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Feminist theory is a conflict theory that studies gender, patriarchy, and the oppression of women.
Learning Objectives
• Identify the main tenets of the feminist perspective and its research focus, distinguishing the three waves of feminist theory
Key Points
• Feminist theory has developed in three waves. The first wave focused on suffrage and political rights. The second focused on social inequality between the genders. The current, third wave emphasizes the concepts of globalization, postcolonialism, post-structuralism, and postmodernism.
• Third wave feminist theory critiques generalizations about sex and gender.
• Feminist critiques of heterosexism and is closely allied with queer theory and the work of Michel Foucault.
• Feminist theory also studies the intersections of sex, gender, sexuality, race, nationality, and economic status.
• Feminism may conflict with multiculturalism. While muticulturalism necessitates the tolerance of foreign cultural practices, some of those practices might maintain an oppression of women that feminists find essentially intolerable and unacceptable.
Key Terms
• poststructuralism: an extension of structuralism influenced by the effort to deconstruct or challenge traditional categories
• multiculturalism: A characteristic of a society that has many different ethnic or national cultures mingling freely. It can also refer to political or social policies which support or encourage such a coexistence. Important in this is the idea that cultural practices, no matter how unusual, should be tolerated as a measure of respect.
• postmodernism: any style in art, architecture, literature, philosophy, etc., that reacts against an earlier modernist movement
Feminism
The feminist perspective has much in common with the conflict perspective. However, instead of focusing broadly on the unequal distribution of power and resources, feminist sociology studies power in its relation to gender. This topic is studied both within social structures at large and at the micro level of face-to-face interaction, the latter of which incorporates the methodology of symbolic interactionism (popularized by Erving Goffman). Feminist scholars study a range of topics, including sexual orientation, race, economic status, and nationality. However, at the core of feminist sociology is the idea that, in most societies, women have been systematically oppressed and that men have been historically dominant. This is referred to as patriarchy.
Three Waves of Feminism
Feminist thought has a rich history, which is categorized into three waves. At the turn of the century, the first wave of feminism focused on official, political inequalities and fought for women’s suffrage. In the 1960s, second wave feminism, also known as the women’s liberation movement, turned its attention to a broader range of inequalities, including those in the workplace, the family, and reproductive rights. Currently, a third wave of feminism is criticizing the fact that the first two waves of feminism were dominated by white women from advanced capitalist societies. This movement emphasizes diversity and change, and focuses on concepts such as globalization, postcolonialism, poststructuralism, and postmodernism. Contemporary feminist thought tends to dismiss essentializing generalizations about sex and gender (e.g., women are naturally more nurturing) and to emphasize the importance of intersections within identity (e.g., race and gender). The feminist perspective also recognizes that women who suffer from oppression due to race, in addition to the oppression they suffer for being women, may find themselves in a double bind. The relationship between feminism and race was largely overlooked until the second wave of feminists produced literature on the topic of black feminism. This topic has received much more attention from third wave scholars and activists.
Feminism and Heterosexism
The feminist perspective also criticizes exclusive understandings of sexuality, such as heterosexism. Heterosexism is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination that favor male-female sexuality and relationships. At one point, heterosexual marriage was the only lawful union between two people that was recognized and given full benefits in the United States. This situated homosexual couples at a disadvantage, and made them ineligible for many of the government or employer-provided benefits afforded heterosexual married couples. However, heterosexism can extend far beyond government validation, as it describes a set of paradigms and institutionalized beliefs that systematically disadvantage anyone who does not fit into a normative mold. Like racism, heterosexism can operate on an institutional level (e.g., through government) and at an individual level (i.e., in face-to-face interactions). Feminist critiques of heterosexism thus align with queer theory and the ideas of Michel Foucault, who studied the relationship between power and sexuality.
Feminism and Multiculturalism
Though the feminist perspective focuses on diversity and liberation, it has been accused of being incompatible with multiculturalist policy. Multiculturalism aims to allow distinct cultures to reside together, either as distinct enclaves within ostensively Western societies, or as separate societies with national borders. One possible consequence of multiculturalism is that certain religious or traditional practices, that might disadvantage or oppress women, might be tolerated on the grounds of cultural sensitivity. From the Feminist perspective, such practices are objectionable to human rights and ought to be criminalized on those grounds. However, from a multiculturalist perspective, such traditions must be respected even if they seem to directly violate ideas about freedom or liberty. Controversies about this have arisen with both arranged marriages and female genital mutilation. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/01%3A_Sociology/1.03%3A_Theoretical_Perspectives_in_Sociology/1.3E%3A_The_Feminist_Perspective.txt |
Sociologists use both theory and practice to understand what is going on in the social world and how it happens.
Learning Objectives
• Recognize the relationship between theory and practice in sociological research
Key Points
• There is a reciprocal relationship between theory and practice in sociology.
• In practice, sociologists use an empirical approach that seeks to understand what is going on in the social world and how it happens.
• Practice, or empirical analysis, cannot stand on its own without underlying theoretical questions (the why) that guide the research.
• A theory is a proposed relationship between two or more observed phenomena.
• Grounded theory is an inductive research method that involves working upward from the data to generate a theory. Grounded theory is hinged upon the relationship between practice and theory.
• Starting from theory runs the risk of interpreting data strictly according the the perspective of that theory, which can create false results.
• Starting from theory runs the risk of interpreting data strictly according the the perspective of that theory.
• Grounded theory is an inductive research method that involves working from the data upward to generate a theory.
Key Terms
• theory: A coherent statement or set of ideas that explains observed facts or phenomena, or which sets out the laws and principles of something known or observed; a hypothesis confirmed by observation, experiment, etc.
• scientific method: A method of discovering knowledge about the natural world based in making falsifiable predictions (hypotheses), testing them empirically, and developing peer-reviewed theories that best explain the known data.
• practice: Actual operation or experiment, in contrast to theory.
There is a reciprocal relationship between theory and practice in sociology. In practice, sociologists use an empirical approach that seeks to understand what is going on in the social world and how it happens. These practices, however, cannot stand on their own without underlying theoretical questions (the why) that guide the research. Without theory, interesting data may be gathered without any way to explain the relationships between different observed phenomena. Sociologists go back and forth between theory and practice as advances in one require modification of the other.
Theory and Practice Explained
Practice refers to the actual observation, operation, or experiment. Practice is the observation of disparate concepts (or a phenomenon) that needs explanation. A theory is a proposed explanation of the relationship between two or more concepts, or an explanation for how/why a phenomenon occurs.
Grounded Theory Method
Sociologists often work from an already existing theory, and seek to test that theory in new situations. In these cases, theory influencesthe practice of empirical research – it shapes what kinds of data will be gathered and how this data will be interpreted. This data may confirm the theory, lead to modifications of it, or disprove the theory altogether in that particular context. These changes to the theory then lead to further research.
When working from theory, sociological observation runs the risk of being directed by that theory. For example, if one is working from the perspective of a Marxist conflict theory, one might tend to interpret everything as a manifestation of bourgeoisie domination, from the patterns of seating at a school cafeteria to presidential election results.
A response to this problem was developed by two sociologists, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, called grounded theory method; it is a systematic methodology in the social sciences involving the discovery of theory through the analysis of data. Grounded theory method is mainly used in qualitative research, but is also applicable to quantitative data.
Grounded theory method operates almost in a reverse fashion from traditional research, and at first sight may appear to be in contradiction to the scientific method. Rather than beginning with a hypothesis, the first step is data collection through a variety of methods. Using the collected data, the key points are marked with a series of codes, which are extracted from the text. The codes are grouped into similar concepts in order to make them more workable. From these concepts, categories are formed, which are the basis for the creation of a theory, or a reverse engineered hypothesis. This contradicts the traditional model of research, where the researcher chooses a theoretical framework and only then applies this model to the phenomenon to be studied.
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Contemporary sociology does not have a single overarching foundation—it has varying methods, both qualitative and quantitative.
Learning Objectives
• Describe how the discipline of sociology has expanded since its foundation
Key Points
• The traditional focuses of sociology have included social stratification, social class, culture, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, and deviance.
• Sociology has gradually expanded its focus to include more diverse subjects such as health, medical, penal institutions, the Internet, or the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge.
• The linguistic and cultural turns of the mid-twentieth century led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, and philosophic approaches to the analysis of society.
Key Terms
• secularization: The transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious (or “irreligious”) values and secular institutions.
• hermeneutic: Something that explains, interprets, illustrates or elucidates.
• paradigm: A system of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality.
Although sociology emerged from Comte’s vision of a discipline that would subsume all other areas of scientific inquiry, that was the future of sociology. Far from replacing the other sciences, contemporary sociology has taken its place as a particular perspective for investigating human social life.
The traditional focuses of sociology have included social stratification, social class, culture, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, and deviance. As all spheres of human activity are affected by the interplay between social structure and individual agency, sociology has gradually expanded to focus on more diverse subjects such as health, medical, military and penal institutions, the Internet, and the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge.
The range of social scientific methodology has also expanded. Social researchers draw upon a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The linguistic and cultural turns of the mid-twentieth century led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, and philosophic approaches to the analysis of society. Conversely, recent decades have seen the rise of new analytically, mathematically, and computationally rigorous techniques such as agent-based modelling and social network analysis.
Presently, sociological theories lack a single overarching foundation, and there is little consensus about what such a framework should consist of. However, a number of broad paradigms cover much modern sociological theorizing. In the humanistic parts of the discipline, these paradigms are referred to as social theory, often shared with the humanities. The discipline’s dominant scientifically-oriented areas generally focus on a different set of theoretical perspectives, generally referred to as sociological theory. These include new institutionalism, social networks, social identity, social and cultural capital, toolkit and cognitive theories of culture, and resource mobilization. Analytical sociology is an ongoing effort to systematize many of these middle-range theories.
1.4B: Levels of Analysis- Micro and Macro
Sociological study may be conducted at both macro (large-scale social processes) and micro (small group, face-to-face interactions) levels.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze how symbolic interactionism plays a role in both macro and micro sociology
Key Points
• Macro-level sociology looks at large-scale social processes, such as social stability and change.
• Micro-level sociology looks at small-scale interactions between individuals, such as conversation or group dynamics.
• Micro- and macro-level studies each have their own benefits and drawbacks.
• Macrosociology allows observation of large-scale patterns and trends, but runs the risk of seeing these trends as abstract entities that exist outside of the individuals who enact them on the ground.
• Microsociology allows for this on-the-ground analysis, but can fail to consider the larger forces that influence individual behavior.
Key Terms
• microsociology: Microsociology involves the study of people in face-to-face interactions.
• symbolic interactionism: Symbolic interactionism is the study of the patterns of communication, interpretation, and adjustment between individuals.
• macrosociology: Macrosociology involves the study of widespread social processes.
Sociological approaches are differentiated by the level of analysis. Macrosociology involves the study of widespread social processes. Microsociology involves the study of people at a more interpersonal level, as in face-to-face interactions.
Macro and Micro Perspectives in Sociology: Just as scientists may study the natural world using different levels of analysis (e.g., physical, chemical, or biological), sociologists study the social world using different levels of analysis.
The macro-level study of widespread social processes has been the more dominant approach, and has been practiced since sociology’s origins in the founding work of figures like Emile Durkheim. Durkheim, for example, studied the large-scale shift from homogenous traditional societies to industrialized societies, where each individual played a highly specialized role. The tendency toward macrosociology is evident in the kinds of questions that early sociologists asked: What holds societies together? How are norms (and deviance) established and handled by societies? What factors lead to social change, and what are the results of this change? Macrosociologists focus on society as a whole, as something that is prior to, and greater than, the sum of individual people.
Studying social life on the micro-level is a more recent development (in the early and mid-twentieth century) in the history of the field, and was pioneered by proponents of the symbolic interactionism perspective, namely George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer, and Erving Goffmann. Mead was a pragmatist and behaviorist, which means several things.
1. To pragmatists, true reality does not exist “out there” in the real world. It “is actively created as we act in and toward the world. “
2. People remember and base their knowledge of the world on what has been useful to them, and are likely to alter what no longer “works. “
3. People define the social and physical “objects” they encounter in the world according to their use for them.
4. If we want to understand actors, we must base that understanding on what people actually do.
Blumer built on Mead’s work. He believed that individuals create their own social reality through collective and individual action, and that the creation of social reality is a continuous process. Goffman elaborated on both Mead and Blumer by formulating the dramaturgical approach. He saw a connection between the acts people put on in their daily life and theatrical performances. In social interaction, like in theatrical performance, there is a front region where the “actors” (individuals) are on stage in front of the audience. This is where the positive aspect of the idea of self and desired impressions is highlighted. There is a back region, or stage, that can also be considered a hidden or private place where individuals can be themselves and step out of their role or identity in society. Face-to-face interactions are, thus, a stage where people perform roles and practice impression management (i.e. “saving face”). Other scholars have since developed new research questions and methods for studying micro-level social processes.
Micro- and macro-level studies each have their own benefits and drawbacks. Macrosociology allows observation of large-scale patterns and trends, but runs the risk of seeing these trends as abstract entities that exist outside of the individuals who enact them on the ground. Microsociology allows for this on-the-ground analysis, but can fail to consider the larger forces that influence individual behavior. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/01%3A_Sociology/1.04%3A_The_Sociological_Approach/1.4A%3A_Sociology_Today.txt |
Applied or clinical sociology uses sociological insights or methods to guide practice, research, or social reform.
Learning Objectives
• Identify ways sociology is applied in the real world
Key Points
• Sociological research can be divided into pure research and applied research. Pure research has no motive other than to further sociological knowledge, while applied research has a direct practical end.
• Applied research may be put into the service of the corporate world, governmental and international agencies, NGOs, or clinical work. In all these instances, they apply sociological theories and methods to further the goals of the organization they are working under.
• One budding area in modern retail firms is site selection, or the determination of the best locations for new stores. Site selection requires understanding human ecology and consumer spending patterns, both of which are addressed using the sociological imagination.
• Clinical sociology involves the study of groups of people using learned information in case and care management towards holistic life enrichment or improvement of social and life conditions. Clinical sociologists usually focus on vulnerable population groups, such as children, youths or elderly.
Key Terms
• clinical sociology: Clinical sociology courses give students the skills to be able to work effectively with clients, teach basic counseling skills, give knowledge that is useful for careers, such as victims assisting and drug rehabilitation, and teach the student how to integrate sociological knowledge with other fields. They may go into such areas as marriage and family therapy, and clinical social work.
• Sociotherapist: A sociotherapist practices sociotherapy, which is a social science and form of social work and sociology that involves the study of groups of people, its constituent individuals and their behavior, using learned information in case and care management towards holistic life enrichment or improvement of social and life conditions.
• Site Selection: Site selection indicates the practice of new facility location, both for business and government. Site selection involves measuring the needs of a new project against the merits of potential locations.
Researchers often differentiate between “pure” and “applied” research. Presumably, pure research has no direct ends than adding to the knowledge pool, whereas applied research is put toward some practical end, such as working for a marketing firm to understand the relationship between race and consumption patterns or working for a government agency to study the reasons why poverty continues to exist. Of course, the line between pure and applied research is often blurred. For example, “pure” researchers in a university might get government funding to do their research projects, which somewhat complicates their commitment to do pure research. Outside the academic world, sociologists apply their skills in a variety of settings. Here, we will discuss the possibilities of applied sociology and one subfield, clinical sociology.
Sociologists can be found working in a wide range of fields, including organizational planning, development, and training; human resource management; industrial relations; marketing; public relations; organizational research; and international business.In all these instances, they apply sociological theories and methods toward understanding social relations and human behavior to further the goals of the organization they are working under, whether this is a business, a governmental agency, or a non-profit organization.
The Corporate World
Some sociologists find that adapting their sociological training and insights to the business world is relatively easy. Corporations want and need to understand their customers’ habits and preferences in order to anticipate changes in their markets. This drive to understand consumers is called consumer research and is a growing interest of corporations. Sociologists are particularly well suited to apply their quantitative and qualitative understanding of human behavior to this field.
Another budding area in modern retail firms is site selection, or the determination of the best locations for new stores. Site selection requires understanding human ecology and consumer spending patterns, both of which are addressed using the sociological imagination. Some additional direct applications of sociology include concept and product testing (which will put to good use training in research methods), the evaluating of global market opportunities (which will draw upon understandings of various cultures), long-range planning and forecasting (which draws on both statistics and futurist perspectives), marketing and advertising (which applies consumer studies directly), and human resource management (which relies on studies of organizational behavior).
Governmental and International Agencies
Outside of the corporate world, sociology is often applied in governmental and international agencies such as the World Bank or United Nations. For example, a sociologist might work compiling and analyzing quantitative demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau to understand patterns of population change. Or a sociologist might work for the United Nations to research global health trends and the efficacy of current public health initiatives.
Non-Governmental Organizations
Non-Governmental Organizations (or NGOs) are legally constituted organizations created by private persons or organizations with no participation or representation of any government. Examples of NGOs include Oxfam, Catholic Relief Services, CARE International, and Lutheran World Relief. Many NGOs are concerned with the very social problems and social issues that sociologists study, from poverty to gender stratification to world population growth. Sociologists play important roles in the work of NGO’s from community organizing to direct relief to lobbying, as they are able to apply sociological approaches (for example, the conflict approach) to understand structural patterns that have led to current social problems.
Clinical Sociology
Clinical sociology involves the study of groups of people using learned information in case and care management towards holistic life enrichment or improvement of social and life conditions. A clinical sociologist, who might also be called a sociotherapist or life enrichment therapist, is usually concurrently a member of another relevant profession: medical doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, nurse, social worker, criminologist, or activity and recreational professionals, among others. Clinical sociologists usually focus on vulnerable population groups, such as children, youths or elderly, and are employed in various settings such as treatment facilities or life care communities like nursing homes. They are directly involved in case management and care planning. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/01%3A_Sociology/1.04%3A_The_Sociological_Approach/1.4C%3A_Applied_and_Clinical_Sociology.txt |
Sociologists study many types of inequality, including economic inequality, racial/ethnic inequality, and gender inequality.
Learning Objectives
• Describe different types of social inequality
Key Points
• People experience inequality throughout the life course, beginning in early childhood.
• Inequality early in life can affect life chances for the rest of one’s life.
• Inequality means people have unequal access to scarce and valued resources in society. These resources might be economic or political, such as health care, education, jobs, property and land ownership, housing, and ability to influence government policy.
Key Terms
• inequality: An unfair, not equal, state.
• social stratification: The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.
When we are growing up, we might hear our parents talk about others as being from the “wrong side of the tracks,” or not being “our kind. ” We also become aware of what kind of toys they have (or don’t have), the way others dress, what kind of house they live in, what jobs their parents have, and due to this, some are treated differently and have better opportunities than others. We see differences in elementary schools and high schools in our city. If our parents belong to the upper class, we have a good chance of graduating high school and entering higher education. The more education we have, the more active we will be in political life, the more traditional and conservative our religious affiliation, the more likely we will marry into a family with both economic and social capital, and the more likely we will eat better food, will be less exposed to unhygienic conditions, and be able to pay for good health care. Social stratification and inequality are everywhere and impact us throughout our lives.
Sociology has a long history of studying stratification and teaching about various kinds of inequality, including economic inequality, racial/ethnic inequality, gender inequality, and other types of inequality. Inequality means people have unequal access to scarce and valued resources in society. These resources might be economic or political, such as health care, education, jobs, property and land ownership, housing, and ability to influence government policy.
Statistics on United States and global inequality are alarming. Consider this:
• Just 400 Americans have the same wealth as half of all Americans combined.
• Just 25 Americans have a combined income almost as great as the combined income of 2 billion of the world’s poor.
• In 2007, more than 37 million U.S. citizens, or 12.5% of the population, were classified as poor by the Census Bureau.
• In 2007, CEOs in the Fortune 500 received an average of \$10.5 million, 344 times the pay of the average worker.
• Four of the wealthiest people in the world come from one family, the Walton’s. They are the four children who inherited Sam Walton’s company Wal-Mart. Together, they are worth \$83.6 billion.
• Half of American children will reside in a household that uses food stamps at some point during childhood.
• Life expectancy in Harlem is shorter than in Bangladesh.
Although inequality is everywhere, there are many controversies and questions about inequality that sociologists are interested in, such as where did inequality come from? Why does it continue? Do we justify inequality? Can we eliminate inequality? Can we make a society in which people are equal? The sociological approach gives us the methodological and theoretical tools to begin to answer these questions. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/01%3A_Sociology/1.04%3A_The_Sociological_Approach/1.4D%3A_The_Significance_of_Social_Inequality.txt |
Increasingly, sociologists are turning their attention to the world at large and developing theories of global processes.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss different sociological approaches to the study of global processes
Key Points
• World systems theory refers to the international division of labor among core countries, semi-periphery countries, and periphery countries and argues that inequality among countries comes not from inherent differences but from relationships of domination.
• Sociologists also study the globalization of norms and culture through dynamics such as world society.
• Sociologists may also study globalization from below, or grassroots mobilization, including glocalization and hybridization.
• Sociologists may also study globalization from below, or grassroots mobilization, including glocalization and hybridization.
Key Terms
• international division of labor: The international division of labor is an outcome of globalization. It is the spatial division of labor which occurs when the process of production is no longer confined to national economies.
• glocalization: The global distribution of a product or service that is tailored to local markets.
• globalization: A common term for processes of international integration arising from increasing human connectivity and interchange of worldviews, products, ideas, and other cultural phenomena. In particular, advances in transportation and telecommunications infrastructure, including the rise of the Internet, represent major driving factors in globalization and precipitate the further interdependence of economic and cultural activities.
Thinking Globally
Historically, sociologists have tended to focus their work on individual countries, studying the social processes and structures within a single country. Some current scholars criticize that approach as “methodological nationalism” because it fails to consider the global connections and patterns that shape local and national situations. In addition, sociology has traditionally focused on Western societies, but has recently expanded its focus to non-Western societies. These shifts illustrate the fact that it is no longer possible to study social life without thinking globally. Contemporary societies have become so porous and interconnected (a process that scholars have termed globalization) that to ignore the global patterns would be to present an incomplete picture of any social situation.
World Systems Theory
Thinking globally in sociology could entail a variety of different approaches. Some scholars use world systems theory. World systems theory stresses that the world system (not nation states ) should be the basic unit of social analysis. The world-system refers to the international division of labor, which divides the world into core countries, semi-periphery countries, and the periphery countries. Core countries focus on higher-skill, capital-intensive production, and the rest of the world focuses on low-skill, labor-intensive production, and the extraction of raw materials. This constantly reinforces the dominance of the core countries. Nonetheless, the system is dynamic, and individual states can gain or lose their core (semi-periphery, periphery) status over time. For a time, some countries become the world hegemon; throughout the last few centuries, this status has passed from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom and, most recently, to the United States.
The most well-known version of the world system approach has been developed by Immanuel Wallerstein in 1970s and 1980s. Wallerstein traces the rise of the world system from the 15th century, when the European feudal economy suffered a crisis and was transformed into a capitalist one. Europe (the West) utilized its advantages and gained control over most of the world economy, presiding over the development and spread of industrialization and the capitalist economy, indirectly resulting in unequal development.
Other approaches that fall under world systems theory include dependency theory and neocolonialism. Dependency theory takes the idea of the international division of labor and states that peripheral countries are not poor because they have not adequately developed, but rather are poor because of the very nature of their relationship with core countries. This relationship is exploitative, as the resources needed by peripheral countries to develop are funneled to core countries. Poor countries are thus in a continual state of dependency to rich countries.
Neocolonialism (also known as neoimperialism) also argues that poor countries are poor not because of any inherent inadequacy. Neocolonialism emphasizes the unequal relationships between former colonizing countries and colonized regions. Domination (not just economic, but also cultural and linguistic) still continues to occur even though poor countries are no longer colonies.
Global Institutions
The top-down approach is not only used to study the global economy, but also social norms. Sociologists who are interested in global social norms focus their attention on global institutions, such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, or various other international organizations, such as human rights groups.
John Meyer, a Stanford sociologist, is one of these. Meyer coined the term “world society” (or “world polity”) to describe scripts, models, and norms for behavior that originate from global institutions and that transcend the nation state. These norms form a global civil society that operates independently of individual nations and to which individual nations often strive to conform in order to be recognized by the international community.
Globalization from Below
Another approach to studying globalization sociologically is to examine on-the-ground processes. Some sociologists study grassroots social movements, such as non-governmental organizations which mobilize on behalf of equality, justice, and human rights. Others study global patterns of consumption, migration, and travel. Still others study local responses to globalization.
Two ideas that have emerged from these studies are glocalization and hybridization. Glocalization was a term coined by a Japanese businessman in the 1980s and is a popular phrase in the transnational business world. It refers to the ability to make a global product fit a local market. Hybridization is a similar idea, emerging from the field of biology, which refers to the way that various sociocultural forms can mix and create a third form which draws from its sources, but is something entirely new.
The possibilities for thinking globally in sociology are as varied as the world we live in: global finance, global technology, global cities, global medicine, global food. The list is endless. If we examine any social situation closely, the global patterns and linkages behind it will undoubtedly emerge.
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Defining a sociological problem helps frame a question to be addressed in the research process.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how the definition of the problem relates to the research process
Key Points
• The first step of the scientific method is to ask a question, describe a problem, and identify the specific area of interest. The topic should be narrow enough to study within the context of a particular test but also broad enough to have a more general practical or theoretical merit.
• For many sociologists, the goal is to conduct research which may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, while others focus primarily on refining the theoretical understanding of social processes. Subject matter ranges from the micro level to the macro level.
• Like other sciences, sociology relies on the systematic, careful collection of measurements or counts of relevant quantities to be considered valid. Given that sociology deals with topics that are often difficult to measure, this generally involves operationalizing relevant terms.
Key Terms
• operational definition: A showing of something — such as a variable, term, or object — in terms of the specific process or set of validation tests used to determine its presence and quantity.
• operationalization: In humanities, operationalization is the process of defining a fuzzy concept so as to make the concept clearly distinguishable or measurable and to understand it in terms of empirical observations.
Defining the problem is necessarily the first step of the research process. After the problem and research question is defined, scientists generally gather information and other observations, form hypotheses, test hypotheses by collecting data in a reproducible manner, analyze and interpret that data, and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypotheses.
The first step of the scientific method is to ask a question, describe a problem, and identify the specific area of interest. The topic should be narrow enough to study within the context of a particular test but also broad enough to have a more general practical or theoretical merit. For many sociologists, the goal is to conduct research which may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, while others focus primarily on refining the theoretical understanding of social processes. Subject matter ranges from the micro level of individual agency and interaction to the macro level of systems and the social structure.
Like other sciences, sociology relies on the systematic, careful collection of measurements or counts of relevant quantities to be considered valid. Given that sociology deals with topics that are often difficult to measure, this generally involves operationalizing relevant terms. Operationalization is a process that describes or defines a concept in terms of the physical or concrete steps it takes to objectively measure it, as opposed to some more vague, inexact, or idealized definition. The operational definition thus identifies an observable condition of the concept. By operationalizing a variable of the concept, all researchers can collect data in a systematic or replicable manner.
For example, intelligence cannot be directly quantified. We cannot say, simply by observing, exactly how much more intelligent one person is than another. But we can operationalize intelligence in various ways. For instance, we might administer an IQ test, which uses specific types of questions and scoring processes to give a quantitative measure of intelligence. Or we might use years of education as a way to operationalize intelligence, assuming that a person with more years of education is also more intelligent. Of course, others might dispute the validity of these operational definitions of intelligence by arguing that IQ or years of education are not good measures of intelligence. After all, a very intelligent person may not have the means or inclination to pursue higher education, or a less intelligent person may stay in school longer because they have trouble completing graduation requirements. In most cases, the way we choose to operationalize variables can be contested; few operational definitions are perfect. But we must use the best approximation we can in order to have some sort of measurable quantity for otherwise unmeasurable variables.
Operationalizing Variables: This video discusses what it means to operationalize a variable using the example of “good health. ” | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/02%3A_Sociological_Research/2.01%3A_The_Research_Process/2.1A%3A_Defining_the_Problem.txt |
Sociological researchers review past work in their area of interest and include this “literature review” in the presentation of their research.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the purpose of literature reviews in sociological research
Key Points
• Literature reviews showcase researchers’ knowledge and understanding of the existing body of scholarship that relates to their research questions.
• A thorough literature review demonstrates the ability to research and synthesize. Furthermore, it provides a comprehensive overview of what is and is not known, and why the research in question is important to begin with.
• Literature reviews offer an explanation of how the researcher can contribute toward the existing body of scholarship by pursuing their own thesis or research question.
Key Terms
• essay: A written composition of moderate length exploring a particular issue or subject.
• Theses: A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author’s research and findings. The term thesis is also used to refer to the general claim of an essay or similar work.
• disciplinary: Of or relating to an academic field of study.
A literature review is a logical and methodical way of organizing what has been written about a topic by scholars and researchers. Literature reviews can normally be found at the beginning of many essays, research reports, or theses. In writing the literature review, the purpose is to convey what a researcher has learned through a careful reading of a set of articles, books, and other relevant forms of scholarship related to the research question. Furthermore, creating a literature review allows researchers to demonstrate the ability to find significant articles, valid studies, or seminal books that are related to their topic as well as the analytic skill to synthesize and summarize different views on a topic or issue.
A strong literature review has the following properties:
• It is organized around issues, themes, factors, or variables that are related directly to the thesis or research question.
• It demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with the body of knowledge by providing a good synthesis of what is and is not known about the subject in question, while also identifying areas of controversy and debate, or limitations in the literature sharing different perspectives.
• It indicates the theoretical framework that the researcher is working with.
• It places the formation of research questions in their historical and disciplinary context.
• It identifies the most important authors engaged in similar work.
• It offers an explanation of how the researcher can contribute toward the existing body of scholarship by pursuing their own thesis or research question.
2.1C: Formulating the Hypothesis
A hypothesis is a potential answer to your research question; the research process helps you determine if your hypothesis is true.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how hypotheses are used in sociological research and the difference between dependent and independent variables
Key Points
• Hypotheses are testable explanations of a problem, phenomenon, or observation.
• Both quantitative and qualitative research involve formulating a hypothesis to address the research problem.
• Hypotheses that suggest a causal relationship involve at least one independent variable and at least one dependent variable; in other words, one variable which is presumed to affect the other.
• An independent variable is one whose value is manipulated by the researcher or experimenter.
• A dependent variable is a variable whose values are presumed to change as a result of changes in the independent variable.
Key Terms
• dependent variable: In an equation, the variable whose value depends on one or more variables in the equation.
• independent variable: In an equation, any variable whose value is not dependent on any other in the equation.
• hypothesis: Used loosely, a tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further observation, investigation, or experimentation.
A hypothesis is an assumption or suggested explanation about how two or more variables are related. It is a crucial step in the scientific method and, therefore, a vital aspect of all scientific research. There are no definitive guidelines for the production of new hypotheses. The history of science is filled with stories of scientists claiming a flash of inspiration, or a hunch, which then motivated them to look for evidence to support or refute the idea.
While there is no single way to develop a hypothesis, a useful hypothesis will use deductive reasoning to make predictions that can be experimentally assessed. If results contradict the predictions, then the hypothesis under examination is incorrect or incomplete and must be revised or abandoned. If results confirm the predictions, then the hypothesis might be correct but is still subject to further testing.
Both quantitative and qualitative research involve formulating a hypothesis to address the research problem. A hypothesis will generally provide a causal explanation or propose some association between two variables. Variables are measurable phenomena whose values can change under different conditions. For example, if the hypothesis is a causal explanation, it will involve at least one dependent variable and one independent variable. In research, independent variables are the cause of the change. The dependent variable is the effect, or thing that is changed. In other words, the value of a dependent variable depends on the value of the independent variable. Of course, this assumes that there is an actual relationship between the two variables. If there is no relationship, then the value of the dependent variable does not depend on the value of the independent variable. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/02%3A_Sociological_Research/2.01%3A_The_Research_Process/2.1B%3A_Reviewing_the_Literature.txt |
The research design is the methodology and procedure a researcher follows to answer their sociological question.
Learning Objectives
• Compare and contrast quantitive methods and qualitative methods
Key Points
• Research design defines the study type, research question, hypotheses, variables, and data collection methods. Some examples of research designs include descriptive, correlational, and experimental. Another distinction can be made between quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Sociological research can be conducted via quantitative or qualitative methods. Quantitative methods are useful when a researcher seeks to study large-scale patterns of behavior, while qualitative methods are more effective when dealing with interactions and relationships in detail.
• Quantitative methods include experiments, surveys, and statistical analysis, among others. Qualitative methods include participant observation, interviews, and content analysis.
• An interpretive framework is one that seeks to understand the social world from the perspective of participants.
• Although sociologists often specialize in one approach, many sociologists use a complementary combination of design types and research methods in their research. Even in the same study a researcher may employ multiple methods.
Key Terms
• quantitative methods: Quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques.
• qualitative methods: Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The qualitative method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, and when. Hence, smaller but focused samples are more often needed than large samples.
• scientific method: A method of discovering knowledge about the natural world based in making falsifiable predictions (hypotheses), testing them empirically, and developing peer-reviewed theories that best explain the known data.
A research design encompasses the methodology and procedure employed to conduct scientific research. Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, identifiable features distinguish scientific inquiry from other methods of obtaining knowledge. In general, scientific researchers propose hypotheses as explanations of phenomena, and design research to test these hypotheses via predictions which can be derived from them.
The design of a study defines the study type, research question and hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, and data collection methods. There are many ways to classify research designs, but some examples include descriptive (case studies, surveys), correlational (observational study), semi-experimental (field experiment), experimental (with random assignment), review, and meta-analytic, among others. Another distinction can be made between quantitative methods and qualitative methods.
Quantitative Methods
Quantitative methods are generally useful when a researcher seeks to study large-scale patterns of behavior, while qualitative methods are often more effective when dealing with interactions and relationships in detail. Quantitative methods of sociological research approach social phenomena from the perspective that they can be measured and quantified. For instance, socio-economic status (often referred to by sociologists as SES) can be divided into different groups such as working-class, middle-class, and wealthy, and can be measured using any of a number of variables, such as income and educational attainment.
Qualitative versus Quantitative Methods: These two researchers are debating the relative merits of using qualitative or quantitative methods to study social phenomena such as the learning processes of children.
Qualitative Methods
Qualitative methods are often used to develop a deeper understanding of a particular phenomenon. They also often deliberately give up on quantity, which is necessary for statistical analysis, in order to reach a greater depth in analysis of the phenomenon being studied. While quantitative methods involve experiments, surveys, secondary data analysis, and statistical analysis, qualitatively oriented sociologists tend to employ different methods of data collection and hypothesis testing, including participant observation, interviews, focus groups, content analysis, and historical comparison.
Qualitative sociological research is often associated with an interpretive framework, which is more descriptive or narrative in its findings. In contrast to the scientific method, which follows the hypothesis-testing model in order to find generalizable results, the interpretive framework seeks to understand social worlds from the point of view of participants.
Although sociologists often specialize in one approach, many sociologists use a complementary combination of design types and research methods in their research. Even in the same study a researcher may employ multiple methods. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/02%3A_Sociological_Research/2.01%3A_The_Research_Process/2.1D%3A_Determining_the_Research_Design.txt |
Defining the sample and collecting data are key parts of all empirical research, both qualitative and quantitative.
Learning Objectives
• Describe different types of research samples
Key Points
• It is important to determine the scope of a research project when developing the question. The choice of method often depends largely on what the researcher intends to investigate. Quantitative and qualitative research projects require different subject selection techniques.
• It is important to determine the scope of a research project when developing the question. While quantitative research requires at least 30 subjects to be considered statistically significant, qualitative research generally takes a more in-depth approach to fewer subjects.
• For both qualitative and quantitative research, sampling can be used. The stages of the sampling process are defining the population of interest, specifying the sampling frame, determining the sampling method and sample size, and sampling and data collecting.
• There are various types of samples, including probability and nonprobability samples. Examples of types of samples include simple random samples, stratified samples, cluster samples, and convenience samples.
• Good data collection involves following the defined sampling process, keeping the data in order, and noting comments and non-responses. Errors and biases can result in the data. Sampling errors and biases are induced by the sample design. Non-sampling errors can also affect results.
Key Terms
• data collection: Data collection is a term used to describe a process of preparing and collecting data.
• sample: A subset of a population selected for measurement, observation or questioning, to provide statistical information about the population.
• bias: The difference between the expectation of the sample estimator and the true population value, which reduces the representativeness of the estimator by systematically distorting it.
Social scientists employ a range of methods in order to analyze a vast breadth of social phenomena. Many empirical forms of sociological research follow the scientific method. Scientific inquiry is generally intended to be as objective as possible in order to reduce the biased interpretations of results. Sampling and data collection are a key component of this process.
It is important to determine the scope of a research project when developing the question. The choice of method often depends largely on what the researcher intends to investigate. For example, a researcher concerned with drawing a statistical generalization across an entire population may administer a survey questionnaire to a representative sample population. By contrast, a researcher who seeks full contextual understanding of the social actions of individuals may choose ethnographic participant observation or open-ended interviews. These two types of studies will yield different types of data. While quantitative research requires at least 30 subjects to be considered statistically significant, qualitative research generally takes a more in-depth approach to fewer subjects.
In both cases, it behooves the researcher to create a concrete list of goals for collecting data. For instance, a researcher might identify what characteristics should be represented in the subjects. Sampling can be used in both quantitative and qualitative research. In statistics and survey methodology, sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals from within a statistical population to estimate characteristics of the whole population. The stages of the sampling process are defining the population of interest, specifying the sampling frame, determining the sampling method and sample size, and sampling and data collecting.
There are various types of samples. A probability sampling is one in which every unit in the population has a chance (greater than zero) of being selected in the sample, and this probability can be accurately determined. Nonprobability sampling is any sampling method where some elements of the population have no chance of selection or where the probability of selection can’t be accurately determined. Examples of types of samples include simple random samples, stratified samples, cluster samples, and convenience samples.
Good data collection involves following the defined sampling process, keeping the data in time order, noting comments and other contextual events, and recording non-responses. Errors and biases can result in the data. Sampling errors and biases, such as selection bias and random sampling error, are induced by the sample design. Non-sampling errors are other errors which can impact the results, caused by problems in data collection, processing, or sample design. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/02%3A_Sociological_Research/2.01%3A_The_Research_Process/2.1E%3A_Defining_the_Sample_and_Collecting_Data.txt |
Data analysis in sociological research aims to identify meaningful sociological patterns.
Learning Objectives
• Compare and contrast the analysis of quantitative vs. qualitative data
Key Points
• Analysis of data is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of highlighting useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision making. Data analysis is a process, within which several phases can be distinguished.
• One way in which analysis can vary is by the nature of the data. Quantitative data is often analyzed using regressions. Regression analyses measure relationships between dependent and independent variables, taking the existence of unknown parameters into account.
• Qualitative data can be coded–that is, key concepts and variables are assigned a shorthand, and the data gathered are broken down into those concepts or variables. Coding allows sociologists to perform a more rigorous scientific analysis of the data.
• Sociological data analysis is designed to produce patterns. It is important to remember, however, that correlation does not imply causation; in other words, just because variables change at a proportional rate, it does not follow that one variable influences the other.
• Without a valid design, valid scientific conclusions cannot be drawn. Internal validity concerns the degree to which conclusions about causality can be made. External validity concerns the extent to which the results of a study are generalizable.
Key Terms
• correlation: A reciprocal, parallel or complementary relationship between two or more comparable objects.
• causation: The act of causing; also the act or agency by which an effect is produced.
• Regression analysis: In statistics, regression analysis includes many techniques for modeling and analyzing several variables, when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. More specifically, regression analysis helps one understand how the typical value of the dependent variable changes when any one of the independent variables is varied, while the other independent variables are held fixed.
The Process of Data Analysis
Analysis of data is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of highlighting useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision making. In statistical applications, some people divide data analysis into descriptive statistics, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and confirmatory data analysis (CDA). EDA focuses on discovering new features in the data and CDA focuses on confirming or falsifying existing hypotheses. Predictive analytics focuses on the application of statistical or structural models for predictive forecasting or classification. Text analytics applies statistical, linguistic, and structural techniques to extract and classify information from textual sources, a species of unstructured data.
Data analysis is a process, within which several phases can be distinguished. The initial data analysis phase is guided by examining, among other things, the quality of the data (for example, the presence of missing or extreme observations), the quality of measurements, and if the implementation of the study was in line with the research design. In the main analysis phase, either an exploratory or confirmatory approach can be adopted. Usually the approach is decided before data is collected. In an exploratory analysis, no clear hypothesis is stated before analyzing the data, and the data is searched for models that describe the data well. In a confirmatory analysis, clear hypotheses about the data are tested.
Regression Analysis
The type of data analysis employed can vary. One way in which analysis often varies is by the quantitative or qualitative nature of the data.
Quantitative data can be analyzed in a variety of ways, regression analysis being among the most popular. Regression analyses measure relationships between dependent and independent variables, taking the existence of unknown parameters into account. More specifically, regression analysis helps one understand how the typical value of the dependent variable changes when any one of the independent variables is varied, while the other independent variables are held fixed.
A large body of techniques for carrying out regression analysis has been developed. In practice, the performance of regression analysis methods depends on the form of the data generating process and how it relates to the regression approach being used. Since the true form of the data-generating process is generally not known, regression analysis often depends to some extent on making assumptions about this process. These assumptions are sometimes testable if a large amount of data is available. Regression models for prediction are often useful even when the assumptions are moderately violated, although they may not perform optimally. However, in many applications, especially with small effects or questions of causality based on observational data, regression methods give misleading results.
Coding
Qualitative data can involve coding–that is, key concepts and variables are assigned a shorthand, and the data gathered is broken down into those concepts or variables. Coding allows sociologists to perform a more rigorous scientific analysis of the data. Coding is the process of categorizing qualitative data so that the data becomes quantifiable and thus measurable. Of course, before researchers can code raw data such as taped interviews, they need to have a clear research question. How data is coded depends entirely on what the researcher hopes to discover in the data; the same qualitative data can be coded in many different ways, calling attention to different aspects of the data.
Sociological Data Analysis
Sociological data analysis is designed to produce patterns. It is important to remember, however, that correlation does not imply causation; in other words, just because variables change at a proportional rate, it does not follow that one variable influences the other.
Correlation, Causation, and Spurious Relationships: This mock newscast gives three competing interpretations of the same survey findings and demonstrates the dangers of assuming that correlation implies causation.
Conclusions
In terms of the kinds of conclusions that can be drawn, a study and its results can be assessed in multiple ways. Without a valid design, valid scientific conclusions cannot be drawn. Internal validity is an inductive estimate of the degree to which conclusions about causal relationships can be made (e.g., cause and effect), based on the measures used, the research setting, and the whole research design. External validity concerns the extent to which the (internally valid) results of a study can be held to be true for other cases, such as to different people, places, or times. In other words, it is about whether findings can be validly generalized. Learning about and applying statistics (as well as knowing their limitations) can help you better understand sociological research and studies. Knowledge of statistics helps you makes sense of the numbers in terms of relationships, and it allows you to ask relevant questions about sociological phenomena. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/02%3A_Sociological_Research/2.01%3A_The_Research_Process/2.1F%3A_Analyzing_Data_and_Drawing_Conclusions.txt |
Sociological research publications generally include a literature review, an overview of the methodology followed, the results and an analysis of those results, and conclusions.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the main components of a sociological research paper
Key Points
• Like any research paper, a sociological research report typically consists of a literature review, an overview of the methods used in data collection, and analysis, findings, and conclusions.
