...the process through which an individual learns about culture, norms and values of a society. This allows for integration and a sense of belonging. Each society has different values and norms which help to promote unity and coherence. Values are the things we regard as important, true and right. It may differ from individual to individual and also cultures and may be as a result of gender, beliefs and religion. In an African society, a male child is brought up to recognise he is a breadwinner and consequently taught the value of working hard to provide for his family, on the other hand education may be seen as wasted on a female child because she is meant to be provided for by her husband. In such a society education is not valued in females. Values change and evolve because today most societies have accepted the importance of education in both the male and female child. There are still some restrictions in some societies like in Saudi Arabia where women are not allowed to freely mix with men in the work place. Some of the change in values can occur from experiences in the secondary socialisation process. The change will allow for development, growth and modernisation. For instance a traditional Muslim male takes his wife to see a doctor for checkups will insist he wants a female doctor to attend to her. With time he begins to see the gap created by not allowing a female child get an education and as such will be more open to change. Values are important things to us like ethics...
Words: 3578 - Pages: 15
...the ways in which two of the following agencies may shape the process of socialisation: family; education; mass media; religion. (24 marks) Socialisation is the process of learning social norms and values, these for example, things like manners and ways to behave around people and what behaviour is suitable for your gender. From birth onwards all individuals go through a process of socialisation during which they learn the norms and values of their society and certain factors influence your interpretation of society and what norms and values you have been taught. Family socialisation begins the process through which learn and develop to be the adult persons they become. For some adults, their interaction with family continues in such a close relationship that the family maintains a dominant role in their on-going socialisation. Most of the time growing up is spent with family and so this is what is called a primary relationship, it’s important that we learnt the dos and don’ts from them. However when you get older it becomes less important in the socialisation process as other agencies take over from the family. Comparisons between classes show big differences, for example it has been proven that working class families use more simple sentences whereas middle class use more complex sentences which links to achievements in school, this shows how different class families contribute to family socialisation. Child rearing practices such as nutrition, sleeping and use of toilets...
Words: 911 - Pages: 4
...One of the main reasons for gender differences in subject choices is due to the primary socialisation that the children have. Norman (1988) notes that from an early age, boys and girls are dressed differently, given different toys, and are encouraged to take part in different activities; parents tend to reward boys for being active and girls for being passive. As a result of this socialisation, boys and girls develop different reading tastes – boys read hobby books and girls are more likely to read books about people which explains why boys prefer science and girls prefer subjects such as English. Norman (1988), Murphy and Elwood (1998) This is further backed up by Browne and Ross’ (1991) argument that children’s beliefs about gender domains (the tasks/activities that children see as male or female ‘territory’) are shaped by their early experiences and the expectations of adults. Gendered subject images also have an impact as to which subjects boys and girls choose when they have the option. Science is seen as a ‘boys’ subject for many reasons, such as the fact that the teachers are more likely to be male, the examples in textbooks draw on boys’ experiences more than girls’, and because boys monopolise the apparatus and dominate the lab, acting as if it is theirs. DfES (2007) found that pupils in single sex schools have less stereotyped subject images, and Leonard (2006) found that this may make both boys and girls choose the less ‘traditional’ subjects...
Words: 421 - Pages: 2
...Socialisation is a term used by sociologists to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society. There are two types of socialisation; Primary and secondary. Examine the ways in which two of the following agencies may shape the process of socialisation: family; education; mass media; religion. (24 marks) Socialisation is the process of learning norms and values. These are things like manners and ways to behave around others and what behaviour is suitable for your gender. From your birth onwards all individuals go through a process of socialisation during which they learn the norms and values of their society and certain factors will influence your interpretation of society and what norms and values you have been taught. Family is an important agent of socialisation. Family socialisation begins the process through which we learn and develop to be a grown up. For some adults their interaction with family continues in such a close relationship that the family maintains a very dominant role in their on-going socialisation. Most of the time growing up is spent with family and so this is what is called primary socialisation. Through primary socialisation we learn basic norms and values, as well as manners and other suitable behaviours to follow. Things like eating with a knife and fork is a good example. Your family, especially your...
