Sociological Perspective in Understanding Human Behaviour

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The four key sociological concept include socialisation, norms, values and the variations in cultural expectations. First of all I will look at socialisation. It is defined as being a long and continued process in which an individual will obtain their identity and adapt to the norms and values of the society. This is also the time in which they acquire the skills in order to interact with others. Socialisation is split into two phases named primary and secondary, primary socialisation being what takes place during an individuals childhood usually takes place within the family whereas secondary is from there on. Friends, the education system and employment are just some of the important factors that influence socialisation in the secondary phase. Internalisation is the name given to the stage where the individual has learnt the culture or rules of that particular society. Socialisation is very important for humans to engage in society, and if not cannot adapt easily to it. For example, the 'wolf children' were thought as have been brought up by a pack of wolves and so when they were taken back to a 'normal society' they found it very difficult to conform to they way humans actually lived. Another concept is norms, which are guidelines on how to act or behave in a social setting. Norms are regulated positive sanctions such as rewards and punishments are given to negative sanctions. An example of a social norm is that off throwing rubbish into a bin, a violation to this is that the person would choose to drop it on the ground. Values are another key concept, they are general guidelines on what is thought as of being right or wrong. Values are more global than norms and so are much widely known and can contain things like revenge, where you may end up going to prison, to putting family first which is more likely to make you a better person. There are
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