• A literature review is a creative way of organizing what has been written about a topic by scholars and researchers.
• The methods section is necessary to demonstrate how the study was conducted, including the population, sample frame, sample method, sample size, data collection method, and data processing and analysis.
• In the findings and conclusion sections, the researcher reviews all significant findings, notes and discusses all shortcomings, and suggests future research.
Key Terms
• methodology: A collection of methods, practices, procedures, and rules used by those who work in some field.
• quantitative: Of a measurement based on some quantity or number rather than on some quality.
• literature review: A literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge including substantive findings as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic.
Like any research paper, sociological research is presented with a literature review, an overview of the methods used in data collection, and analysis, findings, and conclusions. Quantitative research papers are usually highly formulaic, with a clear introduction (including presentation of the problem and literature review); sampling and methods; results; discussion and conclusion. In striving to be as objective as possible in order to reduce biased interpretations of results, sociological esearch papers follow the scientific method. Research reports may be published as books or journal articles, given directly to a client, or presented at professional meetings.
A literature review is a creative way of organizing what has been written about a topic by scholars and researchers. You will find literature reviews at the beginning of many essays, research reports, or theses. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what you have learned through a careful reading of a set of articles related to your research question.
A strong literature review has the following properties:
• It is organized around issues, themes, factors, or variables that are related directly to your thesis or research question.
• It shows the path of prior research and how the current project is linked.
• It provides a good synthesis of what is, and is not, known.
• It indicates the theoretical framework with which you are working.
• It identifies areas of controversy and debate, or limitations in the literature sharing different perspectives.
• It places the formation of research questions in their historical context.
• It identifies the list of the authors that are engaged in similar work.
The methodssection is necessary to demonstrate how the study was conducted, and that the data is valid for study. Without assurance that the research is based on sound methods, readers cannot countenance any conclusions the researcher proposes. In the methodology section, be sure to include: the population, sample frame, sample method, sample size, data collection method, and data processing and analysis. This is also a section in which to clearly present information in table and graph form.
In the findings and conclusion sections, the researcher reviews all significant findings, notes and discusses all shortcomings, and suggests future research. The conclusion section is the only section where opinions can be expressed and persuasive writing is tolerated.
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The goal of a survey is to collect data from a representative sample of a population to draw conclusions about that larger population.
Learning Objectives
• Assess the various types of surveys and sampling methods used in sociological research, appealing to the concepts of reliability and validity
Key Points
• The sample of people surveyed is chosen from the entire population of interest. The goal of a survey is to describe not the smaller sample but the larger population.
• To be able to generalize about a population from a smaller sample, that sample must be representative; proportionally the same in all relevant aspects (e.g., percent of women vs. men).
• Surveys can be distributed by mail, email, telephone, or in-person interview.
• Surveys can be used in cross-sectional, successive-independent-samples, and longitudinal study designs.
• Effective surveys are both reliable and valid. A reliable instrument produces consistent results every time it is administered; a valid instrument does in fact measure what it intends to measure.
Key Terms
• cross-sectional study: A research method that involves observation of a representative sample of a population at one specific point in time.
• successive-independent-samples design: A research method that involves observation of multiple random samples from a population over multiple time points.
• longitudinal design: A research method that involves observation of the same representative sample of a population over multiple time points, generally over a period of years or decades.
• sample: A subset of a population selected for measurement, observation or questioning, to provide statistical information about the population.
Selecting a Sample to Survey
The sample of people surveyed is chosen from the entire population of interest. The goal of a survey is to describe not the smaller sample but the larger population. This generalizing ability is dependent on the representativeness of the sample.
There are frequent difficulties one encounters while choosing a representative sample. One common error that results is selection bias —when the procedures used to select a sample result in over- or under-representation of some significant aspect of the population. For instance, if the population of interest consists of 75% females, and 25% males, and the sample consists of 40% females and 60% males, females are under represented while males are overrepresented. In order to minimize selection biases, stratified random sampling is often used. This is when the population is divided into sub-populations called strata, and random samples are drawn from each of the strata, or elements are drawn for the sample on a proportional basis.
For instance, a Gallup Poll, if conducted as a truly representative nationwide random sampling, should be able to provide an accurate estimate of public opinion whether it contacts 2,000 or 10,000 people.
Modes of Administering a Survey
There are several ways of administering a survey. The choice between administration modes is influenced by several factors, including
• costs,
• coverage of the target population,
• flexibility of asking questions,
• respondents’ willingness to participate and
• response accuracy
Different methods create mode effects that change how respondents answer, and different methods have different advantages. The most common modes of administration can be summarized as:
• Telephone
• Mail (post)
• Online surveys
• Personal in-home surveys
• Personal mall or street intercept survey
• Hybrids of the above
Participants willing to take the time to respond will convey personal information about religious beliefs, political views, and morals. Some topics that reflect internal thought are impossible to observe directly and are difficult to discuss honestly in a public forum. People are more likely to share honest answers if they can respond to questions anonymously.
Cross-Sectional Design
In a cross-sectional study, a sample (or samples) is drawn from the relevant population and studied once. A cross-sectional study describes characteristics of that population at one time, but cannot give any insight as to causes of population characteristics.
Successive-Independent-Samples Design
A successive-independent-samples design draws multiple random samples from a population at one or more times. This design can study changes within a population, but not changes within individuals because the same individuals are not surveyed more than once. Such studies cannot, therefore, identify the causes of change over time necessarily.
For successive independent samples designs to be effective, the samples must be drawn from the same population, and must be equally representative of it. If the samples are not comparable, the changes between samples may be due to demographic characteristics rather than time. In addition, the questions must be asked in the same way so that responses can be compared directly.
Longitudinal Design
A study following a longitudinal design takes measure of the same random sample at multiple time points. Unlike with a successive independent samples design, this design measures the differences in individual participants’ responses over time. This means that a researcher can potentially assess the reasons for response changes by assessing the differences in respondents’ experiences. However, longitudinal studies are both expensive and difficult to do. It’s harder to find a sample that will commit to a months- or years-long study than a 15-minute interview, and participants frequently leave the study before the final assessment. This attrition of participants is not random, so samples can become less representative with successive assessments.
Writing survey questions: Researchers must carefully design survey questions to ensure they receive accurate and unbiased results.
Reliability and Validity
Reliable measures of self-report are defined by their consistency. Thus, a reliable self-report measure produces consistent results every time it is executed.
A test’s reliability can be measured a few ways. First, one can calculate a test-retest reliability. A test-retest reliability entails conducting the same questionnaire to a large sample at two different times. For the questionnaire to be considered reliable, people in the sample do not have to score identically on each test, but rather their position in the score distribution should be similar for both the test and the retest.
Self-report measures will generally be more reliable when they have many items measuring a construct. Furthermore, measurements will be more reliable when the factor being measured has greater variability among the individuals in the sample that are being tested. Finally, there will be greater reliability when instructions for the completion of the questionnaire are clear and when there are limited distractions in the testing environment.
Contrastingly, a questionnaire is valid if what it measures is what it had originally planned to measure. Construct validity of a measure is the degree to which it measures the theoretical construct that it was originally supposed to measure. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/02%3A_Sociological_Research/2.02%3A_Research_Models/2.2A%3A_Surveys.txt |
Ethnography is a research process that uses fieldwork and observation to learn about a particular community or culture.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the goals and methods of ethnography
Key Points
• Ethnographic work requires intensive and often immersive long-term participation in the community that is the subject of research, typically involving physical relocation (hence the term fieldwork).
• In participant observation, the researcher immerses himself in a cultural environment, usually over an extended period of time, in order to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals and their practices.
• Such research involves a range of well-defined, though variable methods: interviews, direct observation, participation in the life of the group, collective discussions, analyses of personal documents produced within the group, self-analysis, and life-histories, among others.
• The advantage of ethnography as a technique is that it maximizes the researcher’s understanding of the social and cultural context in which human behavior occurs.
• The advantage of ethnography as a technique is that it maximizes the researcher’s understanding of the social and cultural context in which human behavior occurs. The ethnographer seeks out and develops relationships with cultural insiders, or informants, who are willing to explain aspects of their community from a native viewpoint. A particularly knowledgeable informant who can connect the ethnographer with other such informants is known as a key informant.
Key Terms
• ethnography: The branch of anthropology that scientifically describes specific human cultures and societies.
• qualitative: Of descriptions or distinctions based on some quality rather than on some quantity.
Fieldwork and Observation
Ethnography is a qualitative research strategy, involving a combination of fieldwork and observation, which seeks to understand cultural phenomena that reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group. It was pioneered in the field of socio-cultural anthropology, but has also become a popular method in various other fields of social sciences, particularly in sociology.
Ethnographic work requires intensive and often immersive long-term participation in the community that is the subject of research, typically involving physical relocation (hence the term fieldwork). Although it often involves studying ethnic or cultural minority groups, this is not always the case. Ideally, the researcher should strive to have very little effect on the subjects of the study, being as invisible and enmeshed in the community as possible.
Participant Observation
One of the most common methods for collecting data in an ethnographic study is first-hand engagement, known as participant observation. In participant observation, the researcher immerses himself in a cultural environment, usually over an extended period of time, in order to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such as a religious, occupational, or sub-cultural group, or a particular community) and their practices.
Methods
Such research involves a range of well-defined, though variable methods: interviews, direct observation, participation in the life of the group, collective discussions, analyses of personal documents produced within the group, self-analysis, and life-histories, among others.
Interviews can be either informal or formal and can range from brief conversations to extended sessions. One way of transcribing interview data is the genealogical method. This is a set of procedures by which ethnographers discover and record connections of kinship, descent, and marriage using diagrams and symbols. Questionnaires can also be used to aid the discovery of local beliefs and perceptions and, in the case of longitudinal research where there is continuous long-term study of an area or site, they can act as valid instruments for measuring changes in the individuals or groups studied.
Advantages
The advantage of ethnography as a technique is that it maximizes the researcher’s understanding of the social and cultural context in which human behavior occurs. The ethnographer seeks out and develops relationships with cultural insiders, or informants, who are willing to explain aspects of their community from a native viewpoint. The process of seeking out new contacts through their personal relationships with current informants is often effective in revealing common cultural common denominators connected to the topic being studied. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/02%3A_Sociological_Research/2.02%3A_Research_Models/2.2B%3A_Fieldwork_and_Observation.txt |
Experiments are tests designed to prove or disprove a hypothesis by controlling for pertinent variables.
Learning Objectives
• Compare and contrast how hypotheses are being tested in sociology and in the hard sciences
Key Points
• Experiments are controlled tests designed to prove or disprove a hypothesis.
• A hypothesis is a prediction or an idea that has not yet been tested.
• Researchers must attempt to identify everything that might influence the results of an experiment, and do their best to neutralize the effects of everything except the topic of study.
• Since social scientists do not seek to isolate variables in the same way that the hard sciences do, sociologists create the equivalent of an experimental control via statistical techniques that are applied after data is gathered.
• A control is when two identical experiments are conducted and the factor being tested is varied in only one of these experiments.
Key Terms
• control: A separate group or subject in an experiment against which the results are compared where the primary variable is low or nonexistent.
• experiment: A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy of something previously untried.
• hypothesis: Used loosely, a tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further observation, investigation, or experimentation.
Scientists form a hypothesis, which is a prediction or an idea that has not yet been tested. In order to prove or disprove the hypothesis, scientists must perform experiments. The experiment is a controlled test designed specifically to prove or disprove the hypothesis. Before undertaking the experiment, researchers must attempt to identify everything that might influence the results of an experiment and do their best to neutralize the effects of everything except the topic of study. This is done through the introduction of an experimental control: two virtually identical experiments are run, in only one of which the factor being tested is varied. This serves to further isolate any causal phenomena.
Of course, an experiment is not an absolute requirement. In observation based fields of science, actual experiments must be designed differently than for the classical laboratory based sciences. Due to ethical concerns and the sheer cost of manipulating large segments of society, sociologists often turn to other methods for testing hypotheses.
Since sociologists do not seek to isolate variables in the same way that hard sciences do, this kind of control is often done via statistical techniques, such as regressions, applied after data is gathered. Direct experimentation is thus fairly rare in sociology.
Scientists must assume an attitude of openness and accountability on the part of those conducting an experiment. It is essential to keep detailed records in order to facilitate reporting on the experimental results and provide evidence of the effectiveness and integrity of the procedure.
2.2D: Documents
Documentary research involves examining texts and documents as evidence of human behavior.
Learning Objectives
• Describe different kinds of documents used in sociological research
Key Points
• This kind of sociological research is generally considered a part of media studies.
• Unobtrusive research involves ways of studying human behavior without affecting it in the process.
• Documents can either be primary sources, which are original materials that are not created after the fact with the benefit of hindsight, or secondary sources that cite, comment, or build upon primary sources.
• Typically, sociological research involving documents falls under the cross-disciplinary purview of media studies, which encompasses all research dealing with television, books, magazines, pamphlets, or any other human-recorded data. The specific media being studied are often referred to as texts.
• Sociological research involving documents, or, more specifically, media studies, is one of the less interactive research options available to sociologists. It can provide a significant insight into the norms, values, and beliefs of people belonging to a particular historical and cultural context.
• Content analysis is the study of recorded human communications.
Key Terms
• content analysis: Content analysis or textual analysis is a methodology in the social sciences for studying the content of communication.
• documentary research: Documentary research involves the use of texts and documents as source materials. Source materials include: government publications, newspapers, certificates, census publications, novels, film and video, paintings, personal photographs, diaries and innumerable other written, visual, and pictorial sources in paper, electronic, or other “hard copy” form.
• media studies: Academic discipline that deals with the content, history, meaning, and effects of various media, and in particular mass media.
Documentary Research
It is possible to do sociological research without directly involving humans at all. One such method is documentary research. In documentary research, all information is collected from texts and documents. The texts and documents can be either written, pictorial, or visual in form.
The material used can be categorized as primary sources, which are original materials that are not created after the fact with the benefit of hindsight, and secondary sources that cite, comment, or build upon primary sources.
Media Studies and Content Analysis
Typically, sociological research on documents falls under the cross-disciplinary purview of media studies, which encompasses all research dealing with television, books, magazines, pamphlets, or any other human-recorded data. Regardless of the specific media being studied, they are referred to as texts.
Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass communication, communication, communication sciences, and communication studies.
Researchers may also develop and employ theories and methods from disciplines including cultural studies, rhetoric, philosophy, literary theory, psychology, political economy, economics, sociology, anthropology, social theory, art history and criticism, film theory, feminist theory, information theory, and political science.
Content analysis refers to the study of recorded human communications, such as paintings, written texts, and photos. It falls under the category of unobtrusive research, which can be defined as ways for studying human behavior without affecting it in the process. While sociological research involving documents is one of the less interactive research options available to sociologists, it can reveal a great deal about the norms, values, and beliefs of people belonging to a particular temporal and cultural context. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/02%3A_Sociological_Research/2.02%3A_Research_Models/2.2C%3A_Experiments.txt |
Studying existing sources collected by other researchers is an essential part of research in the social sciences.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how the use of existing sources can benefit researchers
Key Points
• Archival research is the study of existing sources. Without archival research, any research project is necessarily incomplete.
• The study of sources collected by someone other than the researcher is known as archival research or secondary data research.
• The importance of archival or secondary data research is two-fold. By studying texts related to their topics, researchers gain a strong foundation on which to base their work. Secondly, this kind of study is necessary in the development of their central research question.
Key Terms
• secondary data: Secondary data is data collected by someone other than the user. Common sources of secondary data for social science include censuses, organizational records, and data collected through qualitative methodologies or qualitative research.
• Archival research: An archive is a way of sorting and organizing older documents, whether it be digitally (photographs online, e-mails, etc.) or manually (putting it in folders, photo albums, etc.). Archiving is one part of the curating process which is typically carried out by a curator.
• primary data: Data that has been compiled for a specific purpose, and has not been collated or merged with others.
Using Existing Sources
The study of sources collected by someone other than the researcher, also known as archival research or secondary data research, is an essential part of sociology. In archival research or secondary research, the focus is not on collecting new data but on studying existing texts.
By studying texts related to their topics, researchers gain a strong foundation on which to base their work. Furthermore, this kind of study is necessary for the development of their central research question. Without a thorough understanding of the research that has already been done, it is impossible to know what a meaningful and relevant research question is, much less how to position and frame research within the context of the field as a whole.
Types of Existing Sources
Common sources of secondary data for social science include censuses, organizational records, field notes, semi-structured and structured interviews, and other forms of data collected through quantitative methods or qualitative research. These methods are considered non-reactive, because the people do not know they are involved in a study. Common sources differ from primary data. Primary data, by contrast, are collected by the investigator conducting the research.
Researchers use secondary analysis for several reasons. The primary reason is that secondary data analysis saves time that would otherwise be spent collecting data. In the case of quantitative data, secondary analysis provides larger and higher-quality databases that would be unfeasible for any individual researcher to collect on his own. In addition, analysts of social and economic change consider secondary data essential, since it is impossible to conduct a new survey that can adequately capture past change and developments.
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Sociologists should take all necessary steps to protect the privacy and confidentiality of their subjects.
Learning Objectives
• Give examples of how the anonymity of a research subject can be protected
Key Points
• When a survey is used, the data should be coded to protect the anonymity of subject.
• For field research, anonymity can be maintained by using aliases (fake names) on the observation reports.
• The types of information that should be kept confidential can range from a person’s name or income, to more significant details (depending on the participant’s social and political contexts), such as religious or political affiliation.
• The kinds of information that should be kept confidential can range from relatively innocuous facts, such as a person’s name, to more sensitive information, such as a person’s religious affiliation.
• Steps to ensure that the confidentiality of research participants is never breached include using pseudonyms for research subjects and keeping all notes in a secure location.
Key Terms
• confidentiality: Confidentiality is an ethical principle of discretion associated with the professions, such as medicine, law, and psychotherapy.
• research: Diligent inquiry or examination to seek or revise facts, principles, theories, and applications.
• pseudonym: A fictitious name, often used by writers and movie stars.
In any sociological research conducted on human subjects, the sociologists should take all the steps necessary to protect the privacy and confidentiality of their subjects. For example, when a survey is used, the data should be coded to protect the anonymity of the subjects.
In addition, there should be no way for any answers to be connected with the respondent who gave them. These rules apply to field research as well. For field research, anonymity can be maintained by using aliases (fake names) on the observation reports.
The types of information that should be kept confidential can range from something as relatively mundane and innocuous as a person’s name (pseudonyms are often employed in both interview transcripts and published research) or income, to more significant details (depending on the participant’s social and political contexts), such as religious or political affiliation.
Even seemingly trivial information should be kept safe, because it is impossible to predict what the repercussions would be in the event that this information becomes public. Unless subjects specifically and explicitly give their consent to be associated with the published information, no real names or identifying information of any kind should be used. Any research notes that might identify subjects should be stored securely. It is the obligation of the researcher to protect the private information of the research subjects, particularly when studying sensitive and controversial topics like deviance, the results of which may harm the participants if they were to be personally identified. By ensuring the safety of sensitive information, researchers ensure the safety of their subjects.
2.3B: Protecting Research Subjects
There are many guidelines in place to protect human subjects in sociological research.
Learning Objectives
• Identify the core tenet of research ethics, the importance of research ethics, and examples of ethical practice
Key Points
• Sociologists have a responsibility to protect their subjects by following ethical guidelines. Organizations like the American Sociological Association maintain, oversee, and enforce a code of ethics for sociologists to follow.
• In the context of sociological research, a code of ethics refers to formal guidelines for conducting sociological research, consisting of principles and ethical standards.
• The core tenet of research ethics is that the subjects not be harmed; principles such as confidentiality, anonymity, informed consent, and honesty follow from this premise.
• Institutional review boards are committees designated to approve, monitor, and review research involving people. They are intended to assess such factors as conflicts of interest and potential emotional distress caused to subjects.
• Institutional Review Boards are committees designated to approve, monitor, and review research involving people. They are intended to assess such factors as conflicts of interest–for instance, a funding source that has a vested interest in the outcome of a research project–and potential emotional distress caused to subjects.
Key Terms
• informed consent: Informed consent is a phrase often used in law to indicate that the consent a person gives meets certain minimum standards. In order to give informed consent, the individual concerned must have adequate reasoning faculties and be in possession of all relevant facts at the time consent is given.
• confidentiality: Confidentiality is an ethical principle of discretion associated with the professions, such as medicine, law, and psychotherapy.
• institutional review board: An institutional review board (IRB), also known as an independent ethics committee or ethical review board, is a committee that has been formally designated to approve, monitor, and review biomedical and behavioral research involving humans.
Ethical considerations are of particular importance to sociologists because sociologists study people. Thus, sociologists must adhere to a rigorous code of ethics. In the context of sociological research, a code of ethics refers to formal guidelines for conducting research, consisting of principles and ethical standards concerning the treatment of human individuals.
The most important ethical consideration in sociological research is that participants in a sociological investigation are not harmed in any way. Exactly what this entails can vary from study to study, but there are several universally recognized considerations. For instance, research on children and youth always requires parental consent. All sociological research requiresinformed consent, and participants are never coerced into participation. Informed consent in general involves ensuring that prior to agreeing to participate, research subjects are aware of details of the study including the risks and benefits of participation and in what ways the data collected will be used and kept secure. Participants are also told that they may stop their participation in the study at any time.
Institutional review boards (IRBs) are committees that are appointed to approve, monitor, and review research involving human subjects in order to make sure that the well-being of research participants is never compromised. They are thus intended to assess such factors as conflicts of interest–for instance, a funding source that has a vested interest in the outcome of a research project–and potential emotional distress caused to subjects. While often primarily oriented toward biomedical research, approval from IRBs is now required for all studies dealing with humans.
2.3C: Misleading Research Subjects
If a researcher deceives or conceals the purpose or procedure of a study, they are misleading their research subjects.
Learning Objectives
• Identify two problems with intentionally deceiving research subjects
Key Points
• Although deception introduces ethical concerns because it threatens the validity of the subjects ‘ informed consent, there are certain cases in which researchers are allowed to deceive their subjects.
• Some studies involve intentionally deceiving subjects about the nature of the research, especially in cases in which full disclosure to the research subject could either skew the results of the study or cause some sort of harm to the researcher.
• In most instances, researchers are required to debrief (reveal the deception and explain the true purpose of the study to) subjects after the data is gathered.
• Some possible ways to address concerns are collecting pre-consent from participants and minimizing deception.
Key Terms
• debrief: To question someone, or a group of people, after the implementation of a project in order to learn from mistakes.
• subject: A human research subject is a living individual about whom a research investigator (whether a professional or a student) obtains data.
Some sociology studies involve intentionally deceiving subjects about the nature of the research. For instance, a researcher dealing with an organized crime syndicate might be concerned that if his subjects were aware of the researcher’s academic interests, his physical safety might be at risk. A more common case is a study in which researchers are concerned that if the subjects are aware of what is being measured, such as their reaction to a series of violent images, the results will be altered or tempered by that knowledge. In the latter case, researchers are required to debrief (reveal the deception and explain the true purpose of the study to) subjects after the data is gathered.
The ethical problems with conducting a trial involving an element of deception are legion. Valid consent means a participant is aware of all relevant context surrounding the research they are participating in, including both risks and benefits. Failure to ensure informed consent is likely to result in the harm of potential participants and others who may be affected indirectly. This harm could occur either in terms of the distress that subsequent knowledge of deception may cause participants and others, or in terms of the significant risks to which deception may expose participants and others. For example, a participant in a medical trial could misuse a drug substance, believing it to be a placebo.
Two approaches have been suggested to minimize such difficulties: pre-consent (including authorized deception and generic pre-consent) and minimized deception. Pre-consent involves informing potential participants that a given research study involves an element of deception without revealing its exact nature. This approach respects the autonomy of individuals because subjects consent to the deception. Minimizing deception involves taking steps such as introducing words like “probably” so that statements are formally accurate even if they may be misleading. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/02%3A_Sociological_Research/2.03%3A_Ethics_in_Sociological_Research/2.3A%3A_Confidentiality.txt |
Research funding comes from grants from private groups or governments, and researchers must be careful to avoid conflicts of interest.
Learning Objectives
• Examine the process of receiving research funding, including avoiding conflicts of interest and the sources of research funding
Key Points
• Most research funding comes from two major sources: corporations (through research and development departments) and government (primarily carried out through universities and specialized government agencies).
• If the funding source for a research project has an interest in the outcome of the project, this represents a conflict of interest and a potential ethical breach.
• A conflict of interest can occur if a sociologist is granted funding to conduct research on a topic, which the source of funding is invested in or related to in some way.
Key Terms
• conflict of interest: A situation in which someone in a position of trust has competing professional or personal interests.
• research: Diligent inquiry or examination to seek or revise facts, principles, theories, and applications.
Money for sociological research doesn’t grow on trees. Many researchers fund their work by applying for grants from private groups or governments, but they must be careful to avoid a conflict of interest. Research funding is a term generally covering any funding for scientific research, in the areas of both “hard” science and technology and social sciences. The term often connotes funding obtained through a competitive process, in which potential research projects are evaluated and only the most promising receive funding. Such processes, which are run by government, corporations, or foundations, allocate scarce funds.
Most research funding comes from two major sources: corporations (through research and development departments) and government (primarily carried out through universities and specialized government agencies). Some small amounts of scientific research are also carried out (or funded) by charitable foundations. In the United States, the government funding proportion in certain industries is higher, and it dominates research in social science and humanities.
Government-funded research can either be carried out by the government itself, or through grants to academic and other researchers outside the government. An advantage to government sponsored research is that the results are publicly shared, whereas with privately funded research the ideas are controlled by a single group. Consequently, government sponsored research can result in mass collaborative projects that are beyond the scope of isolated private researchers.
Funding of research by private companies is mainly motivated by profit, and are much less likely than governments to fund research projects solely for the sake of knowledge. The profit incentive causes researchers to concentrate their energies on projects which are perceived as likely to generate profits.
Research funding is often applied for by scientists and approved by a granting agency to financially support research. These grants require a lengthy process as the granting agency can inquire about the researcher’s background, the facilities used, the equipment needed, the time involved, and the overall potential of the scientific outcome. The process of grant writing and grant proposing is a somewhat delicate process for both the granter and the grantee. The granter wants to choose the research that best fits their scientific principles, and the grantee wants to apply for research in which he has the best chances but also in which he can build a body of work toward future scientific endeavors. This interplay can be a lengthy process. However, most universities have research administration offices to facilitate the interaction between the researcher and the granting agency.
If the funding source for a research project has an interest in the outcome of the project, this can represent a conflict of interest and a potential ethical breach. In other words, when research is funded by the same agency that can be expected to gain from a favorable outcome, there is a potential for biased results. The existence of a conflict of interest, or a potential one at that, can call into question the integrity of a sociologist’s research and findings. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/02%3A_Sociological_Research/2.03%3A_Ethics_in_Sociological_Research/2.3D%3A_Research_Funding.txt |
Value neutrality is the duty of sociologists to strive to be impartial and overcome their biases as they conduct their research.
Learning Objectives
• Reconstruct the tension surrounding the idea of value neutrality in sociological research
Key Points
• Assigning moral values to social phenomena is an inescapable result of being part of society, rendering truly value-free research inconceivable. Despite this fact, sociologists should still strive for value neutrality.
• Value neutrality, as described by Max Weber, is the duty of sociologists to identify and acknowledge their own values and overcome their personal biases when conducting sociological research.
• In order to be value-neutral, sociologists must be aware of their own moral judgments and values, and avoid incorporating them into their research, their conclusions, and their teaching.
• Many sociologists believe it is impossible to set aside personal values and retain complete objectivity. They caution readers, rather, to understand that sociological studies may, by necessity, contain a certain amount of value bias.
Key Terms
• Max Weber: (1864–1920) A German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself.
Assigning moral values to social phenomena is an inescapable result of being part of society. This inevitably renders truly value-free research inconceivable; however despite this, sociologists should strive for value neutrality. According to Max Weber, a German sociologist and philosopher who profoundly influenced social theory, value neutrality is the duty of sociologists to strive to be impartial and overcome their biases as they conduct their research, analyze their data, and publish their findings. Weber understood that personal values could distort the framework for disclosing study results. While he accepted that some aspects of research design might be influenced by personal values, he declared that it was entirely inappropriate to allow them to shape the interpretation of the responses.
Sociologists, Weber stated, must establish value neutrality, a practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment, during the course of a study and in publishing results. To do this, they must be conscious of their own personal values. Sociologists are obligated to disclose research findings without omitting or distorting significant data, even if results contradict personal views, predicted outcomes, or widely accepted beliefs. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, it is the duty of sociologists to avoid bringing their ideology into their roles as instructors.
Is value neutrality possible? Many sociologists believe it is impossible to set aside personal values and retain complete objectivity. They caution readers, rather, to understand that sociological studies may, by necessity, contain a certain amount of value bias. It does not discredit the results but allows readers to view them as one form of truth rather than as a singular fact. Some sociologists attempt to remain uncritical and as objective as possible when studying cultural institutions. However, this is difficult to obtain. Being a human and studying human subjects results in some degree of subjectivity, due to cultural influences. This is not necessarily negative, but it should be reported in any study being done so people can interpret the results as clearly as possible.
Value neutrality does not mean having no opinions, however. It just means that sociologists must strive to overcome personal biases, particularly subconscious biases, when analyzing data. It also means that sociologists must avoid skewing data in order to match a predetermined outcome that aligns with a particular agenda, such as a political or moral point of view. Although subjectivity is likely in almost any sociological study, with careful consideration, a good sociologist can limit its effect on any particular study.
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Culture relates to nature (our biology and genetics) and nurture (our environment and surroundings that also shape our identities).
Learning Objectives
• Examine the ways culture and biology interact to form societies, norms, rituals and other representations of culture
Key Points
• “Culture” encompasses objects and symbols, the meaning given to those objects and symbols, and the norms, values, and beliefs that pervade social life.
• Values reflect an individual’s or society ‘s sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be.
• Humans also have biological drives—hunger, thirst, need for sleep—whose unfulfillment can result in death.
• Because of our biology and genetics, we have a particular form and we have certain abilities. These set essential limits on the variety of activities that humans can express culture, but there is still enormous diversity in this expression.
• Culture refers to the way we understand ourselves as individuals and as members of society, including stories, religion, media, rituals, and even language itself.
• Social Darwinism was the belief that the closer a cultural group was to the normative Western European standards of behavior and appearance, the more evolved they were.
• Culture is the non-biological or social aspects of human life.
• Culture refers to the way we understand ourselves as individuals and as members of society, including stories, religion, media, rituals, and even language itself.
• Social Darwinism hinged on the belief that the closer cultural groups were to the normative Western European standards of behavior and appearance, the more evolved they were.
Key Terms
• Social Darwinism: a theory that the laws of evolution by natural selection also apply to social structures.
• culture: The beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life.
Culture and Biology
Human beings are biological creatures. We are composed of blood and bones and flesh. At the most basic level, our genes express themselves in physical characteristics, affecting bodily aspects such as skin tone and eye color. Yet, human beings are much more than our biology, and this is evident particularly in the way humans generate, and live within, complex cultures.
Defining Culture
Culture is a term used by social scientists, like anthropologists and sociologists, to encompass all the facets of human experience that extend beyond our physical fact. Culture refers to the way we understand ourselves both as individuals and as members of society, and includes stories, religion, media, rituals, and even language itself.
It is critical to understand that the term culture does not describe a singular, fixed entity. Instead, it is a useful heuristic, or way of thinking, that can be very productive in understanding behavior. As a student of the social sciences, you should think of the word culture as a conceptual tool rather than as a uniform, static definition. Culture necessarily changes, and is changed by, a variety of interactions, with individuals, media, and technology, just to name a few.
The History of Culture as a Concept
Culture is primarily an anthropological term. The field of anthropology emerged around the same time as Social Darwinism, in the late 19th and early 20th century. Social Darwinism was the belief that the closer a cultural group was to the normative, Western, European standards of behavior and appearance, the more evolved that group was. As a theory of the world, it was essentially a racist concept that persists in certain forms up to this day. If you have ever heard someone reference people of African descent as being from, or close to, the jungle, or the wilderness, you’ve encountered a type of coded language that is a modern incarnation of Social Darwinist thought.
During the late 19th and early 20th century time period, the positivist school also emerged in sociological thought. One of the key figures in this school, Cesare Lombroso, studied the physical characteristics of prisoners, because he believed that he could find a biological basis for crime. Lombroso coined the term atavism to suggest that some individuals were throwbacks to a more bestial point in evolutionary history. Lombroso used this concept to claim that certain individuals were more weak-willed, and more prone to criminal activity, than their supposedly more evolved counterparts.
In accordance with the hegemonic beliefs of the time, anthropologists first theorized culture as something that evolves in the same way biological organisms evolve. Just like biological evolution, cultural evolution was thought to be an adaptive system that produced unique results depending on location and historical moment. However, unlike biological evolution, culture can be intentionally taught and thus spread from one group of people to another.
Initially, anthropologists believed that culture was a product of biological evolution, and that cultural evolution depended exclusively on physical conditions. Today’s anthropologists no longer believe it is this simple. Neither culture nor biology is solely responsible for the other. They interact in very complex ways, which biological anthropologists will be studying for years to come. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.01%3A_Culture_and_Society/3.1A%3A_Culture_and_Biology.txt |
Culture is what differentiates one group or society from the next; different societies have different cultures.
Learning Objectives
• Differentiate between the various meanings of culture within society
Key Points
• Different societies have different cultures; a culture represents the beliefs and practices of a group, while society represents the people who share those beliefs and practices.
• Material culture refers to the objects or belongings of a group of people, such as automobiles, stores, and the physical structures where people worship. Nonmaterial culture, in contrast, consists of the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society.
• In 18th and 19th century Europe, the term “culture” was equated with civilization and considered a unique aspect of Western society. Remnants of that colonial definition of culture can be seen today in the idea of ” high culture “.
• During the Romantic Era, culture became equated with nationalism and gave rise to the idea of multiple national cultures.
• Today, social scientists understand culture as a society’s norms, values, and beliefs; as well as its objects and symbols, and the meaning given to those objects and symbols.
Key Terms
• civilization: An organized culture encompassing many communities, often on the scale of a nation or a people; a stage or system of social, political or technical development.
• high culture: The artistic entertainment and material artifacts associated with a society’s aristocracy or most learned members, usually requiring significant education to be appreciated or highly skilled labor to be produced.
• popular culture: The prevailing vernacular culture in any given society, including art, cooking, clothing, entertainment, films, mass media, music, sports, and style
• nationalism: The idea of supporting one’s country and culture; patriotism.
Culture encompasses human elements beyond biology: for example, our norms and values, the stories we tell, learned or acquired behaviors, religious beliefs, art and fashion, and so on. Culture is what differentiates one group or society from the next.
Different societies have different cultures; however it is important not to confuse the idea of culture with society. A culture represents the beliefs and practices of a group, while society represents the people who share those beliefs and practices. Neither society nor culture could exist without the other.
Defining Culture
Almost every human behavior, from shopping to marriage to expressions of feelings, is learned. Behavior based on learned customs is not necessarily a bad thing – being familiar with unwritten rules helps people feel secure and confident that their behaviors will not be challenged or disrupted. However even the simplest actions – such as commuting to work, ordering food from a restaurant, and greeting someone on the street – evidence a great deal of cultural propriety.
Material culture refers to the objects or belongings of a group of people (such as automobiles, stores, and the physical structures where people worship). Nonmaterial culture, in contrast, consists of the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society. Material and nonmaterial aspects of culture are linked, and physical objects often symbolize cultural ideas. A metro pass is a material object, but it represents a form of nonmaterial culture (namely capitalism, and the acceptance of paying for transportation). Clothing, hairstyles, and jewelry are part of material culture, but the appropriateness of wearing certain clothing for specific events reflects nonmaterial culture. A school building belongs to material culture, but the teaching methods and educational standards are part of education’s nonmaterial culture.
These material and nonmaterial aspects of culture can vary subtly from region to region. As people travel farther afield, moving from different regions to entirely different parts of the world, certain material and nonmaterial aspects of culture become dramatically unfamiliar. As we interact with cultures other than our own, we become more aware of our own culture – which might otherwise be invisible to us – and to the differences and commonalities between our culture and others.
The History of “Culture”
Some people think of culture in the singular, in the way that it was thought of in Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries: as something achieved through evolution and progress. This concept of culture reflected inequalities within European societies and their colonies around the world; in short, it equates culture with civilization and contrasts both with nature or non-civilization. According to this understanding of culture, some countries are more “civilized” than others, and some people are therefore more “cultured” than others.
When people talk about culture in the sense of civilization or refinement, they are really talking about “high culture,” which is different from the sociological concept of culture. High culture refers to elite goods and activities, such as haute cuisine, high fashion or couture, museum-caliber art, and classical music. In common parlance, people may refer to others as being “cultured” if they know about and take part in these activities. Someone who uses culture in this sense might argue that classical music is more refined than music by working-class people, such as jazz or the indigenous music traditions of aboriginal peoples. Popular (or “pop”) culture, by contrast, is more mainstream and influenced by mass media and the common opinion. Popular culture tends to change as tastes and opinions change over time, whereas high culture generally stays the same throughout the years. For example, Mozart is considered high culture, whereas Britney Spears is considered pop culture; Mozart is likely to still be popular in 100 years, but Britney Spears will likely be forgotten by all but a few.
This definition of culture only recognizes a single standard of refinement to which all groups are held accountable. Thus, people who differ from those who believe themselves to be “cultured” in this sense are not usually understood as having a different culture; they are understood as being uncultured.
Although we still see remnants of this idea of high culture today, it has largely fallen out of practice. Its decline began during the Romantic Era, when scholars in Germany – especially those concerned with nationalism – developed the more inclusive notion of culture as a distinct worldview. Although more inclusive, this approach to culture still allowed for distinctions between so-called “civilized” and “primitive” cultures. By the late 19th century, anthropologists changed the concept of culture to include a wider variety of societies, ultimately resulting in the concept of culture adopted by social scientists today: objects and symbols, the meaning given to those objects and symbols, and the norms, values, and beliefs that pervade social life.
This new perspective has also removed the evaluative element of the concept of culture; it distinguishes among different cultures, but does not rank them. For instance, the high culture of elites is now contrasted with popular or pop culture. In this sense, high culture no longer refers to the idea of being “cultured,” as all people have culture. High culture simply refers to the objects, symbols, norms, values, and beliefs of a particular group of people; popular culture does the same. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.01%3A_Culture_and_Society/3.1B%3A_Culture_and_Society.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Discuss cultural universals in terms of the various elements of culture, such as norms and beliefs
The sociology of culture concerns culture—usually understood as the ensemble of symbolic codes used by a society—as it is manifested in society. The elements of culture include (1) symbols (anything that carries particular meaning recognized by people who share the same culture); (2) language (system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another); (3) values (culturally-defined standards that serve as broad guidelines for social living; (4) beliefs (specific statements that people hold to be true); and (5) norms (rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members). While these elements of culture may be seen in various contexts over time and across geography, a cultural universal is an element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all human cultures worldwide. Taken together, the whole body of cultural universals is known as the human condition. Among the cultural universals listed by Donald Brown (1991) are abstract speech, figurative speech and metaphors, antonyms and synonyms, and units of time.
The concept of a cultural universal has long been discussed in the social sciences. Cultural universals are elements, patterns, traits, or institutions that are common to all human cultures worldwide. There is a tension in cultural anthropology and cultural sociology between the claim that culture is a universal (the fact that all human societies have culture), and that it is also particular (culture takes a tremendous variety of forms around the world). The idea of cultural universals—that specific aspects of culture are common to all human cultures—runs contrary to cultural relativism. Cultural relativism was, in part, a response to Western ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism may take obvious forms, in which one consciously believes that one people’s arts are the most beautiful, values the most virtuous, and beliefs the most truthful. Franz Boas argued that one’s culture may mediate and thus limit one’s perceptions in less obvious ways. He understood “culture” to include not only certain tastes in food, art, and music, or beliefs about religion but instead assumed a much broader notion of culture.
Among the cultural universals listed by Donald Brown, some of these were investigated by Franz Boas. For example, Boas called attention to the idea that language is a means of categorizing experiences, hypothesizing that the existence of different languages suggests that people categorize, and thus experience, language differently. Therefore, although people may perceive visible radiation the same way, in terms of a continuum of color, people who speak different languages slice up this continuum into discrete colors in different ways.
Key Points
• Cultural universals are elements, patterns, traits, or institutions that are common to all human cultures worldwide.
• There is a tension in cultural anthropology and cultural sociology between the claim that culture is a universal and that it is also particular. The idea of cultural universals runs contrary in some ways to cultural relativism which was, in part, a response to Western ethnocentrism.
• Ethnocentrism may take obvious forms. For example, the belief that one people’s culture is the most beautiful and true. Franz Boas understood “culture” to include not only certain tastes in food, art, and music, or beliefs about religion but instead assumed a much broader notion of culture.
• Among the cultural universals listed by Donald Brown (1991) are abstract speech, figurative speech and metaphors, antonyms and synonyms, and units of time.
• Among the cultural universals listed by Brown, some were investigated by Franz Boas. For example, Boas saw language as a means of categorizing experiences. Thus, although people may perceive visible radiation similarly, people who speak different languages slice up the continuum in different ways.
• Since Franz Boas, two debates have dominated cultural anthropology.
Key Terms
• culture: The beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life.
• particular: A specific case; an individual thing as opposed to a whole class.
• universal: Common to all society; worldwide. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.01%3A_Culture_and_Society/3.1C%3A_Cultural_Universals.txt |
Culture shock is the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life in a new country.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss culture shock in terms of its four phases – honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment and mastery
Key Points
• Culture shock is the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country.
• Culture shock can be described as consisting of at least one of four distinct phases: honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and mastery.
• During the honeymoon phase, the differences between the old and new culture are seen in a romantic light.
• After some time (usually around three months, depending on the individual), differences between the old and new culture become apparent and may create anxiety. This is the mark of the negotiation phase.
• In the adjustment phase, one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines.
• Lastly, in the mastery stage, assignees are able to participate fully and comfortably in the host culture.
• In the Adjustment phase, one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines.
• One knows what to expect in most situations and the host country no longer feels all that new.
• Lastly, in the Mastery stage, assignees are able to participate fully and comfortably in the host culture.
Key Terms
• biculturalism: The state or quality of being bicultural.
Culture shock is the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country, or to a move between social environments. One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign country. There is no true way to entirely prevent culture shock, as individuals in any society are personally affected by cultural contrasts differently.
Culture shock can be described as consisting of at least one of four distinct phases: honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and mastery. During the honeymoon phase, the differences between the old and new culture are seen in a romantic light. During the first few weeks, most people are fascinated by the new culture. They associate with nationals who speak their language, and who are polite to the foreigners. This period is full of observations and new discoveries. Like most honeymoon periods, this stage eventually ends.