Words: 709 - Pages: 3
...been a switch in gender success throughout education; coming into the late 1980’s underachievement by girls was common; girls were less likely than boys to obtain one or more A-levels and were less likely to go on to higher education. Coming in to the next decade of the 1990’s there was a sudden reversal; girls were now doing better than boys who were now underachieving. In 2006 10% more females were obtaining 2 or more A-levels than males. Women are now getting better degrees than men. Sociologists have looked into this gender diversion from a social perspective. What made this reversal so sudden and why did it occur? Feminists believe that the education system is patriarchal and dominated by men, just like the work force is. Feminists argue that the education system is just a primary preparation for leading into the future work force. They believe there are still gender differences in subject choice in schools. Sociologists Heaton and Lawson (1996) argue that the ‘hidden’ curriculum is a major source of gender socialisation; within education, various subjects are aimed at a certain gender group; for example cooking would be aimed at girls doing house work and cooking. While most schools now title this course, Food Technology, feminists believe that the subject is still designed to 'snare' girls into adopting a mode of behaviour a patriarchal society accept and that the gap between girls and boys is still there in today’s society. Feminists also believe that gender stereotyping...
Words: 1732 - Pages: 7
...subordination, there are disagreements on its causes and how to overcome it. Liberal or reformist feminists believe that traditional prejudices and stereotypes about gender differences are a barrier to equality. They believe all human beings should have equal rights. Since both men and women are human beings, both should have the same opportunities. Liberal Feminists argue that laws and policies against sex discrimination in employment and education can secure equal opportunities for women. Campaigning for changes in law can bring about change and we can bring about change through a cultural shift within society. They reject the idea that biological differences make women less competent or rational than men or that men are biologically less emotional or nurturing than women. To bring about change we must shift society’s socialisation patterns. For example society must seek to promote appropriate role models in education and the family by doing this we will benefit from a cultural shift and gender equality will become the norm. Liberal Feminists believe that changes in socialisation and culture are gradually leading to more rational attitudes to gender and overcoming ignorance and prejudice. Also, political action to introduce anti-discriminatory laws and policies is progressing to a fairer society where ones gender will no longer be significant. The contribution of Liberal Feminism to our understanding of society has been beneficial as their studies have produced evidence for the...
Words: 1744 - Pages: 7
...Explain what is meant by the ‘correspondence principle’ The correspondence principle is all the lessons that are taught to you in school but they are not directly taught. For example, simply through every day workings of the school, pupils become accustomed to accepting hierarchy and competition. Suggest three criticisms that other sociologists may make of the functionalist view of the education system? Functionalists see education as a process that instils the shared values of society as a while, but Marxists argue that education in capitalist society only transmits the ideology of a minority, the ruling class. The interactionist Dennis Wrong argues that functionalists have an ‘over-socialised view’ of people as mere puppets of society. Functionalists wrongly imply that pupils passively accept all they are taught and never reject the schools values. Unlike Davis and Moore, the New Right argue that the state education system fails to prepare young people adequately for work. This is because state control of education discourages efficiency, competition and choice. Outline some of the ways in which government educational policies may have affected social class differences in educational achievement? Marketisation brought in a change in selection policies, it brought in a funding formula that gives the school the same amount of funds for each pupil, also exam league tables that rank each school according to its exam performance and make no allowance for the level...
Words: 1003 - Pages: 5
...Key Concepts – The role of socialisation in the creation of identities Socialisation and identity: How and who you socialise with can play a part in creating your identity. Whether it’s family, friends or work peers, they all will have a massive influence in forming your identity. You will pick up things like norms and values from family for example, how you respond to that is part of your identity. * One example in your school years you will make friends. You will perhaps be in a group and share hobbies and activities in which you socialise through with. There you will have distinctive attitude and a form of behaviour that you will pick up from being that group. * Second example is your work peers; how you behave towards them and what you pick up from whilst working there again is part of your identity. You will share similar attitudes and norms of behaviour that the other peers have. Culture and identity: This is the identity of a group or culture of an individual as far as one is influences by one’s belonging to a group or culture. That could depend on various thing like what norms and values you share or what ethnicity the group is from. * One example is you’re from a certain religion which involves living a distinct lifestyle to someone’s who’s non-religious. Their identity will be formed through how they live their life. They may be less sociable and spend more time practising their religion. * Second example is a group of ‘Goths’. Their identity...
