The process of socialisation is very important as it teaches us how to behave in society. We need to be socialised because without it we wouldn’t know the accepted norms and values within a society. Although people have different norms and values, as we develop and experience changes throughout our life we alter our behaviour according to agents of socialisation. In society we inevitably change the way our norms, values and behaviour to suit individuals or groups. These individuals or groups are called agents of socialisation.
Emile Durkheim, a leading Functionalist, believed that different institutions in different cultures teach us norms and values that make up our identity and personality. Our actions result in consensus of norms and values, which then gives us a sense of social order and installs order in society through man’s actions. Through culture, social order is achieved and individuals can begin to develop their personal qualities. However, Functionalists base their ideas on a traditional society, as opposed to today’s more multi-cultural society and this is a point to which Postmodernists disagree with. Other theories also have the idea that the Functionalists are exaggerating the consensus in society.
Socialization is one of the most important social processes in every human society without this we would not be able to participate on group life and development of our human characteristics. The heart of socialization begins with self. Sociologist such as Mead and Cooley both have their own theories of perception on what self is and how self is affected by others. Cooley and Mead both had similar perception of self, believing that it was influenced by others; Cooley believed that peoples image was based in how people perceived them, this theory was called the looking class theory as he believed those who we interact with are mirrors reflecting our self-back to us. With reference to Mead the self develops out of the child's communicative contact with others.
“Culture, gender, personality and other factors are believed to have great impact on how people conform themselves in a group settings” (Fiske, 2004). The concept of conformity has a broad meaning because it refers to individuals displaying common behavior as others in a group, but this is something that is group sensitive because everyone is not the same, and your behavior is something that is
Based on the different cultures and the ways people are raised gives them different traits that can influence their behavior and give them certain characteristics towards their personality. The people that raise you have a huge impact on your personality because you develop some of their similar traits. Growing up in different areas of the world with certain rules of that culture with develop a different personality that someone growing up in Northern America. Certain childhood experiences that had a significant impact in life or just having a different outlook on life can cause differences in personality. Past relationships can also have a huge impact on someone personality based on the seriousness of the relationship.
Title: Is prejudice mostly biologically based or learned? Psychology Essay Batoul Shamma Friends Boys School All around the world psychology and its levels of analysis have influenced people in a way to make them think more critically. Thinking in a mature way from a psychological point of view made people more anxious to know what’s going on around them; concerning an individual’s behavior, thinking, and skills. One of the important levels of analysis in psychology is the sociocultural level where it discusses the main ideas of a person being a social animal and has a social self. A person being a social animal defines the sociocultural level of analysis in a way that it shows the complex interaction between attributing people and judging them based on their culture, stereotype, ethnicity, and prejudice.
Stereotyping has been an integral part of human interactions and one of the building blocks of society since individuals have had the ability to process their premeditated opinions on both other individuals and wider groups. There is an ever growing interest in stereotyping, how the process works and its effects; inevitably the same question seems to re occur, why do people stereotype? This essay will cover all the aspects of psychological theories that seek to answer the increasingly popular question, why do we stereotype? A stereotype is defined as “Shared beliefs about person attributes, usually personality traits, but often also behaviours, or a group of people” (Yzerbyt, Rocher, Schadron, P20, 1997). The word that seems most essential in this definition is “attributes”.
A different child, in the same routine, may find it overwhelming and may grow up to avoid large groups, preferring a life path that is more secluded. We cannot determine how each child will react to cultural influences; it is critical that the most influential aspects of a culture be identified in order to give children the best opportunities to thrive. While culture is important to the development of a child, the debate of nature versus nurture has an even longer historical importance. I personally feel that culture and biological influences have equal influence on a child, meaning that nature and nurture go hand in hand. An example of this would be a child who has been adopted and shares the same environment (culture, household) with their sibling, but not the same genetic code.
The Power of Social Norms Social norms are described as being laws that governs a society’s behavior. They are enforced either formally or informally and those that do not follow these norms are labeled by society as deviant and that can lead to them being considered as “outcasts” or people who don’t fit into the norm of the society that they live in. “Normal” is different from place to place and depends on the culture where the social interaction is taking place as well. Norms in every culture create conformity that allows for people to become socialized to the culture in which they live in but can also cause a split within society. Theorists such as Talcott Parsons and Karl Marx have both came up with theories for why they believed norms are needed in society.
Further to this, it is also shown how an individual’s culture can affect the views of another’s, and how these can combine to create an understanding between their different belief systems. Further to these aspects, it can still be realised that culture does have a dominant contributing factor to one’s life and how they perceive things around them, and also how they respond to certain situations. The true definition of culture remains highly generalised and ambiguous as it can only be accurately defined by the individual, due to each person having different interpretations of what it means for them personally. Culture exists in the actions and beliefs of various individuals and is the product of human thought, but despite this, its true role in life can vary significantly. Disher explores this idea of mixed culture in numerous ways throughout his text, which can be seen even in the simple Japanese tradition Sadako implements in making ‘soy sauce’.