After some time (usually around three months, depending on the individual), differences between the old and new culture become apparent and may create anxiety. This is the mark of the negotiation phase. Excitement may eventually give way to unpleasant feelings of frustration and anger as one continues to experience unfavorable events that may be perceived as strange and offensive to one’s cultural attitude. Still, the most important change in the period is communication. People adjusting to a new culture often feel lonely and homesick because they are not yet used to the new environment and meet people with whom they are not familiar every day.
Again, after some time, one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines, marking the adjustment phase. One knows what to expect in most situations and the host country no longer feels all that new. One becomes concerned with basic living again and things become more normal. One starts to develop problem-solving skills for dealing with the culture and begins to accept the culture’s ways with a positive attitude. The culture begins to make sense and negative reactions and responses to the culture are reduced.
In the mastery stage, assignees are able to participate fully and comfortably in the host culture. Mastery does not mean total conversion. People often keep many traits from their earlier culture, such as accents and languages. It is often referred to as the biculturalism stage. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.01%3A_Culture_and_Society/3.1D%3A_Culture_Shock.txt |
Ethnocentrism, in contrast to cultural relativism, is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one’s own culture.
Learning Objectives
• Examine the concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism in relation to your own and other cultures in society
Key Points
• Ethnocentrism often entails the belief that one’s own race or ethnic group is the most important or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups.
• Within this ideology, individuals will judge other groups in relation to their own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and religion.
• Cultural relativism is the belief that the concepts and values of a culture cannot be fully translated into, or fully understood in, other languages; that a specific cultural artifact (e.g., a ritual) has to be understood in terms of the larger symbolic system of which it is a part.
• Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual person’s beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture.
Key Terms
• ethnocentrism: The tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one’s own culture.
• cultural relativism: Cultural relativism is a principle that was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the twentieth century, and later popularized by his students. Boas first articulated the idea in 1887: “…civilization is not something absolute, but… is relative, and… our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes. “
Ethnocentrism, a term coined by William Graham Sumner, is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of your own ethnic culture and the belief that that is in fact the “right” way to look at the world. This leads to making incorrect assumptions about others’ behavior based on your own norms, values, and beliefs. For instance, reluctance or aversion to trying another culture’s cuisine is ethnocentric. Social scientists strive to treat cultural differences as neither inferior nor superior. That way, they can understand their research topics within the appropriate cultural context and examine their own biases and assumptions at the same time.
This approach is known as “cultural relativism.” Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual person’s beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture. A key component of cultural relativism is the concept that nobody, not even researchers, comes from a neutral position. The way to deal with our own assumptions is not to pretend that they don’t exist but rather to acknowledge them, and then use the awareness that we are not neutral to inform our conclusions.
An example of cultural relativism might include slang words from specific languages (and even from particular dialects within a language). For instance, the word “tranquilo” in Spanish translates directly to “calm” in English. However, it can be used in many more ways than just as an adjective (e.g., the seas are calm). Tranquilo can be a command or suggestion encouraging another to calm down. It can also be used to ease tensions in an argument (e.g., everyone relax) or to indicate a degree of self-composure (e.g., I’m calm). There is not a clear English translation of the word, and in order to fully comprehend its many possible uses, a cultural relativist would argue that it would be necessary to fully immerse oneself in cultures where the word is used.
3.1F: Material Culture
In the social sciences, material culture is a term that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations.
Learning Objectives
• Give examples of material culture and how it can help sociologist understand a particular society
Key Points
• Studying a culture ‘s relationship to materiality is a lens through which social and cultural attitudes can be discussed. People’s relationship to and perception of objects are socially and culturally dependent.
• A view of culture as a symbolic system with adaptive functions, varying from place to place, led anthropologists to conceive of different cultures as having distinct patterns of enduring conventional sets of meaning.
• Anthropologists distinguish between material culture and symbolic culture, not only because each reflects different kinds of human activity, but also because they constitute different kinds of data and require different methodologies to study.
• This view of culture, which came to dominate anthropology between World War I and World War II, implied that each culture was bounded and had to be understood as a whole, on its own terms.
• The result is a belief in cultural relativism, which suggests that there are no ‘better’ or ‘worse’ cultures, just different cultures.
Key Terms
• material culture: In the social sciences, material culture is a term, developed in the late 19th and early 20th century, that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations.
• Symbolic culture: Symbolic culture is a concept used by archaeologists, social anthropologists and sociologists to designate the cultural realm constructed and inhabited uniquely by Homo sapiens.
In the social sciences, material culture refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations. Material culture consists in physical objects that humans make. These objects inevitably reflect the historical, geographic, and social conditions of their origin. For instance, the clothes that you are wearing might tell researchers of the future about the fashions of today.
People’s relationship to and perception of objects are socially and culturally dependent. Accordingly, social and cultural attitudes can be discussed through the lens of a culture’s relationship to materiality.
Material culture is also a term used by historians, sometimes termed “material history,” which refers to the study of ancient objects and artifacts in order to understand how a particular culture was organized and functioned over time.
This view of culture as a symbolic system with adaptive functions, varying from place to place, led anthropologists to view different cultures as having distinct patterns of enduring conventional sets of meaning. Anthropologists thus distinguish between material culture and symbolic culture, not only because each reflects different kinds of human activity, but also because they constitute different kinds of data and require different methodologies to study.
This view of culture, which came to dominate anthropology between World War I and World War II, implied that each culture was bounded and had to be understood as a whole, on its own terms. The result is a belief in cultural relativism, which suggests that there are no ‘better’ or ‘worse’ cultures, just different cultures. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.01%3A_Culture_and_Society/3.1E%3A_Ethnocentrism_and_Cultural_Relativism.txt |
Non-material culture includes the behaviors, ideas, norms, values, and beliefs that contribute to a society’s overall culture.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze the different ways norms, values and beliefs interact to form non-material culture
Key Points
• In contrast to material culture, non-material culture does not include physical objects or artifacts.
• It includes things that have no existence in the physical world but exist entirely in the symbolic realm.
• Examples are concepts such as good and evil, mythical inventions such as gods and underworlds, and social constructs such as promises and football games.
• The concept of symbolic culture draws from semiotics and emphasizes the way in which distinctively human culture is mediated through signs and concepts.
• The symbolic aspect of distinctively human culture has been emphasized in anthropology by Emile Durkheim, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Clifford Geertz, and many others.
• Semiotics emphasises the way in which distinctively human culture is mediated through signs and concepts.
Key Terms
• social construct: Social constructs are generally understood to be the by-products of countless human choices rather than laws resulting from divine will or nature.
Culture as a general concept consists of both material and non-material culture. Material culture is a term developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations. In contrast, non-material culture does not include physical objects or artifacts. Examples include any ideas, beliefs, values, or norms that shape a society.
When sociologists talk about norms, they are talking about what’s considered normal, appropriate, or ordinary for a particular group of people. Social norms are group-held beliefs about how members should behave in a given context. Sociologists describe norms as laws that govern society’s behaviors. Values are related to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms. Norms are rules for behavior in specific situations, while values identify what should be judged as good or evil. Flying the national flag on a holiday is a norm, but it exhibits patriotism, which is a value. Wearing dark clothing and appearing solemn are normative behaviors at a funeral. In certain cultures they reflect the values of respect and support of friends and family. Different cultures honor different values. Finally, beliefs are the way people think the universe operates. Beliefs can be religious or secular, and they can refer to any aspect of life. For instance, many people in the U.S. believe that hard work is the key to success.
Members take part in a culture even if each member’s personal values do not entirely agree with some of the normative values sanctioned in the culture. This reflects an individual’s ability to synthesize and extract aspects valuable to them from the multiple subcultures they belong to.
Norms, values, and beliefs are all deeply interconnected. Together, they provide a way to understand culture.
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The symbolic systems that people use to capture and communicate their experiences form the basis of shared cultures.
Learning Objectives
• Relate the idea that culture is symbolically coded to arguments about the dynamism of cultures
Key Points
• A symbol is any object, typically material, which is meant to represent another (usually abstract), even if there is no meaningful relationship.
• Culture is based on a shared set of symbols and meanings. Symbolic culture enables human communication and must be taught.
• Symbolic culture is more malleable and adaptable than biological evolution.
• The belief that culture is symbolically coded and can be taught from one person to another means that cultures, although bounded, can change.
• According to sociologists, symbols make up one of the 5 key elements of culture; the other key elements are language, values, beliefs, and norms.
Key Terms
• symbol: Any object, typically material, which is meant to represent another (usually abstract), even if there is no meaningful relationship.
• Max Weber: (1864–1920) A German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself.
A symbol is any object, typically material, which is meant to represent another (usually abstract) object, even if there is no meaningful relationship. Anthropologists have argued that, through the course of their evolution, human beings evolved a universal human capacity to classify experiences, and encode and communicate them symbolically, such as with written language. Since these symbolic systems were learned and taught, they began to develop independently of biological evolution (in other words, one human being can learn a belief, value, or way of doing something from another, even if they are not biologically related). That this capacity for symbolic thinking and social learning is a product of human evolution confounds older arguments about nature versus nurture.
This view of culture argues that people living apart from one another develop unique cultures. Elements of different cultures, however, can easily spread from one group of people to another. The belief that culture is symbolically coded and can, therefore, be taught from one person to another, means that cultures, although bounded, can change. Culture is dynamic and can be taught and learned, making it a potentially rapid form of adaptation to changes in physical conditions. Anthropologists view culture as not only a product of biological evolution, but as a supplement to it; culture can be seen as the main means of human adaptation to the natural world.
This view of culture as a symbolic system with adaptive functions, which varies from place to place, led anthropologists to conceive of different cultures as defined by distinct patterns (or structures) of enduring (although arbitrary) conventional sets of meaning. These meanings took concrete form in a variety of artifacts such as myths and rituals, tools, the design of housing, and the planning of villages. Anthropologists distinguish between material culture and symbolic culture, not only because each reflects different kinds of human activity, but also because they constitute different kinds of data that require different methodologies to study.
The sociology of culture concerns culture as it is manifested in society: the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together shape a people’s way of life. According to Max Weber, symbols are important aspects of culture: people use symbols to express their spirituality and the spiritual side of real events, and ideal interests are derived from symbols. According to sociologists, symbols make up one of the five key elements of culture, the others being language, values, beliefs, and norms.
3.2B: The Origins of Language
The origin of language is a widely discussed and controversial topic due to very limited empirical evidence.
Learning Objectives
• Compare and contrast continuity-based theories and discontinuity-based theories about the origin of language
Key Points
• There is no consensus on the ultimate origin or age of human language.
• Continuity-based theories stress that language is so complex that it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among pre-humans.
• Discontinuity-based theories stress that language is a unique human trait that appeared fairly suddenly in the transition from pre-hominids to early man.
Key Terms
• language: A form of communication using words either spoken or gestured with the hands and structured with grammar, often with a writing system.
• symbolic: Referring to something with an implicit meaning.
• prehistory: The history of human culture prior to written records.
The origin of language in the human species is a widely discussed topic. There is no consensus on ultimate origin or age. Empirical evidence is limited, and many scholars continue to regard the whole topic as unsuitable for serious study.
Theories about the origin of language can be divided according to their basic assumptions. Some theories are based on the idea that language is so complex that one cannot imagine it simply appearing from nothing in its final form, but that it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among our pre-human ancestors. These theories can be called continuity-based theories.
The opposite viewpoint is that language is such a unique human trait that it cannot be compared to anything found among non-humans and that it must therefore have appeared fairly suddenly in the transition from pre-hominids to early man. These theories can be defined as discontinuity-based.
Similarly, some theories see language mostly as an innate faculty that is largely genetically encoded, while others see it as a system that is largely cultural—that is, learned through social interaction. Currently the only prominent proponent of a discontinuity theory of human language origins is Noam Chomsky.
Continuity-based theories are currently held by a majority of scholars, but they vary in how they envision this development. Those who see language as being mostly innate, such as Steven Pinker, hold the precedents to be animal cognition, whereas those who see language as a socially learned tool of communication, such as Michael Tomasello, see it as having developed from animal communication, either primate gestural or vocal communication. Other continuity-based models see language as having developed from music.
Because the emergence of language is located in the early prehistory of man, the relevant developments have left no direct historical traces and no comparable processes can be observed today. Theories that stress continuity often look at animals to see if, for example, primates display any traits that can be seen as analogous to what pre-human language must have been like. Alternatively early human fossils can be inspected to look for traces of physical adaptation to language use or for traces of pre-linguistic forms of symbolic behaviour. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.02%3A_The_Symbolic_Nature_of_Culture/3.2A%3A_The_Symbolic_Nature_of_Culture.txt |
Language may refer either to the human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such.
Learning Objectives
• Compare the different ways in which language can be studied
Key Points
• The word ” language ” has at least two basic meanings: language as a general concept, and “a language” (a specific linguistic system, e.g. “French”), a distinction first made by Ferdinand de Saussure.
• Languages, understood as the particular set of speech norms of a particular community, are also a part of the larger culture of the community that speak them.
• Humans use language as a way of signalling identity with one cultural group and difference from others.
• The organic definition of language sees language primarily as the mental faculty that allows humans to undertake linguistic behavior–to learn languages and produce and understand utterances.
• The structuralist view of language sees language as a formal system of signs governed by grammatical rules of combination to communicate meaning.
• The functional theory of language sees language as a system of communication that enables humans to cooperate.
• Humans use language as a way of signalling identity with one cultural group and difference from others.
• The organic definition of language sees language primarily as the mental faculty that allows humans to undertake linguistic behaviour: to learn languages and produce and understand utterances. These kinds of definitions are often applied by studies of language within a cognitive science framework and in neurolinguistics.
• The structuralist view of language sees language as a formal system of signs governed by grammatical rules of combination to communicate meaning. This definition stresses the fact that human languages can be described as closed structural systems consisting of rules that relate particular signs to particular meanings.
• The functional theory of language sees language as a system of communication that enables humans to cooperate. This definition stresses the social functions of language and the fact that humans use it to express themselves and to manipulate objects in their environment.
Key Terms
• semiotics: The study of signs and symbols, especially as means of language or communication.
• linguistics: The scientific study of language.
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication. The scientific study of language in any of its senses is called linguistics.
The word language has at least two basic meanings: language as a general concept, and a specific linguistic system (e.g. French). Ferdinand de Saussure first explicitly formulated the distinction, using the French word langage for language as a concept, and langue as the specific instance of language.
One definition sees language primarily as the mental faculty that allows humans to undertake linguistic behaviour–to learn languages and produce and understand utterances. These kinds of definitions are often applied by studies of language within a cognitive science framework and in neurolinguistics.
Another definition sees language as a formal system of signs governed by grammatical rules of combination to communicate meaning. This definition stresses the fact that human languages can be described as closed structural systems consisting of rules that relate particular signs to particular meanings.
Yet another definition sees language as a system of communication that enables humans to cooperate. This definition stresses the social functions of language and the fact that humans use it to express themselves and to manipulate objects in their environment.
When described as a system of symbolic communication, language is traditionally seen as consisting of three parts: signs, meanings, and a code connecting signs with their meanings. The study of how signs and meanings are combined, used, and interpreted is called semiotics.
Languages, understood as the particular set of speech norms of a particular community, are also a part of the larger culture of the community that speaks them. Humans use language as a way of signalling identity with one cultural group and difference from others. Human languages are usually referred to as natural languages, and the science of studying them falls under the purview of linguistics. Human language is unique in comparison to other forms of communication, such as those used by animals, because it allows humans to produce an infinite set of utterances from a finite set of elements. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.02%3A_The_Symbolic_Nature_of_Culture/3.2C%3A_Language.txt |
Various theories assume that language is not simply a representational tool; rather it fundamentally shapes our perception.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Key Points
• The principle of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects the ways in which its speakers conceptualize their world (i.e., world view), or otherwise influences their cognitive processes.
• A main point of debate in the discussion of linguistic relativity is the strength of correlation between language and thought. The strongest form of correlation is linguistic determinism, which holds that language entirely determines an individual’s range of possible cognitive processes.
• The hypothesis of linguistic determinism is now generally agreed to be false, although many researchers still study weaker forms of correlation, often producing positive empirical evidence for a correlation.
• The crucial question is whether human psychological faculties are mostly universal and innate, or whether they are mostly a result of learning, and, therefore, subject to cultural and social processes that vary between places and times.
Key Terms
• Perception: (cognition) That which is detected by the five senses; not necessarily understood (imagine looking through fog, trying to understand if you see a small dog or a cat); also that which is detected within consciousness as a thought, intuition, deduction, etc.
• relativity: The state of being relative to something else.
Various theories assume that language fundamentally shapes our perception. One example is the principle of linguistic relativity. This principle holds that the structure of a language affects the ways in which its speakers conceptualize his or her world (worldview) or otherwise influences their cognitive processes. Popularly known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, or Whorfianism, the principle is often defined as having two versions:
1. The strong version states that language determines thought and emotions/feelings, and linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories
2. The weak version argues that linguistic categories and usage influence thought and certain kinds of non-linguistic behavior.
The concept of linguistic relativity describes different formulations of the principle that cognitive processes, such as thought, emotion/feelings and experience, may be influenced by the categories and patterns of the language a person speaks. Empirical research into the question has been associated mainly with the names of Benjamin Lee Whorf, who wrote on the topic in the 1930s, and his mentor Edward Sapir, who did not himself write extensively on the topic.
A main point of debate in the discussion of linguistic relativity is the strength of correlation between language and thought and emotion/feelings. The strongest form of correlation is linguistic determinism, which holds that language entirely determines the range of possible cognitive processes of an individual. The hypothesis of linguistic determinism is now generally agreed to be false, though many researchers are still studying weaker forms of correlation, often producing positive empirical evidence for a correlation.
On Language and Perception: Cognition and Communication Research Centre film describing recent research on the mapping between language and perception, and whether the language one speaks affects how one thinks.
The centrality of the question of the relation between thought or emotions/feelings and language has brought attention to the issue of linguistic relativity, not only from linguists and psychologists, but also from anthropologists, philosophers, literary theorists, and political scientists. For example, can people experience or feel something they have no word to explain it with?
The crucial question is whether human psychological faculties are mostly universal and innate, or whether they are mostly a result of learning, and, therefore, subject to cultural and social processes that vary between places and times. The Universalist view holds that all humans share the same set of basic faculties, and that variability due to cultural differences is negligible. This position often sees the human mind as mostly a biological construction, so that all humans sharing the same neurological configuration can be expected to have similar or identical basic cognitive patterns.
The contrary position can be described in several ways. The constructivist view holds that human faculties and concepts are largely influenced by socially constructed and learned categories that are not subject to many biological restrictions. The idealist view holds that the human mental capacities are generally unrestricted by their biological-material basis. The essentialist view holds that there may be essential differences in the ways the different individuals or groups experience and conceptualize the world. The relativist position, which basically refers to a kind of Cultural relativism, sees different cultural groups as having different conceptual schemes that are not necessarily compatible or commensurable, nor more or less in accord with the external reality.
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis suggests that language shapes the way we see the world. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.02%3A_The_Symbolic_Nature_of_Culture/3.2D%3A_Language_and_Perception.txt |
Language is a symbolic system of communication based on a complex system of rules relating spoken, signed, or written symbols.
Key Points
• Human language is thought to be fundamentally different from and of much higher complexity than that of other species as it is based on a complex system of rules that result in an indefinite number of possible utterances from a finite number of elements.
• Written languages use visual symbols to represent the sounds of the spoken languages, but they still require syntactic rules that govern the production of meaning from sequences of words.
• Human language differs from communication used by animals because the symbols and grammatical rules of any particular language are largely arbitrary, so that the system can only be acquired through social interaction.
• The study of how signs and meanings are combined, used, and interpreted is called semiotics.
• Signs can be composed of sounds, gestures, letters, or symbols, depending on whether the language is spoken, signed, or written.
• Language is traditionally seen as consisting of three parts: signs, meanings, and a code connecting signs with their meanings.
Key Terms
• semiotics: The study of signs and symbols, especially as means of language or communication.
• human language: Human language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written.
• written language: A written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system.
Language is traditionally thought to consist of three parts: signs, meanings, and a code connecting signs with their meanings. Semiotics is the study of how signs and meanings are combined, used, and interpreted. Signs can consist of sounds, gestures, letters, or symbols, depending on whether the language is spoken, signed, or written.
Language as a whole, therefore, is the human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication. A single language is any specific example of such a system. Language is based on complex rules relating spoken, signed, or written symbols to their meanings. What results is an indefinite number of possible innovative utterances from a finite number of elements.
Human language is thought to be fundamentally different from and of much higher complexity than the communication systems of other species (). Human language differs from communication used by animals () because the symbols and grammatical rules of any particular language are largely arbitrary, meaning that the system can only be acquired through social interaction. ()
Can Parrots Really Talk?: Parrots mimic the sounds of human language, but have they really learned the symbolic system?
Written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language exists only as a complement to a specific spoken language. Written languages use visual symbols to represent the sounds of the spoken languages, but they still require syntactic rules that govern the production of meaning from sequences of words.
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveying sound patterns, uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning. This can involve simultaneously combining hand shapes; orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body; and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker’s thoughts. Sign languages, like spoken languages, organize elementary units into meaningful semantic units. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.02%3A_The_Symbolic_Nature_of_Culture/3.2E%3A_Symbols_and_Nature.txt |
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the role of gestures in the communication process
Key Points
• Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection, often together with body language in addition to spoken words.
• The most familiar categories of gestures are the so-called emblems or quotable gestures. These are conventional, culture -specific gestures that can be used as replacement for words, such as the handwave used in the U.S. for “hello” and “goodbye”.
• Another broad category of gestures comprises those gestures used spontaneously when we speak. These gestures are closely coordinated with speech.
• Gestural languages such as American Sign Language and its regional siblings operate as complete natural languages that are gestural in modality.
• Gesturing is probably universal; there have been no reports of communities that do not gesture. Gestures are a crucial part of everyday conversation such as chatting, describing a route, or negotiating prices on a market.
Key Terms
• gesture: A motion of the limbs or body, especially one made to emphasize speech.
• quotable gestures: Quotable gestures are conventional, culture-specific gestures that can be used as replacement for words.
• gestural languages: A gestural language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning. This can involve simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker’s thoughts.
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together and in parallel with spoken words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body. Gestures differ from physical non-verbal communication that does not communicate specific messages, such as purely expressive displays, proxemics, or displays of joint attention. Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection, often together with body language in addition to spoken words.
The most familiar categories of gestures are the so-called emblems or quotable gestures. These are conventional, culture-specific gestures that can be used as replacement for words, such as the handwave used in the U.S. for “hello” and “goodbye. ” Another broad category of gestures comprises those gestures used spontaneously when we speak. These gestures are closely coordinated with speech. Gestural languages such as American Sign Language and its regional siblings operate as complete natural languages that are gestural.
Many animals, including humans, use gestures to initiate a mating ritual. This may include elaborate dances and other movements. Gestures play a major role in many aspects of human life. Gesturing is probably universal; there have been no reports of communities that do not gesture. Gestures are a crucial part of everyday conversation such as chatting, describing a route, or negotiating prices on a market; they are ubiquitous. Gestures have been documented in the arts such as in Greek vase paintings, Indian Miniatures, and European paintings.
3.2G: Values
Cultures have values that are largely shared by their members, which identify what should be judged as good or evil.
Learning Objectives
• Contrast values and norms
Key Points
• The values of a society can often be identified by noting which people receive honor or respect.
• Values are related to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms.
• Norms are rules for behavior in specific situations, while values identify what should be judged as good or evil.
• Members take part in a culture even if each member’s personal values do not entirely agree with some of the normative values sanctioned in the culture.
• Values clarification is helping people clarify what their lives are for and what is worth working for.
• Cognitive moral education is based on the belief that students should learn to value things like democracy and justice as their moral reasoning develops.
Key Terms
• norm: A rule that is enforced by members of a community.
• culture: The beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life.
• subculture: A portion of a culture distinguished from the larger society around it by its customs or other features.
Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes. Values reflect a person’s sense of right and wrong, or what “ought” to be. Some examples of values are the concepts of “equal rights for all,” “excellence deserves admiration,” and “people should be treated with respect and dignity. ” Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior.
Cultures have values that are largely shared by their members. Different cultures reflect different values. Noting which people receive honor or respect can provide clues to the values of a society. In the US, for example, some professional athletes are honored (in the form of monetary payment) more than college professors.
Values are related to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms. Norms are rules for behavior in specific situations, while values identify what should be judged as good or evil. Flying the national flag on a holiday is a norm, but it reflects the value of patriotism. Wearing dark clothing and appearing solemn are normative behaviors at a funeral; in certain cultures, this reflects the values of respect for and support of friends and family. Different cultures reflect different values.
Members take part in a culture even if each member’s personal values do not entirely agree with some of the normative values sanctioned in the culture. This reflects an individual’s ability to synthesize and extract aspects valuable to them from the multiple subcultures to which they belong. If a group member expresses a value that is in serious conflict with the group’s norms, the group’s authority may encourage conformity or stigmatize the non-conforming behavior of its members. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.02%3A_The_Symbolic_Nature_of_Culture/3.2F%3A_Gestures.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Explain the origin, reinforcement, and significance of social norms in a society or group
Social norms are the explicit or implicit rules specifying acceptable behaviors within a society or group. They define the expected or acceptable behavior in particular circumstances. Social norms can also be defined as the shared ways of thinking, feeling, desiring, deciding, and acting which are observable in regularly repeated behaviors and are adopted because they are assumed to solve problems.
Social norms are neither static nor universal; they change with respect to time and vary with respect to culture, social classes, and social groups. What is deemed acceptable dress, speech, or behavior in one social group may not be acceptable in another.
Deference to social norms maintains one’s acceptance and popularity within a particular group. Social norms can be enforced formally (e.g., through sanctions) or informally (e.g., through body language and non-verbal communication cues). By ignoring or breaking social norms, one risks facing formal sanctions or quiet disapproval, finding oneself unpopular with or ostracized from a group.
As social beings, individuals learn when and where it is appropriate to say certain things, use certain words, discuss certain topics, or wear certain clothes, and when it is not. Groups may adopt norms in two different ways. One form of norm adoption is the formal method, where norms are written down and formally adopted (e.g., laws, legislation, club rules). Social norms are much more likely to be informal and to emerge gradually (e.g., not wearing socks with sandals).
Social Norms of Personal Space: Students demonstrate social norms of personal space by violating the norms. This type of experiment is called a breaching experiment.
Groups internalize norms by accepting them as reasonable and proper standards for behavior within the group. That said, while it is more likely that a new individual entering a group will adopt the group’s norms, values, and perspectives, newcomers to a group can also change a group’s norms.
Key Points
• Norms can be defined as the shared ways of thinking, feeling, desiring, deciding, and acting which are observable in regularly repeated behaviours and are adopted because they are assumed to solve problems.
• Social norms are neither static nor universal; they change with respect to time and vary with respect to culture, social classes, and social groups.
• Social norms can be enforced formally (e.g., through sanctions ) or informally (e.g., through body language and non-verbal communication cues).
• One form of norm adoption is the formal method, where norms are written down and formally adopted. However, social norms are more likely to be informal and emerge gradually (e.g., not wearing socks with sandals).
Key Terms
• social classes: Social class (or simply “class”) is a set of concepts in the social sciences and political theory centered on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories.
• social group: A collection of humans or animals that share certain characteristics, interact with one another, accept expectations and obligations as members of the group, and share a common identity.
• social norms: Social norms are described by sociologists as being laws that govern society’s behaviors. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.02%3A_The_Symbolic_Nature_of_Culture/3.2H%3A_Norms.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Differentiate between methods of formal and informal social control
Sanctions are mechanisms of social control. As opposed to forms of internal control, like cultural norms and values, sociologists consider sanctions a form of external control. Sanctions can either be positive (rewards) or negative (punishment), and can arise from either formal or informal control.
Formal and Informal Sanctions: Societies use formal and informal sanctions to enforce norms.
Informal Social Control and Deviance
The social values present in individuals are products of informal social control. This type of control emerges from society, but is rarely stated explicitly to individuals. Instead, it is expressed and transmitted indirectly, through customs, norms and mores. Whether consciously or not, individuals are socialized. With informal sanctions, ridicule or ostracism can cause a straying individual to realign behavior toward group norms. Informal sanctions may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism, and disapproval. In extreme cases, sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion. If a young boy is caught skipping school, and his peers ostracize him for his deviant behavior, they are exercising an informal sanction on him. Informal sanctions can check deviant behavior of individuals or groups, either through internalization, or through disincentivizing the deviant behavior.
As with formal controls, informal controls reward or punish acceptable or unacceptable behavior, otherwise known as deviance. Informal controls are varied and differ from individual to individual, group to group, and society to society. To maintain control and regulate their subjects, groups, organizations, and societies of various kinds can promulgate rules that act as formal sanctions to reward or punish behavior. For example, in order to regulate behavior, government and organizations use law enforcement mechanisms and other formal sanctions such as fines and imprisonment. Authoritarian organizations and governments may rely on more directly aggressive sanctions. These actions might include censorship, expulsion, restrictions on political freedom, or violence. Typically, these more extreme sanctions emerge in situations where the public disapproves of either the government or organization in question.
Key Points
• Sanctions can either be positive ( rewards ) or negative (punishment).
• Sanctions can arise from either formal or informal control.
• With informal sanctions, ridicule or ostracism can realign a straying individual towards norms. Informal sanctions may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism, and disapproval.
• Groups, organizations, and societies of various kinds can promulgate rules that act as formal sanctions to reward or punish behavior. For example, government and organizations use law enforcement mechanisms and other formal sanctions such as fines and imprisonment.
• To maintain control and regulate their subjects, authoritarian organizations and governments use severe sanctions such as censorship, expulsion, and limits on political freedom.
Key Terms
• social control: any control, either formal or informal, that is exerted by a group, especially by one’s peers
• sanction: a penalty, or some coercive measure, intended to ensure compliance; especially one adopted by several nations, or by an international body
• Informal sanctions: These are the reactions of individuals and groups that bring about conformity to norms and laws. These can include peer and community pressure, bystander intervention in a crime, and collective responses such as citizen patrol groups. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.02%3A_The_Symbolic_Nature_of_Culture/3.2I%3A_Sanctions.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Differentiate between folkways and mores
Societal norms, or rules that are enforced by members of a community, can exist as both formal and informal rules of behavior. Informal norms can be divided into two distinct groups: folkways and mores. Folkways are informal rules and norms that, while not offensive to violate, are expected to be followed. Mores (pronounced more-rays) are also informal rules that are not written, but, when violated, result in severe punishments and social sanction upon the individuals, such as social and religious exclusions,.
William Graham Sumner, an early U.S. sociologist, recognized that some norms are more important to our lives than others. Sumner coined the term mores to refer to norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance. Mores are often seen as taboos; for example, most societies hold the more that adults not engage in sexual relations with children. Mores emphasize morality through right and wrong, and come with heavy consequences if violated.
Sumner also coined the term folkway to refer to norms for more routine or casual interaction. This includes ideas about appropriate greetings and proper dress in different situations. In comparison to the morality of mores, folkways dictate what could be considered either polite or rude behavior. Their violation does not invite any punishment or sanctions, but may come with reprimands or warnings.
An example to distinguish the two: a man who does not wear a tie to a formal dinner party may raise eyebrows for violating folkways; were he to arrive wearing only a tie, he would violate cultural mores and invite a more serious response.
Key Points
• Societal norms, or rules that are enforced by members of a community, can exist as both formal and informal rules of behavior. Informal norms can be divided into two distinct groups: folkways and mores.
• Both “mores” and “folkways” are terms coined by the American sociologist William Graham Sumner.
• Mores distinguish the difference between right and wrong, while folkways draw a line between right and rude. While folkways may raise an eyebrow if violated, mores dictate morality and come with heavy consequences.
Key Terms
• mores: A set of moral norms or customs derived from generally accepted practices. Mores derive from the established practices of a society rather than its written laws.
• William Graham Sumner: An American academic with numerous books and essays on American history, economic history, political theory, sociology, and anthropology.
• folkway: A custom or belief common to members of a society or culture.
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• William Graham Sumner. Provided by: Wikimedia. Located at: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Graham_Sumner.png. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.02%3A_The_Symbolic_Nature_of_Culture/3.2J%3A_Folkways_and_Mores.txt |
Culture is a central concept in anthropology, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be attributed to genetic inheritance.
Learning Objectives
• Paraphrase what is currently thought to be the reason for the development of language and complex culture
Key Points
• The term ” culture ” has two meanings: (1) the evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, and to act creatively; and (2) the distinct ways that people living in different parts of the world acted creatively and classified or represented their experiences.
• Distinctions are currently made between the physical artifacts created by a society, its so-called material culture and everything else, including the intangibles such as language, customs, etc. that are the main referent of the term “culture”.
• The origin of language, understood as the human capacity of complex symbolic communication, and the origin of complex culture are often thought to stem from the same evolutionary process in early man.
• Language and culture both emerged as a means of using symbols to construct social identity and maintain coherence within a social group too large to rely exclusively on the pre-human ways of building community (for example, grooming).
Key Terms
• community: A group sharing a common understanding and often the same language, manners, tradition and law. See civilization.
• horticulture: The art or science of cultivating gardens; gardening.
Culture (Latin: cultura, lit. “cultivation”) is a modern concept based on a term first used in classical antiquity by the Roman orator, Cicero: “cultura animi. ” The term “culture” appeared first in its current sense in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, to connote a process of cultivation or improvement, as in agriculture or horticulture. In the 19th century, the term developed to refer first to the betterment or refinement of the individual, especially through education, and then to the fulfillment of national aspirations or ideals. In the mid-19thcentury, some scientists used the term “culture” to refer to a universal human capacity.
In the 20th century, “culture” emerged as a central concept in anthropology, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be attributed to genetic inheritance. Specifically, the term “culture” in American anthropology had two meanings: (1) the evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols, and to act imaginatively and creatively; and (2) the distinct ways that people living in different parts of the world acted creatively and classified or represented their experiences. Distinctions are currently made between the physical artifacts created by a society, its so-called material culture and everything else, including the intangibles such as language, customs, etc. that are the main referent of the term “culture.”
The origin of language, understood as the human capacity of complex symbolic communication, and the origin of complex culture are often thought to stem from the same evolutionary process in early man. Evolutionary anthropologist Robin I. Dunbar has proposed that language evolved as early humans began to live in large communities that required the use of complex communication to maintain social coherence. Language and culture then both emerged as a means of using symbols to construct social identity and maintain coherence within a social group too large to rely exclusively on pre-human ways of building community (for example, grooming).
However, languages, now understood as the particular set of speech norms of a particular community, are also a part of the larger culture of the community that speak them. Humans use language as a way of signalling identity with one cultural group and difference from others. Even among speakers of one language, several different ways of using the language exist, and each is used to signal affiliation with particular subgroups within a larger culture. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.03%3A_Culture_and_Adaptation/3.3A%3A_The_Origins_of_Culture.txt |
The belief that culture can be passed from one person to another means that cultures, although bounded, can change.
Learning Objectives
• Describe at least two mechanisms which foster cultural change
Key Points
• Cultures are internally affected by both forces encouraging change and forces resisting change. These forces are related to social structures and natural events, and are involved in the perpetuation of cultural ideas and practices within current structures, which are themselves subject to change.
• Cultural change can have many causes, including the environment, technological inventions, and contact with other cultures.
• In diffusion, the form of something (though not necessarily its meaning) moves from one culture to another.
• Acculturation has different meanings, but in this context it refers to replacement of the traits of one culture with those of another, such has happened to certain Native American tribes and to many indigenous peoples across the globe during the process of colonization.
• “Direct Borrowing” on the other hand tends to refer to technological or tangible diffusion from one culture to another.
• Griswold suggests that culture changes through the contextually dependent and socially situated actions of individuals; macro-level culture influences the individual who, in turn, can influence that same culture.
• In anthropology, diffusion theory states that the form of something moves from one culture to another, but not its meaning. Acculturation theory refers to replacement of the traits of one culture with those of another.
Key Terms
• assimilation: The adoption, by a minority group, of the customs and attitudes of the dominant culture.
• habit: An action performed repeatedly and automatically, usually without awareness.
Fundamentally, although bounded, cultures can change. Cultures are internally affected by both forces encouraging change and forces resisting change. These forces are related to social structures and natural events, and are involved in the perpetuation of cultural ideas and practices within current structures, which are themselves subject to change. Resistance can come from habit, religion, and the integration and interdependence of cultural traits. For example, men and women have complementary roles in many cultures. One sex might desire changes that affect the other, as happened in the second half of the 20th century in western cultures (see, for example, the women’s movement), while the other sex may be resistant to that change (possibly in order to maintain a power imbalance in their favor).
Cultural change can have many causes, including the environment, technological inventions, and contact with other cultures. Cultures are externally affected via contact between societies, which may also produce—or inhibit—social shifts and changes in cultural practices. War or competition over resources may impact technological development or social dynamics. Additionally, cultural ideas may transfer from one society to another, through diffusion or acculturation.
Discovery and invention are mechanisms of social and cultural change. Discovery refers to the finding of new knowledge within an existing realm. Generally, it relates to discovering new understanding of a particular behavior or ritual. Invention is the creation of a new device or process. New discoveries often lead to new inventions by people.
In diffusion, the form of something (though not necessarily its meaning) moves from one culture to another. For example, hamburgers, mundane in the United States, seemed exotic when introduced into China. “Stimulus diffusion” (the sharing of ideas) refers to an element of one culture leading to an invention or propagation in another.
Acculturation has different meanings, but in this context it refers to replacement of the traits of one culture with those of another, such has happened to certain Native American tribes and to many indigenous peoples across the globe during the process of colonization. Related processes on an individual level include assimilation (adoption of a different culture by an individual) and transculturation.
3.3C: Cultural Lag
The term “cultural lag” refers to the fact that culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations, resulting in social problems.
Learning Objectives
• Produce an example of cultural lag using an example of the tension between material and non-material culture
Key Points
• Cultural lag is not only a concept, as it also relates to a theory and explanation in sociology.
• It helps identify and explain social problems and also predict future problems.
• According to Ogburn, cultural lag is a common societal phenomenon due to the tendency of material culture to evolve and change rapidly and voluminously while non-material culture tends to resist change and remain fixed for a far longer period of time.
• Due to the opposing nature of these two aspects of culture, adaptation of new technology becomes rather difficult.
Key Terms
• innovation: The act of innovating; the introduction of something new, in customs, rites, and so on.
• material culture: In the social sciences, material culture is a term, developed in the late 19th and early 20th century, that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations.
• non-material culture: In contrast to material culture, non-material culture does not include any physical objects or artifacts. Examples of non-material culture include any ideas, beliefs, values, and norms that may help shape our society.
The term cultural lag refers to the notion that culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations, and that social problems and conflicts are caused by this lag. Cultural lag is not only a concept, as it also relates to a theory and explanation in sociology. Cultural lag helps to identify and explain social problems and to predict future problems.
The term was coined by the sociologist William F. Ogburn in his 1922 work “Social Change with Respect to Culture and Original Nature. ” According to Ogburn, cultural lag is a common societal phenomenon due to the tendency of material culture to evolve and change rapidly while non-material culture tends to resist change and remain fixed for a far longer period of time. His theory of cultural lag suggests that a period of maladjustment occurs when the non-material culture is struggling to adapt to new material conditions.
Due to the opposing nature of these two aspects of culture, adaptation of new technology becomes rather difficult. As explained by James W. Woodward, when material conditions change, changes are felt in the non-material culture as well. But these changes in the non-material culture do not match exactly with the change in the material culture. This delay is the cultural lag.
Cultural lag creates problems for a society in different ways. Cultural lag is seen as a critical ethical issue because failure to develop broad social consensus on appropriate uses of modern technology may lead to breakdowns in social solidarity and the rise of social conflict. The issue of cultural lag tends to permeate any discussion in which the implementation of some new technology can become controversial for society at large. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.03%3A_Culture_and_Adaptation/3.3B%3A_Mechanisms_of_Cultural_Change.txt |
Animal culture refers to cultural learning in non-human animals through socially transmitted behaviors.
Learning Objectives
• Formulate a thesis which defends the idea that non-human animals have culture
Key Points
• Much cultural anthropological research has been done on non-human primates, due to their close evolutionary proximity to humans.
• One of the first signs of culture in early humans was the use of tools. Chimpanzees have been observed using tools such as rocks and sticks to obtain better access to food.
• The acquisition and sharing of behaviors correlates directly to the existence of memes, which are defined as “units of cultural transmission ” by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.
• Though the idea of culture in animals has only been around for just over half of a century, scientists have been noting social behaviors of animals for centuries.
• Aristotle was the first to provide evidence of social learning in the bird songs. Charles Darwin first attempted to find the existence of imitation in animals when trying to prove his theory that the human mind had evolved from that of lower beings.
Key Terms
• meme: Any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.
• social behaviors: In physiology and sociology, social behavior is behavior directed towards society, or taking place between, members of the same species.
• cultural anthropological research: Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities.
Animal culture refers to cultural learning in non-human animals through socially transmitted behaviors. The question of the existence of culture in non-human societies has been a contentious subject for decades due to the inexistence of a concise definition for culture. However, many scientists agree on culture being defined as a process, rather than an end product. This process, most agree, involves the social transmission of a novel behavior, both among peers and between generations. This behavior is shared by a group of animals, but not necessarily between separate groups of the same species.
Tools and Learned Activities
One of the first signs of culture in early humans was the use of tools. Chimpanzees have been observed using tools such as rocks and sticks to obtain better access to food. There are other learned activities that have been exhibited by animals as well. Some examples of these activities that have been shown by varied animals are opening oysters, swimming, washing food, and unsealing tin lids. The acquisition and sharing of behaviors correlates directly to the existence of memes, which are defined as “units of cultural transmission” by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. It especially reinforces the natural selection component. These learned actions are mechanisms for making life easier, and therefore longer.
History of Animal Culture
Though the idea of culture in animals has only been around for just over half of a century, scientists have been noting social behaviors of animals for centuries. Aristotle was the first to provide evidence of social learning in the bird songs. Charles Darwin first attempted to find the existence of imitation in animals when trying to prove his theory that the human mind had evolved from that of lower beings. Darwin was also the first to suggest what became known as ‘social learning’ in explaining the transmission of an adaptive behavior pattern throughout a population of honey bees.
Much cultural anthropological research has been done on non-human primates, due to their close evolutionary proximity to humans. In non-primate animals, research tends to be limited, so the evidence for culture is lacking. The subject has become more popular recently, prompting more research in the field.
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A subculture is a culture shared and actively participated in by a minority of people within a broader culture.
Learning Objectives
• Give examples for subcultures by using Gelder’s proposed criteria
Key Points
• Subcultures incorporate large parts of the broader cultures of which they are part; in specifics they may differ radically.
• The study of subcultures often consists of the study of symbolism attached to clothing, music, and other visible affectations by members of subcultures. Sociologists also study the ways in which these same symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture.
• Cultural appropriation is the process by which businesses often seek to capitalize on the subversive allure of subcultures in search of “cool,” which remains valuable in the selling of any product.
Key Terms
• subculture: A portion of a culture distinguished from the larger society around it by its customs or other features.
• symbolism: Representation of a concept through symbols or underlying meanings of objects or qualities.
• cultural appropriation: Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group.
In sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture that differentiates themselves from the larger culture to which they belong. A culture often contains numerous subcultures, which incorporate large parts of the broader cultures of which they are part; in specifics they may differ radically. Subcultures bring together like-minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and allow them to develop a sense of identity.
Subcultures and Symbolism
The study of subcultures often consists of the study of symbolism attached to clothing, music, and other visible affectations by members of subcultures. Additionally, sociologists study the ways in which these symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture. Some subcultures achieve such a status that they acquire a name. Members of a subculture often signal their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style, which includes fashions, mannerisms, and argot. Examples of subcultures could include bikers, military personnel, and Star Trek fans.
Identifying Subcultures
It may be difficult to identify certain subcultures because their style—particularly clothing and music—may be adopted by mass culture for commercial purposes. Businesses often seek to capitalize on the subversive allure of subcultures in search of “cool,” which remains valuable in selling of any product. This process of cultural appropriation may often result in the death or evolution of the subculture, as its members adopt new styles that appear alien to mainstream society.
In 2007, Ken Gelder proposed six key ways in which subcultures can be identified:
1. Through their often negative relations to work (as ‘idle’, ‘parasitic’, at play or at leisure, etc.)
2. Through their negative or ambivalent relation to class (since subcultures are not ‘class-conscious’ and don’t conform to traditional class definitions)
3. Through their association with territory (the ‘street’, the ‘hood’, the club, etc.), rather than property
4. Through their movement out of the home and into non-domestic forms of belonging (i.e. social groups other than the family)
5. Through their stylistic ties to excess and exaggeration (with some exceptions)
6. Through their refusal of the banalities of ordinary life | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.04%3A_Culture_Worlds/3.4A%3A_Subcultures.txt |
Counterculture is a term describing the values and norms of a cultural group that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day.
Learning Objectives
• Apply the concept of counterculture to the rise and collapse of the US Hippie movement
Key Points
• Examples of countercultures in the U.S. could include the hippie movement of the 1960s, the green movement, polygamists, and feminist groups.
• A counterculture is a subculture with the specific characteristic that some of its beliefs, values, or norms challenge or even contradict those of the main culture with which it shares a geographic region and/or origin.
• Countercultures run counter to dominant cultures and the social mainstream of the day.
Key Terms
• mainstream: Purchased, used, or accepted broadly rather than by a tiny fraction of a population or market; common, usual, or conventional.
• culture: The beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life.
• counterculture: Any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture.
“Counterculture” is a sociological term that refers to a cultural group or subculture whose values and norms of behavior run counter to those of the region’s social mainstream; it can be considered the cultural equivalent of political opposition.
In the United States, the counterculture of the 1960s became identified with the rejection of conventional social norms of the 1950s. Counterculture youth rejected the cultural standards of their parents, especially with respect to racial segregation and initial widespread support for the Vietnam War.
As the 1960s progressed, widespread tensions developed in American society that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the war in Vietnam, race relations, sexual mores, women’s rights, traditional modes of authority, and a materialistic interpretation of the American Dream. Hippies became the largest countercultural group in the United States. The counterculture also had access to a media eager to present their concerns to a wider public. Demonstrations for social justice created far-reaching changes affecting many aspects of society.
The counterculture in the United States lasted from roughly 1964 to 1973 — coinciding with America’s involvement in Vietnam — and reached its peak in 1967, the “Summer of Love. ” The movement divided the country: to some Americans, these attributes reflected American ideals of free speech, equality, world peace, and the pursuit of happiness; to others, the same attributes reflected a self-indulgent, pointlessly rebellious, unpatriotic, and destructive assault on America’s traditional moral order.
The counterculture collapsed circa 1973, and many have attributed its collapse to two major reasons: First, the most popular of its political goals — civil rights, civil liberties, gender equality, environmentalism, and the end of the Vietnam War — were accomplished. Second, a decline of idealism and hedonism occurred as many notable counterculture figures died, the rest settled into mainstream society and started their own families, and the “magic economy” of the 1960s gave way to the stagflation of the 1970s.
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Despite certain consistent values (e.g. individualism, egalitarianism, freedom, democracy), American culture has a variety of expressions.
Learning Objectives
• Defend the notion that America has both consistent values and a variety of expressions
Key Points
• Values are related to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms. Norms are rules for behavior in specific situations, while values identify what should be judged as good or evil.
• American culture includes both conservative and liberal elements, scientific and religious competitiveness, political structures, risk taking and free expression, materialist and moral elements.
• American culture has a variety of expressions due to its geographical scale and demographic diversity.
• Since the late 1970’s, the term ” traditional values ” has become synonymous with ” family values” in the U.S., and implies a congruence with mainstream Christianity. However “family values” is arguably a modern politicized subset of traditional values, which is a larger concept.
Key Terms
• traditional: Of or pertaining to tradition; derived from tradition; communicated from ancestors to descendants by word only; transmitted from age to age without writing; as, traditional opinions; traditional customs; traditional expositions of the Scriptures.
• liberal: Open to political or social changes and reforms associated with either classical or modern liberalism.
• conservative: A person who favors maintenance of the status quo or reversion to some earlier status.
Cultures have values that are largely shared by their members. The values of a society can often be identified by noting that which people receive, honor or respect.
Values are related to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms. Norms are rules for behavior in specific situations, while values identify what should be judged as either good or evil. Flying the national flag on a holiday is a norm, but it reflects the value of patriotism. Wearing dark clothing and appearing solemn are normative behaviors at a funeral; in certain cultures, they reflect the values of respect and support for friends and family.
Different cultures reflect different values. American culture includes both conservative and liberal elements, such as scientific and religious competitiveness, political structures, risk taking and free expression, materialist and moral elements. Aside from certain consistent ideological principles (e.g. individualism, egalitarianism and faith in freedom and democracy ), American culture’s geographical scale and demographic diversity has spawned a variety of expressions. The flexibility of U.S. culture and its highly symbolic nature lead some researchers to categorize American culture as a mythic identity, while others recognize it as American exceptionalism.
Since the late 1970’s, the terms “traditional values” and”family values” have become synonymous in the U.S., and imply a congruence with mainstream Christianity. However, the term “family values” is arguably a modern politicized subset of traditional values, which is a larger concept, anthropologically speaking. Although It is also not necessarily a political idea, it has become associated with both the particular correlation between Evangelicalism and politics (as embodied by American politicians such as Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle and George W. Bush), as well as the broader Christianity movement (as exemplified by Pat Robertson). | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.05%3A_Culture_and_the_Dominant_Ideology_in_the_U.S./3.5A%3A_An_Overview_of_U.S._Values.txt |
People from different backgrounds tend to have different value systems, which cluster together into a more or less consistent system.
Learning Objectives
• Evaluate the separation of world values into the categories of ‘self-expression’ and ‘survival’
Key Points
• The World Values Survey is used to identify different clusters of values around the world.
• Traditional and survival values tend to cluster in developing countries.
• With industrialization, countries shift from traditional to secular values.
• With the rise of knowledge economies, countries tend to shift from survival to self-expression values.
• With the rise of knowledge economies, countries tend to shift from survival to self-expression values.
Key Terms
• Secular Values: Secular values, as opposed to traditional values, base morality on human faculties such as logic, reason, or moral intuition, rather than on purported supernatural revelation or guidance (which is the source of religious ethics).
• Traditional Values: Traditional values emphasize the importance of religion, parent-child ties, deference to authority and traditional family values. People who embrace these values also reject divorce, abortion, euthanasia, and suicide. These societies have high levels of national pride and a nationalistic outlook.
People from different backgrounds tend to have different sets of values, or value systems. Certain values may cluster together into a more or less consistent system. A communal or cultural value system is held by and applied to a community, group, or society. Some communal value systems are reflected in legal codes and laws.
World Values Survey
Some sociologists are interested in better defining and measuring value clusters in different countries. To do so, they have developed what is called the World Values Survey, a survey of questions given to people around the world and used to identify different clusters of values in different regions. Over the years, the World Values Survey has demonstrated that people’s beliefs play a key role in defining life in different countries—defining anything from a nation’s economic development to the emergence of democratic institutions to the rise of gender equality.
Trends
In general, the World Values Survey has revealed two major axes along which values cluster: (1) a continuum from traditional to secular values and (2) a continuum from survival to self-expression. Traditional values emphasize the importance of religion, parent-child ties, deference to authority, and traditional family values. People who embrace these values also reject divorce, abortion, euthanasia, and suicide. These societies have high levels of national pride and a nationalistic outlook. Secular values have the opposite preferences to the traditional values. These societies place less emphasis on religion, traditional family values, and authority. Divorce, abortion, euthanasia, and suicide are seen as relatively acceptable. Industrialization tends to bring a shift from traditional values to secular ones.
With the rise of the knowledge society, cultural change moves in a new direction. The transition from industrial society to knowledge society is linked to a shift from survival values to self-expression values. In knowledge societies, such as the United States, an increasing share of the population has grown up taking survival for granted. Survival values place emphasis on economic and physical security. It is linked with a relatively ethnocentric outlook and low levels of trust and tolerance. Self-expression values give high priority to environmental protection; tolerance of foreigners, gays, and lesbians; gender equality; and participation in decision-making as it relates to economic and political life. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.05%3A_Culture_and_the_Dominant_Ideology_in_the_U.S./3.5B%3A_Value_Clusters.txt |
Although various values often reinforce one another, these clusters of values may also include values that contradict one another.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze a scenario in which a value system, either individual or collective, is shown to be internally inconsistent, and then resolve the conflict
Key Points
• Value systems may contain value contradictions. A value system by itself is internally inconsistent if its values contradict each other, and its exceptions are highly situational and inconsistently applied.
• Value contradictions can also arise within systems of personal or communal values.
• Often, conflicts arise due to value systems contradictions. Society tries to resolve value contradictions in order to reduce conflict.
• Society tries to resolve value contradictions.
Key Terms
• Value Contradictions: A value system by itself is internally inconsistent or contradictory if its values contradict each other, and its exceptions are highly situational and inconsistently applied.
• Value Consistency: A value system in its own right is internally consistent when its values do not contradict each other, and its exceptions are abstract enough to be used in all situations and consistently applied.
• Communal Values: A communal or cultural value system is held by and applied to a community/ group/society. Some communal value systems are reflected in the form of legal codes or law.
Although value clusters generally work together so that various values reinforce one another, at times, these clusters of values may also include values that contradict one another. Value contradictions can arise between individual and communal value systems. That is, as a member of a society, group, or community, an individual can hold both a personal value system and a communal value system at the same time. In this case, the two value systems (one personal and one communal) are externally consistent provided they bear no contradictions or situational exceptions between them.
Value contradictions can also arise within individual or communal value systems. A value system is internally consistent (value consistency) when its values do not contradict each other and its exceptions are abstract enough to be used in all situations and consistently applied. Conversely, a value system by itself is internally inconsistent if its values contradict each other and its exceptions are highly situational and inconsistently applied. A value contradiction could be based on a difference in how people rank the value of things, or on fundamental value conflict. For example, although sharing a set of common values, such as hockey is better than baseball or ice cream is better than fruit, two different parties might not rank those values equally. Also, two parties might disagree as to whether certain actions are right or wrong, both in theory and in practice, and find themselves in an ideological or physical conflict.
Personal value contradictions: Individuals may have inconsistent personal values. For example, Donald Trump claims to be pro-life and also an avid supporter of the death penalty.
Conflicts are often a result of differing value systems. An example conflict would be a value system based on individualism pitted against a value system based on collectivism. A rational value system organized to resolve the conflict between two such value systems might take this form: Individuals may act freely unless their actions harm others or interfere with others’ freedom or with functions of society that individuals need, provided those functions do not themselves interfere with these proscribed individual rights and were agreed to by a majority of the individuals. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.05%3A_Culture_and_the_Dominant_Ideology_in_the_U.S./3.5C%3A_Value_Contradictions.txt |
Values tend to change over time, and the dominant values in a country might shift as that country undergoes economic and social change.
Learning Objectives
• Criticize materialist values for the sake of argument
Key Points
• Millennials and Baby Boomers grew up under different conditions and therefore have different values.
• People who grow up worrying about meeting their basic material needs will tend to have materialist values that emphasize survival and meeting basic needs.
• People who grow up without having to worry about meeting basic material needs will tend to have post-materialist values such as self-expression.
Key Terms
• autonomy: Self-government; freedom to act or function independently.
• values: A collection of guiding principles; what one deems to be correct and desirable in life, especially regarding personal conduct.
Values tend to change over time. The dominant values in a country may shift as that country undergoes economic and social change. Often, such value change can be observed in generational differences. For example, most young adults today share similar values. They are sometimes referred to as Generation Y or Milliennials. This generation was born in the 1980s and 1990s, and raised in a much more technologically advanced environment.
Milliennials tend to have different values than the previous generation. Some common, notable tendencies are:
• wanting to “make a difference” or have purpose
• wanting to balance work with the rest of life
• excessive seeking of fun and variety
• questioning authority or refusal to respond to authority without “good reason”
• unlimited ambition coupled with overly demanding, confrontational personality
• lack of commitment in the face of unmet expectations
• extreme sense of loyalty to family, friends, and self
By contrast, their parents or grandparents tend to belong to the Baby Boom generation, born between 1946 and 1964. Baby Boomers did not grow up with the same technologies as today’s youth. Instead, they came of age during the 1960s and 1970s, and their values were often formed in support of or reaction to the political and social issues of the time. Whereas the generation before the Baby Boom was concerned with economic and physical security, Boomers tend to have what are referred to as post-materialist values.
Post-materialist values emphasize non-material values like freedom and the ability to express oneself. The rising prosperity of the post-WWII years fostered these values by liberating people from the overriding concern for material security. Sociologists explain the rise of post-materialist values in two ways. First, they argue that individuals pursue various goals in order of basic necessity. While people may universally aspire to freedom and autonomy, the most pressing material needs like hunger, thirst, and physical security have to be satisfied first, since they are immediately linked with survival. These materialistic goals will have priority over post-materialist goals like belonging, esteem, and aesthetic and intellectual satisfaction. Once satisfaction has been achieved from these material survival needs, focus will gradually shift to the nonmaterial.
Second, sociologists suggest that people’s basic values are largely fixed when they reach adulthood, and change relatively little thereafter. For example, those who experience economic scarcity in childhood may as adults place a high value on meeting economic needs (such as valuing economic growth above protecting the environment) and on safety needs (such as supporting more authoritarian styles of leadership or exhibiting strong feelings of national pride—e.g., maintaining a strong army or willingness to sacrifice civil liberties for the sake of law and order). On the other hand, those who mainly experienced sustained material affluence during youth might give high priority to values such as individual improvement, personal freedom, citizen input in government decisions, the ideal of a society based on humanism, and maintaining a clean and healthy environment. Because values are set when people are young, value change can be slow. The values we see emerging today may depend on material conditions nearly a generation ago. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.05%3A_Culture_and_the_Dominant_Ideology_in_the_U.S./3.5D%3A_Emerging_Values.txt |
In American usage, “culture war” refers to the claim that there is a conflict between those conservative and liberal values.
Learning Objectives
• Support the notion of a culture war by giving an example from your own contemporary society
Key Points
• A culture war is a struggle between two sets of conflicting cultural values.
• Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci argued for a culture war in which anti-capitalist elements seek to gain a dominant voice in the mass media, education, and other mass institutions.
• Members of the religious right accused their political opponents of undermining tradition, Western civilization, and family values.
• James Davison Hunter argued that on an increasing number of “hot-button” defining issues, such as abortion, gun politics, separation of church and state, privacy, recreational drug use, homosexuality, and censorship issues, there existed two definable polarities.
• James Davison Hunter argued that on an increasing number of “hot-button” defining issues — abortion, gun politics, separation of church and state, privacy, recreational drug use, homosexuality, censorship issues — there existed two definable polarities.
Key Terms
• progressive: Favoring or promoting progress; advanced.
• religious right: The religious or Christian right is a term used in the United States to describe right-wing Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies. Christian conservatives principally seek to apply their understanding of the teachings of Christianity to politics and public policy by proclaiming the value of those teachings and/or by seeking to use those teachings to influence law and public policy.
• kulturkampf: A conflict between secular and religious authorities, especially the struggle between the Roman Catholic Church and the German government under Bismarck.
A culture war is a struggle between two sets of conflicting cultural values. This can be framed to describe west versus east, rural versus urban, or traditional values versus progressive secularism. The concept of a culture war has been in use in English since at least its adoption as a calque (loan translation) to refer to the German “Kulturkampf.”
Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci presented in the 1920s a theory of cultural hegemony. He stated that a culturally diverse society can be dominated by one class who has a monopoly over the mass media and popular culture, and Gramsci argued for a culture war in which anti-capitalist elements seek to gain a dominant voice in the mass media, education, and other mass institutions.
As an American phenomenon, it originated in the 1920s when urban and rural American values came into clear conflict. In American usage, the term culture war is used to claim that there is a conflict between those values considered traditionalist or conservative and those considered progressive or liberal. In the 1980s, the culture war in America was characterized by the conservative climate during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Members of the religious right often criticized academics and artists, and their works, in a struggle against what they considered indecent, subversive, and blasphemous. They often accused their political opponents of undermining tradition, Western civilization and family values.
The expression was introduced again by the 1991 publication of Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America by James Davison Hunter, a sociologist at the University of Virginia. Hunter described what he saw as a dramatic realignment and polarization that had transformed American politics and culture. He argued that on an increasing number of “hot-button” defining issues, such as abortion, gun politics, separation of church and state, privacy, recreational drug use, homosexuality, and censorship issues, there existed two definable polarities. Furthermore, not only were there a number of divisive issues, but society had divided along essentially the same lines on these issues, so as to constitute two warring groups, defined primarily not by religion, ethnicity, social class, or even political affiliation, but rather by ideological world views. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.05%3A_Culture_and_the_Dominant_Ideology_in_the_U.S./3.5E%3A_Culture_Wars.txt |
Cultures hold values that are largely shared by their members, thereby binding members together.
Learning Objectives
• Compose a scenario which illustrates a potential clash between personal and cultural/societal values
Key Points
• Values and value systems are guidelines that determine what is important in a society, reflecting a person’s sense of right and wrong, or what “ought” to be.
• Types of values include ethical/moral value, doctrinal/ideological (religious or political) values, social values, and aesthetic values.
• While a personal value system is held by and applied to one individual only, a communal or cultural value system is held by and applied to a community / group /society.
• Cultures have values that are largely shared by their members, thereby binding members together. Members take part in a culture even if each member’s personal values do not entirely agree with some of the normative values sanctioned in the culture.
• Values are related to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms.
• Values can act as blinders if people take their own personal values (or their society’s values) as universal truths and fail to recognize the diversity of values held across people and societies.
Key Terms
• value system: a set of consistent personal and cultural values used for the purpose of ethical or ideological integrity.
• value: The degree of importance given to something.
Values and value systems are guidelines that determine what is important in a society. They can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes. Values reflect a person’s sense of right and wrong, or what “ought” to be. “Equal rights for all,” “Excellence deserves admiration,” and “People should be treated with respect and dignity” are representative of values. Types of values include ethical/moral value, doctrinal/ideological (religious, political, etc.) values, social values, and aesthetic values.
Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior. For example, if you value equal rights for all and you work for an organization that treats some employees markedly better than others, this may cause internal conflict. A value system is a set of consistent personal and cultural values used for the purpose of ethical or ideological integrity. While a personal value system is held by and applied to one individual only, a communal or cultural value system is held by and applied to a community/group/society. Some communal value systems are reflected in the form of legal codes or law. As a member of a society, group, or community, an individual can hold both a personal value system and a communal value system at the same time. In this case, the two value systems (one personal and one communal) are externally consistent provided they bear no contradictions or situational exceptions between them.
Cultures have values that are largely shared by their members, thereby binding members together. Members take part in a culture even if each member’s personal values do not entirely agree with some of the normative values sanctioned in the culture. This reflects an individual’s ability to synthesize and extract aspects valuable to them from the multiple subcultures to which they belong. Values vary across individuals and cultures, and change over time; in many ways, they are aligned with belief and belief systems. Noting which people receive honor or respect can often identify the values of a society. In the US, for example, professional athletes at the top levels in some sports are honored (in the form of monetary payment) more than college professors. Surveys show that voters in the United States would be reluctant to elect an atheist as a president, suggesting that belief in God is a value.
Values are related to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms. Normsare rules for behavior in specific situations, while values identify what should be judged as right or wrong. Flying the national flag on a holiday is a norm, but it reflects the value of patriotism. Wearing dark clothing and appearing solemn are normative behaviors at a funeral. In certain cultures, they reflect the values of respect and support of friends and family. If a group member expresses a value that is in serious conflict with the group’s norms, the group’s authority may carry out various ways of encouraging conformity or stigmatizing the non-conforming behavior of its members. For example, transgender individuals hold the value of freedom to identify and express their gender as they choose; however this value is not shared by much of society, and discriminatory laws and practices prevent this freedom.
Values can act as blinders if people take their own personal values (or their society’s values) as universal truths and fail to recognize the diversity of values held across people and societies. They may believe their values determine the only way to understand and act in the world, when, in fact, different people and different societies may have widely divergent values. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.05%3A_Culture_and_the_Dominant_Ideology_in_the_U.S./3.5F%3A_Values_as_Binders.txt |
Any given culture contains a set of values that determine what is important to the society; these values can be idealized or realized.
Learning Objectives
• Compare the idea of an idealized and a realized value system
Key Points
• Ideal values are absolute; they bear no exceptions. These values can be codified as a strict set of proscriptions on behavior.
• A realized value system contains exceptions to resolve the contradictions between ideal values and practical realities in everyday circumstances.
• Whereas we might refer to ideal values when listing American values (or even our own values), the values that we uphold in daily life tend to be real values.
Key Terms
• real values: values that contain exceptions to resolve the contradictions inherent between ideal values and practical realities.
• ideal values: absolute values that bear no exceptions and can be codified as a strict set of proscriptions on behavior.
Any given culture contains a set of values and value systems that determine what is important to the society as a whole. When we talk about American values, we often have in mind a set of ideal values. Ideal values are absolute; they bear no exceptions. These values can be codified as a strict set of proscriptions on behavior, and those who hold to their idealized value system and claim no exceptions are often referred to as absolutists.
An example of an ideal value is the idea of marriage and monogamy based on romantic love. In reality, many marriages are based on things other than romantic love (such as money, convenience, or social expectation), and many end in divorce. While monogamous marriages based on romantic love certainly do exist, such marriages are not universal, despite our value ideals.
Few things in life exist without exception. Along with every value system comes exceptions to those values. Abstract exceptions serve to reinforce the ranking of values; their definitions are generalized enough to be relevant to any and all situations. Situational exceptions, on the other hand, are ad hoc and pertain only to specific situations. With these exceptions, real values emerge. A realized value system, as opposed to an ideal value system, contains exceptions to resolve the contradictions between ideal values and practical realities in everyday circumstances.
Whereas we might refer to ideal values when listing American values (or even our own values), the values that we uphold in daily life tend to be real values. The difference between these two types of systems can be seen when people state that they hold one value system, yet in practice deviate from it, thus holding a different value system. For example, a religion lists an absolute set of values, while the practice of that religion may include exceptions.
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• Bride and groom signing the book. Provided by: Wikimedia. Located at: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bride_and_groom_signing_the_book.jpg. License: CC BY: Attribution | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/03%3A_Culture/3.05%3A_Culture_and_the_Dominant_Ideology_in_the_U.S./3.5G%3A_Ideal_vs._Real_Culture.txt |
Socialization prepares people for social life by teaching them a group’s shared norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the three goals of socialization and why each is important
Key Points
• Socialization prepares people to participate in a social group by teaching them its norms and expectations.
• Socialization has three primary goals: teaching impulse control and developing a conscience, preparing people to perform certain social roles, and cultivating shared sources of meaning and value.
• Socialization is culturally specific, but this does not mean certain cultures are better or worse than others.
Key Terms
• socialization: The process of learning one’s culture and how to live within it.
• Jeffrey J. Arnett: In his 1995 paper, “Broad and Narrow Socialization: The Family in the Context of a Cultural Theory,” sociologist Jeffrey J. Arnett outlined his interpretation of the three primary goals of socialization.
• norm: A rule that is enforced by members of a community.
The role of socialization is to acquaint individuals with the norms of a given social group or society. It prepares individuals to participate in a group by illustrating the expectations of that group.
Socialization is very important for children, who begin the process at home with family, and continue it at school. They are taught what will be expected of them as they mature and become full members of society. Socialization is also important for adults who join new social groups. Broadly defined, it is the process of transferring norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors to future group members.
Three Goals of Socialization
In his 1995 paper, “Broad and Narrow Socialization: The Family in the Context of a Cultural Theory,” sociologist Jeffrey J. Arnett outlined his interpretation of the three primary goals of socialization. First, socialization teaches impulse control and helps individuals develop a conscience. This first goal is accomplished naturally: as people grow up within a particular society, they pick up on the expectations of those around them and internalize these expectations to moderate their impulses and develop a conscience. Second, socialization teaches individuals how to prepare for and perform certain social roles—occupational roles, gender roles, and the roles of institutions such as marriage and parenthood. Third, socialization cultivates shared sources of meaning and value. Through socialization, people learn to identify what is important and valued within a particular culture.
The term “socialization” refers to a general process, but socialization always takes place in specific contexts. Socialization is culturally specific: people in different cultures are socialized differently, to hold different beliefs and values, and to behave in different ways. Sociologists try to understand socialization, but they do not rank different schemes of socialization as good or bad; they study practices of socialization to determine why people behave the way that they do.
4.1B: Nature vs. Nurture- A False Debate
Is nature (an individual’s innate qualities) or nurture (personal experience) more important in determining physical and behavioral traits?
Learning Objectives
• Discuss both sides of the nature versus nurture debate, understanding the implications of each
Key Points
• Nature refers to innate qualities like human nature or genetics.
• Nurture refers to care given to children by parents or, more broadly, to environmental influences such as media and marketing.
• The nature versus nurture debate raises philosophical questions about determinism and free will.
Key Terms
• nurture: The environmental influences that contribute to the development of an individual; see also nature.
• nature: The innate characteristics of a thing. What something will tend by its own constitution, to be or do. Distinct from what might be expected or intended.
• determinism: The doctrine that all actions are determined by the current state and immutable laws of the universe, with no possibility of choice.
The nature versus nurture debate rages over whether an individual’s innate qualities or personal experiences are more important in determining physical and behavioral traits.
In the social and political sciences, the nature versus nurture debate may be compared with the structure versus agency debate, a similar discussion over whether social structure or individual agency (choice or free will) is more important for determining individual and social outcomes.
Historically, the “nurture” in the nature versus nurture debate has referred to the care parents give to children. But today, the concept of nurture has expanded to refer to any environmental factor – which may arise from prenatal, parental, extended family, or peer experiences, or even from media, marketing, and socioeconomic status. Environmental factors could begin to influence development even before it begins: a substantial amount of individual variation might be traced back to environmental influences that affect prenatal development.
The “nature” in the nature versus nurture debate generally refers to innate qualities. In historical terms, nature might refer to human nature or the soul. In modern scientific terms, it may refer to genetic makeup and biological traits. For example, researchers have long studied twins to determine the influence of biology on personality traits. These studies have revealed that twins, raised separately, still share many common personality traits, lending credibility to the nature side of the debate. However, sample sizes are usually small, so generalization of the results must be done with caution.
The nature versus nurture debate conjures deep philosophical questions about free will and determinism. The “nature” side may be criticized for implying that we behave in ways in which we are naturally inclined, rather than in ways we choose. Similarly, the “nurture” side may be criticized for implying that we behave in ways determined by our environment, not ourselves.
Of course, sociologists point out that our environment is, at least in part, a social creation. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.01%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.1A%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization.txt |
Sociobiology examines and explains social behavior based on biological evolution.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the concept of sociobiology in relation to natural selection and Charles Darwin, as well as genetics and instinctive behaviors
Key Points
• Sociobiologists believe that human behavior, like nonhuman animal behavior, can be partly explained as the outcome of natural selection.
• Sociobiologists are interested in instinctive, or intuitive behavior, and in explaining the similarities, rather than the differences, between cultures.
• Many critics draw an intellectual link between sociobiology and biological determinism, the belief that most human differences can be traced to specific genes rather than differences in culture or social environments.
Key Terms
• biological determinism: The hypothesis that biological factors such as an organism’s genes (as opposed to social or environmental factors) determine psychological and behavioral traits.
• natural selection: A process by which heritable traits conferring survival and reproductive advantage to individuals, or related individuals, tend to be passed on to succeeding generations and become more frequent in a population, whereas other less favorable traits tend to become eliminated.
• sociobiology: The science that applies the principles of evolutionary biology to the study of social behavior in both humans and animals.
Sociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behavior has resulted from evolution. It attempts to explain and examine social behavior within that context. Often considered a branch of biology and sociology, it also draws from ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, population genetics, and other disciplines. Within the study of human societies, sociobiology is very closely allied to the fields of Darwinian anthropology, human behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology. While the term “sociobiology” can be traced to the 1940s, the concept didn’t gain major recognition until 1975 with the publication of Edward O. Wilson’s book, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis.
Sociobiologists believe that human behavior, like nonhuman animal behavior, can be partly explained as the outcome of natural selection. They contend that in order to fully understand behavior, it must be analyzed in terms of evolutionary considerations. Natural selection is fundamental to evolutionary theory. Variants of hereditary traits, which increase an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce, are more likely to be passed on to subsequent generations. Thus, inherited behavioral mechanisms that allowed an organism a greater chance of surviving and reproducing in the past are more likely to survive in present organisms.
Following this evolutionary logic, sociobiologists are interested in how behavior can be explained as a result of selective pressures in the history of a species. Thus, they are often interested in instinctive, or intuitive behavior, and in explaining the similarities, rather than the differences, between cultures. Sociobiologists reason that common behaviors likely evolved over time because they made individuals who exhibited those behaviors more likely to survive and reproduce.
Many critics draw an intellectual link between sociobiology and biological determinism, the belief that most human differences can be traced to specific genes rather than differences in culture or social environments. Critics also see parallels between sociobiology and biological determinism as a philosophy underlying the social Darwinian and eugenics movements of the early 20th century as well as controversies in the history of intelligence testing. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.01%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.1C%3A_Sociobiology.txt |
Social deprivation, or prevention from culturally normal interaction with society, affects mental health and impairs child development.
Learning Objectives
• Explain why social deprivation is problematic for a person (especially children) and the issues it can lead to
Key Points
• As they develop, humans go through several critical periods, or windows of time during which they need to experience particular environmental stimuli in order to develop properly.
• Feral children provide an example of the effects of severe social deprivation during critical developmental periods.
• Attachment theory argues that infants must develop stable, on-going relationships with at least one adult caregiver in order to form a basis for successful development.
• The term maternal deprivation is a catch phrase summarizing the early work of psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby on the effects of separating infants and young children from their mother.
• In United States law, the “tender years” doctrine was long applied when custody of infants and toddlers was preferentially given to mothers.
Key Terms
• feral children: A feral child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language.
• Attachment Theory: Attachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally.
• Social deprivation: In instances of social deprivation, particularly for children, social experiences tend to be less varied and development may be delayed or hindered.
Humans are social beings, and social interaction is essential to normal human development. Social deprivation occurs when an individual is deprived of culturally normal interaction with the rest of society. Certain groups of people are more likely to experience social deprivation. For example, social deprivation often occurs along with a broad network of correlated factors that all contribute to social exclusion; these factors include mental illness, poverty, poor education, and low socioeconomic status.
By observing and interviewing victims of social deprivation, research has provided an understanding of how social deprivation is linked to human development and mental illness. As they develop, humans pass through critical periods, or windows of time during which they need to experience particular environmental stimuli in order to develop properly. But when individuals experience social deprivation, they miss those critical periods. Thus, social deprivation may delay or hinder development, especially for children.
Feral children provide an example of the effects of severe social deprivation during critical developmental periods. Feral children are children who grow up without social interaction. In some cases, they may have been abandoned early in childhood and grown up in the wilderness. In other cases, they may have been abused by parents who kept them isolated from other people. In several recorded cases, feral children failed to develop language skills, had only limited social understanding, and could not be rehabilitated.
Attachment theory may explain why social deprivation has such dire effects for children. According to attachment theory, an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally.
Attachment Theory: This film provides an explanation of John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory.
Maternal Deprivation: The idea that separation from the female caregiver has profound effects is one with considerable resonance outside the conventional study of child development.
Maternal Deprivation: This clip is of footage from a 1952 study on maternal deprivation that found babies suffer emotional damage when separated from their mothers | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.01%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.1D%3A_Deprivation_and_Development.txt |
Social isolation refers to a complete or near-complete lack of contact with society, which can affect all aspects of a person’s life.
Learning Objectives
• Interpret why social isolation can be problematic for a person in society and the importance of social connections
Key Points
• True social isolation is not the same as loneliness. It is often a chronic condition that persists for years and affects all aspects of a person’s existence.
• Emotional isolation is a term used to describe a state of isolation where the individual is emotionally isolated, but may have a well functioning social network.
• Social networks promote good health by providing direct support, encouraging healthy behaviors, and linking people with diffuse social networks that facilitate access to a wide range of resources supportive of health.
• Sociologists debate whether new technologies, such as the Internet and mobile phones, exacerbate social isolation or encourage it.
• A widely-held hypothesis is that social ties link people with diffuse social networks that facilitate access to a wide range of resources supportive of health.
Key Terms
• emotional isolation: Emotional isolation is a term used to describe a state of isolation where the individual is emotionally isolated, but may have a well functioning social network.
• social network: The web of a person’s social, family, and business contacts, who provide material and social resources and opportunities.
• social isolation: Social isolation refers to a complete or near-complete lack of contact with society. It is usually involuntary, making it distinct from isolating tendencies or actions taken by an individual who is seeking to distance himself from society.
Social isolation occurs when members of a social species (like humans) have complete or near-complete lack of contact with society. Social isolation is usually imposed involuntary, not chosen. Social isolation is not the same as loneliness rooted in temporary lack of contact with other humans, nor is it the same as isolating actions that might be consciously undertaken by an individual. A related phenomenon, emotional isolation may occur when individuals are emotionally isolated, even though they may have well-functioning social networks.
While loneliness is often fleeting, true social isolation often lasts for years or decades and tends to be a chronic condition that affects all aspects of a person’s existence and can have serious consequences for health and well being. Socially isolated people have no one to turn to in personal emergencies, no one to confide in during a crisis, and no one against whom to measure their own behavior against or from whom to learn etiquette or socially acceptable behavior. Social isolation can be problematic at any age, although it has different effects for different age groups (that is, social isolation for children may have different effects than social isolation for adults, although both age groups may experience it).
Social isolation can be dangerous because the vitality of individuals’ social relationships affect their health. Social contacts influence individuals’ behavior by encouraging health-promoting behaviors, such as adequate sleep, diet, exercise, and compliance with medical regimens or by discouraging health-damaging behaviors, such as smoking, excessive eating, alcohol consumption, or drug abuse. Socially isolated individuals lack these beneficial influences, as well as lacking a social support network that can provide help and comfort in times of stress and distress. Social relationships can also connect people with diffuse social networks that facilitate access to a wide range of resources supportive of health, such as medical referral networks, access to others dealing with similar problems, or opportunities to acquire needed resources via jobs, shopping, or financial institutions. These effects are different from receiving direct support from a friend; instead, they are based on the ties that close social ties provide to more distant connections.
Sociologists debate whether new technologies, such as the Internet and mobile phones exacerbate social isolation or could help overcome it. With the advent of online social networking communities, people have increasing options for engaging in social activities that do not require real-world physical interaction. Chat rooms, message boards, and other types of communities are now meeting social needs for those who would rather stay home alone, yet still develop communities of online friends. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.01%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.1E%3A_Isolation_and_Development.txt |
A feral child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze the differences between the fictional and real-life depictions of feral children
Key Points
• Legendary and fictional feral children are often depicted as growing up with relatively normal human intelligence and skills and an innate sense of culture or civilization.
• In reality, feral children lack the basic social skills that are normally learned in the process of enculturation. They almost always have impaired language ability and mental function. These impairments highlight the role of socialization in human development.
• The impaired ability to learn language after having been isolated for so many years is often attributed to the existence of a critical period for language learning, and is taken as evidence in favor of the critical period hypothesis.
Key Terms
• enculturation: The process by which an individual adopts the behaviour patterns of the culture in which he or she is immersed.
• critical period: A critical period refers to the window of time during which a human needs to experience a particular environmental stimulus in order for proper development to occur.
• feral child: A child who is raised without human contact as a result of being abandoned, allegedly often raised by wild animals.
A feral child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no (or little) experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language. Some feral children have been confined in isolation by other people, usually their own parents. In some cases, this child abandonment was due to the parents rejecting a child’s severe intellectual or physical impairment. Feral children may have experienced severe child abuse or trauma before being abandoned or running away.
Depictions of Feral Children
Myths, legends, and fictional stories have depicted feral children reared by wild animals such as wolves and bears. Legendary and fictional feral children are often depicted as growing up with relatively normal human intelligence and skills and an innate sense of culture or civilization, coupled with a healthy dose of survival instincts. Their integration into human society is also made to seem relatively easy. These mythical children are often depicted as having superior strength, intelligence, and morals compared to “normal” humans. The implication is that because of their upbringing they represent humanity in a pure and uncorrupted state, similar to the noble savage.
Feral Children in Reality
In reality, feral children lack the basic social skills that are normally learned in the process of enculturation. For example, they may be unable to learn to use a toilet, have trouble learning to walk upright, and display a complete lack of interest in the human activity around them. They often seem mentally impaired and have almost insurmountable trouble learning human language. The impaired ability to learn language after having been isolated for so many years is often attributed to the existence of a critical period for language learning at an early age, and is taken as evidence in favor of the critical period hypothesis. It is theorized that if language is not developed, at least to a degree, during this critical period, a child can never reach his or her full language potential. The fact that feral children lack these abilities pinpoints the role of socialization in human development.
Examples of Feral Children
Famous examples of feral children include Ibn Tufail’s Hayy, Ibn al-Nafis’ Kamil, Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan, J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, and the legends of Atalanta, Enkidu and Romulus and Remus. Tragically, feral children are not just fictional. Several cases have been discovered in which caretakers brutally isolated their children and in doing so prevented normal development.
A real-life example of a feral child is Danielle Crockett, known as “The Girl in the Window”. The officer who found Danielle reported it was “the worst case of child neglect he had seen in 27 years”. Doctors and therapists diagnosed Danielle with environmental autism, yet she was still adopted by Bernie and Diane Lierow. Danielle could not speak or respond to others nor eat solid food. Today, Danielle lives in Tennessee with her parents and has made remarkable progress. She communicates through the PECS system and loves to swim and ride horses. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.01%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.1F%3A_Feral_Children.txt |
Institutionalized children may develop institutional syndrome, which refers to deficits or disabilities in social and life skills.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss both the processes of institutionalization and deinstitutionalization, as they relate to issues juveniles may have
Key Points
• The term “institutionalization” can be used both in regard to the process of committing an individual to a mental hospital or prison, and to institutional syndrome.
• Juvenile wards are sections of psychiatric hospitals or psychiatric wards set aside for children and adolescents with mental illness.
• Deinstitutionalization is the process of replacing long-stay psychiatric hospitals with less isolated community mental health service for those diagnosed with a mental disorder.
Key Terms
• deinstitutionalization: The process of abolishing a practice that has been considered a norm.
• mental illness: Mental illness is a broad generic label for a category of illnesses that may include affective or emotional instability, behavioral dysregulation, and/or cognitive dysfunction or impairment.
• Institutional syndrome: In clinical and abnormal psychology, institutional syndrome refers to deficits or disabilities in social and life skills, which develop after a person has spent a long period living in mental hospitals, prisons, or other remote institutions.
In clinical and abnormal psychology, institutional syndrome refers to deficits or disabilities in social and life skills, which develop after a person has spent a long period living in mental hospitals, prisons, or other remote institutions. In other words, individuals in institutions may be deprived of independence and of responsibility, to the point that once they return to “outside life” they are often unable to manage many of its demands. It has also been argued that institutionalized individuals become psychologically more prone to mental health problems.
The term institutionalization can be used both in regard to the process of committing an individual to a mental hospital or prison, or to institutional syndrome; thus a person being “institutionalized” may mean either that he/she has been placed in an institution, or that he/she is suffering the psychological effects of having been in an institution for an extended period of time.
Juvenile wards are sections of psychiatric hospitals or psychiatric wards set aside for children and/or adolescents with mental illness. However, there are a number of institutions specializing only in the treatment of juveniles, particularly when dealing with drug abuse, self-harm, eating disorders, anxiety, depression or other mental illness.
Deinstitutionalization is the process of replacing long-stay psychiatric hospitals with less isolated community mental health service for those diagnosed with a mental disorder or developmental disability. Deinstitutionalization can have multiple definitions; the first focuses on reducing the population size of mental institutions. This can be accomplished by releasing individuals from institutions, shortening the length of stays, and reducing both admissions and readmission. The second definition refers to reforming mental hospitals’ institutional processes so as to reduce or eliminate reinforcement of dependency, hopelessness, learned helplessness, and other maladaptive behaviors.
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The dimensions of human development are divided into separate, consecutive stages of life from birth to old age.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze the differences between the various stages of human life – prenatal, toddler, early and late childhood, adolescence, early and middle adulthood and old age
Key Points
• The stages of human development are: prenatal development, toddler, early childhood, late childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and old age.
• Prenatal development is the process in which a human embryo gestates during pregnancy, from fertilization until birth. From birth until the first year, the child is referred to as an infant. Babies between ages of 1 and 2 are called “toddlers”.
• In the phase of early childhood, children attend preschool, broaden their social horizons and become more engaged with those around them.
• In late childhood, intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects.
• Adolescence is the period of life between the onset of puberty and the full commitment to an adult social role.
• In early adulthood, a person must learn how to form intimate relationships. Middle adulthood refers to the period between ages 40 to 60.The final stage is old age, which refers to those over 60–80 years.
• In early adulthood, the person must learn how to form intimate relationships, both in friendship and love.
• Middle adulthood generally refers to the period between ages 40 to 60. During this period, middle-aged adults experience a conflict between generativity and stagnation.
• The last and final stage is old age, which refers to those over 60–80 years.
Key Terms
• Prenatal development: Prenatal development is the process in which a human embryo gestates during pregnancy, from fertilization until birth.
• diurnal: Happening or occurring during daylight, or primarily active during that time.
The dimensions of human development are divided into separate but consecutive stages in human life. They are characterized by prenatal development, toddler, early childhood, late childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and old age.
Prenatal development is the process during which a human embryo gestates during pregnancy, from fertilization until birth. The terms prenatal development, fetal development, and embryology are often used interchangeably. The embryonic period in humans begins at fertilization and from birth until the first year, the child is referred to as an infant. The majority of a newborn infant’s time is spent in sleep. At first, this sleep is evenly spread throughout the day and night but after a couple of months, infants generally become diurnal.
Babies between ages of 1 and 2 are called “toddlers. ” In this stage, intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, language use matures, and memory and imagination are developed. In the phase of early childhood, children attend preschool, broaden their social horizons and become more engaged with those around them. In late childhood, intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. Children go through the transition from the world at home to that of school and peers. If children can discover pleasure in intellectual stimulation, being productive, seeking success, they will develop a sense of competence.
Adolescence is the period of life between the onset of puberty and the full commitment to an adult social role. In early adulthood, the person must learn how to form intimate relationships, both in friendship and love. The development of this skill relies on the resolution of other stages. It may be hard to establish intimacy if one has not developed trust or a sense of identity. If this skill is not learned, the alternative is alienation, isolation, a fear of commitment, and the inability to depend on others
Middle adulthood generally refers to the period between ages 40 to 60. During this period, middle-aged adults experience a conflict between generativity and stagnation. They may either feel a sense of contributing to the next generation and their community or a sense of purposelessness. The last and final stage is old age, which refers to those over 60–80 years. During old age, people frequently experience a conflict between integrity and despair. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.02%3A_The_Self_and_Socialization/4.2A%3A_Dimensions_of_Human_Development.txt |
Sociological theories of the self attempt to explain how social processes such as socialization influence the development of the self.
Learning Objectives
• Interpret Mead’s theory of self in term of the differences between “I” and “me”
Key Points
• One of the most important sociological approaches to the self was developed by American sociologist George Herbert Mead. Mead conceptualizes the mind as the individual importation of the social process.
• This process is characterized by Mead as the “I” and the “me. ” The “me” is the social self and the “I” is the response to the “me. ” The “I” is the individual’s impulses. The “I” is self as subject; the “me” is self as object.
• For Mead, existence in a community comes before individual consciousness. First one must participate in the different social positions within society and only subsequently can one use that experience to take the perspective of others and thus become self-conscious.
• Primary Socialization occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture.
• Secondary socialization refers to the process of learning the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society.
• Group socialization is the theory that an individual’s peer groups, rather than parental figures, influences his or her personality and behavior in adulthood.
• Organizational socialization is the process whereby an employee learns the knowledge and skills necessary to assume his or her organizational role.
• In the social sciences, institutions are the structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human collectivity. Institutions include the family, religion, peer group, economic systems, legal systems, penal systems, language and the media.
Key Terms
• The self: The self is the individual person, from his or her own perspective. Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to reconcile oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals.
• generalized other: the general notion that a person has regarding the common expectations of others within his or her social group
• socialization: The process of learning one’s culture and how to live within it.
• community: A group sharing a common understanding and often the same language, manners, tradition and law. See civilization.
Sociological theories of the self attempt to explain how social processes such as socialization influence the development of the self. One of the most important sociological approaches to the self was developed by American sociologist George Herbert Mead. Mead conceptualizes the mind as the individual importation of the social process. Mead presented the self and the mind in terms of a social process. As gestures are taken in by the individual organism, the individual organism also takes in the collective attitudes of others, in the form of gestures, and reacts accordingly with other organized attitudes.
This process is characterized by Mead as the “I” and the “me. ” The “me” is the social self and the “I” is the response to the “me. ” In other words, the “I” is the response of an individual to the attitudes of others, while the “me” is the organized set of attitudes of others which an individual assumes. The “me” is the accumulated understanding of the “generalized other,” i.e. how one thinks one’s group perceives oneself. The “I” is the individual’s impulses. The “I” is self as subject; the “me” is self as object. The “I” is the knower, the “me” is the known. The mind, or stream of thought, is the self-reflective movements of the interaction between the “I” and the “me. ” These dynamics go beyond selfhood in a narrow sense, and form the basis of a theory of human cognition. For Mead the thinking process is the internalized dialogue between the “I” and the “me. ”
Understood as a combination of the “I” and the “me,” Mead’s self proves to be noticeably entwined within a sociological existence. For Mead, existence in a community comes before individual consciousness. First one must participate in the different social positions within society and only subsequently can one use that experience to take the perspective of others and become self-conscious. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.02%3A_The_Self_and_Socialization/4.2B%3A_Sociological_Theories_of_the_Self.txt |
The psychology of self is the study of either the cognitive or affective representation of one’s identity.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the development of a person’s identity in relation to both the Kohut and Jungian self
Key Points
• The earliest formulation of the self in modern psychology derived from the distinction between the self as I, the subjective knower, and the self as Me, the object that is known.
• Heinz Kohut, an American psychologist, theorized that the self was bipolar, and was comprised of two systems of narcissistic perfection, one of which contained ambitions and the other of which contained ideals.
• In Jungian theory, derived from the psychologist C.G. Jung, the Self is one of several archetypes. It signifies the coherent whole, unifying both the consciousness and unconscious mind of a person.
• Social constructivists claim that timely and sensitive intervention by adults when a child is on the edge of learning a new task could help children learn new tasks.
• Attachment theory focuses on open, intimate, emotionally meaningful relationships.
• The nativism versus empiricism debate focuses on the relationship between innateness and environmental influence in regard to any particular aspect of development.
• A nativist account of development would argue that the processes in question are innate, that is, they are specified by the organism’s genes. An empiricist perspective would argue that those processes are acquired in interaction with the environment.
Key Terms
• cognitive: the part of mental functions that deals with logic, as opposed to affective functions which deal with emotions
• affective: relating to, resulting from, or influenced by the emotions
• archetype: according to the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, a universal pattern of thought, present in an individual’s unconscious, inherited from the past collective experience of humanity
Psychology of the Self
The psychology of the self is the study of the cognitive or affective representation of one’s identity. In modern psychology, the earliest formulation of the self derived from the distinction between the self as “I,” the subjective knower, and the self as “me,” the object that is known. Put differently, let us say an individual wanted to think about their “self” as an analytic object. They might ask themselves the question, “what kind of person am I? ” That person is still, in that moment, thinking from some perspective, which is also considered the “self. ” Thus, in this case, the “self” is both what is doing the thinking, and also, at the same time, the object that is being thought about. It is from this dualism that the concept of the self initially emerged in modern psychology. Current psychological thought suggests that the self plays an integral part in human motivation, cognition, affect, and social identity.
The Kohut Self
Heinz Kohut, an American psychologist, theorized a bipolar self that was comprised of two systems of narcissistic perfection, one of which contained ambitions and the other of which contained ideals. Kohut called the pole of ambitions the narcissistic self (later called the grandiose self). He called the pole of ideals the idealized parental imago. According to Kohut, the two poles of the self represented natural progressions in the psychic life of infants and toddlers.
The Jungian Self
In Jungian theory, derived from the psychologist C.G. Jung, the Self is one of several archetypes. It signifies the coherent whole, unifying both the conscious and unconscious mind of a person. The Self, according to Jung, is the end product of individuation, which is defined as the process of integrating one’s personality. For Jung, the Self could be symbolized by either the circle (especially when divided into four quadrants), the square, or the mandala. He also believed that the Self could be symbolically personified in the archetypes of the Wise Old Woman and Wise Old Man.
In contrast to earlier theorists, Jung believed that an individual’s personality had a center. While he considered the ego to be the center of an individual’s conscious identity, he considered the Self to be the center of an individual’s total personality. This total personality included within it the ego, consciousness, and the unconscious mind. To Jung, the Self is both the whole and the center. While Jung perceived the ego to be a self-contained, off-centered, smaller circle contained within the whole, he believed that the Self was the greater circle. In addition to being the center of the psyche, Jung also believed the Self was autonomous, meaning that it exists outside of time and space. He also believed that the Self was the source of dreams, and that the Self would appear in dreams as an authority figure that could either perceive the future or guide an individual’s present.
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Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze the differences between accommodation and assimilation, in relation to Piaget’s stages
Key Points
• Jean Piaget was a French-speaking Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called “genetic epistemology,” the study of the origins of knowledge.
• Piaget argued that all people undergo a series of stages and transformations. Transformations refer to all manners of changes that a thing or person can experience, while states refer to the conditions or the appearances in which things or persons can be found between transformations.
• Piaget identified four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Through these stages, children progress in their thinking and logical processes.
• Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence that explains how individuals perceive and adapt to new information through the processes of assimilation and accommodation.
• Assimilation is the process of taking one’s environment and new information and fitting it into pre-existing cognitive schemas. Accommodation is the process of taking one’s environment and new information, and altering one’s pre-existing schemas in order to fit in the new information.
• Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched.
• Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched.
• The concrete operational stage is the third of four stages of cognitive development in Piaget’s theory.
• The final stage is known as formal operational stage (adolescence and into adulthood): Intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts.
Key Terms
• genetic epistemology: Genetic epistemology is a study of the origins of knowledge. The discipline was established by Jean Piaget.
• object permanence: The understanding (typically developed during early infancy) that an object still exists even when it disappears from sight, or other senses.
• accommodation: Accommodation, unlike assimilation, is the process of taking one’s environment and new information, and altering one’s pre-existing schemas in order to fit in the new information.
Jean Piaget was a French-speaking Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called “genetic epistemology. ” He believed answers for the epistemological questions at his time could be better addressed by looking at their genetic components. This led to his experiments with children and adolescents in which he explored the thinking and logic processes used by children of different ages.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence. Piaget believed that reality is a dynamic system of continuous change and as such, it is defined in reference to the two conditions that define dynamic systems. Specifically, he argued that reality involves transformations and states. Transformations refer to all manners of changes that a thing or person can undergo. States refer to the conditions or the appearances in which things or persons can be found between transformations.
Piaget explains the growth of characteristics and types of thinking as the result of four stages of development. The stages are as follows:
• The sensorimotor stage is the first of the four stages in cognitive development that “extends from birth to the acquisition of language. ” In this stage, infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating experiences with physical actions–in other words, infants gain knowledge of the word from the physical actions they perform. The development of object permanence is one of the most important accomplishments of this stage.
• The pre-operational stage is the second stage of cognitive development. It begins around the end of the second year. During this stage, the child learns to use and to represent objects by images, words, and drawings. The child is able to form stable concepts, as well as mental reasoning and magical beliefs.
• The third stage is called the “concrete operational stage” and occurs approximately between the ages of 7 and 11 years. In this stage, children develop the appropriate use of logic and are able to think abstractly, make rational judgments about concrete phenomena, and systematically manipulate symbols related to concrete objects.
• The final stage is known as the “formal operational stage” (adolescence and into adulthood). Intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts. At this point, the person is capable of hypothetical and deductive reasoning.
When studying the field of education Piaget identified two processes: accommodation and assimilation. Assimilation describes how humans perceive and adapt to new information. It is the process of taking one’s environment and new information and fitting it into pre-existing cognitive schemas. Accommodation, unlike assimilation, is the process of taking one’s environment and new information and altering one’s pre-existing schemas in order to fit in the new information. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.03%3A_Theories_of_Socialization/4.3.01%3A_4.3E_-Piaget.txt |
Socialization is the means by which human infants begin to acquire the skills necessary to perform as functioning members of their society.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the different types and theories of socialization
Key Points
• Group socialization is the theory that an individual’s peer groups, rather than parental figures, influences his or her personality and behavior in adulthood.
• Gender socialization refers to the learning of behavior and attitudes considered appropriate for a given sex.
• Cultural socialization refers to parenting practices that teach children about their racial history or heritage and, sometimes, is referred to as pride development.
• Sigmund Freud proposed that the human psyche could be divided into three parts: Id, ego, and super-ego.
• Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence.
• Positive Adult Development is one of the four major forms of adult developmental study that can be identified. The other three forms are directionless change, stasis, and decline.
Key Terms
• socialization: The process of learning one’s culture and how to live within it.
“Socialization” is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and educationalists to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs, and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society. Socialization is thus “the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained.”
Socialization is the means by which human infants begin to acquire the skills necessary to perform as a functioning member of their society and is the most influential learning process one can experience. Unlike other living species, whose behavior is biologically set, humans need social experiences to learn their culture and to survive. Although cultural variability manifests in the actions, customs, and behaviors of whole social groups, the most fundamental expression of culture is found at the individual level. This expression can only occur after an individual has been socialized by his or her parents, family, extended family, and extended social networks.
The looking-glass self is a social psychological concept, created by Charles Horton Cooley in 1902, stating that a person’s self grows out of society’s interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others. The term refers to people shaping themselves based on other people’s perception, which leads people to reinforce other people’s perspectives on themselves. People shape themselves based on what other people perceive and confirm other people’s opinion on themselves.
George Herbert Mead developed a theory of social behaviorism to explain how social experience develops an individual’s personality. Mead’s central concept is the self: the part of an individual’s personality composed of self-awareness and self-image. Mead claimed that the self is not there at birth, rather, it is developed with social experience.
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. In his later work, Freud proposed that the human psyche could be divided into three parts: Id, ego, and super-ego. The id is the completely unconscious, impulsive, child-like portion of the psyche that operates on the “pleasure principle” and is the source of basic impulses and drives; it seeks immediate pleasure and gratification. The ego acts according to the reality principle (i.e., it seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing grief). Finally, the super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organized part of the personality structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious that includes the individual’s ego ideals, spiritual goals, and the psychic agency that criticizes and prohibits his or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions.
Different Forms of Socialization
Group socialization is the theory that an individual’s peer groups, rather than parental figures, influences his or her personality and behavior in adulthood. Adolescents spend more time with peers than with parents. Therefore, peer groups have stronger correlations with personality development than parental figures do. For example, twin brothers, whose genetic makeup are identical, will differ in personality because they have different groups of friends, not necessarily because their parents raised them differently.
Gender socialization Henslin (1999) contends that “an important part of socialization is the learning of culturally defined gender roles ” (p. 76). Gender socialization refers to the learning of behavior and attitudes considered appropriate for a given sex. Boys learn to be boys, and girls learn to be girls. This “learning” happens by way of many different agents of socialization. The family is certainly important in reinforcing gender roles, but so are one’s friends, school, work, and the mass media. Gender roles are reinforced through “countless subtle and not so subtle ways,” said Henslin (1999, p. 76).
Cultural socialization refers to parenting practices that teach children about their racial history or heritage and, sometimes, is referred to as “pride development. ” Preparation for bias refers to parenting practices focused on preparing children to be aware of, and cope with, discrimination. Promotion of mistrust refers to the parenting practices of socializing children to be wary of people from other races. Egalitarianism refers to socializing children with the belief that all people are equal and should be treated with a common humanity. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.03%3A_Theories_of_Socialization/4.3A%3A_Theories_of_Socialization.txt |
In 1902, Charles Horton Cooley created the concept of the looking-glass self, which explored how identity is formed.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss Cooley’s idea of the “looking-glass self” and how people use socialization to create a personal identity and develop empathy for others
Key Points
• The looking-glass self is a social psychological concept stating that a person’s self grows out of society’s interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others.
• There are three components of the looking-glass self: We imagine how we appear to others, we imagine the judgment of that appearance, and we develop our self ( identity ) through the judgments of others.
• George Herbert Mead described self as “taking the role of the other,” the premise for which the self is actualized. Through interaction with others, we begin to develop an identity about who we are, as well as empathy for others.
Key Terms
• George Herbert Mead: (1863–1931) An American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists.
• Looking-Glass self: The looking-glass self is a social psychological concept, created by Charles Horton Cooley in 1902, stating that a person’s self grows out of society’s interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others.
• Charles Horton Cooley: Charles Horton Cooley (August 17, 1864-May 8, 1929) was an American sociologist and the son of Thomas M. Cooley. He studied and went on to teach economics and sociology at the University of Michigan, and he was a founding member and the eighth president of the American Sociological Association.
The looking-glass self is a social psychological concept created by Charles Horton Cooley in 1902. It states that a person’s self grows out of society’s interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others. The term refers to people shaping their identity based on the perception of others, which leads the people to reinforce other people’s perspectives on themselves. People shape themselves based on what other people perceive and confirm other people’s opinion of themselves.
There are three main components of the looking-glass self:
• First, we imagine how we must appear to others.
• Second, we imagine the judgment of that appearance.
• Finally, we develop our self through the judgments of others.
In hypothesizing the framework for the looking glass self, Cooley said, “the mind is mental” because “the human mind is social. ” In other words, the mind’s mental ability is a direct result of human social interaction. Beginning as children, humans begin to define themselves within the context of their socializations. The child learns that the symbol of his/her crying will elicit a response from his/her parents, not only when they are in need of necessities, such as food, but also as a symbol to receive their attention. George Herbert Mead described the self as “taking the role of the other,” the premise for which the self is actualized. Through interaction with others, we begin to develop an identity about who we are, as well as empathy for others.
An example of the looking-self concept is computer technology. Using computer technology, people can create an avatar, a customized symbol that represents the computer user. For example, in the virtual world Second Life, the computer-user can create a human-like avatar that reflects the user in regard to race, age, physical makeup, status, and the like. By selecting certain physical characteristics or symbols, the avatar reflects how the creator seeks to be perceived in the virtual world and how the symbols used in the creation of the avatar influence others’ actions toward the computer user. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.03%3A_Theories_of_Socialization/4.3B%3A_Cooley.txt |
For Mead, the self arises out of the social act of communication, which is the basis for socialization.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss Mead’s theory of social psychology in terms of two concepts – pragmatism and social behaviorism
Key Points
• George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist and one of several distinguished pragmatists.
• The two most important roots of Mead’s work are the philosophy of pragmatism and social behaviorism.
• Pragmatism is a wide-ranging philosophical position that states that people define the social and physical “objects” they encounter in the world according to their use for them.
• One of his most influential ideas was the emergence of mind and self from the communication process between organisms, discussed in the book, Mind, Self and Society, also known as social behaviorism.
Key Terms
• symbolic interactionism: Symbolic interactionism is the study of the patterns of communication, interpretation, and adjustment between individuals.
• social behaviorism: Discussed in the book, Mind, Self and Society, social behaviorism refers to the emergence of mind and self from the communication process between organisms.
• pragmatism: The theory that problems should be met with practical solutions rather than ideological ones; a concentration on facts rather than emotions or ideals.
George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded as one of the founders of social psychology and the American sociological tradition in general.
The two most important roots of Mead’s work, and of symbolic interactionism in general, are the philosophy of pragmatism and social behaviorism. Pragmatism is a wide ranging philosophical position from which several aspects of Mead’s influences can be identified. There are four main tenets of pragmatism: First, to pragmatists true reality does not exist “out there” in the real world, it “is actively created as we act in and toward the world. Second, people remember and base their knowledge of the world on what has been useful to them and are likely to alter what no longer “works. ” Third, people define the social and physical “objects” they encounter in the world according to their use for them. Lastly, if we want to understand actors, we must base that understanding on what people actually do. In Pragmatism nothing practical or useful is held to be necessarily true, nor is anything which helps to survive merely in the short term. For example, to believe my cheating spouse is faithful may help me feel better now, but it is certainly not useful from a more long-term perspective because it doesn’t align with the facts (and is therefore not true).
Mead was a very important figure in twentieth century social philosophy. One of his most influential ideas was the emergence of mind and self from the communication process between organisms, discussed in the book, Mind, Self and Society, also known as social behaviorism. For Mead, mind arises out of the social act of communication. Mead’s concept of the social act is relevant, not only to his theory of mind, but also to all facets of his social philosophy. His theory of “mind, self, and society” is, in effect, a philosophy of the act from the standpoint of a social process involving the interaction of many individuals, just as his theory of knowledge and value is a philosophy of the act from the standpoint of the experiencing individual in interaction with an environment.
Mead is a major American philosopher by virtue of being, along with John Dewey, Charles Peirce, and William James, one of the founders of pragmatism. He also made significant contributions to the philosophies of nature, science, and history, to philosophical anthropology, and to process philosophy. Dewey and Alfred North Whitehead considered Mead a thinker of the first rank. He is a classic example of a social theorist whose work does not fit easily within conventional disciplinary boundaries. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.03%3A_Theories_of_Socialization/4.3C%3A_Mead.txt |
According to Freud, human behavior, experience, and cognition are largely determined by unconscious drives and events in early childhood.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss Freud’s “id”, “ego” and “super-ego” and his six basic principles of psychoanalysis and how psychoanalysis is used today as a treatment for a variety of psychological disorders
Key Points
• Psychoanalysis is a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.
• The specifics of the analyst’s interventions typically include confronting and clarifying the patient’s pathological defenses, wishes, and guilt.
• Freud named his new theory the Oedipus complex after the famous Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. The Oedipus conflict was described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness.
• The id is the completely unconscious, impulsive, child-like portion of the psyche that operates on the “pleasure principle” and is the source of basic impulses and drives.
• The ego acts according to the reality principle (i.e., it seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing grief).
• The super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organized part of the personality structure.
• The super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organised part of the personality structure
Key Terms
• Oedipus complex: In Freudian theory, the complex of emotions aroused in a child by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex.
• the unconscious: For Freud, the unconscious refers to the mental processes of which individuals make themselves unaware.
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis. Interested in philosophy as a student, Freud later decided to become a neurological researcher in cerebral palsy, Aphasia, and microscopic neuroanatomy. Freud went on to develop theories about the unconscious mind and the mechanism of repression and established the field of verbal psychotherapy by creating psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. The most common problems treatable with psychoanalysis include phobias, conversions, compulsions, obsessions, anxiety, attacks, depressions, sexual dysfunctions, a wide variety of relationship problems (such as dating and marital strife), and a wide variety of character problems (painful shyness, meanness, obnoxiousness, workaholism, hyperseductiveness, hyperemotionality, hyperfastidiousness).
The Basic Tenets of Psychoanalysis
The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include the following:
• First, human behavior, experience, and cognition are largely determined by irrational drives.
• Those drives are largely unconscious.
• Attempts to bring those drives into awareness meet psychological resistance in the form of defense mechanisms.
• Besides the inherited constitution of personality, one’s development is determined by events in early childhood.
• Conflicts between conscious view of reality and unconscious (repressed) material can result in mental disturbances, such as neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety, depression etc.
• The liberation from the effects of the unconscious material is achieved through bringing this material into the consciousness.
Psychoanalysis as Treatment
Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the “analysand” (the analytic patient) verbalizes thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from which the analyst induces the unconscious conflicts. This causes the patient’s symptoms and character problems, and interprets them for the patient to create insight for resolution of the problems. The specifics of the analyst’s interventions typically include confronting and clarifying the patient’s pathological defenses, wishes, and guilt. Through the analysis of conflicts, including those contributing to resistance and those involving transference onto the analyst of distorted reactions, psychoanalytic treatment can hypothesize how patients unconsciously are their own worst enemies: how unconscious, symbolic reactions that have been stimulated by experience are causing symptoms.
The Id, The Ego, Super-Ego
Freud hoped to prove that his model was universally valid and thus turned to ancient mythology and contemporary ethnography for comparative material. Freud named his new theory the Oedipus complex after the famous Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. The Oedipus conflict was described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness. In his later work, Freud proposed that the human psyche could be divided into three parts: Id, ego, and super-ego. The id is the completely unconscious, impulsive, child-like portion of the psyche that operates on the “pleasure principle” and is the source of basic impulses and drives; it seeks immediate pleasure and gratification. The ego acts according to the reality principle (i.e., it seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing grief). Finally, the super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organized part of the personality structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes the individual’s ego, ideals, spiritual goals, and the psychic agency that criticizes and prohibits his or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.03%3A_Theories_of_Socialization/4.3D%3A_Freud.txt |
Daniel J. Levinson was one of the founders of the field of positive adult development.
Learning Objectives
• Summarize Daniel Levinson’s theory of positive adult development and how it influenced changes in the perception of development during adulthood
Key Points
• As a theory, positive adult development asserts that development continues after adolescence, long into adulthood.
• In positive adult development research, scientists question not only whether development ceases after adolescence, but also a notion, popularized by many gerontologists, that a decline occurs after late adolescence.
• Positive adult developmental processes are divided into at least six areas of study: hierarchical complexity, knowledge, experience, expertise, wisdom, and spirituality.
Key Terms
• stasis: inactivity; a freezing, or state of motionlessness
• positive adult development: Positive adult development is one of the four major forms of adult developmental study that can be identified.
• decline: downward movement, fall
Daniel Levinson
Daniel J. Levinson, an American psychologist, was one of the founders of the field of positive adult development. He was born in New York City on May 28, 1920, and completed his dissertation at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1947. In this dissertation, he attempted to develop a way of measuring ethnocentrism. In 1950, he moved to Harvard University. From 1966 to 1990, he was a professor of psychology at the Yale University School of Medicine.
Levinson’s two most important books were Seasons of a Man’s Life and Seasons of a Woman’s Life, which continue to be highly influential works. His multidisciplinary approach is reflected in his work on the life structure theory of adult development.
Positive Adult Development
Positive adult development is one of the four major forms of adult developmental study. The other three are directionless change, stasis, and decline. Positive adult developmental processes are divided into the following six areas of study:
• hierarchical complexity
• knowledge
• experience
• expertise
• wisdom
• spirituality
Research in this field questions not only whether development ceases after adolescence, but also the notion, popularized by many gerontologists, that a decline occurs after late adolescence. Research shows that positive development does still occur during adulthood. Recent studies indicate that such development is useful in predicting things such as an individual’s health, life satisfaction, and ability to contribute to society.
Now that there is scientific proof that individuals continue to develop as adults, researchers have begun investigating how to foster such development. Rather than just describing, as phenomenon, the fact that adults continue to develop, researchers are interested in aiding and guiding that development. For educators of adults in formal settings, this has been a priority in many ways already. More recently, researchers have begun to experiment with hypotheses about fostering positive adult development. These methods are used in organizational and educational setting. Some use developmentally-designed, structured public discourse to address complex public issues.
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The sociology of emotions applies sociological theorems and techniques to the study of human emotions.
Learning Objectives
• Examine the origins of the sociology of emotions through the work of Marx, Weber, and Simmel, and its development by T. David Kemper, Arlie Hochschild, Randall Collins, and David R. Heise
Key Points
• Emotions impact society on both the micro level (everyday social interactions ) and the macro level ( social institutions, discourses, and ideologies ).
• Ethnomethodology revealed emotional commitments to everyday norms through purposeful breaching of the norms.
• We try to regulate our emotions to fit in with the norms of the situation, based on many, and sometimes conflicting demands upon us.
Key Terms
• ethnomethodology: An academic discipline that attempts to understand the social orders people use to make sense of the world through analyzing their accounts and descriptions of their day-to-day experiences.
• The sociology of emotions: The sociology of emotion applies sociological theorems and techniques to the study of human emotions.
The sociology of emotions applies sociological theorems and techniques to the study of human emotions. As sociology emerged, primarily as a reaction to the negative affects of modernity, many normative theories deal in some sense with “emotion” without forming a part of any specific subdiscipline: Marx described capitalism as detrimental to personal “species-being,” Simmel wrote of the deindividualizing tendencies of “the metropolis,” and Weber’s work dealt with the rationalizing effect of modernity in general.
Emotions operate on both micro and macro levels. On the micro level, social roles, norms, and feeling rules structure’s everyday social interactions. On a macro level, these same emotional processes structure social institutions, discourses, and ideologies. We try to regulate our emotions to fit in with the norms of the situation, based on many, and sometimes conflicting demands upon us. Systematic observations of group interaction found that a substantial portion of group activity is devoted to the socio-emotional issues of expressing affect and dealing with tension. Simultaneously, field studies of social attraction in groups revealed that feelings of individuals about each other collate into social networks, a discovery that still is being explored in the field of social network analysis.
Ethnomethodology revealed emotional commitments to everyday norms through purposeful breaching of the norms. In one study, a sociologist sent his students home and instructed them to act as guests rather than family members. Students reported others’ astonishment, bewilderment, shock, anxiety, embarrassment, and ange and family members accused the students of being mean, inconsiderate, selfish, nasty, or impolite.
Important theories and theoreticians relating to the sociology of emotion include:
• T. David Kemper: He proposed that people in social interaction have positions on two relational dimensions: status and power. Emotions emerge as interpersonal events, change or maintain individuals’ status and power.
• Arlie Hochschild: She proposed that individuals manage their feelings to produce acceptable displays according to ideological and cultural standards.
• Peggy Thoits: She divided emotion management techniques into implementation of new events and reinterpretation of past events. Thoits noted that emotions also can be managed with drugs, by performing faux gestures and facial expressions, or by cognitive reclassifications of one’s feelings.
• Thomas J. Scheff: He established that many cases of social conflict are based on a destructive and often escalating, but stoppable and reversible shame-rage cycle–when someone results or feels shamed by another, their social bond comes under stress.
• Randall Collins: He stated that emotional energy is the main motivating force in social life, for love and hatred, investing, working or consuming, and rendering cult or waging war.
• David R. Heise. He developed the Affect Control Theory, which proposes that social actions are designed by their agents to create impressions that befit sentiments reigning in a situation.
For more information on emotions, watch this video:
Emotions: Dr. Véronique Tran explains what emotions are and how they are linked to social interactions and social norms. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.04%3A__Learning_Personality_Morality_and_Emotions/4.4A%3A_Sociology_of_Emotion.txt |
Social control refers to societal processes that regulate individual and group behaviour in an attempt to gain conformity.
Learning Objectives
• Give examples of the difference between informal and formal means of social control
Key Points
• Informal control typically involves an individual internalizing certain norms and values. This process is known as socialization.
• Formal means of social control typically involve the state. External sanctions are enforced by the government to prevent chaos, violence, or anomie in society. Some theorists, such as Émile Durkheim, refer to this form of control as regulation.
• The social values present in individuals are products of informal social control, exercised implicitly by a society through particular customs, norms, and mores. Individuals internalize the values of their society, whether conscious or not of this indoctrination.
• Contemporary Western society uses shame as one modality of control, but its primary dependence rests on guilt, and, when that does not work, the criminal justice system.
Key Terms
• conformity: the ideology of adhering to one standard or social uniformity
• sanction: a penalty, or some coercive measure, intended to ensure compliance; especially one adopted by several nations, or by an international body
• compliance: the tendency of conforming with or agreeing to the wishes of others
Social Control
Social control refers to societal and political mechanisms that regulate individual and group behaviour in an attempt to gain conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group. Sociologists identify two basic forms of social control – informal control and formal control.
Formal Control
Formal social control typically involves the state. External sanctions are enforced by the government to prevent chaos, violence, or anomie in society. An example of this would be a law preventing individuals from committing theft. Some theorists, like Émile Durkheim, refer to this type of control as regulation.
Informal Control
Informal control typically involves an individual internalizing certain norms and values. This process is called socialization. The social values present in individuals are products of informal social control, exercised implicitly by a society through particular customs, norms, and mores. Individuals internalize the values of their society, whether conscious or not of this indoctrination.
Informal sanctions may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism, and disapproval, which can cause an individual to conform to the social norms of the society. In extreme cases, sanctions may include social discrimination, exclusion, and violence. Informal social control has the potential to have a greater impact on an individual than formal control. When social values become internalized, they become an aspect of an individual’s personality.
Informal sanctions check ‘deviant’ behavior. An example of a negative sanction is depicted in a scene in ‘The Wall,’ a film by Pink Floyd. In this scene, a young protagonist is ridiculed and verbally abused by a high school teacher for writing poetry in a mathematics class. Another example occurs in the movie ‘About a Boy. ” In this film, a young boy hesitates to jump from a high springboard and is ridiculed for his fear. Though he eventually jumps, his behaviour is controlled by shame, not by his internal desire to jump.
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A family serves to reproduce society biologically, through procreation, and socially, through the socialization of children.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze the pivotal role a family plays in the socialization of children and the continuation of society through procreation
Key Points
• Although a family can fulfill a variety of other functions, not all of these are universal or obligatory.
• The incest taboo, which prohibits sexual relations between family members, is a form of exogamy and may help promote social solidarity.
• The family of orientation refers to the role of the family in providing children with a position in society and socialize them.
• From the parents’ perspective, the family of procreation refers to the family’s role is to produce and socialize children.
• Exogamy is a social arrangement according to which marriages can only occur with members outside of one’s social group.
• Exogamy is a social arrangement according to which marriages can only occur with members outside of one’s social group.
Key Terms
• exogamy: Marriage to a person belonging to a tribe or group other than your own as required by custom or law.
• bridewealth: Bridewealth is the amount of money, wealth, or property paid by the family of the groom to the bride’s parents upon the marriage of the couple. The amount paid generally indicates the perceived value of the bride.
• family of procreation: the idea that the goal of a family is to produce and enculturate and socialize children
• family of orientation: This refers to the family in which an individual grows up.
The primary function of the family is to reproduce society, both biologically through procreation and socially through socialization. Given these functions, the individual’s experience of his or her family shifts over time. From the perspective of children, the family is a family of orientation: the family functions to locate children socially, and plays a major role in their socialization. From the point of view of the parent(s), the family is a family of procreation: The family functions to produce and socialize children. In some cultures, marriage imposes upon women the obligation to bear children. In northern Ghana, for example, payment of bridewealth, which is an amount of money, wealth, or property paid to the bride’s parents by the groom’s family, signifies a woman’s requirement to bear children, and women using birth control face substantial threats of physical abuse and reprisals.
Producing offspring is not the only function of the family. Marriage sometimes establishes the legal father of a woman’s child; establishes the legal mother of a man’s child; gives the husband or his family control over the wife’s sexual services, labor, and/or property; gives the wife or her family control over the husband’s sexual services, labor, and/or property; establishes a joint fund of property for the benefit of children; establishes a relationship between the families of the husband and wife. None of these functions are universal, nor are all of them inherent to any one society. In societies with a sexual division of labor, marriage, and the resulting relationship between a husband and wife, is necessary for the formation of an economically productive household. In modern societies, marriage entails particular rights and privileges which encourage the formation of new families even when there is no intention of having children.
In most societies, marriage between brothers and sisters is forbidden. In many societies, marriage between some first cousins is preferred, while at the other extreme, the medieval Catholic Church prohibited marriage even between distant cousins. The present day Catholic Church still maintains a standard of required distance for marriage.
These sorts of restrictions can be classified as an incest taboo, which is a cultural norm or rule that forbids sexual relations between family members and relatives. Incest taboo may serve to promote social solidarity and is a form of exogamy. Exogamy can be broadly defined as a social arrangement according to which marriages can only occur with members outside of one’s social group. One exception to this pattern is in ancient Egypt, where marriage between brothers and sisters was permitted in the royal family, as it was also the case in Hawaii and among the Inca. This privilege was denied commoners and may have served to concentrate wealth and power in one family. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.05%3A__Agents_of_Socialization/4.5A%3A_Family.txt |
A neighborhood is a geographically localized community within a larger city, town, or suburb.
Learning Objectives
• Justify the importance of neighborhoods and communities as units of socialization, especially when specialized, such as by ethnicity or religion
Key Points
• Ethnic neighborhoods were important in many historical cities, and they remain common in modern cities.
• Rural-to-urban migration contributed to neighborhood distinctiveness and social cohesion in historical cities.
• A community is a group of interacting people, living in some proximity. Community usually refers to a social unit—larger than a household—that shares common values and has social cohesion.
• Social capital refers to a sense of connectedness due to the formation of social networks in a given community.
Key Terms
• community: A group sharing a common understanding and often the same language, manners, tradition and law. See civilization.
• ethnic enclave: An ethnic enclave is an ethnic community which retains some cultural distinction from a larger, surrounding area, it may be a neighborhood, an area or an administrative division based on ethnic groups.
• social capital: The good will, sympathy, and connections created by social interaction within and between social networks.
A neighborhood is a geographically localized community within a larger city, town, or suburb. Neighborhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. Neighborhoods are typically generated by social interaction among people living near one another. In this sense, they are local social units larger than households, but not directly under the control of city or state officials. In some preindustrial urban traditions, basic municipal functions such as protection, social regulation of births and marriages, cleaning, and upkeep are handled informally by neighborhoods and not by urban governments; this pattern is well documented for historical Islamic cities. In addition to social neighbourhoods, most ancient and historical cities also had administrative districts used by officials for taxation, record-keeping, and social control.
Specialization and Differentiation
Neighborhoods in preindustrial cities often had some degree of social specialization or differentiation. Ethnic enclaves were important in many past cities and remain common in cities today. Economic specialists, including craft producers, merchants, and others could be concentrated in neighborhoods. Other neighborhoods were united by religious persuasion. One factor contributing to neighborhood distinctiveness and social cohesion was the role of rural to urban migration. This was a continual process for preindustrial cities in which migrants tended to move in with relatives and acquaintances from their rural past.
On another level, a community is a group of interacting people, living in some proximity. Community usually refers to a social unit—larger than a household—that shares common values and has social cohesion. The sense of community and formation of social networks comprise what has become known as social capital.
4.5C: School
Education is the process by which society transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills, customs and values from one generation to another.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the role of both formal and informal education in the socialization process, such as learning norms and expectations, as well as gaining social equality
Key Points
• The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes.
• A systematic sociology of education began with Émile Durkheim’s work on moral education as a basis for organic solidarity.
• Socialization is the process by which the new generation learns the knowledge, attitudes and values that they will need as productive citizens.
• The hidden curriculum is a subtler, but nonetheless powerful, indoctrination of the norms and values of the wider society.
Key Terms
• socialization: The process of learning one’s culture and how to live within it.
• the sociology of education: The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes.
• hidden curriculum: A curriculum that goes beyond the explicit demands of the formal curriculum. The goals and requirements of the hidden curriculum are unstated, but inflexible. They concern not what students learn but how and when they learn.
Education is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people is transmitted from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts. In its narrow, technical sense, education is the formal process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills, customs and values from one generation to another. The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes. It is most concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of higher, adult, and continuing education.
Education has often been seen as a fundamentally optimistic human endeavor characterized by aspirations for progress and betterment. It is understood by many to be a means of overcoming limitations, achieving greater equality and acquiring wealth and social status. Education is perceived as an endeavor that enables children to develop according to their unique needs and potential. It is also perceived as one of the best means of achieving greater social equality. Some take a particularly negative view, arguing that the education system is intentionally designed to perpetuate the social reproduction of inequality.
A systematic sociology of education began with Émile Durkheim’s work on moral education as a basis for organic solidarity. It was after World War II, however, that the subject received renewed interest around the world: from technological functionalism in the US, egalitarian reform of opportunity in Europe, and human-capital theory in economics. These all implied that, with industrialization, the need for a technologically-skilled labor force undermines class distinctions and other ascriptive systems of stratification, and that education promotes social mobility.
Structural functionalists believe that society leans towards social equilibrium and social order. Socialization is the process by which the new generation learns the knowledge, attitudes and values that they will need as productive citizens. Although this aim is stated in the formal curriculum, it is mainly achieved through “the hidden curriculum”, a subtler, but nonetheless powerful, indoctrination of the norms and values of the wider society. Students learn these values because their behavior at school is regulated until they gradually internalize and accept them. For example, most high school graduates are socialized to either enter college or the workforce after graduation. This is an expectation set forth at the beginning of a student’s education.
Education also performs another crucial function. As various jobs become vacant, they must be filled with the appropriate people. Therefore, the other purpose of education is to sort and rank individuals for placement in the labor market. Those with high achievement will be trained for the most skilled and intellectually tasking jobs and in reward, be given the highest income. On the other hand, those who achieve the least, will be given the least demanding jobs, and hence the least income. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.05%3A__Agents_of_Socialization/4.5B%3A_Neighborhood.txt |
Day care, in which children are cared for by a person other than their legal guardians, contributes to their socialization.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss how the use of day care (ranging from relative care to preschools) impacts the socialization of children in both a positive and negative way
Key Points
• Studies have shown that while bad day care can result in physical and emotional problems, good day care is not harmful to noninfants and may even lead to better outcomes.
• The day care industry is a continuum from personal parental care to large, regulated institutions.
• Early childhood education is the formal education and care of young children by people other than their family in settings outside of their homes and before the age of normal schooling.
Key Terms
• early childhood education: The formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family in settings outside of the home and before the age of normal schooling.
Day care is the care of a child during the day by a person other than the child’s legal guardians, typically performed by someone outside the child’s immediate family. Day care is typically a service during specific periods, such as when parents are at work. Child care is provided in nurseries or crèches, or by a nanny or family child care provider caring for children in their own homes. It can also take on a more formal structure, with education, child development, discipline, and even preschool education falling into the fold of services.
The day care industry is a continuum from personal parental care to large, regulated institutions. The vast majority of childcare is still performed by the parents, in house nanny, or through informal arrangements with relatives, neighbors, or friends. Another factor favoring large corporate day cares is the existence of childcare facilities in the workplace. Large corporations will not handle this employee benefit directly themselves and will seek out large corporate providers to manage their corporate daycares. Most smaller, for-profit day cares operate out of a single location.
Independent studies suggest that good day care for non-infants is not harmful. Some advocate that day care is inherently inferior to parental care. In some cases, good daycare can provide different experiences than parental care does, especially when children reach two and are ready to interact with other children. Bad day care puts the child at physical, emotional, and attachment risk. Higher quality care is associated with better outcomes. Children in higher quality child care had somewhat better language and cognitive development during the first 4½ years of life than those in lower quality care. They were also somewhat more cooperative than those who experienced lower quality care during the first three years of life.
As a matter of social policy, consistent, good daycare may ensure adequate early childhood education for children of less skilled parents. From a parental perspective, good daycare can complement good parenting. Early childhood education is the formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family in settings outside of the home. “Early childhood” is usually defined as before the age of normal schooling – five years in most nations, though the U.S. National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) instead defines “early childhood” as before the age of eight. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.05%3A__Agents_of_Socialization/4.5D%3A_Day_Care.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Analyze the importance of the peer group in terms of childhood and adolescent socialization
A peer group is a social group whose members have interests, social positions, and age in common. This is where children can escape supervision and learn to form relationships on their own. The influence of the peer group typically peaks during adolescence. However, peer groups generally only affect short term interests unlike the family, which has long term influence.
Unlike the family and the school, the peer group lets children escape the direct supervision of adults. Among peers, children learn to form relationships on their own. Peer groups also offer the chance to discuss interests that adults may not share with their children (such as clothing and popular music) or permit (such as drugs and sex ).
Peer groups have a significant influence on psychological and social adjustments for group individuals. They provide perspective outside of individual’s viewpoints. Members inside peer groups also learn to develop relationships with others in the social system. Peers, particularly group members, become important social referents for teaching members’ customs, social norms, and different ideologies.
Peer groups can also serve as a venue for teaching members gender roles. Through gender-role socialization group members learn about sex differences, social and cultural expectations. While boys and girls differ greatly there is not a one to one link between sex and gender role with males always being masculine and female always being feminine. Both genders can contain different levels of masculinity and femininity.
Adolescent peer groups provide support for children and teens as they assimilate into the adult society decreasing dependence on parents, increasing feeling of self-sufficiency, and connecting with a much larger social network. Peer groups cohesion is determined and maintained by such factors as group communication, group consensus, and group conformity concerning attitude and behavior. As members of peer groups interconnect, and agree, a normative code arises. This normative code can become very rigid deciding group behavior and dress. Peer group individuality is increased by normative codes, and intergroup conflict. Member deviation from the strict normative code can lead to rejection from the group. The term “peer pressure” is often used to describe instances where an individual feels indirectly pressured into changing their behavior to match that of their peers. Taking up smoking and underage drinking are two of the best known examples. In spite of the often negative connotations of the term, peer pressure can be used positively.
Key Points
• This is where children can escape supervision and learn to form relationships on their own.
• The influence of the peer group typically peaks during adolescence.
• However, peer groups generally only affect short term interests unlike the family, which has long term influence.
• Peer groups can also serve as a venue for teaching members gender roles.
• Adolescent peer groups provide support for children and teens as they assimilate into the adult society decreasing dependence on parents, increasing feeling of self-sufficiency, and connecting with a much larger social network.
• The term ” peer pressure ” is often used to describe instances where an individual feels indirectly pressured into changing their behavior to match that of their peers.
Key Terms
• peer pressure: Peer pressure is the influence exerted by a peer group, encouraging individuals to change their attitudes, values, or behaviors in order to conform to group norms.
• gender roles: Sets of social and behavioral norms that are generally considered appropriate for either a man or a woman in a social or interpersonal relationship.
• Peer group: A peer group is a social group whose members have interests, social positions, and age in common. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.05%3A__Agents_of_Socialization/4.5E%3A_Peer_Groups.txt |
Since mass media has enormous effects on our attitudes and behavior, it contributes to the socialization process.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze the connection between media, technology and society
Key Points
• Mass media is the means for delivering impersonal communications directed to a vast audience.
• The term media comes from Latin meaning, “middle,” suggesting that the media’s function is to connect people.
• Media bias refers to the bias of journalists and news producers within mass media. Bias exists in the selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered.
• A technique used to avoid bias is the “round table,” an adversarial format in which representatives of opposing views comment on an issue.
• A technique used to avoid bias is the “round table”, an adversarial format in which representatives of opposing views comment on an issue.
Key Terms
• media bias: A political bias in journalistic reporting, in programming selection, or otherwise in mass communications media.
• round table: A conference at which participants of similar status discuss and exchange views
• mass media: Collectively, the communications media, especially television, radio, and newspapers, that reach the mass of the people.
Mass media is the means for delivering impersonal communications directed to a vast audience. The term media comes from Latin meaning, “middle,” suggesting that the media’s function is to connect people. Since mass media has enormous effects on our attitudes and behavior, notably in regards to aggression, it contributes to the socialization process.
Media Bias
Media bias refers the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media. Bias exists in the selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. The term “media bias” implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and degree of media bias in various countries is widely disputed.
A technique employed to avoid bias is the “round table,” an adversarial format in which representatives from opposing views comment on an issue. This approach theoretically allows diverse views to appear in the media. However, the person organizing the report still has the responsibility to choose people who really represent the breadth of opinion, to ask them non-prejudicial questions, and to edit their comments fairly. When done carelessly, a point/counterpoint can be as unfair as a simple biased report, by suggesting that the “losing” side lost on its merits.
The apparent bias of media is not always specifically political in nature. The news media tend to appeal to a specific audience. This means stories that affect a large number of people on a global scale often receive less coverage in some markets than local stories, such as a public school shooting, a celebrity wedding, a plane crash, or similarly glamorous or shocking stories. Millions of deaths in an ethnic conflict in Africa might be afforded scant mention in American media, while the shooting of five people in a high school is analyzed in-depth. The reason for these types of bias is a function of what the public wants to watch and/or what producers and publishers believe the public wants to watch.
Video Game Violence
Debates have been going on for years about the problem and effect of violent video games. Many people believe that violent video games, when played regularly, lead to real-life violence. In fact, video game violence can lead to an increase in a person’s thoughts and behaviors. There have been incidents of children acting out the violence they see in a game, often with dire consequences. The key is being involved in other activities; when teenagers who played violent video games also participated in sports or clubs, there was less indication they would become violent in any potential situation. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.05%3A__Agents_of_Socialization/4.5F%3A_Mass_Media_and_Technology.txt |
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that relate humanity to spirituality and moral values.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how people come to be socialized in terms of religion and how parental influence is a key factor in religiosity
Key Points
• Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices, and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology.
• Agents of socialization differ in effects across religious traditions. Some believe religion is like an ethnic or cultural category, making it less likely for the individuals to break from religious affiliations and be more socialized in this setting.
• Belief in God is attributable to a combination of the above factors, but is also informed by a discussion of socialization. The biggest predictor of adult religiosity is parental religiosity; if a person’s parents were religious when he was a child, he is likely to be religious when he grows up.
• In their thesis, Altemeyer and Hunsberger found some interesting cases where secular people converted to religion, and religious people became secular.
Key Terms
• parental religiosity: The biggest predictor of adult religiosity is parental religiosity; if a person’s parents were religious when he was a child, he is likely to be religious when he grows up.
• agents of socialization: Agents of socialization, or institutions that can impress social norms upon an individual, include the family, religion, peer groups, economic systems, legal systems, penal systems, language, and the media.
• sociology of religion: Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices, and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology.
• religion: an organized collection of belief systems, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions, and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws, or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature.
Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices, and organizational forms of religion, using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. This objective investigation may include the use of both quantitative methods (surveys, polls, demographic, and census analysis) and qualitative approaches, such as participant observation, interviewing, and analysis of archival, historical, and documentary materials.
Agents of socialization differ in effects across religious traditions. Some believe religion is like an ethnic or cultural category, making it less likely for the individuals to break from religious affiliations and be more socialized in this setting. Parental religious participation is the most influential part of religious socialization–more so than religious peers or religious beliefs. For example, children raised in religious homes are more likely to have some degree of religiosity in their lives. They are also likely to raise their own children with religion and to participate in religious ceremonies, such as baptisms and weddings.
Belief in God is attributable to a combination of the above factors but is also informed by a discussion of socialization. The biggest predictor of adult religiosity is parental religiosity; if a person’s parents were religious when he was a child, he is likely to be religious when he grows up. Children are socialized into religion by their parents and their peers and, as a result, they tend to stay in religions. Alternatively, children raised in secular homes tend not to convert to religion. This is the underlying premise of Altemeyer and Hunsberger’s main thesis–they found some interesting cases where just the opposite seemed to happen. Secular people converted to religion and religious people became secular. Despite these rare exceptions, the process of socialization is certainly a significant factor in the continued existence of religion. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.05%3A__Agents_of_Socialization/4.5G%3A_Religion.txt |
The workplace performs its socialization process through onboarding, through which employees acquire skills to adjust to their new role.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze the process of onboarding as it relates to workplace socialization
Key Points
• Tactics used in the onboarding process include formal meetings, lectures, videos, printed materials and computer-based orientations.
• Employees with certain personality traits and experiences adjust to an organization more quickly. These include employees with a proactive personality, “Big Five” personality traits, curiosity, and greater experience levels.
• Information seeking occurs when new employees ask questions of their co-workers to learn about the company’s norms, expectations, procedures and policies.
• Also called networking, relationship building involves an employee’s efforts to develop camaraderie with co-workers and even supervisors.
• Employee experience levels also affect the onboarding process such that more experienced members of the workforce tend to adapt to a new organization differently from, for example, a new college graduate starting his or her first job.
• Information seeking occurs when new employees ask questions of their co-workers and superiors in an effort to learn about their new job and the company’s norms, expectations, procedures, and policies.
• Also called networking, relationship building involves an employee’s efforts to develop camaraderie with co-workers and even supervisors.
Key Terms
• networking: the act of meeting new people in a business or social context.
• curiosity: Inquisitiveness; the tendency to learn about things by asking questions, investigating or exploring.
• onboarding: The process of bringing a new employee on board, incorporating training and orientation.
The workplace performs its socialization function through onboarding. This is the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and behaviors to become effective organizational members. Tactics used in this process include formal meetings, lectures, videos, printed materials, or computer-based orientations. Research has demonstrated that these socialization techniques lead to positive outcomes for new employees including higher job satisfaction, better job performance, greater organizational commitment, and reduction in stress. These outcomes are particularly important to an organization looking to retain a competitive advantage in an increasingly mobile and globalized workforce.
Employees with certain personality traits and experiences adjust to an organization more quickly. These traits are a proactive personality, the “Big Five” traits, curiosity and greater experience levels. “Proactive personality” refers to the tendency to take charge of situations and achieve control over one’s environment. This type of personality predisposes some workers to engage in behaviors like information seeking that accelerate the socialization process. The Big Five personality traits—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—have been linked to onboarding success. Specifically, new employees who are extraverted or particularly open to experience are more likely to seek out information, feedback, acceptance and relationships with co-workers.
Curiosity also plays a substantial role in the newcomer adaptation process. It is defined as the “desire to acquire knowledge” that energizes individual exploration of an organization’s culture and norms. Individuals with a curious disposition eagerly seek out information to help them make sense of their new organizational surroundings, which leads to a smoother onboarding experience. Employee experience levels also affect the onboarding process. For example, more experienced members of the workforce tend adapt to a new organization differently from a college graduate starting his or her first job. This is because seasoned employees can draw from past experiences to help them adjust to their new work settings. They may be less affected by specific socialization efforts because they have (a) a better understanding of their own needs and requirements at work and (b) are more familiar with what is acceptable in the work context.
Employees that build relationships and seek information can help facilitate the onboarding process. Newcomers can also speed up their adjustment by demonstrating behaviors that assist them in clarifying expectations, learning organizational values and norms, and gaining social acceptance. Information seeking occurs when new employees ask questions in an effort to learn about the company’s norms, expectations, procedures and policies. Also called networking, relationship building involves an employee’s efforts to develop camaraderie with co-workers and supervisors. This can be achieved informally through talking to their new peers during a coffee break, or through more formal means like pre-arranged company events. Research has shown relationship building to be a key part of the onboarding process, leading to outcomes like greater job satisfaction, better job performance and decreased stress. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.05%3A__Agents_of_Socialization/4.5H%3A_Workplace.txt |
Division of labor is the specialization of cooperative labor in specific, circumscribed tasks and similar roles.
Learning Objectives
• Interpret Durkheim’s division of labor theory in terms of mechanical and organic solidarity, as well as progression from primitive to advanced societies
Key Points
• An increasingly complex division of labor is historically closely associated with the growth of total output and trade, the rise of capitalism, and of the complexity of industrialization processes.
• Durkheim classified societies as primitive or advanced based on their division of labor.
• According to Durkheim, in primitive societies where there is little or no division of labor, people act and think alike with a collective conscience. In advanced societies with high division of labor, social ties are relatively homogeneous and weak.
• Labor hierarchy is a very common feature of the modern workplace structure.
• It is often agreed that the most equitable principle in allocating people within hierarchies is that of true competency or ability. This important Western concept of meritocracy could be interpreted as an explanation or as a justification of why a division of labor is the way it is.
Key Terms
• industrialization: A process of social and economic change whereby a human society is transformed from a pre-industrial to an industrial state
• meritocracy: Rule by merit, and talent. By extension, now often used to describe a type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.
• labor hierarchy: Labor hierarchy is a very common feature of the modern workplace structure, but of course the way these hierarchies are structured can be influenced by a variety of different factors.
Division of labor is the specialization of cooperative labor in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles. Historically, an increasingly complex division of labor is closely associated with the growth of total output and trade, the rise of capitalism, and of the complexity of industrialization processes. Division of labor was also a method used by the Sumerians to categorize different jobs and divide them between skilled members of a society.
Emilie Durkheim was a driving force in developing the theory of the division of labor in socialization. In his dissertation, Durkheim described how societies maintained social order based on two very different forms of solidarity (mechanical and organic), and analyzed the transition from more “primitive” societies to advanced industrial societies.
Durkheim suggested that in a “primitive” society, mechanical solidarity, with people acting and thinking alike and sharing a collective or common conscience, allows social order to be maintained. In such a society, Durkheim viewed crime as an act that “offends strong and defined states of the collective conscience”. Because social ties were relatively homogeneous and weak throughout society, the law had to be repressive and penal, to respond to offenses of the common conscience.
In an advanced, industrial, capitalist society, the complex division of labor means that people are allocated in society according to merit and rewarded accordingly; social inequality reflects natural inequality. Durkheim argued that in this type of society moral regulation was needed to maintain order (or organic solidarity). He thought that transition of a society from “primitive” to advanced may bring about major disorder, crisis, and anomie. However, once society has reached the “advanced” stage, it becomes much stronger and is done developing.
In the modern world, those specialists most preoccupied with theorizing about the division of labor are those involved in management and organization. In view of the global extremes of the division of labor, the question is often raised about what manner of division of labor would be ideal, most efficient, and most just. It is widely accepted that the division of labor is to a great extent inevitable, simply because no one can perform all tasks at once. Labor hierarchy is a very common feature of the modern workplace structure, but the structure of these hierarchies can be influenced by a variety of factors. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.05%3A__Agents_of_Socialization/4.5I%3A_The_Division_of_Labor.txt |
An incest taboo is any cultural rule or norm that prohibits sexual relations between relatives.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze the different constructs of the incest taboo, ranging from biological (the Westermarck effect) to cultural (endogamy and exogamy)
Key Points
• Incest taboo is a cultural norm or rule that forbids sexual relations between relatives.
• Inbreeding is reproduction resulting from the mating of two genetically-related individuals.
• The Westermarck effect is essentially a psychological phenomenon that serves to discourage inbreeding. Through this effect, people who have grown up together are less likely to feel sexually attracted to one another later in life.
• Exogamy is a social arrangement in which marriage is permitted only with members from outside the social group.
• Endogamy is a social arrangement in which marriage can occur only within the same social group.
Key Terms
• exogamy: Marriage to a person belonging to a tribe or group other than your own as required by custom or law.
• inbreeding: Breeding between members of a relatively small population, especially one in which most members are related.
• endogamy: The practice of marrying or being required to marry within one’s own ethnic, religious, or social group.
Inbreeding: An intensive form of inbreeding where an individual S is mated to his daughter D1, granddaughter D2 and so on, in order to maximise the percentage of S’s genes in the offspring. D3 would have 87.5% of his genes, while D4 would have 93.75%.
An incest taboo is any cultural rule or norm that prohibits sexual relations between relatives. All human cultures have norms regarding who is considered suitable and unsuitable as sexual or marriage partners. Usually certain close relatives are excluded from being possible partners. Little agreement exists among cultures about which types of blood relations are permissible partners and which are not. In many cultures, certain types of cousin relations are preferred as sexual and marital partners, whereas others are taboo.
One potential explanation for the incest taboo sees it as a cultural implementation of a biologically evolved preference for sexual partners without shared genes, as inbreeding may have detrimental outcomes. The most widely held hypothesis proposes that the so-called Westermarck effect discourages adults from engaging in sexual relations with individuals with whom they grew up. The existence of the Westermarck effect has achieved some empirical support. The Westermarck effect, first proposed by Edvard Westermarck in 1891, is the theory that children reared together, regardless of biological relationship, form a sentimental attachment that is by its nature non-erotic.
Another school argues that the incest prohibition is a cultural construct that arises as a side effect of a general human preference for group exogamy. Intermarriage between groups construct valuable alliances that improve the ability for both groups to thrive. According to this view, the incest taboo is not necessarily a universal, but it is likely to arise and become stricter under cultural circumstances that favor exogamy over endogamy; it likely to become more lax under circumstances that favor endogamy. This hypothesis has also achieved some empirical support.
Societies that are stratified often prescribe different degrees of endogamy. Endogamy is the opposite of exogamy; it refers to the practice of marriage between members of the same social group. A classic example is seen in India’s caste system, in which unequal castes are endogamous. Inequality between ethnic groups and races also correlates with endogamy. Class, caste, ethnic and racial endogamy typically coexists with family exogamy and prohibitions against incest. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.05%3A__Agents_of_Socialization/4.5J%3A_The_Incest_Taboo_Marriage_and_the_Family.txt |
Ideology is a coherent system of ideas that constitutes one’s goals, expectations, and actions.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the purpose of an ideology and how it is used in various contexts (i.e. religion or politics) to create change or conformity in society
Key Points
• Ideology can be used either to initiate change in society or to encourage continued adherence to a set of ideals in a situation where conformity already exists.
• According to Karl Marx, ideology is an instrument for social reproduction, as those who control the means of production (the ruling class ) are able to establish the dominant ideology within a society.
• Louis Althusser proposed a materialistic conception of ideology using the concept of Ideological State Apparatus.
• Ideological State Apparatuses are institutions, such as the family, media, religious organizations, education system, etc., that together comprise ideological practice, the sphere which has the defining property of constituting individuals as subjects.
• Many political parties base their political action and program on an ideology. Political ideology consists of two dimensions: goals and methods.
Key Terms
• superstructure: The ideas, philosophies, and culture that are built upon the means of production.
• ideology: the doctrine, philosophy, body of beliefs or principles belonging to an individual or group
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitute one’s goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things, as in several philosophical tendencies, or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society. The main purpose behind an ideology is to offer either change in society, or adherence to a set of ideals where conformity already exists, through a normative thought process. Ideologies are systems of abstract thought applied to public matters and thus make this concept central to politics.
In the Marxist account of ideology, it serves as an instrument of social reproduction. In the Marxist economic base and superstructure model of society, base denotes the relations of production, and superstructure denotes the dominant ideology (religious, legal, political systems). The economic base of production determines the political superstructure of a society. Ruling class-interests determine the superstructure and the nature of the justifying ideology—actions feasible because the ruling class control the means of production. Similarly, Louis Althusser proposed a materialistic conception of ideology using the concept of the ideological state apparatus. For Althusser, beliefs and ideas are the products of social practices, not the reverse. What is ultimately important for Althusser are not the subjective beliefs held in the “minds” of human individuals, but rather the material institutions, rituals, and discourses that produce these beliefs.
Many political parties base their political action and program on an ideology. A political ideology is a certain ethical set of ideals, principles, doctrines, myths, or symbols of a social movement, institution, class, or large group that explains how society should work and offers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order. A political ideology largely concerns itself with how to allocate power and to what ends it should be used. Some parties follow a certain ideology very closely, while others may take broad inspiration from a group of related ideologies without specifically embracing any one of them. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.05%3A__Agents_of_Socialization/4.5K%3A_Ideology.txt |
A total institution is a place where a group of people is cut off from the wider community and their needs are under bureaucratic control.
Learning Objectives
• Review Goffman’s five types of social institutions and their functions, including their processes of resocialization
Key Points
• The term total institution was coined by the American sociologist Erving Goffman.
• Resocialization is defined as radically changing an inmate’s personality by carefully controlling his or her environment.
• Resocialization is a two-part process. First, the staff of the institution tries to erode the residents’ identities and independence. Second, the resocialization process involves the systematic attempt to build a different personality or self.
Key Terms
• Resocialization: Resocialization is defined as radically changing an inmate’s personality by carefully controlling the environment.
• Erving Goffman: Erving Goffman (June 11, 1922 – November 19, 1982) was a Canadian-born sociologist and writer. The 73rd president of American Sociological Association, Goffman’s greatest contribution to social theory was his study of symbolic interaction in the form of dramaturgical analysis. This began with his 1959 book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.
• total institution: It is an institution that controls almost all aspects of its members’ lives. Boarding schools, orphanages, military branches, juvenile detention, and prisons are examples of total institutions.
A total institution is a place of work and residence where a great number of similarly situated people, cut off from the wider community for a considerable time, lead an enclosed, formally administered life together. The term was coined by the American sociologist Erving Goffman. Within a total institution, the basic needs of a entire bloc of people are under bureaucratic control. These needs are handled in an impersonal and bureaucratic manner.
Goffman divided total institutions into five different types:
1. Institutions established to care for harmless or incapable people, including orphanages, poor houses and nursing homes
2. Institutions established to care for people that are incapable of looking after themselves and are also a threat to the community, including leprosarium, mental hospitals, and tuberculosis sanitariums
3. Institutions organized to protect the community against perceived intentional dangers, with the welfare of the sequestered people not the immediate issue, including concentration camps, prisoner of war camps, penitentiaries and jails
4. Institutions purportedly established to pursue some task, including colonial compounds, work camps, boarding schools, and ships
5. Institutions designed as retreats from the world while also often serving as training stations for the religious, including convents, abbeys, and monasteries
The goal of total institutions is resocialization, the radical alteration of residents’ personalities by deliberately manipulating their environment. Key examples include the process of resocializing new recruits into the military so that they can operate as soldiers. Resocialization is a two-part process. First, the staff of the institution tries to erode the residents’ identities and independence. Second, resocialization involves the systematic attempt to build a different personality or self. This is generally done through a system of reward and punishment. The privilege of reading a book, watching television, or making a phone call can be a powerful motivator to conform. Conformity occurs when individuals change their behavior to fit in with the expectations of an authority figure or the expectations of a larger group.
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Gender socialization is the process of teaching people how to behave as men or women.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze how the process of gender socialization has an impact on the lifespan development of a person, specifically related to stereotypes between men and women
Key Points
• Gender socialization begins even before a baby is born.
• Gender is socialized through media messages, school instruction, family expectations, and experiences in the workplace.
• The process of gender socialization continues as adolescents enter the workforce. Research has found that adolescents encounter stereotypes of gendered performance in their first jobs.
Key Terms
• gender: The socio-cultural phenomenon of the division of people into various categories such as male and female, with each having associated roles, expectations, stereotypes, etc.
Sociologists and other social scientists generally attribute many of the behavioral differences between men and women to socialization. Socialization is the process of transferring norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors to future group members. In regards to gender socialization, the most common groups people join are the gender categories male and female. Even the categorical options of gender an individual may choose is socialized; social norms act against selecting a gender that is neither male or female. Thus, gender socialization is the process of educating and instructing potential men and women how to behave as members of that particular group.
Socialization Before Birth
Preparations for gender socialization begin even before the birth of the child. One of the first questions people ask of expectant parents is whether the baby will be a boy or girl. This is the beginning of a social categorization process that continues throughout life. Preparations for the birth of the child often take the expected sex into consideration, such as painting the infant’s room pink or blue.
Early Life Socialization
One illustration of early life gender socialization can be seen in preschool classrooms. Children in preschool classrooms where teachers were told to emphasize gender differences saw an increase in stereotyped views of what activities are appropriate for boys or girls, while children with teachers who did not emphasize gender showed no increase in stereotyped views. This clearly demonstrates the influence of socialization on the development of gender roles; subtle cues that surround us in our everyday lives strongly influence gender socialization.
Adolescent Socialization
The process of gender socialization continues as adolescents enter the workforce. Research has found that adolescents encounter stereotypes of gendered performance in the workforce in their first jobs. First jobs are significantly segregated by sex. Girls work fewer hours and earn less per hour than boys. Hourly wages are higher in job types dominated by boys while girls are more frequently assigned housework and childcare duties. The impact of these first experiences in the professional world will shape adolescents’ perspectives on how men and women behave differently in the workforce.
4.6B: Learning the Gender Gap
The gender pay gap, or the difference between male and female earnings, is primarily due to discriminatory social processes.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the impact the gener pay/wage gap can have on both men and, in particular, women, in the economic world
Key Points
• There is a debate as to what extent the gender pay gap is the result of gender differences, implicit discrimination due to lifestyle choices, or because of explicit discrimination.
• The unadjusted wage gap refers to a measure of the wage gap that does not take into account differences in personal and workplace characteristics between men and women.
• We can assume that the adjusted wage gap represents the gap due to implicit discrimination. In other words, the social forces that cause women to stay home with children more frequently than men or to be less aggressive, are responsible for this part of the wage gap.
• The difference between the unadjusted and the adjusted wage gap is due to explicit discrimination or the fact that on average, a woman will make less than an identical man in the exact same occupation.
• Studies have shown that the majority of the gender wage gap is due to implicit, not explicit, discrimination.
Key Terms
• The gender pay gap: The gender pay gap is the difference between male and female earnings expressed as a percentage of male earnings, according to the OECD.
• glass ceiling: An unwritten, uncodified barrier to further promotion or progression for a member of a specific demographic group.
The gender pay gap is the difference between male and female earnings expressed as a percentage of male earnings, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The European Commission defines it as the average difference between men and women’s hourly earnings. There is a debate as to what extent this is the result of gender differences, implicit discrimination due to lifestyle choices, or because of explicit discrimination. If it is a result of gender differences, then the pay gap is not a problem; men are simply better equipped to perform more valuable work than women. If it is a result of implicit discrimination due to lifestyle choices, then women’s lower earnings result from the fact that women typically take more time off when having children or choose to work fewer hours. If it is explicit discrimination, then the pay gap is a result of stereotypical beliefs, conscious or unconscious, from those who hire and set salaries.
Most who study the gender wage gap assume that it is not due to differences in ability between genders – while in general men may be better at physical labor, the pay gap persists in other employment sectors as well. This implies that the gender gap stems from social, rather than biological, origins.
In order to determine whether the gender gap is a result of implicit or explicit discrimination, we can look at the adjusted and unadjusted wage gap. The unadjusted wage gap refers to a measure of the wage gap that does not take into account differences in personal (e.g., age, education, the number of children, job tenure, occupation, and occupational crowding) and workplace (e.g., the economic sector and place of employment) characteristics between men and women. Parts of the raw pay gap can be attributed to the fact that women, for instance, tend to engage more often in part-time work and tend to work in lower paid industries. The remaining part of the raw wage gap that cannot be explained by variables that are thought to influence pay is then referred to as the adjusted gender pay gap and may be explicitly discriminatory.
The total wage gap in the United States is 20.4 percent. A study commissioned by the United States Department of Labor, prepared by Consad Research Corp, asserts that there are “observable differences in the attributes of men and women that account for most of the wage gap. Statistical analysis that includes those variables has produced results that collectively account for between 65.1 and 76.4 percent of a raw gender wage gap of 20.4 percent, and thereby leave an adjusted gender wage gap that is between 4.8 and 7.1 percent. ” Thus, only a relatively small part of the wage gap is due to explicit discrimination.
We can assume that the remainder (the gap attributed to the measured variables) is the result of implicit discrimination, that is, social forces that pressure women into working part time, to stay home with their children, to be less aggressive in pursuing promotions or raises, etc. A 2010 report by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, for example, pointed out that “the major reasons for this gap are very often related to both horizontal and vertical segregation – or the fact that women tend to choose lower-paid professions, reach a ‘glass ceiling’ in their careers, or have their jobs valued less favourably. The origins of these factors could be judged as being discriminatory in themselves, that is, when they are rooted in gender stereotypes of male and female occupations. ”
Gender Pay Gap in Europe: This PSA by the European Union illustrates the gender pay gap in Europe. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.06%3A_Gender_Socialization/4.6A%3A_Gender_Socialization.txt |
Gender role theory posits that boys and girls learn the appropriate behavior and attitudes from the family with which they grow up.
Learning Objectives
• Justify how the family acts as the most important agent of gender socialization for children and adolescents
Key Points
• Primary socialization – the socialization that occurs during childhood and depends mostly on a child’s family members – is typically the most long-lasting and influential phase of socialization. Therefore, the gender roles learned from family will endure.
• The family is the most important agent of socialization because it serves as the center of the child’s life.
• The division of labor between men and women contributes to the creation of gender roles, which in turn, lead to gender-specific social behavior.
• In the adult years the demands of work and family overwhelm most peer group relations and the influence of peers seriously declines as an agent of socialization, only to return during the elderly years.
• The division of labor creates gender roles, which in turn, lead to gendered social behavior.
Key Terms
• primary socialization: The socialization that takes place early in life, as a child and adolescent.
• Division of labor: A division of labour is the dividing and specializing of cooperative labour into specifically circumscribed tasks and roles.
• gender role theory: The idea that boys and girls learn the behavior and attitudes about how to perform one’s biologically assigned gender.
Gender role theory posits that boys and girls learn the appropriate behavior and attitudes from the family and overall culture in which they grow up, and that non-physical gender differences are a product of socialization. Social role theory proposes that social structure is the underlying force behind gender differences, and that the division of labor between two sexes within a society motivates the differences in their respective behavior. Division of labor creates gender roles, which in turn, lead to gender-specific social behavior.
Family is the most important agent of socialization because it serves as the center of a child’s life. Socialization theory tells us that primary socialization – the process that occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values and actions expected of individuals within a particular culture – is the most important phase of social development, and lays the groundwork for all future socialization. Therefore, the family plays a pivotal role in the child’s development, influencing both the attitudes the child will adopt and the values the child will hold. Socialization can be intentional or unintentional; the family may not be conscious of the messages it transmits, but these messages nonetheless contribute to the child’s socialization. Children learn continuously from the environment that adults create, including gender norms.
For example, a child who grows up in a two-parent household with a mother who acts as a homemaker and a father who acts as the breadwinner may internalize these gender roles, regardless of whether or not the family is directly teaching them. Likewise, if parents buy dolls for their daughters and toy trucks for their sons, the children will learn to value different things. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.06%3A_Gender_Socialization/4.6C%3A_Gender_Messages_in_the_Family.txt |
Peer groups can serve as a venue for teaching gender roles, especially if conventional gender social norms are strongly held.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss how peer groups can have a major impact on the gender socialization of a person, particularly children and adolescents
Key Points
• Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture.
• Through gender-role socialization, group members learn about sex differences, and social and cultural expectations.
• Early on, children begin to almost restrict themselves to same-gendered groups. Boys tend to participate in more active and forceful activities in larger groups, away from adults, while girls were more likely to play in small groups, near adults.
• The stereotypes are less prominent when the groups are mixed-gendered, because the difference is not salient.
• A girl who wishes to take karate class instead of dance lessons may be called a “tomboy,” facing difficulty gaining acceptance from both male and female peer groups.
Key Terms
• stereotype: A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image of a group of people or things.
• gender roles: Sets of social and behavioral norms that are generally considered appropriate for either a man or a woman in a social or interpersonal relationship.
• Peer groups: Peer groups can serve as a venue for teaching members gender roles.
Gender role theory posits that boys and girls learn the appropriate behavior and attitudes from the family and overall culture in which they grow up, and so non-physical gender differences are a product of socialization. Social role theory proposes that the social structure is the underlying force for gender differences. Social role theory proposes that sex-differentiated behavior is motivated by the division of labor between two sexes within a society. Division of labor creates gender roles, which in turn lead to gendered social behavior.
Peer groups can serve as a venue for teaching members gender roles. Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, and which differ widely across cultures and historical periods.
Through gender-role socialization, group members learn about sex differences, and social and cultural expectations. Biological males are not always masculine and biological females are not always feminine. Both genders can contain different levels of masculinity and femininity. Peer groups can consist of all males, all females, or both males and females.
Peer groups can have great influence on each other’s gender role behavior depending on the amount of pressure applied. If a peer group strongly holds to a conventional gender social norm, members will behave in ways predicted by their gender roles, but if there is not a unanimous peer agreement, gender roles do not correlate with behavior. There is much research that has been done on how gender affects learning within student peer groups. The purpose of a large portion of this research has been to see how gender affects peer cooperative groups, how that affects the relationships that students have within the school setting, and how gender can then affect attainment and learning. One thing that is an influence on peer groups is student behavior.
Knowing early on that children begin to almost restrict themselves to same-gendered groups, it is interesting to see how those interactions within groups take place. Boys tend to participate in more active and forceful activities in larger groups, away from adults, while girls were more likely to play in small groups, near adults. These gender differences are also representative of many stereotypical gender roles within these same-gendered groups. The stereotypes are less prominent when the groups are mixed-gendered.
When children do not conform to the appropriate gender role, they may face negative sanctions such as being criticized or marginalized by their peers. Though many of these sanctions are informal, they can be quite severe. For example, a girl who wishes to take karate class instead of dance lessons may be called a “tomboy,” facing difficulty gaining acceptance from both male and female peer groups. Boys, especially, are subject to intense ridicule for gender nonconformity.
4.6E: Gender Messages in Mass Media
In mass media, women tend to have less significant roles than men, and are often portrayed in stereotypical roles, such as wives or mothers.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the types of gender socialization people get from viewing various types of media
Key Points
• Gender socialization occurs through four major agents: family, education, peer groups, and mass media.
• Television commercials and other forms of advertising reinforce inequality and gender-based stereotypes.
• Particularly concerning are instances when women are depicted in dehumanizing, violent, and oppressive ways, especially in music videos.
• The mass media is able to deliver impersonal communications to a vast audience.
Key Terms
• Gender socialization: The process of educating and instructing males and females as to the norms, behaviors, values, and beliefs of group membership as men or women.
• impersonal communications: The mass media are the means for delivering impersonal communications directed to a vast audience, and include radio, advertising, television, and music.
• television commercials: Television commercials and other forms of advertising also reinforce inequality and gender-based stereotypes.
Gender socialization occurs through four major agents: family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Because mass media has enormous effects on our attitude and behavior, notably in regards to aggression, it is an important contributor to the socialization process. This is particularly true with regards to gender. In television and movies, women tend to have less significant roles than men. They are often portrayed as wives or mothers, rather than as main characters. When women are given a lead role, they are often one of two extremes: either a wholesome, saint-like figure or a malevolent, hyper-sexual figure. This same inequality is similarly pervasive in children’s movies. Research indicates that among the 101 top-grossing, G-rated movies released between 1990 and 2005, three out of every four characters were male. Out of those movies, only seven films were even close to having a balanced cast of characters, with a ratio of less than 1.5 male characters per 1 female character.
Television commercials and other forms of advertising reinforce inequality and gender-based stereotypes. Women almost exclusively appear in ads that promote cooking, cleaning, or childcare-related products. In general, women are underrepresented in roles, or ads, that reference leadership, intelligence, or a balanced psyche. Particularly concerning are instances when women are depicted in dehumanizing, oppressive ways, especially in music videos. The music video for “Pimp,” a song by 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, and G-Unit, demonstrates how harmful gender messages can be disseminated through mass media. In the video, women are objectified and portrayed as only existing to serve men. They wear little clothing and are walked around on leashes by men, as if they were dogs and not humans.
Gender Messages in Music: The music video for “PIMP,” a song by 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, and G-Unit, demonstrates how gender messages are disseminated through mass media. In the video, women are objectified and portrayed as only existing to serve men, as evidenced by the fact that men walk women around on leashes in part of the video. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.06%3A_Gender_Socialization/4.6D%3A_Gender_Messages_from_Peers.txt |
Old age cannot be exactly defined, but it is often associated with certain activities, such as becoming a grandparent or entering retirement.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss some of the implications of old age, particularly in relation to Erikson’s “Eight Stages of Life” and age discrimination
Key Points
• Erik Erikson characterizes old age as a period of “Integrity vs. Despair,” during which a person focuses on reflecting back on their life. Those who are unsuccessful during this phase will feel that their life has been wasted and will experience many regrets.
• Those who feel proud of their accomplishments will feel a sense of integrity. Successfully completing this phase means looking back with few regrets and a general feeling of satisfaction.
• Old age presents some social problems, such as age discrimination. Elderly people are more likely to be victims of abuse, and negative stereotypes are also very common.
Key Terms
• abuse: Physical or verbal maltreatment; injury.
• self-neglect: It refers to behaviors that threaten the person’s own health and safety.
The boundary between middle age and old age cannot be defined exactly because it does not have the same meaning in all societies. People can be considered old because of certain changes in their activities or social roles. For example, people may be considered old when they become grandparents, or when they begin to do less or different work (retirement). Traditionally, the age of 60 was generally seen as the beginning of old age. Most developed world countries have accepted the chronological age of 65 years as a definition of an “elderly” or older person.
According to Erik Erikson’s “Eight Stages of Life” theory, the human personality is developed in a series of eight stages that take place from the time of birth and continue on throughout an individual’s complete life. He characterizes old age as a period of “Integrity vs. Despair,” during which a person focuses on reflecting back on their life. Those who are unsuccessful during this phase will feel that their life has been wasted and will experience many regrets. The individual will be left with feelings of bitterness and despair. Those who feel proud of their accomplishments will feel a sense of integrity. Successfully completing this phase means looking back with few regrets and a general feeling of satisfaction. These individuals will attain wisdom, even when confronting death.
Age discrimination is a prevalent social problem facing the elderly. While discrimination toward the young is primarily visible through behavioral restrictions, discrimination toward the elderly ranges from behavioral restrictions to physical abuse. Abuse of the elderly is a serious problem in the U.S. There are nearly two million cases of elder abuse and self-neglect in the U.S. every year. Abuse refers to psychological/emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and caregiver neglect or financial exploitation, while self-neglect refers to behaviors that threaten the person’s own health and safety.
4.7A: Socialization Throughout the Life Span
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the concept of both primary and secondary socialization as a lifelong process which begins in infancy and continues into late adulthood
Socialization refers to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologies that provide an individual with the skills necessary for participating within society. Socialization is a process that continues throughout an individual’s life. Some social scientists say socialization represents the process of learning throughout life and is a central influence on the behavior, beliefs and actions of adults as well as of children.
George Herbert Mead (1902–1994) developed the concept of self as developed with social experience. Since social experience is the exchange of symbols, people find meaning in every action, and seeking meaning leads people to imagine the intention of others from the others’ point of view. In effect, others are a mirror in which we can see ourselves. Charles Horton Cooley (1902-1983) coined the term “looking glass self;” the self -image based on how we think others see us. According to Mead, the key to developing the self is learning to take the role of the other. With limited social experience, infants can only develop a sense of identity through imitation. Children gradually learn to take the roles of several others. The final stage is the generalized other; the widespread cultural norms and values we use as a reference for evaluating others.
Primary and Secondary Socialization
The socialization process can be divided into primary and secondary socialization. Primary socialization occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. This is mainly influenced by the immediate family and friends. Secondary socialization is the process of learning what is the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society. It is the behavioral patterns reinforced by socializing agents of society like schools and workplaces. For example, as new employees become socialized in an organization, they learn about its history, values, jargon, culture and procedures.
The Life Course Approach
The life course approach was developed in the 1960s for analyzing people’s lives within structural, social and cultural contexts. Origins of this approach can be traced to such pioneering studies as Thomas’s and Znaniecki’s “The Polish Peasant in Europe and America” from the 1920s or Mannheim’s essay on the “Problem of generations.” The life course approach examines an individual’s life history and how early events influence future decisions.
Key Points
• Socialization is the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society.
• Socialization is the process by which human infants acquire the skills necessary to perform as a functioning member of their society, a process that continues throughout an individual’s life.
• The socialization process can be divided into primary and secondary socialization. Primary socialization occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. This is mainly influenced by the immediate family and friends.
• Secondary socialization is the process of learning what is the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society. It is the behavioral patterns reinforced by socializing agents of society. like schools and workplaces.
• The life course approach was developed in the 1960s for analyzing people’s lives within structural, social and cultural contexts.
Key Terms
• socialization: The process of learning one’s culture and how to live within it.
• agent: One who exerts power, or has the power to act; an actor. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.07%3A_Socialization_Throughout_the_Life_Span/4.7.01%3A_4.7L_-_The_Older_Years.txt |
The life course approach analyzes people’s lives within structural, social, and cultural contexts.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the life course perspective as it relates to a person’s development from infancy to old age, in terms of structural, social and cultural contexts
Key Points
• The life course approach refers to an approach developed in the 1960s for analyzing people’s lives within structural, social, and cultural contexts.
• The life course approach examines an individual’s life history and sees for example how early events influence future decisions and events, giving particular attention to the connection between individuals and the historical and socioeconomic context in which they lived.
• In a more general reading of the life course, human life is seen as divided into stages, which are somewhat arbitrary, but capture periods of life that are similar across cultures. These stages of life often inform and are reinforced by legal definitions of life stages.
Key Terms
• socioeconomic: Of or pertaining to social and economic factors.
• life course: the sequence of events, roles and age categories that people pass through from birth until death, all of which are culturally defined
• age: Mature age; especially, the time of life at which one attains full personal rights and capacities.
The life course approach, also known as the life course perspective, or life course theory, refers to an approach developed in the 1960s for analyzing people’s lives within structural, social, and cultural contexts. Origins of this approach can be traced to pioneering studies such as Thomas’s and Znaniecki’s “The Polish Peasant in Europe and America” from the 1920s or Mannheim’s essay on the “Problem of generations”.
The life course approach examines an individual’s life history and sees for example how early events influence future decisions and events, giving particular attention to the connection between individuals and the historical and socioeconomic context in which they have lived. It holds that the events and roles that are part of the person’s life course do not necessarily proceed in a given sequence, but rather constitute the sum total of the person’s actual experience.
In a more general reading, human life is seen as often divided into various age spans such as infancy, toddler, childhood, adolescence, young adult, prime adulthood, middle age, and old age. These divisions are somewhat arbitrary, but generally capture periods of life that reflect a certain degree of similarity in development across cultures.
In many countries, such as Sweden and the United States, adulthood legally begins at the age of eighteen. This is a major age milestone that is marked by significantly different attitudes toward the person who undergoes the transition. This is an example that demonstrates the influence of developmental stages on legal determinations of life stages, and thus, attitudes towards people at different stages of the human life course.
4.7C: Anticipatory Socialization and Resocialization
Anticipatory socialization comes from an individual’s desire to join a group while resocialization is imposed upon an individual by a group.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the two steps associated with the resocialization process and how people use anticipatory socialization as a means to gain entrance into desired social groups
Key Points
• Anticipatory socialization is the process of changing one’s attitudes and behaviors in preparation for a shift in one’s role.
• The process of anticipatory socialization is facilitated by social interactions with the group they aspire to join.
• Resocialization is radically changing an inmate’s personality by carefully controlling their environment.
• Resocialization is a two-part process. First, the staff of the institution tries to erode the residents’ identities and independence. Second, there is a systematic attempt to build a different personality or self.
Key Terms
• Social interactions: It refers to a relationship between two (i.e. a dyad), three (i.e. a triad) or more individuals (e.g. a social group).
• Anticipatory socialization: Anticipatory socialization is the process, facilitated by social interactions, in which non-group-members learn to take on the values and standards of groups that they aspire to join, so as to ease their entry into the group and help them interact competently once they have been accepted by it.
Anticipatory Socialization
Anticipatory socialization is the process by which non-group-members adopt the values and standards of groups that they aspire to join, so as to ease their entry into the group and help them interact appropriately once they have been accepted. It involves changing one’s attitudes and behaviors in preparation for a shift in one’s role. Practices commonly associated with anticipatory socialization include grooming, play-acting, training, and rehearsing. Examples of anticipatory socialization include law school students learning how to behave like lawyers, older people preparing for retirement, and Mormon boys getting ready to become missionaries.
Anticipatory socialization was first defined by sociologist Robert K. Merton. It has its origins in a 1949 study of the United States military which found that privates who modeled their attitudes and behaviors on those of officers were more likely to be promoted than those who did not.
When people are blocked from access to a group they might have wanted to join, they reject that group’s values and norms. Instead, they begin an anticipatory socialization process with groups that are more receptive to them. One example of this is the case of economically disadvantaged teenagers who seek to become drug dealers rather than professionals. While some critics would claim that these individuals lack motivation, some sociologists say they are simply making a pragmatic adjustment to the opportunities available to them.
Resocialization
Resocialization is defined as radically changing someone’s personality by carefully controlling their environment. Total institutions aim to radically alter residents’ personalities through deliberate manipulation of their environment. Key examples include the process of resocializing new recruits into the military so that they can operate as soldiers (or, in other words, as members of a cohesive unit) and the reverse process, in which those who have become accustomed to such roles return to society after military discharge. Resocialization may also be required for inmates who come out of prison and need to acclimate themselves back into civilian life.
Resocialization is a two-part process. First, the staff of the institution tries to erode the residents’ identities and sense of independence. Strategies include forcing individuals to surrender all personal possessions, cut their hair in a uniform manner, and wear standardized clothing. Independence can be eroded by subjecting residents to humiliating and degrading procedures. Examples include strip searches, fingerprinting, and replacing residents’ given names with serial numbers or code names. Second, resocialization involves the systematic attempt to build a different personality or self. This is generally accomplished through a system of rewards and punishments. The privilege of reading a book, watching television, or making a phone call can be powerful motivation to conform. Conformity occurs when individuals change their behavior to fit the expectations of an authority figure or the expectations of a larger group. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.07%3A_Socialization_Throughout_the_Life_Span/4.7B%3A_The_Life_Course.txt |
The socialization process can be separated into two main stages: primary socialization and secondary socialization.
Learning Objectives
• Give examples of how the socialization process progresses throughout a person’s life
Key Points
• The life process of socialization is generally divided into two parts: primary and secondary socialization.
• Primary socialization takes place early in life, as a child and adolescent. This is when an individual develops their core identity.
• Secondary socialization takes place throughout an individual’s life, both as a child and as one encounters new groups. This involves more specific changes in response to the acquisition of new group memberships and roles and differently structured social situations.
• Some of the more significant contributors to the socialization process are: parents, guardians, friends, schools, siblings or other family members, social clubs (like religions or sports teams), life partners (romantic or platonic), and co-workers.
Key Terms
• secondary socialization: The socialization that takes place throughout one’s life, both as a child and as one encounters new groups that require additional socialization.
• primary socialization: The socialization that takes place early in life, as a child and adolescent.
Socialization is a life process, but is generally divided into two parts: primary and secondary socialization.
Primary socialization takes place early in life, as a child and adolescent. Secondary socialization refers to the socialization that takes place throughout one’s life, both as a child and as one encounters new groups that require additional socialization. While there are scholars who argue that only one or the other of these occurs, most social scientists tend to combine the two, arguing that the basic or core identity of the individual develops during primary socialization, with more specific changes occurring later—secondary socialization—in response to the acquisition of new group memberships and roles and differently structured social situations. The need for later-life socialization may stem from the increasing complexity of society with its corresponding increase in varied roles and responsibilities.
Mortimer and Simmons outline three specific ways these two parts of socialization differ:
1. Content: Socialization in childhood is thought to be concerned with the regulation of biological drives. In adolescence, socialization is concerned with the development of overarching values and the self-image. In adulthood, socialization involves more overt and specific norms and behaviors, such as those related to the work role as well as more superficial personality features.
2. Context: In earlier periods, the socializee (the person being socialized) more clearly assumes the status of learner within the context of the initial setting (which may be a family of orientation, an orphanage, a period of homelessness, or any other initial social groups at the beginning of a child’s life), the school (or other educational context), or the peer group. Also, relationships in the earlier period are more likely to be affectively charged, i.e., highly emotional. In adulthood, though the socializee takes the role of student at times, much socialization occurs after the socializee has assumed full incumbency of the adult role. There is also a greater likelihood of more formal relationships due to situational contexts (e.g., work environment), which moderates down the affective component.
3. Response: The child and adolescent may be more easily malleable than the adult. Also, much adult socialization is self-initiated and voluntary; adults can leave or terminate the process at any time if they have the proper resources (symbolic, financial, and social) to do so.
Socialization is, of course, a social process. As such, it involves interactions between people. Socialization, as noted in the distinction between primary and secondary, can take place in multiple contexts and as a result of contact with numerous groups. Some of the more significant contributors to the socialization process are: parents, guardians, friends, schools, siblings or other family members, social clubs (like religions or sports teams), life partners (romantic or platonic), and co-workers. Each of these groups include a culture that must be learned and to some degree appropriated by the socializee in order to gain admittance to the group. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.07%3A_Socialization_Throughout_the_Life_Span/4.7D%3A_Stages_of_Socialization_Throughout_the_Life_Span.txt |
Childhood has been constructed in different ways over time, though modern childhood is often defined by play, learning and socializing.
Learning Objectives
• Evaluate the importance of childhood (early, middle and adolescence) in terms of socialization and acceptance in society
Key Points
• Contemporary conceptions of childhood generally divide the period into three main stages: early childhood ( toddlerhood ), middle childhood, and adolescence.
• Childhood is not an absolute concept defined by age and experience. Instead, childhood as a concept has been conceived in very different manners over time.
• American culture figures outdoor play as an essential part of childhood, though the reality is that children are increasingly playing indoors.
Key Terms
• toddlerhood: The period of one’s life in which one is a toddler
• adolescence: The transitional period of physical and psychological development between childhood and maturity.
• middle childhood: It is the school age and begins at around seven or eight.
Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood (learning to walk), early childhood (play age), middle childhood (school age), and adolescence ( puberty through post-puberty).
Age Ranges of Childhood
The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a varying range of years in human development, depending on biological, personal, religious, cultural, or national interpretations. Developmentally and biologically, it refers to the period between infancy and puberty. In common terms, childhood is considered to start from birth. Some consider that childhood, as a concept of play and innocence, ends at adolescence. In the legal systems of many countries, there is an age of majority at which point childhood officially ends and a person legally becomes an adult. Globally, the age of majority ranges anywhere from 15 to 21, with 18 being the most common.
Developmental Stages of Childhood
Early childhood follows the infancy stage and begins with toddlerhood, reached when the child begins speaking or taking steps independently. Toddlerhood ends around age three when the child becomes less dependent on parental assistance for basic needs and early childhood continues approximately through years seven or eight. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, early childhood spans the from birth to age eight.
In most western societies, middle childhood begins at around age seven or eight, approximating primary school age and ends around puberty, which typically marks the beginning of adolescence.
Adolescence is usually determined by the onset of puberty. However, puberty may also begin in preadolescents. The end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood varies by country. Even within a single nation- state or ethic group there may be different conceptions of when an individual is considered to be (chronologically and legally) mature enough to be entrusted by society with certain tasks.
Modern Concepts of Childhood
The concept of childhood appears to evolve and change shape as lifestyles change and adult expectations alter. Some believe that children should not have any worries and should not have to work; life should be happy and trouble-free. Childhood is generally a time of playing, learning, socializing, exploring, and worrying in a world without much adult interference, aside from parents. It is a time of learning about responsibilities without having to deal with adult responsibilities.
Childhood is often retrospectively viewed as a time of innocence. According to this view, children have yet to be negatively influenced by society and are naive, rather than ignorant. A “loss of innocence” is a common concept, and is often seen as an integral part of coming of age. It is usually thought of as an experience or period in a child’s life that widens their awareness of evil, pain or the world around them. This theme is demonstrated in the novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies. The fictional character Peter Pan is the embodiment of a childhood that never ends.
Play
Play is essential to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children. It offers children opportunities for physical (running, jumping, climbing, etc.), intellectual (social skills, community norms, ethics, and general knowledge) and emotional development (empathy, compassion, and friendships). Unstructured play encourages creativity and imagination and allows children to interact with the world around them. Playing and interacting with other children, as well as with some adults, provides opportunities for friendships, social interactions, practicing adult roles, and resolving conflicts.
Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills. However, when play is controlled by adults, children acquiesce to adult rules and concerns and lose some of the benefits play offers them, particularly in developing creativity, leadership, and group skills.
Play is considered to be so important to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child. Raising children in a hurried and pressured style may limit the benefits they would gain from child-driven play.
American culture considers outdoor play as an essential part of childhood. However, the reality is that children are increasingly playing indoors. Nature Deficit Disorder, a term coined by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods, refers to the alleged trend in the United States that children are spending less time outdoors, resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems. With the advent of the computer, video games, and television, children have more reasons to stay inside rather than outdoors exploring. On average, American children spend forty-four hours per week with electronic media. Parents are also keeping children indoors in order to protect them from their growing fear of stranger danger. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.07%3A_Socialization_Throughout_the_Life_Span/4.7E%3A_Childhood.txt |
Adolescence is a period of significant cognitive, physical and social development, including changes in family and peer relationships.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the influences on, and significance of, adolescent socialization and development, culminating in the development of autonomy
Key Points
• In addition to biological and social development, adolescents are also subject to a varied experiences across cultures depending on norms and expectations around sexuality, autonomy and occupation.
• Today, media has a significant influence on the experience and conceptions of adolescents, particularly in Westernized societies.
• The experience of adolescence is influenced by external factors like cultural norms and the media.
Key Terms
• adolescence: The transitional period of physical and psychological development between childhood and maturity.
• puberty: the age at which a person is first capable of sexual reproduction
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human development, generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood. Though the period of adolescence is most closely associated with the teenage years, chronological age provides only a rough marker of adolescence, and scholars have found it difficult to agree upon a precise definition. Thus, a thorough understanding of adolescence depends on information from various perspectives, most importantly from the areas of psychology, biology, history, sociology, education, and anthropology. Within all of these disciplines, adolescence is viewed as a transitional period between childhood with the purpose of preparing children for adult roles.
The end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood varies by country and by function. Even within a single nation-state or culture, there can be different ages at which an individual is considered to be (chronologically and legally) mature enough to handle certain tasks. In the west, such “coming of age” milestones include driving a vehicle, having legal sexual relations, serving in the armed forces or on a jury, purchasing and drinking alcohol, voting, entering into contracts, completing certain levels of education, and marrying. Adolescence is usually accompanied by increased independence and less supervision by parents or legal guardians.
The study of adolescent development often involves interdisciplinary collaborations. For example, researchers in neuroscience or bio-behavioral health might focus on pubertal changes in brain structure and its effects on cognition or social relations. Sociologists interested in adolescence might focus on the acquisition of social roles (e.g., worker or romantic partner) and how this varies across cultures or social conditions. Developmental psychologists might focus on changes in relations with parents and peers as a function of school structure and pubertal status.
Peer Relationships
Peer groups are especially important during adolescence, a period of development characterized by a dramatic increase in time spent with peers and a decrease in adult supervision. Adolescents also associate with friends of the opposite sex much more than in childhood and tend to identify with larger groups of peers based on shared characteristics.
Peer groups offer members the opportunity to develop various social skills like empathy, sharing and leadership. They can have positive influences on an individual, including academic motivation and performance. They can also have negative influences and lead to an increase in experimentation with drugs, drinking, vandalism, and stealing. Susceptibility to peer pressure increases during early adolescence, peaks around age 14, and declines thereafter.
During early adolescence, adolescents often associate in cliques; exclusive, single-sex groups of peers with whom they are particularly close. Toward late adolescence, cliques often merge into mixed-sex groups as teenagers begin romantically engaging with one another. These small friend groups break down even further as socialization becomes more couple-oriented. Despite the common notion that cliques are an inherently negative influence, they may help adolescents become socially acclimated and form a stronger sense of identity.
Romance and Sexual Activity
Romantic relationships tend to increase in prevalence throughout adolescence. By age 15, 53 percent of adolescents have had a romantic relationship that lasted at least one month over the course of the previous 18 months. A 2002 American study found that the average age of first sexual intercourse was 17 for males and 17.3 for females. As individuals develop into mature adolescents, there is an increase in the likelihood of a long-term relationship, which can be explained by sexual maturation and the development of cognitive skills necessary to maintain a romantic bond (e.g. caregiving, appropriate attachment). Long-term relationships allow adolescents to gain skills necessary for high-quality relationships later in life and contribute to development of feelings of self-worth.
Adolescence marks a time of sexual maturation, which impacts the types of social interactions adolescents maintain. While adolescents may engage in casual sexual encounters (often referred to as hookups in the United States), most sexual experience during this period of development takes place within romantic relationships.
Autonomy
Adolescents strive for autonomy. According to McElhaney et al., there are three ways in which autonomy can be described:
1. Emotional autonomy is the development of more adult-like close relationship with adults and peers
2. Behavioral autonomy, is the ability to make independent decisions and follow through with them
3. Cognitive autonomy is characterized as the manifestation of an independent set of beliefs, values and opinions | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.07%3A_Socialization_Throughout_the_Life_Span/4.7F%3A_Adolescence.txt |
Coming of age traditions, while different across the world, are seen in almost every society.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss how a young person “comes of age”, particularly in the context of religion or rituals
Key Points
• In many cultures, the transition from childhood to adulthood is marked by a coming of age tradition. In some, such traditions are associated with the arrival of sexual maturity in early adolescence; in others, it is associated with the arrival of new religious responsibilities.
• Often, coming of age traditions are religious, and signify that the individual is taking on a different role in his or her religious life, such as the Jewish bar mitzvah or Hindu ceremonies celebrating maturity.
• Other times these traditions are secular in nature and can range from legal benefits to extravagant parties.
Key Terms
• coming of age: A person’s journey from childhood or adolescence to adulthood.
“Coming of age” refers to a young person’s transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies among different societies, as does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a larger ritual. In some societies today, such changes are associated with the arrival of sexual maturity in early adolescence; in others, it is associated with the arrival of an age at which point one carries religious responsibilities. In western societies, legal conventions stipulate points in late adolescence or early adulthood that mark the age of maturity are the focus of the transition. Still, many cultures retain ceremonies to confirm the coming of age and benefits come with the change.
Religion
Religion is often a determinant of when and how individuals come of age.
When members of the Baha’i faith turn 15, they reach the “age of maturity” and are considered spiritually mature, and are responsible for individually determining whether they wish to remain members of Baha’i. Those who declare that they wish to remain members of Baha’i are expected to begin observing certain Baha’i laws, such as obligatory prayer and fasting.
In many Christian churches, a young person celebrates his or her coming of age with the Sacrament of Confirmation. Some traditions withhold the rite of Holy Communion from those not yet at the age of accountability on the grounds that children do not understand what the sacrament means. In some denominations, full membership in the church, if not bestowed at birth, often must wait until the age of accountability, and is frequently granted only after a period of preparation known as catechesis. The time of innocence before one has the ability to understand truly the laws of God, and during which God sees one as innocent, is also seen as applying to individuals who suffer from a mental disability which prevents them from ever reaching a time when they are capable of understanding the laws of God. These individuals are thus seen as existing in a perpetual state of innocence by the grace of God.
In Hinduism, coming of age generally signifies that a boy or girl are mature enough to understand his responsibility towards family and society. Hinduism also has the sacred thread ceremony for Dvija (twice-born) boys that marks their coming of age to do religious ceremonies. Women often celebrate their coming to age by having a ceremony. This ceremony includes dressing themselves in saris and announcing their maturity to the community
In Islam, children are not required to perform any obligatory acts of Islamic teachings prior to reaching the age of puberty, although they should be encouraged to begin praying at the age of seven. Before reaching puberty it is recommended to pray in obeisance to Allah and to exemplify Islamic customs, but as soon as one exhibits any characteristic of puberty, that person is required to perform the prayers and other obligations of Islam.
In the Jewish faith, boys reach religious maturity at the age of 13, signified by their bar mitzvah ceremony. Girls are believed to mature earlier and can have their bat mitzvah at the age of 12. Once the ritual is done, the new men and women are looked upon as adults and are expected to uphold the Jewish commandments and laws.
Professional Initiatory Rituals
Coming of age initiation rituals can occur in various professional organizations. In many universities of Europe, South America and India, first year students are made to undergo tests or humiliation before being accepted as students. Perhaps the oldest of these is “Raisin Monday,” which is still ongoing is at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. A senior student will take a new student and show him or her around the university. In gratitude, the new student will give the senior student a pound of raisins, for which the senior student gave receipts. If a new student later fails to produce the receipt that demonstrated his gift upon command, he could be thrown into a fountain.
Universities in Chile follow an annual ritual called “Mechoneo” (the act of pulling somebody’s hair). First year students are initiated by theatrical “punishment. ” Freshmen are tied together while upperclassmen throw them eggs, flour, water, etc. Some universities have traditional ways of initiating freshmen. In the United States, these sorts of initiation rituals are most commonly found in fraternities and sororities. Greek organizations may have different processes for associate members, also known as pledges, to become a member. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.07%3A_Socialization_Throughout_the_Life_Span/4.7G%3A_Transitional_Adulthood.txt |
People marry for love, for socioeconomic stability, to start a family, and to create obligations between one another.
Learning Objectives
• Assess the importance of the institution of marriage, as well as the various reasons why people enter into a marriage
Key Points
• Marriage rituals and traditions have changed significantly over time and vary across cultures.
• Marriage is a personal and sentimental act as well as one that often has religious and legal implications and significance.
• As of 2003, one’s level of educational attainment was a significant predictor of the educational attainment of one’s spouse.
Key Terms
• same-sex marriage: A marriage that unifies two people of the same sex either legally or only symbolically.
• marriage: The union of two (or sometimes more) people, usually to the exclusion of all others.
• procreation: The sexual activity of conceiving and bearing biological offspring.
Marriage is a governmentally, socially, or religiously recognized interpersonal relationship, usually intimate and sexual, that is often created as a form of contract. The most frequently occurring form of marriage is between a woman and a man, where the feminine term wife and the masculine husband are generally used to describe the parties to the contract. Some countries and American states recognize same-sex marriage, but gaining recognition for these unions is a legal battle occurring around the world.
The ceremony in which a marriage is enacted and announced to the community is called a wedding. The reasons people marry vary widely, but usually include publicly and formally declare their love, the formation of a single household unit, legitimizing sexual relations and procreation, social and economic stability, and the education and nurturing of children. A marriage can be declared by a wedding ceremony, which may be performed either by a religious officiator or through a similar government-sanctioned secular process. The act of marriage creates obligations between the individuals involved and, in some societies, between the parties’ extended families. Marriages are perpetual agreements with legal consequences, terminated only by the death of one party or by formal dissolution processes, such as divorce and annulment.
Schwartz and Mare examined trends in marriage over time and found that the old maxim “opposites attract” is less accurate of marriage than the maxim “birds of a feather flock together. ” Their research focused on one specific similarity in marital partners: education. They found that the correlation of educational levels of American married couples decreased in similarity slightly after World War II, but has since increased substantially. As of 2003, one’s level of educational attainment was a significant predictor of the educational attainment of one’s spouse. People without a high school diploma are unlikely to marry someone with more educational attainment and people with a college degree are likely to marry people with a similar level of educational attainment. Part of the reason why education is so influential in determining the level of education of one’s spouse is because people tend to form groups based on levels of education. First, there are the groups formed in the process of becoming educated; many people meet their spouses at school. But jobs after one completes his or her education also tend to be grouped by level of education. As a result, people spend more time with individuals of a similar level of educational attainment. As most people tend to marry or partner with individuals with whom they spend a lot of time, it is not surprising that there is significant educational similarity between spouses.
One well-known attribute of marriage is that it tends to have health benefits. Happily married people tend to be healthier than unmarried people. However, unhappily married couples may not receive the same health benefits and may actually be less healthy than their single peers.
4.7I: The Middle Years
Middle adulthood is generally accompanied by a decline in physical health and fertility, and an increase in ability to cope with stress.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the implications of middle age in terms of fading physical health and mortality concerns
Key Points
• There is much debate over the definition of the period in a person’s life called “middle years” or “middle adulthood,” but is generally thought to be experienced between the ages of 40 and 65.
• During this time, health begins to decline, but the middle-aged benefit from greater life experiences and less volatile responses to stress.
• Both male and female fertility begin to decline with middle age. Additionally, in developed countries, mortality begins to increase more noticeably each year from age 40 onwards.
Key Terms
• middle age: The period of life between youth and old age; midlife.
• aging: The process of becoming older or more mature.
• advanced maternal age: Increases the risk of a child being born with some disorders, such as Down syndrome.
Middle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span. The U.S. Census lists middle age as including people aged from 35 to 54, while developmental psychologist Erik Erikson argues that middle adulthood occurs from the age of 40 until 65.
Middle-aged adults often show visible signs of aging such as the loss of skin elasticity and the graying of hair. Physical fitness usually wanes, with a 5–10 kg (10-20 lb) accumulation of body fat, reduction in aerobic performance and a decrease in maximal heart rate. Strength and flexibility also decrease throughout middle age. However, people age at different rates and there can be significant differences between individuals of the same age.
Both male and female fertility declines with advancing age. Advanced maternal age increases the risk of a child being born with some disorders, such as Down syndrome. Advanced paternal age sharply increases the risk of miscarriage, as well as Down syndrome, schizophrenia, autism, and bipolar disorder. Middle aged women will experience menopause, which ends natural fertility, in their late 40s or early 50s.
In developed countries, mortality begins to increase more noticeably each year from age 40 onwards, mainly due to age-related health problems, such as heart disease and cancer. However, the majority of middle-age people in industrialized nations can expect to live into old age. In general, life expectancy in developing countries is much lower and the risk of death at all ages is higher.
However, well-being involves more than merely physical factors, and middle age is not experienced as a “time of decline” for healthy people. Middle-aged people benefit from greater life experience than they had when they were young; this contributes to happiness and makes emotional responses to stress less volatile. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.07%3A_Socialization_Throughout_the_Life_Span/4.7H%3A_Marriage_and_Responsibility.txt |
Parenting is the process of supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood.
Learning Objectives
• Contrast the four parenting styles: authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved
Key Points
• Parenting is defined by a range of different skills and styles. It is also a continuously changing process as the child grows and develops.
• Parenting challenges and techniques transform continuously over the lifespan of a child.
• Parenting is guided by different philosophies and practices, which inform parenting styles and family structure.
• Developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind identified three main parenting styles in early child development; these were later expanded to four: authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved.
• It is important to realize that parenting doesn’t end when a child turns 18. Support is needed in a child’s life well beyond the adolescent years and continues into middle and later adulthood.
Key Terms
• family planning: Birth control, especially when carried out by monogamous heterosexual couples.
• authoritarian parenting style: Parenting styles can be very rigid and strict. Parents who practice authoritarian style parenting have a strict set of rules and expectations and require rigid obedience.
• parenting: Process of raising and educating a child from birth until adulthood.
Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the aspects of raising a child aside from the biological relationship. Parenting is usually carried out by the biological parents of the child in question, although governments and society take a role as well.
Social class, wealth, and income have the strongest impact on what methods of child rearing parents use. Understanding parenting styles help us understand how those styles contribute to the behavior and development of children.
Parenting Styles
Developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind identified three main parenting styles in early child development: authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive. These parenting styles were later expanded to four, including an uninvolved style. These four styles of parenting involve combinations of acceptance and responsiveness on the one hand, and demand and control on the other.
• Authoritarian parenting styles can be very rigid and strict. If rules are not followed, punishment is most often used to ensure obedience. There is usually no explanation for punishment except that the child is in trouble and should listen accordingly.
• Authoritative parenting relies on positive reinforcement and infrequent use of punishment. Parents are more aware of a child’s feelings and capabilities, and they support the development of a child’s autonomy within reasonable limits. There is a give-and-take atmosphere involved in parent-child communication, and both control and support are exercised in authoritative parenting.
• Permissive or Indulgent parenting is most popular in middle class families in Western culture. In these family settings, a child’s freedom and autonomy are valued and parents tend to rely mostly on reasoning and explanation. There tends to be little if any punishment or rules in this style of parenting and children are said to be free from external constraints.
• An uninvolved parenting style is when parents are often emotionally absent and sometimes even physically absent. They have no little to no expectation of the child and regularly have no communication. They are not responsive to a child’s needs to do not demand anything of them in their behavioral expectations.
There is no single or definitive model of parenting. What may be right for one family or one child may not be suitable for another, although research shows that the authoritative parenting style is extremely effective and yields self-reliant, cheerful, and friendly children.
Various Parenting Practices
• Attachment Parenting: working strengthen the intuitive, psychological, and emotional bond between the primary caregiver and the child
• Helicopter Parenting: over-parenting; parents are constantly involving themselves, interrupting the child’s ability to function on their own
• Narcissistic Parenting: parents are driven by their own needs; their children are an extension of their own identity; use their children to live out their dreams
• Positive Parenting: unconditional support, guiding them and supporting them for healthy development
• Slow Parenting: allowing the child to develop their own interests and allowing them to grow into their own person; lots of family time; allowing children to make their own decisions; limit electronics, simplistic toys
• Spiritual Parenting: respecting the child’s individuality; making space for child to develop a sense of their own beliefs through their personality and their own potentials
• Strict Parenting: focused on strict discipline; demanding, with high expectations from the parents
• Toxic Parenting: poor parenting; complete disruption of the child’s ability to identify one’s self and reduced self-esteem; neglecting the needs of the child and abuse is sometimes seen in this parenting style
• Unconditional Parenting: giving unconditional positive encouragement
Parenting across the Lifespan
Family planning is the decision whether and when to become parents, including planning, preparing, and gathering resources. Parents should assess whether they have the required financial resources (the raising of a child costs around \$16,198 yearly in the United States). They should also assess whether their family situation is stable enough and whether they themselves are responsible and qualified enough to raise a child. Reproductive health and preconceptional care affect pregnancy, reproductive success, and maternal and child physical and mental health. During pregnancy, the unborn child is affected by many decisions that his or her parents make, particularly choices linked to their lifestyle. The health and diet decisions of the mother can have either a positive or negative impact on the child in utero.
It is important to realize that parenting doesn’t end when a child turns 18. Support is needed in a child’s life well beyond the adolescent years and continues into middle and later adulthood. Parental support is crucial in helping children figure out who they are and where they fit in the world. Parenting is a lifelong process.
4.7K: Career Development- Vocation and Identity
A vocation is an occupation to which an individual is particularly drawn.
Learning Objectives
• Define the meaning of the word “vocation” and how it impacts the choices people make as far as occupations are concerned
Key Points
• The word ” vocation ” is often used in a Christian religious context where a vocation is a call by God to the individual.
• A person’s vocation is a profession that helps define a person’s identity and directs a person’s interests.
• Since the origination of Vocational Guidance in 1908, by the engineer Frank Parsons, the use of the term ‘vocation’ has evolved to include the notion of using our talents and capabilities to good-effect in choosing and enjoying a career.
Key Terms
• career: One’s calling in life; a person’s occupation; one’s profession.
• vocation: An occupation for which a person is suited, trained, or qualified.
A vocation is a term for an occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which he or she is suited, trained, or qualified. Though now often used in non-religious contexts, the meanings of the term originated in Christianity.
Use of the word “vocation” before the sixteenth century referred firstly to the “call” by God to the individual, or calling of all humankind to salvation, particularly in the Vulgate, and more specifically to the “vocation to the priesthood,” which is still the usual sense in Roman Catholicism.
The idea of vocation is central to the Christian belief that God has created each person with gifts and talents oriented toward specific purposes and a way of life. This idea of vocation is especially associated with a divine call to service to the Church and humanity through particular vocational life commitments, such as marriage to a particular person, consecration as a religious, ordination to priestly ministry in the Church, and even a holy life as a single person. In the broader sense, Christian vocation includes the use of one’s gifts in their profession, family life, church, and civic commitments for the sake of the greater common good.
Since the origination of Vocational Guidance in 1908, by the engineer Frank Parsons, the use of the term “vocation” has evolved to include the notion of using our talents and capabilities to good effect in choosing and enjoying a career. This semantic expansion has meant some diminishment of reference to the term’s religious meanings in everyday usage. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.07%3A_Socialization_Throughout_the_Life_Span/4.7J%3A_Parenthood.txt |
Who we are as people is determined by both our genes (nature) and our socialization (nurture).
Learning Objectives
• Discuss socialization in terms of the nature (biology) versus nurture (social) debate
Key Points
• Some experts assert that who we are is a result of nurture —the relationships and caring that surround us—while others argue that who we are is based entirely in genetics, or ” nature.”
• Twin studies can provide useful insight into how much a certain trait is due to nurture vs. nature.
• Research demonstrates that who we are is affected by both nature (our genetic and hormonal makeup) and nurture (the social environment in which we are raised). Sociology is most concerned with the way that society ’s influence affects our behavior patterns, made clear by the way behavior varies across class and gender.
Key Terms
• socialization: The process of learning one’s culture and how to live within it.
Some experts assert that who we are is a result of nurture—the relationships and caring that surround us. Others argue that who we are is based entirely in genetics. According to this belief, our temperaments, interests, and talents are set before birth. From this perspective, then, who we are depends on nature.
One way that researchers attempt to prove the impact of nature is by studying twins. Some studies followed identical twins who were raised separately. The pairs shared the same genetics, but, in some cases, were socialized in different ways. Instances of this type of situation are rare, but studying the degree to which identical twins raised apart are the same and different can give researchers insight into how our temperaments, preferences, and abilities are shaped by our genetic makeup versus our social environment.
For example, in 1968, twin girls born to a mentally ill mother were put up for adoption. However, they were also separated from each other and raised in different households. The parents, and certainly the babies, did not realize they were one of five pairs of twins who were made subjects of a scientific study (Flam 2007).
In 2003, the two women, then age 35, reunited. Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein sat together in awe, feeling like they were looking into a mirror. Not only did they look alike, but they behaved alike, using the same hand gestures and facial expressions (Spratling 2007). Studies like these point to the genetic roots of our temperament and behavior.
Though genetics and hormones play an important role in human behavior, sociology’s larger concern is the effect that society has on human behavior, the “nurture” side of the nature versus nurture debate. What race were the twins? From what social class were their parents? What about gender? Religion? All of these factors affect the lives of the twins as much as their genetic makeup and are critical to consider as we look at life through the sociological lens.
Sociologists all recognize the importance of socialization for healthy individual and societal development. But how do scholars working in the three major theoretical paradigms approach this topic? Structural functionalists would say that socialization is essential to society, both because it trains members to operate successfully within it and because it perpetuates culture by transmitting it to new generations. Without socialization, a society’s culture would perish as members died off. A conflict theorist might argue that socialization reproduces inequality from generation to generation by conveying different expectations and norms to those with different social characteristics. For example, individuals are socialized differently by gender, social class, and race. As in the illustration of Chris Langan, this creates different (unequal) opportunities. An interactionist studying socialization is concerned with face-to-face exchanges and symbolic communication. For example, dressing baby boys in blue and baby girls in pink is one small way that messages are conveyed about differences in gender roles.
Socialization is important because it helps uphold societies and cultures; it is also a key part of individual development. Research demonstrates that who we are is affected by both nature (our genetic and hormonal makeup) and nurture (the social environment in which we are raised). Sociology is most concerned with the way that society’s influence affects our behavior patterns, made clear by the way behavior varies across class and gender.
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Primary and secondary socialization are two forms of socialization that are particularly important for children.
Learning Objectives
• Justify the importance of socialization for children, in terms of both primary and secondary socialization
Key Points
• Socialization refers to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs, and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society.
• Primary socialization for a child is very important because it sets the groundwork for all future socialization.
• Primary socialization occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture.
• Secondary socialization refers to the process of learning what is the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society.
• Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stages describe the progression of an individual’s unconscious desires.
• Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development describe how individuals develop in and through reasoning about morals.
• Jane Loevinger developed a theory with stages of ego development.
• Margaret Mahler’s psychoanalytic developmental theory contained three phases regarding the child’s object relations.
• Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development describes how children reason and interact with their surroundings.
• James Marcia’s theory focuses on identity achievement and has four identity statuses.
Key Terms
• socialization: Socialization is the process of transferring norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors to future group members.
• secondary socialization: Secondary socialization refers to the process of learning what is the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society.
• primary socialization: Primary socialization in sociology is the acceptance and learning of a set of norms and values established through the process of socialization.
Socialization is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and educationalists to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs, and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society. Socialization is thus “the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained. ” There are many different forms of socialization, but two types are particularly important for children. These two types are known as primary and secondary socialization.
Primary socialization in sociology is the acceptance and learning of a set of norms and values established through the process of socialization. Primary socialization for a child is very important because it sets the groundwork for all future socialization. Primary socialization occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. It is mainly influenced by the immediate family and friends. For example if a child saw his or her mother expressing a discriminatory opinion about a minority group, then that child may think this behavior is acceptable and could continue to have this opinion about minority groups.
Secondary socialization refers to the process of learning what is the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society. Basically, it is the behavioral patterns reinforced by socializing agents of society. Secondary socialization takes place outside the home. It is where children and adults learn how to act in a way that is appropriate for the situations they are in. Schools require very different behavior from the home, and children must act according to new rules. New teachers have to act in a way that is different from pupils and learn the new rules from people around them. Secondary socialization is usually associated with teenagers and adults, and involves smaller changes than those occurring in primary socialization. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.08%3A_Childhood_Socialization/4.8A%3A_Child_Socialization.txt |
Theories of childhood socialization and development study the elements of the cognitive and social development that occur in childhood.
Learning Objectives
• Contrast the various theories of childhood development, such as Freud’s psychosexual theory, Piaget’s stages of development and ecological systems theory
Key Points
• Childhood is a unique time period of accelerated development and has been studied by many theorists.
• Sigmund Freud developed a psychosexual theory of human development that describes how sexual fixation and satisfaction moves psychological development forward.
• Jean Piaget developed a theory of cognitive development that explains how children learn differently at different stages in development.
• Urie Bronfenbrenner developed ecological systems theory that explains how human development is influenced by the context of the developing child.
Key Terms
• Ecological Systems Theory: Ecological systems theory, also called development in context or human ecology theory, specifies four types of nested environmental systems, with bi-directional influences within and between the systems.
• Theory of Cognitive Development: Piaget’s theory of cognitive development posits that children learn by actively constructing knowledge through hands-on experience.
• Psychosexual Theory of Human Development: This theory is divided into five stages, each association with sexual satisfaction through a particular body part.
Since the nineteenth century, childhood has been perceived as a unique phase in an individual’s life, and sociological theories reflect this. The main theories that psychologists and social scientists rely on today were developed in the twentieth century and beyond. These theories seek to understand why childhood is a unique period in one’s life and the elements of the cognitive and social development that occur in childhood. This chapter seeks to give a brief introduction to various theoretical perspectives on childhood.
Twentieth-century Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud was one of the first psychologists to theorize childhood and the significance of developmental stages. Freud believed that sexual drive, or libido, was the driving force of all human behavior and, accordingly, developed a psychosexual theory of human development. Children progress through five stages, each association with sexual satisfaction through a particular body part.
One of the most widely applied theories of childhood is Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Piaget posited that children learn actively through play. He suggested that the adult’s role in helping a child learn is to provide appropriate materials for the child to interact and construct. He encouraged adults to make childhood learning through play even more effective by asking the child questions to get them to reflect upon behaviors. He believed it was instructive for children to see contradictions in their explanations. His approach to childhood development has been embraced by schools, and the pedagogy of preschools in the United States.
Piaget’s Four Stages of Development
Piaget outlined four stages in one’s development to adulthood:
• The first of Piaget’s stages of development is the sensorimotor stage, which lasts from birth until about age two. During this stage, the child learns about himself and his environment through motor and reflex actions. The child learns that he is separate from his environment and that aspects of his environment, such as his parents or a toy, continue to exist even though they may be outside of his sensory field. This observation is called object permanence.
• The sensorimotor stage is followed by the preoperational stage, which begins about the time that the child begins to talk and lasts until about age seven. The developments associated with the preoperational phase all extend from the child learning how to deploy his new linguistic capabilities. The child begins to use symbols to represent objects. Children absorb information and fit it into preexisting categories in their minds.
• Next, children progress to the concrete operational phase, which lasts from about first grade to early adolescence. During this stage, children more easily accommodate ideas that do not fit their preexisting worldview. The child begins to think abstractly and make rational decisions based on observable or concrete phenomena.
• Finally, children enter the formal operational stage, which begins in adolescence and carries them through adulthood. This person no longer requires concrete objects to make rational judgements and is capable of hypothetical and deductive reasoning.
Ecological Systems Theory
In 1979, psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner published The Ecology of Human Development, setting forth his theory known as ecological systems theory. Also called development in context theory or human ecology theory, the ecology systems theory specifies five different types of nested environmental systems: the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and the chronosystem. Each of these systems exerts influence on an individual, particularly children as they are robustly socialized.
• The microsystem refers to the institutions and groups that most immediately and directly impact the child’s development, including the child’s family, school, religious institution, neighborhood, and peer group.
• The mesosystem recognizes that no microsystem can be entirely discrete and refers to the relationship between microsystems. For example, a child who has been completely abandoned by his family might find it difficult to bond with teachers.
• The exosystem describes the link between a social setting in which the individual does not have an active role an the individual’s immediate context. For example, a child’s experience at home may be impacted by a mother’s experience at work.
• The macrosystem refers to the culture in which individuals live. A child, his school, and his parents are all part of a cultural context whose constituents are united by a sense of common identity, heritage, and values. Microsystems, and therefore mesosystems and exosystems, are impossible to understand when divorced from their macrosystemic context.
• The chronosystem refers to the patterning of environmental events and transitions over one’s life course, as well as broader sociohistorical developments. For example, the impact of divorces on children has varied over history. When divorce was more culturally stigmatized, it had a different effect on children than today, when many children have divorced parents. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/04%3A_The_Role_of_Socialization/4.08%3A_Childhood_Socialization/4.8B%3A_Theoretical_Perspectives_on_Childhood_Socialization.txt |
Identity formation is the development of an individual’s distinct personality by which he or she is recognized or known.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the formation of a person’s identity, as well as the ideas of self-concept and self-consciousness
Key Points
• Cultural identity is the feeling of identity with a group or culture, or of an individual as far as he or she is influenced by his or her belonging to a group or culture.
• An ethnic identity is an identification with a certain ethnicity, usually on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or ancestry.
• National identity is an ethical and philosophical concept whereby all humans are divided into groups called nations.
• A religious identity is the set of beliefs and practices generally held by an individual, involving adherence to codified beliefs and rituals and study of ancestral or cultural traditions.
• Self-concept is the sum of a being’s knowledge and understanding of his or her self.
• Cultural identity is the feeling of identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as he or she is influenced by his or her belonging to a group or culture.
• An ethnic identity is the identification with a certain ethnicity, usually on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or ancestry.
• National identity is an ethical and philosophical concept whereby all humans are divided into groups called nations.
• A religious identity is the set of beliefs and practices generally held by an individual, involving adherence to codified beliefs and rituals and study of ancestral or cultural traditions
Key Terms
• cultural identity: One’s feeling of identity affiliation to a group or culture.
• national identity: An ethical and philosophical concept whereby all humans are divided into groups called nations.
• religious identity: The set of beliefs and practices generally held by an individual,involving adherence to codified beliefs and rituals and study of ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as faith and mystic experience.
Identity formation is the development of an individual’s distinct personality, which is regarded as a persisting entity in a particular stage of life by which a person is recognized or known. This process defines individuals to others and themselves. Pieces of the individual’s actual identity include a sense of continuity, a sense of uniqueness from others, and a sense of affiliation. Identity formation clearly influences personal identity by which the individual thinks of him or herself as a discrete and separate entity. This may be through individuation whereby the undifferentiated individual tends to become unique, or undergoes stages through which differentiated facets of a person’s life tend toward becoming a more indivisible whole.
Individuals gain a social identity and group identity by their affiliations. Self-concept is the sum of a being’s knowledge and understanding of himself. Self-concept is different from self-consciousness, which is an awareness of one’s self. Components of self-concept include physical, psychological, and social attributes, which can be influenced by the individual’s attitudes, habits, beliefs, and ideas. Cultural identity is one’s feeling of identity affiliation to a group or culture.
Similarly, an ethnic identity is the identification with a certain ethnicity, usually on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or ancestry. Further, national identity is an ethical and philosophical concept whereby all humans are divided into groups called nations. Members of a nation share a common identity and usually a common origin in their sense of ancestry, parentage, or descent. Lastly, a religious identity is the set of beliefs and practices generally held by an individual, involving adherence to codified beliefs and rituals and study of ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as faith and mystic experience.
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• 5.1A: Understanding Social Interaction
In sociology, social interaction is a dynamic, changing sequence of social actions between individuals or groups.
• 5.1B: Ethnomethodology
Ethnomethodology studies procedures people carry out in order to create a sense of orderliness within a particular institution or community.
• 5.1C: Dramaturgy
Dramaturgy is a sociological concept developed by Erving Goffman that uses the metaphor of theater to explain human behavior.
5.01: Understanding Social Interaction
Learning Objectives
• Review the four types of social interactions: accidental, repeated, regular, and regulated
In sociology, social interaction is a dynamic sequence of social actions between individuals (or groups) who modify their actions and reactions due to actions by their interaction partner(s). Social interactions can be differentiated into accidental, repeated, regular and regulated.
A social interaction is a social exchange between two or more individuals. These interactions form the basis for social structure and therefore are a key object of basic social inquiry and analysis. Social interaction can be studied between groups of two (dyads), three (triads) or larger social groups.
Social structures and cultures are founded upon social interactions. By interacting with one another, people design rules, institutions and systems within which they seek to live. Symbols are used to communicate the expectations of a given society to those new to it, either children or outsiders. Through this broad schema of social development, one sees how social interaction lies at its core.
The empirical study of social interaction is one of the subjects of microsociology, which concerns the nature of everyday human social interactions and agency on a small scale. Methods include symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology, as well as later academic sub-divisions and studies like psychosocial studies, conversational analysis and human-computer interaction.
With symbolic interactionism, reality is seen as social, developed interaction with others. It argues that both individuals and society cannot be separated far from each other for two reasons. One being that they are both created through social interaction. The second reason is they cannot be understood in terms without the other. Ethnomethodology, an offshoot of symbolic interactionism, which questions how people’s interactions can create the illusion of a shared social order despite not understanding each other fully and having differing perspectives.
Key Points
• A social interaction is an exchange between two or more individuals and is a building block of society. Social interaction can be studied between groups of two (dyads), three (triads) or larger social groups.
• By interacting with one another, people design rules, institutions and systems within which they seek to live. Symbols are used to communicate the expectations of a given society to those new to it.
• The empirical study of social interaction is one of the subjects of microsociology. Methods includes symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology as well as later academic sub-divisions and studies such as psychosocial studies, conversational analysis and human-computer interaction.
• With symbolic interactionism, reality is seen as social, developed interaction with others. Ethnomethodology questions how people’s interactions can create the illusion of a shared social order despite not understanding each other fully and having differing perspectives.
Key Terms
• dyad: A pair of things standing in particular relation; dyadic relation.
• Social Interaction: A social exchange between two or more individuals.
• social group: A collection of humans or animals that share certain characteristics, interact with one another, accept expectations and obligations as members of the group, and share a common identity. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.01%3A_Understanding_Social_Interaction/5.1A%3A_Understanding_Social_Interaction.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Identify the three ways ethnomethodology differs from traditional sociology and how sociologists define the various methods of ethnomethodology, specifically fundamental assumption, ethnomethodological indifference, first time through, and Sack’s Gloss
Ethnomethodology is an ethnographic approach to sociological inquiry introduced by the American sociologist Harold Garfinkel. Ethnomethodology’s goal is to document the methods and practices through which society’s members make sense of their worlds.
Garfinkel coined the term “ethnomethodology” in 1954 while preparing a paper that included his early research on juries. He proposed that ethnomethodology might serve as an appropriate term for the study of, “a member’s knowledge of his ordinary affairs, of his own organized enterprises, where that knowledge is treated by [researchers] as part of the same setting that makes it orderable. ” For example, when investigating the conduct of jury members, an ethnomethodologist would seek to describe the commonsense methods through which members of a jury produce themselves in a jury room as jurors—establishing matters of fact, developing evidence chains, determining the reliability of witness testimony, establishing the hierarchy of speakers in the jury room, determining the guilt or innocence of defendants. These methods would serve to constitute the social order of being a juror in that specific social setting.