Words: 1537 - Pages: 7
...stresses the importance of our brain structure, genes and hormones for how we behave. According to the biological explanation our gender is caused by what is going on inside our body-internal (sex chromosomes, hormones etc.) and are the way they are because of evolution. This usually is due to the chromosomes a person has or hormonal differences. Every individual has 23 pairs of chromosomes. Women have 2 X chromosomes while men have an X and a Y chromosome. As an embryo, a male's Y chromosome starts to produce testosterone and other male sex hormones. These hormones help develop the testicles and penis. These androgens cause differences in the male brain and cause men to behave more aggressively than women. Oestrogen is a female hormone that controls the baby's development in the womb during pregnancy when menarche occurs and the menstrual cycle. This hormone is also responsible for changes in behaviour and can lead to pre-menstrual syndrome (or tension). It is said that our sex is determined at conception and is universal whereas gender is malleable and cultural. Gender relates to how you perceive and see yourself. Kleinefelter's syndrome (XXY) supports that we are a product of our genes as a sufferer would have some development of breast tissue, little body hair and under development of genitals, which shows how a difference in genes can affect us. This leaves the victim with a passive temperament and poor language skills. Similarly, Turner's syndrome (X) patients have under...
Words: 573 - Pages: 3
...AQA AS Sociology SCLY2: Education with Sociological Research Methods Student Guide Introduction According to sociologist Michael Rutter we spend 15000 hours in the education system. Consequently the schooling process has a large role in forming our personalities. For some, education also manages to act as a way of socialising people into the norms and values that are seen to be important for a particular society. For others it can be seen as a source of conflict particularly when issues surrounding gender, class and ethnicity are put under the sociologists, ‘microscope’. It also provides an excellent indicator of how political ideology affects social policy, with the changing of governments impacting on educational policy. Some questions sociologists are interested in about education are: * Why do some pupils achieve more than others? * What is the relationship between education and the economy? * What is the purpose of education? * Do pupil’s school experiences vary? Assessment The course will be assessed by examination only. The examination will consist of various short answer question and essay style questions. Date of Exam: June 2010 Duration: 2 hr The Unit 2 exam is worth 60% of your final AS level grade. There will be 90 marks available on the paper. You will answer one question on the chosen topic, one question on sociological research methods in context and one question on research methods. Assessment Objectives ...
Words: 1881 - Pages: 8
...Possible sociology questions January 2012 Item 2A Sociologists analyse the domestic division of labour in many different ways. Parsons describes the division of labour in the traditional nuclear family in terms of an expressive role and an instrumental role. However, this traditional arrangement may have changed as families have changed, and many feminists use the term ‘dual burden’ to describe the woman’s role in the family today. Item 2B Government policies and laws include tax and benefit policies as well as legislation such as relating to divorce and marriage. Sociologists have different views on the impact of these policies and laws on families. For example, feminists argue that social policies assume that the ideal family is a patriarchal nuclear family, and that government policies and laws therefore favour this sort of family. On the other hand, the New Right argue that the benefit system undermines traditional nuclear families by actively encouraging lone parents. 0 6 Explain what is meant by the ‘dual burden’ (Item 2A). (2 marks) 0 7 Explain the difference between the expressive role and the instrumental role (Item 2A). (4 marks) 0 8 Suggest three ways in which the differences between children and adults are becoming less clear in society today. (6 marks) 0 9 Examine the reasons for, and the effects of, changes in family size over the past 100 years or so. (24 marks) 1 0 Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess sociological views of the impact...
