Society and Culture - Module 1:

The Social and Cultural world

Personal experience:

is the knowledge gained from reflecting on individual experiences

Examples of personal experience are:

memories, stories, reflections

Public knowledge:

general knowledge and the knowledge available to everyone.

Examples of public knowledge are:

books, articles, websites, public records, and common understanding, films, documentaries

Ten concepts of the social and cultural world are (SPECT):

persons, society, culture, environment, time, gender, identity, globalisation, technology, power vs authority.

(SPECT) - Persons:

is the individual human; their relationships, with other persons, and with society, culture and environment throughout time. They develop within social and environmental settings.

(SPECT) - Society:

is the human relationships from small groups to large systems.

(SPECT) - Culture:

is the knowledge shared by members of these groups and systems and reflected in their customs, values, laws, arts, technologies and artifacts; and their way of life.

(SPECT) - Enviroment:

is the settings where people live and work; the interaction between people and their environment.

(SPECT) - Time:

is the continuous passage of existence; past, present and future.

(SPECT) - Gender:

is a socially constructed differences between females and males.

(SPECT) - Identity:

is the sense of self viewed from social, cultural, and social level.

Factors contributing to identity are:

gender, sexuality, family, class, ethnicty, social status etc.

(PIGGAT) - Globalisation:

is the process sharing goods, capital labour, services, knowledge, sport, ideas and culture between countries.

(PIGGAT) - Technology:

are the tools we use to assist our interactions in society

(PIGGAT) - Power:

is the ability to persuade others to a point of view to which they may not always agree with.

(PIGGAT) - Authority:

is the right to make decisions and to determine or settle issues in society.

Power vs Authority:

Power is being able to influence others, formed from who you are, where authority is control delegated to an individual based on their position.

Social and Cultural Literacy:

is the sense of personal, social and cultural identity and the understanding of the cultural underpins of ones behavior, beliefs and values.

Examples of Social and Cultural Literacy within an individual:

it empathises with their diverse beliefs and values, effort to be equal and ethical, supports cross-cultural settings and is overly aware with the conflicts and issues that may cause harm.

Manners and Etiquette:

are rules that govern our social behavior. There are often expected norms within societies and cultures, and if these are not followed, social disapproval will occur.

Citizenship:

is the rights and duties of a member of a nation-state. It can be defined by the civil, rights, welfare, voting obligations and freedoms of an individual

Community:

is a usually local social system with implied interrelations and mutual identity among it’s members.

Continuity:

is the consistent existence of cultural elements in society across time in general.

Change:

is the alternation or modification of cultural elements in society, it can occur on mirco, meso and marco levels.

Micro-Level Interactions:

are personal interactions that occur between individuals and their family, peers and individuals in the community.

Examples of the Micro world are:

family, small scale peer groups

Meso-Level Interactions:

are interactions that occur between the micro and the macro levels of society.

Examples of the Meso world are:

schools, communities, church groups, workplaces

Macro-Level Interactions:

are impersonal interactions that relate to the social institutions that help shape the social and cultural world; national/international

Examples of the Macro World are:

media, law, workplace instution, government.

Socialisation:

is the process in which individuals learn to become functioning members if society by adapting to the; norms, roles and values of their society.

Social Structure:

is the recurring patterns of social behaviors and interrelationships between different elements in society.

Social constructs are:

socially created aspects of social life, and how individuals behaviour towards others is socially influenced by social expectation.

Quantitative research:

is the collecting and analyzing numerical data.

What is Quantitative research used for?

to find patterns and average, make predictions, test casual relationships and generalise results to wider populations.

Qualitative research:

is collecting and analyzing non-numerical data; words

What is Qualitative research used for?

gather in-depth insights into a problem or generate new ideas for research.

Seven research methods:

1. Content analysis
2. Questionnaire
3. Interview
4. Observation
5. Participation observation
6. Statistical analysis
7. Secondary research

What are the Quantitative Research Methodologies:

Statistical Analysis, Content Analysis, Questionnaires and Observation.

Statistical analysis:

is the collecting and analyzing data to identify patterns and trends by using numbers to remove any bias.

Content analysis:

is used to detect and count the data collected in a way to produce quantitative research.

Observations are:

data gathered by watching people, events, or noting physical characteristics in their natural setting.

What are the Qualitative Research Methodologies:

Questionnaires, Content Analysis, Interviews, Personal Reflections, Focus Groups, Case Studies and Participant Observation.

Questionnaires are:

set of questions with a choice of answers; devised for the purposes of a survey or statiscal study.

Content Analysis:

is the study of documents and communication artifacts such as pictures, audios, or videos such as music or arts.

Interviews are:

structured conversation where one partipant asks questions and the other provides answers.