Some Leading Policies, Methods, and Definitions
• The fundamental assumption of ethnomethodological studies: Anne Rawls characterized this fundamental assumption, saying, “members of society must have some shared methods that they use to mutually construct the meaningful orderliness of social situations. “
• Ethnomethodological indifference: Ethnomethodology maintains a policy of deliberate agnosticism, or indifference, towards the dictates, prejudices, methods, and practices of sociological analysis. The policy of ethnomethodological agnosticism is specifically not to be conceived of as indifference to the problems of social order; ethnomethodological agnosticism refers to only seeing social concerns as society’s members see them.
• First time through: “First time through” is the practice of attempting to describe any social activity, regardless of its routine or mundane appearance, as if it were happening for the very first time. This is in an effort to expose how the observer of an activity constitutes the activity for the purposes of formulating any particular description. The point of such an exercise is to underline the complexities of sociological analysis and description, particularly the indexical and reflexive properties of the actors’ or observer’s own descriptions of what is taking place in any given situation.
• Sacks’ Gloss: Sacks’ Gloss suggests that a researcher interested in questions pertaining to a specific social order should seek out the members that social order for answers. This is in opposition to the idea that such questions are best answered by a sociologist.
• Ethnomethodology’s field of investigation: Ethnomethodology’s topic of study is the social practices of real people in real settings and the methods by which these people produce and maintain a shared sense of social order.
Ethnomethodology and Traditional Sociology
Three core differences between traditional sociology and ethnomethodology are:
• While traditional sociology usually offers an analysis of society, taking the objective truth of the social order for granted, ethnomethodology is concerned with the procedures by which that social order is produced and shared.
• While traditional sociology usually provides descriptions of social settings, which compete with the actual descriptions offered by the individuals who are party to those settings, ethnomethodology seeks to describe the actual procedures that individuals use in their descriptions of those settings.
• Structural functionalist research programs methodically impose pre-existing analytical schemata on their fields of study. Symbolic interactionist programs assume the truthful basis of the symbols being interpreted by actors party to social scenes. In comparison, ethnomethodology specifically avoids employing these types of programmatic assumptions in its descriptions of social scenes.
In contrast to traditional sociological forms of inquiry, the ethnomethodological perspective does not make theoretical or methodological appeals to outside assumptions regarding the structure of an actor or actors’ characterization of social reality. Ethnomethodology doesn’t refer to the subjective states of an individual or groups of individuals. It refuses to attribute conceptual projections such as, “value states,” “sentiments,” or “goal orientations” to any actor or group of actors, and it does not posit a specific “normative order” as a transcendental feature of social scenes.
For the ethnomethodologist, the methodic realization of social scenes takes place within an actual setting under scrutiny. This realization is structured by the participants in a setting through reflexive accounting of that setting’s features. The job of the ethnomethodologist is to describe the character of these activities—not to account for them in a way that exceeds the actual accounting practices of a participant in the setting.
Key Points
• Ethnomethodology ‘s goal is to document the methods and practices through which society ‘s members make sense of their worlds.
• Anne Rawls characterizes the fundamental assumption of ethnomethodological studies, saying, “members of society must have some shared methods that they use to mutually construct the meaningful orderliness of social situations”.
• Ethnomethodology is different from traditional sociology because it is not as concerned by the analysis of society, but rather by the procedures through which social order is produced.
• In contrast to traditional sociological forms of inquiry, the ethnomethodological perspective does not make theoretical or methodological appeals to outside assumptions regarding the structure of an actor or actors’ characterization of social reality.
Key Terms
• ethnomethodology: An academic discipline that attempts to understand the social orders people use to make sense of the world through analyzing their accounts and descriptions of their day-to-day experiences.
• agnosticism: The view that the existence of God or of all deities is unknown, unknowable, unproven, or unprovable.
• Harold Garfinkel: He is known for establishing and developing ethnomethodology as a field of inquiry in sociology. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.01%3A_Understanding_Social_Interaction/5.1B%3A_Ethnomethodology.txt |
Dramaturgy is a sociological concept developed by Erving Goffman that uses the metaphor of theater to explain human behavior.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how people use dramaturgy to influence other’s opinion and perspective of them, specifically through impression management and the “two-way street” concept
Dramaturgy is a sociological perspective that is a component of symbolic interactionism and is used in sociological analysis of everyday life. Developed by American sociologist Erving Goffman in his seminal 1959 text The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, dramaturgy uses the metaphor of theater to explain human behavior. According to this perspective, individuals perform actions in everyday life as if they were performers on a stage. Identity is performed through roles. Here, the term “role” works in two ways, referencing both the name for a theatrical character and the ways in which individuals fill roles in reality by acting as a mother, friend, husband, etc. Dramaturgy argues that the presentation of oneself through role is a way of engaging with society.
Impression Management
Goffman contends that each performance is a presentation of self and that everyone seeks to create specific impressions in the minds of others. This universal drive is called impression management. Individuals manage others’ impressions of them by successfully portraying themselves “onstage,” or in public. People present themselves to others based on cultural values, norms, and expectations. Most of the time, people seek to meet society’s expectations, but the dramaturgical frame applies even in cases of rebellion. If an individual wishes to convey that she does not agree or identify with social norms, she must use a commonly legible system of symbols in order to communicate that information. As such, she is still engaging in impression management by trying to present herself in a particular way to society. From a dramaturgical perspective, a performance of identity is successful when the audience sees the performer as he or she wishes to be viewed.
The Two-Way Street
The innovative strength of the dramaturgical perspective is its recognition of the “two-way street” nature of identity management. An individual invests energy in portraying a particular identity to other people. Dramaturgy binds both presentation and reception, demonstrating that one’s identity is fundamentally intertwined with society outside of oneself. The performer is always aware that the audience is doing evaluative work on its own and might doubt the authenticity of the performance.
The interrelatedness of the individual’s sense of identity and society is evidenced by the actor’s acute awareness of the audience. Goffman explains this awareness in terms of front stage and back stage behaviors. Front stage actions are those that are visible to the audience and are part of the performance, while back stage actions only occur when the audience is not around. An example of this would be the type of customer service embodied by baristas at the local coffee shop. While on the clock and in front of customers, baristas will typically do what the customer wants and try to look untroubled by obnoxious requests. The barista wishes to convey to the customer that she is willing to meet the customer’s needs. However, as soon as the customer leaves, the barista might deride the customer to coworkers. This shows how individuals are constantly attuned to audience and will alter their behaviors accordingly.
Key Points
• All identities and behaviors are dependent upon the audience to whom one performs.
• Everyone seeks to control others’ impressions of themselves. This is called impression management.
• Dramaturgy emphasizes the dual evaluative work that is undertaken by both the performer and the audience, thus demonstrating the inseparable link between performer and audience, individual and society.
• Front stage behaviors are those that are visible to the audience, while back stage behaviors are those to which the audience does not have access.
Key Terms
• Impression Management: In sociology and social psychology, impression management is a goal-directed conscious or unconscious process in which people attempt to influence the perceptions of other people about a person, object or event; they do so by regulating and controlling information in social interaction.
• Back Stage: Actions that only occur when the audience is not around.
• Front Stage: Actions that are visible to the audience and are part of the performance.
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• 5.2A: Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal communication is the process of communicating by sending and receiving wordless messages.
• 5.2B: Exchange
Social exchange theory argues that people form relationships because they determine that it is in their best interests to do so.
• 5.2C: Cooperation
Cooperation is the process of two or more people working or acting in concert.
• 5.2D: Conflict
Social conflict is the struggle for agency or power within a society to gain control of scarce resources.
• 5.2E: Competition
Competition is a contest between people or groups of people for control over resources.
• 5.2E: Stereotypes in Everyday Life
A stereotype is a belief about a group of individuals that people apply to any given individual deemed to be part of that group.
• 5.2F: Personal Space
Personal space is the region surrounding people that they regard as psychologically their own.
• 5.2G: Eye Contact
Eye contact develops in a cultural context and different gazes have different meanings all over the world.
• 5.2H: Applied Body Language
Body language is a crucial part of social interaction.
5.02: Types of Social Interaction
Learning Objectives
• Analyze the various ways people use non-verbal communication to send messages to others in society, such as speech, posture, gestures, clothing and consequences
Nonverbal communication is the process of communicating by sending and receiving wordless messages. This type of communication includes gestures, touch, body language, posture, facial expressions, and eye contact. Nonverbal communication can also include messages communicated through material items. For example, clothing or hairstyle is a form of nonverbal exchange that communicates something about the individual. As a general rule, nonverbal communication can be studied based on the location or context of communication, the physical characteristics of the interlocutors, and the behaviors of the interlocutors in the course of the interaction.
Speech
Ironically, nonverbal communication can also be found in speech. This type of nonverbal communication is called paralanguage and includes vocal elements, such as voice quality, pace, pitch, volume, rhythm, and intonation. Differences in paralanguage can impact the message that is communicated through words. For example, if someone smiles while saying “Get out of town,” that person likely is communicating that she doubts something you’re saying or finds it unbelievable. Alternatively, if someone comes running at you and screams “Get out of town! ” with a furious expression, it might be a literal threat. Paralanguage is a good example of nonverbal communication that is not visual.
Posture
Posture, or a person’s bodily stance, communicates much about a person’s perspectives. Various postures include slouching, towering, shoulders forward, and arm crossing. These nonverbal behaviors can indicate a person’s feelings and attitudes. Posture can be used to determine an individual’s degree of intention or involvement, the difference in status between interlocutors, and the level of fondness a person has for the other communicator, depending on body “openness.”
Studies investigating the impact of posture on interpersonal relationships suggest that mirror-image congruent postures, where one person’s left side is parallel to the other person’s right side, lead communicators to think favorably about their exchange. Posture is socialized and geographical, meaning that an individual learns different ways to carry themselves in different contexts. A housewife from Kansas City will compose herself differently than a dock worker from Portland, who will compose himself differently than a teenager in Seattle. Generational differences demonstrate how posture is socialized; older generations were taught to carry themselves with their shoulders farther back, prompting parents to remind today’s youth to stop slouching.
Gestures
Gestures are movements with one’s hands, arms, or face that communicate a particular message. The most common gestures are emblem gestures or quotable gestures that are learned within a particular cultural to communicate a particular message. For example, in the Western world, waving one’s hand back and forth communicates “hello” or “goodbye. ” Emblem gestures can vary by cultural space so widely that a common gesture in one context is offensive in another. Facial gestures, or facial expressions, are a particularly communicative form of gesture. With all of the various muscles that precisely control the mouth, lips, eyes, nose, forehead, and jaw, human faces can make more than ten thousand different expressions. Facial expressions are more difficult for the “speaker” to manipulate, given that so many micro-movements are involved in the creation of one expression. This makes facial gestures extremely efficient and honest, and are therefore heavily relied upon in by the “listener” in evaluating the “speaker’s” assertions.
Clothing
Clothing is a means of communicating nonverbally that relies upon materials other than one’s body. Further, it is a form of nonverbal communication that everyone engages in unless living on a nudist colony. The types of clothing an individual wears convey nonverbal clues about his or her personality, background, and financial status. Even if an individual does not put much thought into his attire, what he wears still communicates something to others, even unintentionally. An example of how people are aware that their clothing serves to communicate is the notion of proper dress. You would dress differently to go to a wedding than a job interview than camping.
Consequences
Nonverbal communication can have serious consequences, even if the public understands the message they are receiving is being conveyed unintentionally. For example, individuals tend to trust and support taller people. Obviously, an individual has no control over his height but, nevertheless, others perceive height to communicate certain character traits. In American elections, the taller candidate usually wins. In the 2004 presidential debates, George W. Bush (the shorter candidate) insisted that his podium be altered so that he appeared to be the same height as John Kerry. The point is that everything about ourselves, whether under our control or not, communicates information to an audience.
Key Points
• Nonverbal communication can be conveyed through our dress and style.
• Nonverbal communication also occurs through the non-content parts of speech, such as voice quality, pace, pitch, volume, rhythm, and intonation.
• Gestures and posture vary by cultural context.
Key Terms
• Emblem Gestures: They vary by cultural space so widely that a common gesture in one context is offensive in another.
• posture: The way a person holds and positions their body.
• paralanguage: The non-verbal elements of speech, and to a limited extent of writing, used to modify meaning and convey emotion, such as pitch, volume, and intonation. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.02%3A_Types_of_Social_Interaction/5.2A%3A_Nonverbal_Communication.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Explain how social exchange theory is based upon rational choice theory
Social exchange theory is a sociopsychological and sociological perspective that explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges between parties. The theory is fundamentally oriented around rational choice theory, or the idea that all human behavior is guided by an individual’s interpretation of what is in his best interest. Social exchange theory advances the idea that relationships are essential for life in society and that it is in one’s interest to form relationships with others. Of course, whether or not it is in an individual’s interest to form a relationship with a specific person is a calculation that both parties must perform. Nevertheless, social exchange theory argues that forming relationships is advantageous because of exchange. Each party to the relationship exchanges particular goods and perspectives, creating a richer life for both. Notably, while social exchange theory may reference the literal exchange of goods, it can also mean the exchange of more intangible elements. For example, it is in the interests of a dairy farmer and a vegetable farmer to form a relationship because they can exchange their material goods. The theory also applies to Jack and Jill who decide to get married for the emotional support they exchange with one another.
Social exchange theory is only comprehensible through the lens of rational choice theory. Rational choice theory supposes that every individual evaluates his/her behavior by that behavior’s worth, which is a function of rewards minus costs. Rewards are the elements of relational life that have positive value for a person, while costs are the elements of relational life that have negative value for a person. Social exchange theory posits that individuals perform the calculus of worth when decided to form or maintain a relationship with another person. A good example of this would be proverbial “pro/con” list someone might make when deciding to stay or break up with her significant other.
Several assumptions undergird social exchange theory. The first is that humans seek rewards and avoid punishments. Second, humans are rational actors. Finally, social exchange theory acknowledges that the standards by which humans evaluate costs and rewards vary over time and from person to person. This means that what might seem rational to one person would seem completely irrational to another. However, so long as the individual’s decision-making regarding the formation of social relationships involves an evaluation of worth, regardless of what that means to the person, the behavior fits the frame established by social exchange theory.
Social Exchange Theory: This clip outlines the tenets of social exchange theory.
Key Points
• In forming relationships, people exchange goods and services (including emotional support and interaction). People stay in relationships when they believe that the exchange is beneficial.
• Social exchange theory is rooted in rational choice theory.
• Individuals evaluate the worth of an action by subtracting the costs from the rewards.
Key Terms
• rewards: A gift given for positive reinforcement.
• Social Exchange Theory: It advances the idea that relationships are essential for life in society and that it is in one’s interest to form relationships with others. Of course, whether or not it is in an individual’s interest to form a relationship with a specific person is a calculus that both parties must perform.
• worth: It is having a value of; proper to be exchanged for.
5.2C: Cooperation
Learning Objectives
• Compare the three types of cooperation (coerced, voluntary and unintentional) and why cooperation is necessary for social reality
Cooperation is the process of two or more people working or acting together. Cooperation enables social reality by laying the groundwork for social institutions, organizations, and the entire social system. Without cooperation, no institution beyond the individual would develop; any group behavior is an example of cooperation. Cooperation derives from an overlap in desires and is more likely if there is a relationship between the parties. This means that if two people know that they are going to encounter one another in the future or if they have memories of past cooperation, they are more likely to cooperate in the present.
There are three main types of cooperation: coerced, voluntary, and unintentional. Coerced cooperation is when cooperation between individuals is forced. An example of coerced cooperation is the draft. Individuals are forced to enlist in the military and cooperate with one another and the government, regardless of whether they wish to. Voluntary cooperation is cooperation to which all parties consent. An example of voluntary cooperation would be individuals opting to complete a group project for school when given the option of a group project or an individual project. Unintentional cooperation is a form of cooperation in which individuals do not necessarily intend to cooperate but end up doing so because of aligning interests. The free hand of a capitalist economy is an example of unintentional cooperation, where individuals will take actions based on their own interests resulting sometimes in unintentional cooperation.
Communication plays an essential role in cooperation. Communication enables simple acts of cooperation by facilitating parties’ recognition that they have mutual interests and large acts of cooperation by organizing the masses. Without communication, individuals would not be able to organize themselves to cooperate.
Key Points
• Cooperation can be coerced, voluntary, or unintentional.
• Communication is necessary for cooperation.
• Cooperation derives from an overlap in desires and is more likely if there is a relationship between the parties.
Key Terms
• Unintentional Cooperation: It is a form of cooperation in which individuals do not necessarily intend to cooperate, but end up doing so because of aligning interests.
• Voluntary Cooperation: It is cooperation to which all parties consent.
• Coerced Cooperation: It is when cooperation between individuals is forced. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.02%3A_Types_of_Social_Interaction/5.2B%3A_Exchange.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Discuss how various groups in society compete for resources, status and power within society, known as conflict theory
Social conflict is the struggle for agency or power within a society. It occurs when two or more people oppose one another in social interactions, reciprocally exerting social power in an effort to attain scarce or incompatible goals, and prevent the opponent from attaining them.
Conflict theory emphasizes interests deployed in conflict, rather than the norms and values. This perspective argues that the pursuit of interests is what motivates conflict. Resources are scarce and individuals naturally fight to gain control of them. Thus, the theory sees conflict as a normal part of social life, rather than an abnormal occurrence. The three tenets of conflict theory are as follows:
1. Society is composed of different groups that compete for resources.
2. While societies may portray a sense of cooperation, a continual power struggle exists between social groups as they pursue their own interests.
3. Social groups will use resources to their own advantage in the pursuit of their goals, frequently leading powerful groups to take advantage of less powerful groups.
Conflict theory relies upon the notion of a zero sum game, meaning that if group A acquires any given resource, group B will be unable to acquire it. Thus, any gain for group A is automatically a loss for group B. Conflict theory further argues that group A will continue to search for resources in order to keep group B from getting them, leading to the exploitation of the powerless. The idea that those who have control will maintain control is called the Matthew Effect.
According to the principles of conflict theory, all cooperation is only for the purpose of acquiring individual or group resources. This motivation for behavior restructures day-to-day interactions among people in a given society.
Key Points
• Conflict theory argues that conflict is a normal and necessary part of social interaction. In other words, conflict is seen as part of the social landscape rather than an anomaly.
• According to the theory, conflict is motivated by pursuit of personal interests. All individuals and groups are interested in gaining control over scarce resources, and this leads to conflict.
• Once one party gets control of resources, that party is unlikely to release them. The Matthew Effect is the idea that those in control will remain in control.
Key Terms
• Matthew Effect: The idea that those who have control will maintain control.
• Zero Sum Game: The idea that if group A acquires any given resource, group B will be unable to acquire it.
• Social Conflict: The struggle for agency or power within a society.
5.2E: Competition
Learning Objectives
• Explain how competition can be both a help and a hinderance for people in any particular society or group
Competition is a contest between people or groups of people for control over resources. In this definition, resources can have both literal and symbolic meaning. People can compete over tangible resources like land, food, and mates, but also over intangible resources, such as social capital. Competition is the opposite of cooperation and arises whenever two parties strive for a goal that cannot be shared.
Competition can have both beneficial and detrimental effects. Positively, competition may serve as a form of recreation or a challenge provided that it is non-hostile. On the negative side, competition can cause injury and loss to the organisms involved, and drain valuable resources and energy. Many evolutionary biologists view inter-species and intra-species competition as the driving force of adaptation, and, ultimately, of evolution. However, some biologists, most famously Richard Dawkins, prefer to think of evolution in terms of competition between single genes, which have the welfare of the organism “in mind” only insofar as that welfare furthers their own selfish drives for replication. Some Social Darwinists claim that competition also serves as a mechanism for determining the best-suited group–politically, economically, and ecologically.
Many philosophers and psychologists have identified a trait in most living organisms that can drive the particular organism to compete. This trait, unsurprisingly called “competitiveness,” is viewed as an innate biological trait that coexists along with the urge for survival. Competitiveness, or the inclination to compete, has become synonymous with aggressiveness and ambition in the English language. Just as advanced civilizations integrate aggressiveness and competitiveness into their interactions, as a way to distribute resources and adapt, most plants compete for higher spots on trees to receive more sunlight. However, Stephen Jay Gould and others have argued that as one ascends the evolutionary hierarchy, competitiveness (the survival instinct) becomes less innate and more a learned behavior.
The term also applies to econometrics. Here, it is a comparative measure of the ability and performance of a firm or sub-sector to sell and produce/supply goods and/or services in a given market. The two academic bodies of thought on the assessment of competitiveness are the Structure Conduct Performance Paradigm and the more contemporary New Empirical Industrial Organisation model. Predicting changes in the competitiveness of business sectors is becoming an integral and explicit step in public policymaking. Within capitalist economic systems, the drive of enterprises is to maintain and improve their own competitiveness.
Key Points
• People can compete over tangible resources, such as land, food, and mates, but also over intangible resources, such as social capital.
• Many evolutionary biologists view inter-species and intra-species competition as the driving force of adaptation and, ultimately, of evolution.
• Many philosophers and psychologists have identified a trait in most living organisms that can drive the particular organism to compete.
Key Terms
• evolution: gradual directional change, especially one leading to a more advanced or complex form; growth; development
• innate: Inborn; native; natural; as, innate vigor; innate eloquence. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.02%3A_Types_of_Social_Interaction/5.2D%3A_Conflict.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Evaluate the pros and cons of using stereotypes in society, such as understanding an individual based on common characteristics (pro) to racism (con)
A stereotype is a belief about a group of individuals that people apply to any given individual whom is deemed to be part of that group. Stereotypes are usually inaccurate in their universal application. This means that although some individuals within a given group may fit a stereotype, others most certainly will not. The error in stereotyping is the application of a preconception to everyone who is perceived to belong to a particular group.
Stereotypes as Heuristics
Stereotypes are useful for the human brain because they operate as a heuristic or a cognitive mechanism to quickly gather, process, and synthesize information. As social animals, we seek to gather information about those around us. However, there is too much information to process in its entirety. Therefore, we have heuristics to make the process more efficient. In applying a stereotype, one is able to quickly “know” something about an individual. For example, if the only thing you know about Katherine is that she belongs to a band, you are able to guess that she likes music. People use stereotypes as shortcuts to make sense of their social contexts; this makes the task of understanding one’s world less cognitively demanding.
Us Verus Them
By dividing the world into discrete categories by stereotyping, one is able to foster an us versus them mentality. This view separates the social world into different categories and distinguishes others from oneself. In other words, the creation of an us versus them mentality divides the world into an ingroup and an outgroup. An ingroup is the group with which one identifies; an outgroup is everyone else. In line with the reasoning that describes heuristics, distinguishing oneself from others is a cognitively necessary step; it allows us to develop a sense of identity. However, an us versus them mentality fostered by stereotyping can be used to justify horrible treatment of an outgroup. Once one feels as though someone else belongs to an outgroup, one has less difficulty treating that individual inhumanely. A classic example of an us versus them mentality is the Holocaust. The Nazis configured the Jews, a stereotyped class, to be inhuman, allowing the Nazis to treat people they placed in that class inhumanely.
Stereotypes and Prejudice
Given the social and cognitive necessities of heuristics, the problem with stereotyping is not the existence of the cognitive function. The problem lies in the assumption that all people of a group—a group with which they might not even identify—are the same. For example, it is a common stereotype that people who wear glasses are smart. Certainly, there are some glasses-wearing, intelligent people. But it is poor logic to think that everyone who sports glasses is intelligent. Stereotyping can lead to prejudice, or negative perceived judgements about a group of people. The application of prejudice to a given individual can cause personal and social damage.
Key Points
• Stereotypes are a heuristic, or tool, to help humans process an overwhelming amount of information as we try to learn about the world around us.
• Stereotypes enable the development of ingroups and outgroups, which can lead to the poor treatment of outgroups. If someone is perceived to be different from you, you might have an easier time treating them poorly. Stereotypes distinguish people.
• The universal application of a stereotype to every perceived member of a group is prejudicial.
Key Terms
• outgroup: It is a social group to which an individual does not identify.
• ingroup: It is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies themselves as a member
• heuristic: An experience-based technique for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Examples include using a rule of thumb or making an educated guess. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.02%3A_Types_of_Social_Interaction/5.2E%3A_Stereotypes_in_Everyday_Life.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Explain how the use of personal space can convey social relationships between people in various cultures
Personal space is the region surrounding people that they regard as psychologically theirs. Most people value their personal space and feel discomfort, anger, or anxiety when that space is encroached. Permitting a person to enter personal space and entering somebody else’s personal space are indicators of how the two people view their relationship. There is an intimate zone that is reserved for lovers, children, and close family members. There is another intermediary zone that is used for conversations with friends, to chat with associates, and in group discussions. There is a further zone that is used by strangers and acquaintances, and finally, a zone that is used for public speeches, lectures, and performances.
The size of one’s sense of personal space is culturally determined, in addition to being dependent upon the nuanced relationship of the two interlocutors. Averaged estimates place one’s sense of personal space at two feet on either side, 28 inches in front, and 16 inches behind for an average Westerner. Those living in densely populated places tend to have a smaller sense of personal space. Moreover, individual sense of space has changed historically as the notions of boundaries between public and private spaces have evolved over time.
Senses of personal space are intimately tied to the relationship between the two individuals involved. Entering someone’s personal space is normally seen as an indication of familiarity. However, in modern society, particularly in crowded urban communities, it is sometimes difficult to maintain personal space; for example, in a crowded train. Many people find such physical proximity to be psychologically uncomfortable, but it is accepted as a fact of modern life. Sociologists study personal space precisely because of social implications of distance in regard to relationships.
Key Points
• In general, the more intimate the relationship, the closer one is able to go into another’s personal space. Negotiating these boundaries reflects on social proximity.
• Sociologists study personal space precisely because of social implications of distance in regard to relationships.
• Senses of personal space are culturally defined. Those who live in urban areas tend to require less personal space, for example. People in Western culture have different notions of personal space than people elsewhere.
Key Terms
• personal space: The physical space closely surrounding a person, which, if encroached upon, can lead to discomfort, anger or anxiety.
5.2G: Eye Contact
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the various ways people use eye contact as a means of social and emotional expression
Eye contact is the meeting of the eyes between two individuals. In humans, eye contact is a form of nonverbal communication and has a large influence on social behavior. The study of eye contact is sometimes known as oculesics.
Eye contact provides a way in which one can study social interactions, as it provides indications of social and emotional information. People, perhaps without consciously doing so, probe each other’s eyes and faces for signs of positive or negative mood. In some contexts, the meeting of eyes arouses strong emotions. Eye contact can establish a sense of intimacy between two individuals, such as the gazes of lovers or the eye contact involved in flirting. Alternatively, avoiding eye contact can establish distance between people. When in crowds, people tend to avoid eye contact in order to maintain privacy.
The customs and significance of eye contact vary widely between cultures, with religious and social differences often altering its meaning greatly. According to the tenets of the Islamic faith, Muslims ought to lower their gazes and try not to focus on the features of the opposite sex, except for the hands and face. Japanese children are taught to direct their gaze at the region of their teacher’s Adam’s apple or tie knot. As adults, Japanese tend to lower their eyes when speaking to a superior as a gesture of respect. In Eastern Africa, it is respectful not to look the dominant person in the eye, whereas such avoidance of eye contact is negatively interpreted in Western cultures. As with all forms of social interaction that impart social significance, eye contact is culturally determined.
Key Points
• Eye contact is an incredibly expressive form of nonverbal communication.
• Eye contact aligns with the relationship underlying the gaze. People who are close with one another look at each others eyes; avoiding eye contact can put distance between two individuals.
• The customs and significance of eye contact vary widely between cultures, with religious and social differences often altering its meaning greatly. For example, Japanese children are taught to direct their gaze at the region of their teacher’s Adam’s apple or tie knot.
Key Terms
• eye contact: The condition or action of looking at another human or animal in the eye.
• oculesics: The study of eye contact as a form of body language. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.02%3A_Types_of_Social_Interaction/5.2F%3A_Personal_Space.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the importance of body language as a means of social communication and give specific examples of body language
Body language is a form of human non-verbal communication, which consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. Humans send and interpret such signals almost entirely subconsciously. It is impossible for social scientists to study body language in any manner that is not applied. Indeed, social scientists are interested in body language precisely because of what it conveys about social interactions and the relationship between nonverbal interlocutors. This dynamic can only be studied in applied contexts.
Research has suggested that between 60 and 70 percent of all meaning is derived from nonverbal behavior, making body language a crucial part of social interaction. Body language may provide clues as to the attitude or state of mind of a person. For example, it may indicate aggression, attentiveness, boredom, relaxed state, pleasure, amusement, and intoxication, among many other clues.
One of the most basic and powerful body language signals is when a person crosses his or her arms across the chest. This can indicate that a person is putting up an unconscious barrier between themselves and others. However, it can also indicate that the person’s arms are cold, which would be clarified by rubbing the arms or huddling. When the overall situation is amicable, it can mean that a person is thinking deeply about what is being discussed, but in a serious or confrontational situation, it can mean that a person is expressing opposition. This is especially so if the person is leaning away from the speaker. A harsh or blank facial expression often indicates outright hostility.
Another obvious example of expressive body language used in everyday life is flirting. Flirting is a playful activity involving verbal communication and also body language to indicate an interest in a deeper romantic or sexual relationship. Flirting usually involves speaking and behaving in a way that suggests a mildly greater level of intimacy than the actual relationship between parties would justify, though within the rules of social etiquette, which generally frown upon a direct expression of sexual interest. Body language may include flicking one’s hair, eye contact, brief touching, open stances, and close proximity between partners. Thus, by watching two individuals, one can tell if they are flirting.
Flirting Instruction: This video is a how-to on how to flirt. Note the significant attention paid to body language.
Key Points
• Research has suggested that between 60 and 70 percent of all meaning is derived from nonverbal behavior.
• One basic body- language signal is when a person crosses his or her arms. When the overall situation is amicable, it can mean that a person is thinking deeply about what is being discussed, but in a serious or confrontational situation, it can mean that a person is expressing opposition.
• Flirting is an example of applied body language. Sexual or romantic interest is primarily communicated through body language, which may include flicking one’s hair, eye contact, brief touching, open stances, and close proximity between partners.
Key Terms
• Flirting: It is a playful activity involving verbal communication and also body language to indicate an interest in a deeper romantic or sexual relationship.
• body language: Nonverbal communication by means of facial expressions, eye behavior, gestures, posture, and the like; often thought to be involuntary.
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• Wedding Chilston Park Hotel | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. Provided by: Flickr. Located at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/68720085@N08/6244502737/. License: CC BY: Attribution
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• Social Exchange Theory. Located at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZDmb9FaNy0. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright. License Terms: Standard YouTube license
• US Capitol | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. Provided by: Flickr. Located at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kereifsnyder/2723240330/. License: CC BY: Attribution
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• Basketball | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. Provided by: Flickr. Located at: www.flickr.com/photos/silveiraneto/6905462693/. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
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• Flirting Instruction. Located at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7yaX9-GNeU. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright. License Terms: Standard YouTube license
• Provided by: Wikimedia. Located at: Wikimedia. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.02%3A_Types_of_Social_Interaction/5.2H%3A_Applied_Body_Language.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the basis of both ascribed and achieved social status and how they influence one another and a person’s standing within different groups of society
Social status refers to the honor or prestige attached to one’s position in society. It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group, such as son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc. One’s social status is determined in different ways. One can earn his or her social status by his or her own achievements; this is known as achieved status. Alternatively, one can inherit his or her position on the social hierarchy; this is known as ascribed status. An ascribed status can also be defined as one that is fixed for an individual at birth, like sex, race, and socioeconomic background.
Social status is most often understood as a melding of the two types of status, with ascribed status influencing achieved status. For example, a baby born into a high-income household has his family’s high socioeconomic status as an achieved status and is more likely to be exposed to resources like a familial emphasis on education that will make it more likely for him or her to get into an elite university. Admission, therefore, is an achieved status that was heavily influenced by resources made available by the person’s ascribed status.
It is easy to see how achieved and ascribed statuses accumulate into the social status of an individual. Pulling back into a larger perspective, these same factors accumulate into a system of social stratification. Social stratification is a conceptual social hierarchy in which individuals are ranked in terms of their perceived value to society. In capitalist countries, this hierarchy is largely socioeconomic, in that high-income individuals are ranked at the top of the social hierarchy with low-income individuals at the bottom. However, social stratification is not limited to economics; perceived moral value is also integrated into the stratification so that a poor member of the clergy is in a higher social rank than a rich criminal.
Social status, or the social sphere in which one belongs, can be changed through a process of social mobility. One can move either up or down the social hierarchy and the process is described in terms of upward or downward mobility. Simply, social mobility allows a person to move into a social status other than the one into which he was born depending upon one’s ambition, lack thereof, or other factors.
One’s social status depends on the context of a his or her situation and is therefore malleable. Take, for example, an employee who works on the floor of a manufacturing company. When considered in light of the larger social hierarchy, this worker will probably fall somewhere toward the mid-bottom of the hierarchy because of his socioeconomic status. Yet, perhaps this man is the floor manager and therefore has control of hundreds of other employees. When he’s at his place of work, he is high on the ladder of social hierarchy.
Social status has been theorized by major sociologists, including Max Weber. Weber was a prominent German social theorist in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Weber proposes that there are three primary components to social stratification: property, prestige, and power. Property refers to one’s material possessions and subsequent life chances. Prestige refers to the reputation or esteem associated with one’s social position. Weber uses power to mean the ability to do what one wants, regardless of the will of others. These “three P’s” combine to produce social stratification.
Twentieth century French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu continued to theorize social status. According to Bourdieu’s 1979 work Distinction, social capital is just as significant a factor in social status as economic capital. By this, Bourdieu means that indicators of one’s class are not limited to how much money one has in the bank, but also one’s cultural tastes which one acquires beginning in his youth. These tastes are influenced by class. For example, tastes for classical music and foie gras would typically signal an upbringing from a higher social class than one whose tastes are for Cheetos and Top 40 hits. Thus, social stratification is demonstrated by economic class and the cultural preferences that it engenders.
Key Points
• Social status may be achieved (earned) or ascribed (assigned at birth).
• Both achieved and ascribed statuses influence one another.
• Social mobility allows an individual to move between social levels in the general social hierarchy.
• Max Weber suggests that social status is the confluence of property, prestige, and power.
• Pierre Bourdieu argues that social status is a combination of economic and social capital, which combine to produce a difference of social “tastes” that are decided by class.
• Pierre Bourdieu argues that social status is a combination of economic and social capital, which combine to produce a difference of social “tastes” that divide by class.
Key Terms
• hierarchy: Any group of objects ranked so that everyone but the topmost is subordinate to a specified group above it.
• Pierre Bourdieu: A twentieth century French sociologist who developed the notion of social capital.
• prestige: A measure of how good the reputation of something or someone is, or how favorably something or someone is regarded. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.03%3A_Elements_of_Social_Interaction/5.3A%3A_Social_Status.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Explain how the development and fulfillment of particular roles within society (both occupational and relational) relates to a person’s behavior
A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another. Individuals create online representations of themselves called avatars that can interact on the internet under direction of the avatar’s creator. Such modeled worlds and their rules may draw from reality or fantasy worlds. Example rules are gravity, topography, locomotion, real-time actions and communication.
Social interaction between users can range from communication via text, graphical icons, visual gesture, sound, touch, voice command, and balance senses. Many MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) have real-time actions and communication. Players create a character who travels between buildings, towns and worlds to carry out business or leisure activities. Communication is usually textual, but real-time voice communication is also possible.
Many studies of virtual worlds have questioned the virtual world’s ability to convey nuanced emotional messages as people do in face-to-face interactions. Certainly, users have developed techniques in the virtual world to communicate emotion. Beyond writing messages, users can communicate using emoticons, or simple “smilies” that visually depict simple emotions. While emoticons obviously do not convey the same range of mixed emotions as a human face, it is clear that participants in virtual worlds are innovating with language and images to develop new forms of communication.
Another aspect of social interaction in virtual worlds is variation of interactions between participants. While interaction with other participants in virtual worlds can often be done in real-time, time consistency is not always maintained in online virtual worlds.
Although the social interactions of participants in virtual worlds are often viewed in the context of online games, other forms of interaction are common. These include forums, wikis, chat rooms and video-conferences. Communities are born which have their own rules, topics, jokes and even language. Members of such communities can find like-minded people to interact with, whether this be through a shared passion, the wish to share information, or a desire to meet new people and experience new things.
Key Points
• A role is a set of rules or norms that function as plans or blueprints to guide behavior within a particular society.
• Roles can be occupational or relational. An occupational role relates to a person’s individual function (for example, a profession). A relational role governs how the individual behaves towards others (for example, being a father or a boss).
• Role theory is structural functionalist in that it seeks to explain human behavior by looking at what social function is fulfilled by holding a given role.
• Role theory suggests that a substantial proportion of observable, day-to-day behavior is simply people carrying out roles and negotiating which role to prioritize. Once you understand someone’s role and which of their many roles they are prioritizing, you can predict how they are going to behave.
Key Terms
• self-neglect: It refers to behaviors that threaten the person’s own health and safety.
• abuse: Physical or verbal maltreatment; injury.
5.3C: Role Conflict
Learning Objectives
• Interpret how role conflict affects an individual’s perception of him/herself and his/her place within society
Role conflict describes a conflict between or among the roles corresponding to two or more statuses fulfilled by one individual. We experience role conflict when we find ourselves pulled in various directions as we try to respond to the many statuses we hold.
The most obvious example of role conflict is work/family conflict, or the conflict one feels when pulled between familial and professional obligations. Take, for example, a mother who is also a doctor. She likely has to work long hours at the hospital and may even be on call several nights a week, taking her away from her children. Many individuals who find themselves in this position describe feeling conflicted and distressed about their situation. In other words, they experience role conflict.
The above example is presented as a personality role conflict: The woman is torn between the part of her personality that values being a mother and the part that identifies as being a doctor. For an example of interpersonal relations causing role conflict, consider an individual who is a school superintendent and a father. He might think that his wife and children expect him to spend most of his evenings with them, but he may also feel that his school board and parents’ groups expect him to spend most of his after-office hours on educational and civic activities. He is therefore unable to satisfy both of these incompatible expectations, and role conflict is the result.
Conflict among the roles begins because of the human’s desire to reach success, and because of the pressure put on an individual by two imposing, apposing and incompatible demands competing against each other. The effects of role conflict, as found through case studies and nationwide surveys, are related to individual personality characteristics and interpersonal relations. Individual personality characteristic conflicts can arise when “aspects of an individual’s personality are in conflict with other aspects of that same individual’s personality. ”
Key Points
• We experience role conflict when we find ourselves pulled in various directions as we try to respond to the many statuses we hold.
• The most common form of role conflict is work/family conflict, in which one needs to prioritize familial or professional obligations.
• The effects of role conflict are related to individual personality characteristics and interpersonal relations.
Key Terms
• work/family conflict: A conflict one faces when one must choose between family needs and work obligations.
• role conflict: A conflict between or among the roles corresponding to two or more statuses in one individual. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.03%3A_Elements_of_Social_Interaction/5.3B%3A_Role_Theory.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Analyze how culture is defined, materially and symbolically
Culture is the set of beliefs, values, symbols, means of communication, religion, logics, rituals, fashions, etiquette, foods, and art that unite a particular society. Culture elements are learned behaviors; children learn them while growing up in a particular culture as older members teach them how to live. As such, culture is passed down from one generation to the next. This process of learning culture is called “acculturation. ”
One way of understanding culture is to think of the nature versus nurture debate. In this debate, social scientists asked whether nature or nurture is more influential in human life. Nature was considered to be things like our biology and genetics, while nurture was considered to be learned behaviors and other environmental influences on our identities. In this debate, culture is lumped together with the nurture side because both include learned behaviors and systems of thought that we pick up on from our surroundings. To illustrate the nature versus nurture debate, think of any human being. That person’s genetic material and physical body is what is considered his nature. But anything that the person does falls in the nurture side of the debate. This includes how he dresses, what he eats, what language he speaks, and every way in which he behaves.
While the nature versus nurture debate is useful to understand what culture is, the debate in academia has been somewhat settled by the acknowledgement that nature and nurture influence each other. Biology gives us the neural capacity for things like language and culture, but our environments teach us how to use these capacities. For example, biology enables humans to learn a language; this makes us different from other species. However, nothing about our biology dictates whether a baby learns English, Spanish, or Tagalog. Which language one speaks is a learned behavior. Likewise, our cultural behaviors influence our biology. For example, before 4000 BCE, the gene that creates a protein that allows for the digestion of lactose was present in babies for consuming their mothers’ milk, but then that protein would disappear after a baby was weaned. In 4000 BCE, humans began to domesticate animals and continue to drink their milk even after infancy. As such, over generations of using this cultural practice of animal domestication, the gene mutated to continue to produce the protein in adulthood. Thus, over time, the cultural practice influenced human biology. Nature and nurture contribute to one another.
In sum, culture provides the rules for behaviors and patterns of thought in social life. Because culture is learned, it is necessarily an aspect of social life and, therefore, requires a society or a group of people who interact and engage with one another. One way of thinking of a culture is the group of people to whom a set of symbols is understandable. For example, a rectangle with 13 alternating red and white stripes and a set of 50 white stars set on a blue patch in the upper left corner might not mean anything to someone in Greenland. To most Americans, the described design is an American flag, which itself connotes national pride.
It is tempting to associate a particular society with a particular country, but this isn’t always the case. Certainly, some symbols (like flags) are understandable within a particular country, but it is important to consider dissent and subcultures. Culture can be difficult to pinpoint and individuals within a given culture might disagree over what their culture is. Culture is both unifying and contentious.
Culture spreads through material and symbolic means, each demanding different methodologies and techniques to study. Material culture consists of the goods used to exhibit particular cultural behaviors. One could say that coffee cups, laptops, sweatshirts, and pizza are elements of the material culture of life on a college campus. Cultural anthropologists and sociologists use material culture to understand a culture at large and archaeologists use digs to reveal the material culture of the past in order to learn more about life in that culture. Symbolic culture consists of the belief systems that found and motivate life in a particular culture. Well circulated stories about a college’s founding, which professors are good to take classes with, and the college’s motto are all elements of the symbolic culture of a university. Both types of cultures can spread between different societies, in this case, different college campuses.
Key Points
• Culture elements are learned behaviors; children learn them while growing up in a particular culture as older members teach them how to live. As such, culture is passed down from one generation to the next. This process of learning culture is called “acculturation”.
• Culture can be studied either through material or symbolic cultural forms.
• Biology and learned experiences influence one another to create cultural norms.
• Culture provides the rules for behaviors and patterns of thought in social life.
• Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view the world primarily from the perspective of one’s own culture and tends to place different culture’s below one’s own.
• Cultural relativism insists that no culture is better or worse than any other, only different.
Key Terms
• acculturation: A process by which the culture of an isolated society changes on contact with a different one, especially a more advanced society.
• nature versus nurture debate: The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual’s innate qualities (“nature,” i.e., nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences (“nurture,” i.e., empiricism or behaviorism) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.03%3A_Elements_of_Social_Interaction/5.3D%3A_Culture.txt |
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