Culture

• Culture

  A term used to describe the shared way of life of a group of people in a particular society or social group.  Material culture refers to the physical things we value. Non-material to the ideas we share.
• Details of Culture

  Collectivist cultures value the belonging to a group as more important that individuality. Individualist cultures value personal freedoms. Aspects of culture include traditions, language and beliefs.
• Hirschi (functionalist)

  Breaking the rules can give an advantage in life, but deviants lack socialisation as they do not follow cultural rules, like youth sub-cultures like gangs.
• Sub-cultures

  Social groups who behave differently to the dominant culture. e.g mods and rockers.
• Social control

  The rules and institutions enforced to help us follow the norms, values and cultures of wider society.

  Formal control - institutions force people to behave e.g. the courts

  Informal control - control through internalisation of moral codes, norms and values, informal sanctions e.g a punishment
• Norms

  Specific rules of behaviour, unwritten, that relate to specific social situations and outline the way we are expected to act. These change over time and location. e.g. the way we prepare food, table manners or gender expectations.
• Morals

  Moral codes,the way of behaving that we define as good or bad. e.g. stealing from an old woman is a moral taboo.
• Values

  Accepted beliefs that something is worthwhile and desirable, something a society places high value on e.g. wealth, romantic love, democracy.
• Beliefs

  Things that we believe to be true. e.g supernatural powers or what happens after death.
• Roles

  What a society expects from a certain status to behave in a certain way. Role conflict occurs when two roles do not coexist without issue. e.g. motherhood, wife, teacher.
• Status

  The social position of a person in society, often within the hierarchy. ascribed status - fixed at birth by inheritance or biology. Achieved status - earned or controlled by an individual thorough meritocracy. e.g. gender, race, social class
• Cultural and societal variation

  Social construction of culture means values or rules may vary across time or region. e.g the role of motherhood or childhood is culturally specific. Social change has occurred over time in the UK, as there are differences to the way we think e.g. women now go to work. Marxist believe this is expected, while functionalists regard this as problematic.
• Cultural Diversity

  Cultures differ greatly. This describes the differences in behaviour and beliefs across cultures.