Words: 5042 - Pages: 21
...Afeminist@ socialisation. @ Melissa M. Monfries & Jill. J. Scevak Faculty of Education, University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia ABSTRACT Gender role attitudes of adolescent girls have not been widely studied, nor have the mechanisms by which attitudes towards women’s roles develop. The present study focussed on adolescent girls’ gender role attitudes. Specifically it focussed on developmental differences in gender role attitudes of adolescent girls (n=642). The results indicated that Year 9 girls had significantly more positive attitudes towards feminism than Year 11 girls. These findings have important implications for girls’ career development. Results suggest that there is a critical period between Years 9 and 11 which accounts for girls’ increased conservatism towards feminism. The integral involvement of socialisation processes is necessarily implicated in this critical period. INTRODUCTION Group identification has been strongly associated with an individual's level of group consciousness (Henderson-King & Stewart, 1994). Tajfel (1978; 1982) specified that the two important components of group identification were the awareness of one's group membership and the evaluative stance towards one's membership in that group. Given that sex is biologically determined (Quadrio, 1994) females' identification as female in terms of awareness should be unproblematic. However, the evaluative component of identification with female is more complex and possibly relates more to gender, which...
Words: 1866 - Pages: 8
...(Want), unemployment (Idleness), bad housing (Squalor), not efficient educational system (Ignorance) and bad health care (Disease). Although social policy is a general term which does not refer only to programmes on family, social policies always can affect households, either directly or indirectly. For example a direct policy on family can be any law regulating marriage (such as the Divorce act, 1969, or laws on same sex marriage,while indirect ones affect other aspects or istitutions of society which, however, are linked to family or at least to certain members of the household. (E.g. Policies on education have a crucial impact on children socialization and therefore on their approach to other member in any institution of society) Besides, social policies are indicative of current ideological tendencies in society, since they help family institution to achieve a social accepted asset. As an example New Right perspective perpetrates a conservative view on family, assuming that nuclear family model is the only one to be encouraged and might supported by benefits or by tax reductions. Following the same perspective any other family types are to be prevented as they endanger society not providing a proper primary socialisation to the children or not being able to be economically independent from the welfare state, applying an economy of dependency (e.g. Single parent families are...
Words: 681 - Pages: 3
...Mass Media Revision Notes The mass media are forms of communication which reach large audiences. They can be split into two groups: Traditional media * TV * Radio * Cinema * Music * Newspapers * Books New media * Internet * Dvd * Digital television * E mail In society today it is very difficult to avoid the mass media. There is a division between the press (newspapers) and broadcasting (TV and radio) The press in the UK Newspapers and magazine which are privately owned and are commercially run for profit They are financed through advertising and sales which means they are in competition with each other Some newspapers reach a national market such as the Guardian and others a local market such as the Yorkshire Evening Post Newspapers can be divided to broad sheets which is considered to be the quality press and the tabloids such as the Sun and the Mirror Broadcasting in Britain This refers to the TV and the radio. In the UK we have public television which is the BBC – this is funded by the TV licence fee. We also have commercial television which aims to make money through advertising. In recent years there has been a move towards the sponsorship of programmes – Cadbury’s and Coronation Street – and now companies can pay to see their products feature in TV programmes, this is called product placement. Technological developments In 1980 there were only three channels – BBC1, BBC2 and ITV – we now have additional terrestrial channels...
Words: 1811 - Pages: 8
...essential functions to meet the needs of society and its members: The stable satisfaction of the sex drive – which prevents the social disruption cased by a ‘sexual free for all’; the reproduction of the next generation and thus the continuation of society over time; thirdly, the socialisation of the young into society’s shared norms and values and finally he argued the family provides for society’s economic needs by providing food and shelter. Murdock thus agrees with the two statements in the question and goes further, arguing that the nuclear family performs even more functions. Furthermore, he argued that the nuclear family was universal, following his study of over 250 different societies. Some sociologists, however, criticise Murdock’s view as being too rose tinted – pointing out that conflict and disharmony can occur both within nuclear families and within societies where the nuclear family is dominant. A second criticism is that the nuclear family is not universal – Gough studied the Nayr of South India and found that women and men had several sexual partners, but this type of matrifocal family was functional for that society. A second Functionalist, Talcott Parsons argued that the type of society affects the shape of the family – different societies require the family to perform different functions and so some types of family ‘fit in’ better with particular societies. To illustrate this, Parsons argued that there were two basic types of society – modern industrial society...
Words: 853 - Pages: 4
