OCR A Level Sociology

• Culture


  The ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society
• Norm


  Behaviour that is considered normal in any society. Norms are linked to values.
• Norms


  • Listening and obeying teachers, wear clothes in public
• Values


  Things that people have strong beliefs about in society that are seen as important. They guide our behaviour
• Values


  • Life, success, honesty, loyalty, hygiene
• Relative norms


  Norms that differ between cultures and situations, they aren't fixed. They can be: Culturally relative (between societies), Historically relative (over time), Relative within societies (subcultures)
• Norms are socially constructed
• Relative norms


  • Owning a mobile phone as a modern norm and tea drinking as a traditional one in England (Fox, 2004)
• Relative norms


  • Among the Arapesh, a temperament for both males and females that was gentle, responsive, and cooperative. Among the Mundugumor (now Biwat), both males and females were violent and aggressive, seeking power and position. For the Chambri, male and female temperaments were distinct from each other, the woman being dominant, impersonal, and managerial and the male less responsible and more emotionally dependent (Mead, 1935)
• Cultural diversity


  The differences between cultures, both between cultures (intercultural diversity) and within cultures (intracultural diversity)
• Intracultural diversity


  • Regional differences (England vs Scotland), Class differences (upper vs working class), Ethnic differences
• Intercultural diversity


  • What is considered normal in the UK could be offensive in another culture, such as public displays of affection being forbidden in Dubai
• Subcultures


  Culture within a culture who share values, norms, beliefs, dress codes that mark them out differently from mainstream culture
• Cultural Hybridity


  Where different cultures mix, for example children of immigrants to the UK who may aspire to consumer cultures as their white peers but also listen to Bhangra and wear henna tattoos
• Cultural Hybridity


  • White Wannabes - white British males who dress, act and speak in a way that is influenced by black hip-hop culture (Nayak)
• High Culture


  Cultural aspects (material and nonmaterial) considered superior and typically associated with and consumed by the elites of society: the well-educated or wealthy
• High Culture


  • Opera, theatre, classic novels
• Popular Culture (low culture)


  The activities enjoyed by the masses of the population. Viewed by the those who consume high culture as shallow, dumbed down and inferior
• Popular Culture


  • Pop music, cinema, tabloid newspapers
• Global culture


  The growing trend whereby some cultural products are now universal because they are both produced and marketed globally
• Global culture


  • Coca cola, McDonald's, Google, Apple
• Consumer culture


  The mass media and advertising encourage people to value materialism and consumerism. Shopping is a major leisure activity
• Conspicuous consumption


  The acquisition of high value goods and brands has been a way to express identity. Debt is almost normalised to do this
• Socialisation


  The process whereby individuals learn societies norms and values and the culture of a society
• Primary socialisation


  The learning of key basic values and norms that takes place in the early part of a child's life - this would include language for example
• Secondary socialisation


  The learning of norms and values that continues throughout our lives. May involve peers, the media and work
• Identity


  Our idea of who we are - the groups we feel a part of and the groups we don't feel a part of
• Agents of socialisation


  The social institutions that influence us - the family, media, education, peer group, religion and work
• Roles


  The parts we play in social life - son, daughter, student, teacher and so on
• Status


  A particular position in society and the amount of respect attached to it
• Achieved status


  Status that is earned or chosen, e.g. being an A level student
• Ascribed status


  Status that is fixed, e.g. gender, son, daughter
• Social Control


  The way societies manipulate and direct the behaviour of their members
• Formal Social Control


  Situation where people's behaviour is directed by organisations who have that specific role, e.g. the police
• Informal Social Control


  Situation where people's behaviour is directed as a part of the socialisation process, e.g. by parents
• Nature


  Genetics influence who you are, you will inherit traits from parents (socio-biologist approach)
• Nurture


  Your environment influences who you are, you are socialised by different agents of socialisation (sociological approach)
• Nature vs Nurture


  • Genie - a feral child, victim of severe abuse, neglect, and social isolation, unable to learn language

  Bruce, Brenda, David - Bruce's penis burnt off at 18 months, recommended brought up female, Brenda brought up female but knew something wasn't right, David too traumatised and took his own life

  Jack and Oskar - twin studies, Jack raised by grandmother in Germany as a Nazi, Oskar raised in Caribbean by father as a Jew, yet had many similarities
• The need to reproduce, requires men to be more sexually promiscuous. Literally 'spreading the seed'. Women are nurturing and stay faithful to the father of their children to ensure help in its upbringing (Wilson, 1975)
• The education system is a 'myth making machine' - you are told that society is a meritocracy and you believe it. The hidden curriculum brainwashes children into obedience and unquestioning attitude they would need in the world of work (Bowles and Gintis)