Topic 1: Key concepts

• Culture


  The whole way of life of a particular society or social group
• Elements of culture


  • Values
  • Norms
  • Customs
  • Beliefs
  • Knowledge
  • Skills
  • Language
• Norms


  Expected behaviours in different contexts (situations)
• Norms are part of culture
• Values

  What is considered worthwhile and worth working for in society
• Values are learned and shared
• Our values


  Influence the way we behave
• A culture will also have norms that indicate acceptable ways to achieve the values
• Two important values you must remember for your exam

  • Health
  • Wealth
• Many British people value family and success
• An important value in our society is acquiring wealth
• Acquiring wealth


  • Acquire money
  • Acquire land
  • Acquire property
  • Live a comfortable life
• Value: Health


  Maintaining good physical and mental wellbeing
• Maintaining good health


  • Taking care of our bodies physically, intellectually, socially and emotionally
• Value in India


  Respect ancestors and Gods
• Hindus in India


  View and value the 'cow' as a sacred object
• Value of Native American Indian tribes such as the Sioux

  Bravery, courage and protection
• Native American Indian tribes

  • Sioux
• Person representing Native American Indian value of bravery

  • Chief Sitting Bull
• In the UK some have turned their back on achieving wealth in favour of more caring values
• In 2008, there were 470 Nuns and 135 Monks in the Anglican Church in Britain and Ireland
• Many others give up their jobs to take care of their children or elderly relatives
• Roles


  Expected behaviour or part played by someone in a particular situation
• Status


  Respect others give you in society, your position in society
• Identity


  How we see ourselves and how others see us
• Sanctions


  An attempt to enforce social control and prevent deviance from social norms and values
• Types of sanctions


  • Positive
  • Negative
  • Informal
  • Formal
• Cultural diversity


  The idea that what is considered acceptable or desirable in one culture may not be viewed the same way in another culture
• Cultural Diversity between groups


  • We share a culture within the UK
  • Within our culture, there a lots of other norms, values and customs within different groups in the same country
  • Different cultural practises can be found in different religious groups, social class groups and age groups
• Sikh culture


  • Men are required to wear a turban
  • Initially this caused a clash of cultural practise in Britain of wearing a crash helmet when riding a motorbike until a law was passed allowing Sikhs to ride without a helmet
• Regional culture


  • Different regions in the UK speak in their own unique dialect
  • Different regions in the UK have their own traditions
• Behaviour


  • Mostly determined by our genetics
  • Inherited from parents, just like eye colour
• Sexuality


  Coded in the genes
• Intelligence


  Coded in the genes
• Maternal instinct


  Coded in the genes
• Nurture


  Sociologists tend to argue that nurture is more significant and that human behaviour is mostly learned
• Nurture


  • Individuals are socialised into the culture of their family and society and taught how to live in society by the agencies of socialisation
  • Intelligence and maternal instinct are a result of nurture
• Cultural diversity: All societies and cultures would be similar if behaviour was natural
• Feral


  Wild or unsocialised
• Feral children


  Children removed from normal human contact and have missed normal processes of human socialisation