and groups we don't feel part of.

Role:
- A set of expectations that is applied to a particular 'Social Status'.

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Types of Cultures

Culture:
- The values, norms, beliefs and customs of a society or group; its whole way of life.

High Culture:
- Often used to describe artistic tastes of Upper Classes..e.g. Opera and Ballet.

Subculture:
- Groups who share many aspects of Mainstream culture, but who also have certain beliefs, attitudes and ways of behaving of their own.
- A culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.

Consumer Culture:
- The expression of culture through items bought by individuals in society - e.g. types of clothes, cars etc.

Global Culture:
values, norms, and lifestyles shared in every country - e.g. McDonalds is a global culture. 

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Culture continued

Cultural Diversity:
- The variety of human societies or cultures in a specific country or region - and in the world.
- Different countries have different cultures.
- Members of Society have distinct ways of life while still broadly serving the dominant culture within a society.

Multiculturalism:
- Different ethnic groups living side-by-side in Society. The UK is a multicultural society.

Hybrid Culture:
- A coming together of cultures, styles and identities resulting in the formation of new ones..e.g. music being mixed.

Popular Culture:
- Refers to leisure activities that a lot of people can do
- Strinati argues that the media are largely responsible for pop culture..e.g. Big Brother

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Key Words + Definitions

Agents of Socialisation:
- The individuals, groups and institutions which play a part in the socialisation process. (Socialisation is the process by which we learn the culture of our society) 

Primary Socialisation:
- Children up to the age of learning norms and values from their parents. Parents have a great influence on us and we care about their judgement of us.

Secondary Socialisation:
- Socialisation that we receive in later life from a wide range of people and agencies.
- Peer groups, teachers and the media contribute to the socialisatio we receive in later life.

Formal Social Control:
- At work, management would lay down the norms about appearance, attitude and behaviour - e.g. strict dress codes.

Informal Social Control:
- Socialisation provided by our peer groups at work. They have their own norms, which aren't approved by management.

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Key Words + Definitions

Family:
- Learning from Parents: Children generally learn about social norms by imitating their parents.
- As the Child gets older their parents are seen as Role Models. 

Sanctions:
- Rewards and punishments
- Children are socialised by their parents through rewards for 'good' behaviour and punishments for 'bad' behaviour.

Role Models:
- People we use to give us ideas about how to play particular social roles.

Hegemonic masculinity:
- The dominant style of masculinity which stresses toughness, competition, hierarchy and aggression.

Gender:
- A set of cultural expectations about how males and females should behave.

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Key Words + Definitions

Sex:
- A classification of males and females according to their biological characteristics.

Sexuality:
- The Emotions, desires, attitudes and direction of our sex drive.

Class consciousness:
- Awareness of being in a particular social class.

Consumption:
- How people spend their money.

Lifestyle:
- A distinctive set of tastes, attitudes and behaviours.

Social Class:
- A group which occupies a particular social and economic position in society.

Underclass:
- The poorest and most under-privileged section of society.

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