Personal Reflection:

is the use of and evaluation of personal experiences.

Focus Groups:

describes the collection of data from in-depth planned discussions based on defined topics that are brought towards a small groups.

Case Study:

are studies that involve an in-depth study and research onto a specific topic or cultural groups. It combines research methods of observations, interviews and documentary’s.

Participant observation:

involves the observer being a member of the setting in which they are collecting data.

Reliability:

is the stability and consistency of the research method.

Validity:

is how accurately a method measures what it is intended to measure.

Secondary research:

is the summary and collation of existing research.

Ethical Research:

are the guidelines which all researchers are expected to follow when conducting research to sustain ethical.

Four Ethics of Research are:

1. Do not harm
2. Informed consent
3. Invasion of privacy
4. No deception.

Norms:

are the rules or expectations that are socially enforced.

Four categories of norms

1. Folkway
2. More
3. Law
4. Taboo

Norms - More:

are norm that structures the difference between right and wrong.

Norm - Folkway:

are norm that stems from and organizes social interactions

Norm - Law:

are norm that is formally inscribed at the state or federal level

Norm - Taboo:

are the strong negative norm; violating it results in extreme disgust.

Conforms are:

complying with rules, standards, or laws.

Why do we Conform?

Because we desire an accurate perception to reality as well as acceptance from other people as they usually lead to positive outcomes.

What are the 3 types of Cultural Society - (MYM)

Multicultural, Hybrid and Monocultural

Hybrid Society:

is a society that comprises a range of social and cultural components rather than having the same identity.

Multicultural Society:

are societies that promote and support cultural diversity, with the belief that different cultures can live harmoniously.

Monocultural Society:

is a society that excludes external cultural influences and practices, but only involve the traditions of the pre-existing culture among the society.

Acculturation (Hybrid):

is when members of one culture adapt beliefs and behaviors of another culture through direct interaction or media.

Enculturation (Multicultural):

is the process where people learn the dynamics of their surrounding culture and acquire their values/norms.

Assimilation (Monocultural):

is where individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture

Stimmel’s theory:

This is the belief that there is no such thing as society and people just interact with each other. Social groups overlap/intersect a lot, so most people are in the same group with lots of the same people.

Legal System:

refers to the laws we have, and the process of making those laws and making sure they are obeyed.

How does the legal system controls individuals?

Because individuals must follow laws made by the legal system or face punishment.

How individuals shape the legal system?

Individuals make up the related society. This means when individuals vote, changes and decisions are made to the legal system.

Stimmels theory applied to the legal system:

is the belief that if people were to collectively reject the law, it would lead to anarchy and revolution, and therefore the government would likely collapse.

Kinship:

is the social bond formed through blood relations or marriage, defining familial relationships and roles within a society.

Government:

is the system or group of people governing an organized community, often a state.

What are the ways Government influences Individual Behaviors?

by creating laws which govern daily behavior, creating systems of rewards of individual behavior, creating standards for workplaces.

How individuals shape the government:

by voting for prime ministers, social movement leaders, wealthy individuals, the governor general influence government policies etc.

What are the Agents of Change?

Technology, Economics, Politics and Enviroment.

Demographic Change:

is refereed to an ageing population, decreasing fertility rates and increased life expectancy.

Evolutionary Change:

is that every society develops over time and passes through the same linear process of change that progresses through specific phases.

Transformative Change:

this change relates to evolutionary change but is triggered by technology

Structural Change:

is the process where changes occur within society, such as the alternation of mechanism within social structure.

Social Movements:

is an event or change that has a long-lasting impact on society.

Resistance to Change:

they are formed due to personal level influences, strikes, boycotts, go-slows and people being physically human.

Modernisation:

is the process of change from traditional society to a modernisated society, which relates to declines in traditional authority and practices.

Westernisation:

the process of aspects from different cultures in the UK, Western Europe and North America spreading out to other sections of the world.

Linear Change:

is change that occurs in a straight line. it is cumulative, non-repetitive. It starts of on a small level than expands onto large societies.

Cyclical Change:

is a repetitive change which explains the rise and fall of civilisations and political/economic cycles.

Dialectal Change:

is a combination of linear and cyclical change.

Conflict Theory:

is the belief that society is made up of individuals and groups who compete for scare resources.

Evolutionary Theory:

as society develops it becomes more complex and interdependent.

Functionalist Theory:

suspects that as society develops, it becomes more complex and interdependent, as well as that society functions more effectively when their is a clear social order.

Internationalist Theory:

suggests that society consists of organised and patterned interaction. Also that people look for patterns of interactions between individuals.

The Hawthorne Effect:

is a type of human behavior reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed.