Culture/Socialisation

• Beck and Beck Gernsheim (1995)

  we are undergoing a process of individualisation in which society creates their own identities
• Darwin (1859) - nature debate

  • behaviour is caused by internal characteristics, innate
  • developmental approach
  • all behaviour present from contraception
• Skeleton and Francis (2003) - socialisation

  • studied boys and girls in a primary school classroom
  • found evidence of gendered play
  • girls = separate activity, role play games, excluded
  • boys = active, dominant
• Lees (1983) - socialisation

  • studied peer groups, boys put pressure on girls
  • boys praised
  • girls criticised
  • lack of double standards
• Harris (1995) - socialisation

  • assessed peer pressure
  • found it influences behaviour
  • comes from parents and peer groups
  • influential
• Sewell (1997) - ‘cultural comfort zones’

  • we associate ourselves with those similar to us
  • we stay in our ‘comfort zone’
• Young (1999) - ‘a bulimic society’

  • constant hunger and desire to binge on anything and everything
  • the media influences consumption
  • ‘get rich or die trying’
• Parsons (1951)

  institutions in society work together to transmit shared norms and values to each new generation ensuring stability and continuity in society
• Marxism (1848) - conflict theory

  • ‘society is shaped by social economic inequalities, based on capitalism’
  • ‘social forces shape the individual’
• “ Chicken Girl“ (Isabel Santos)

  • lived in a chicken coop
  • copied the behaviour of the hens she lived with
  • malformed
  • malnourished
• ”Wolf children” (Kamala and Amala”)

  • lived with wolves, in India
  • one 8yrs old, the other 18 months old
  • wolf-like behaviour - howled, walked on all fours, ate from a dog bowl with their mouths
• Genie

  • no human contact until 13yrs old
  • isolated in a room alone
  • strapped to a potty chair
  • her father claimed he was protecting her because she had mental problems
  • she never learned speech fluently
  • she spent the rest of her life in care
• The visible/formal curriculum

  • the academic subjects that are taught in schools
  • students are tested via exams and rewarded with qualifications
• The hidden curriculum

  the ways in which the routines of schools, classrooms, and teaching shape pupil attitudes and behaviour in order to produce conformity
• Bowles and Gintis (1976) - the hidden curriculum (Marxist view)

  • schooling stands in 'the long shadow of work' - pupils are unconsciously socialised into norms and values, eg. blind obedience to higher authority, punctuality, and acceptance that their place in the hierarchy is deserved and should therefore not be questioned
  • the hidden curriculum prepares working-class children for their future adult roles as factory or manual workers
• Hebdige (1979) - punk rockers (neo-marxist)

  • punk was a form of resistance to the dominant cultural values of British society in the late 1970s
  • punks aimed to deliberately shock society with their outfits, eg. wearing safety pins
• Thornton (1995) - subcultures

  girls were less likely to be involved in youth subcultures because they:

  • had less disposable income than their male counterparts
  • prioritised their education
  • were more controlled by their parents so were less likely to be out in the evening
• Bourgois (1990)

  some young black people in NYC turned to drug dealing due to the problems of poverty
• Nightingale

  • studied young, black men in Philadelphia, USA
  • found they subscribed to common social goals, eg. financial success
  • they found their route to these goals blocked by racism and poverty
  • turned to violent crime as an alternative to material success
• Campbell (1999)

  boys express their masculinity through deviant behaviour because the state has created a crisis of masculinity by denying them access to legitimate masculine status through academic success or employment and the breadwinner role
• Connell (2014)

  masculinity should not be seen as an excuse for violence because alternative forms of masculinity exist which do not promote crime or violence