Socialisation

• Socialisation


  The process of learning one's culture and behaviour that is considered acceptable in society
• Agents of socialisation

  • Education
  • Family
  • Religion
  • Friends
  • Work
  • Media
• Without socialisation, we would not behave in ways that are recognised as human
• Primary socialisation


  Takes place in the early years of life and occurs within the family
• Secondary socialisation


  Takes place later, at school, through peer groups, media, religion, work
• We learn norms and values through socialisation
• Functionalist views- family 


  • Murdock- family performs major functions like sexual reproduction, economic and educational, essential for society to function
  • Family benefits the individuals and society as a whole
• Functionalist views- Education 


  • Durkheim- The major function of education is the transmission of society's norms and values
  • Education teaches us that we are part of a wider society
  • Bourdieu- reproduction of culture of the dominant class
  • Parsons- teaches us universalists norms and values
• Functionalist view on religion


  • Durkheim- major function of religion is the socialise society’s members into value consensus
• Functionalist view of mass media 


  • Lasswell claims that one of the important functions of media is transmitting society's social and cultural heritage to the next generation
  • We learn acceptable standards of behaviour, norms and values from the media
• Restricted speech code


  Grammatically simple sentences used by working class families
• Elaborated speech code


  More complicated sentences used by middle class families
• Oakley's view on gender socialisation


  • Gender roles are established by the way parents push children into traditional gender roles (canalization) and change their behaviour by toys (manipulation)
• Young and Willmott's view on family


  • As industrialisation developed, social roles changed to become more symmetrical
• Hidden curriculum


  The way cultural values and attitudes are transmitted through the structure and organisation of schools
• Re-socialisation


  The process of learning the skills, norms and values attached to a new job when entering the workforce
• Role of religion in socialisation


  • Each religion offers a set of moral values that become part of a society's culture
  • Religious rituals and ceremonies have traditionally been seen as a force of social unity
• The long-term decline in church attendance in Britain suggests the country is becoming more secular (non-religious)
• Peer groups


  Friendship groups formed by people of roughly the same age and social position
• Role of play in peer groups


  • Children learn social norms, social status, and social roles through play
• When children become teenagers, they spend increasing amounts of time away from their family and in the company of friends
• Feminist views on socialisation


  • Oakley says the Family reproduces gender roles
  • Lobban says Education reinforces gender stereotyping
  • Religion acts to control women in similar ways to how Marx suggested religion could act for oppressed classes
  • Mass media has important influences on males, leading them to assume women are the weaker sex
• Marxists views on family


  • See it as benefiting the bourgeoisie.
  • Zaretsky says family reproduces future generations of workers
  • Become a vital unit of consumption
  • Consumes products of capitalism and allows bourgeoisie to continue making profit
• Marxist view on education 


  • Bowles and Gintis say schools teach that society is fair (meritocracy) although it isn’t
  • through the hidden curriculum, children are taught to respect authority
  • Teaches children norms and values to be ‘good’ workers
  • designed to make working class fail
• Marxist view on religion 


  Series of myths that justify the domination of the ruling class
• Marxist views on the mass media


  • Marcuse suggested that popular culture has a negative effect on culture because it is devised by capitalism
  • encourages ‘false needs’ and ‘false consciousnes’