Sociolisation and Identity Notes
Introduction
This book aims to provide knowledge and understanding of Sociology for Cambridge International AS & A Level exams.
It is designed to reflect changes to the Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology syllabus (9699) for examination from 2021.
The book helps understand syllabus requirements in terms of content and skills and provides content focused on the syllabus structure.
It can be used for individual work or as part of a teaching group.
Content
Each chapter reflects the order of the syllabus content, allowing logical tracking of progress.
AS Level consists of three compulsory topics covered in the first three chapters:
Chapter 1: Socialisation and the creation of social identity: process of learning and socialisation, social identity and change.
Chapter 2: Methods of research: range of methods available to sociologists, strengths and limitations, designing research, key ideas to assess research methods, issues raised about research design, and the debate about whether sociology can and should be based on the natural sciences.
Chapter 3: The family: theories of the family and social change and family roles and changing relationships.
Chapters 1 and 2 are examined on Paper 1, and Chapter 3 is examined on Paper 2.
For A Level, in addition to AS Level content, there is one compulsory topic and three optional topics; at least two optional topics must be studied.
Chapter 4: Education (compulsory): education in social context and structures and processes within schools.
Chapter 5: Globalisation (optional): globalisation and social change and the consequences of globalisation.
Chapter 6: Media (optional): ownership and control of the media and media representations and effects.
Chapter 7: Religion (optional): religion and social change and religious movements.
Education is assessed on Paper 3, and the three optional topics are assessed on Paper 4.
Chapter 8 offers tips and techniques for preparing for assessment, including revision, assessment techniques, timing, and planning.
Key concepts throughout the topics include inequality and opportunity; power, control and resistance; social change and development; socialisation, culture and identity; and structure and human agency.
Syllabus Coverage
The book provides a detailed syllabus coverage, aligning chapter content with specific syllabus references for both AS and A Level topics.
Paper 1: Socialisation, Identity, and Methods of Research.
Chapter 1: The Process of Learning and Socialisation, Social Control, Conformity and Resistance, Social Identity and Change.
Chapter 2: Types of Data, Methods, and Research Design, Approaches to Sociological Research, Research Issues.
Paper 2: The Family.
Chapter 3: Theories of the Family and Social Change, Diversity and Social Change, Gender Equality and Experiences of Family Life, Age and Family Life.
Paper 3: Education.
Chapter 4: Theories about the Role of Education, Education and Social Mobility, Influences on the Curriculum, Intelligence and Educational Attainment, Social Class and Educational Attainment, Ethnicity and Educational Attainment, Gender and Educational Attainment.
Paper 4: Globalisation.
Chapter 5: Perspectives on Globalisation, Globalisation and Identity, Globalisation, Power and Politics, Globalisation, Poverty and Inequalities, Globalisation and Migration, Globalisation and Crime.
Paper 4: Media.
Chapter 6: The Traditional and the New Media, Theories of the Media and Influences on Media Content, The Impact of the New Media, Media Representations of Class, Gender, Ethnicity, and Age Groups, Different Models of Media Effects, The Impact of the Media on Behaviour.
Paper 4: Religion.
Chapter 7: Religion and Society, Religion and Social Order, Religion as a Source of Social Change, The Secularisation Debate, Gender, Feminism and Religion, Religion and Postmodernity.
How to Use This Book
Think like a sociologist boxes contain prompts and questions that go beyond the syllabus to help understand how Sociology can be applied in the real world. They are an opportunity to use skills in evaluation and analysis. An orange line in the margin identifies areas of content that go beyond the syllabus.
What's the evidence? boxes highlight important case studies that you may find useful for keeping track of pieces of evidence and understanding their purpose.
Key sociologist boxes highlight important sociological figures that you need to remember.
Each chapter ends with a Summary, Exam-style questions and a Sample answer and activity. The Summary is a brief summary of the main points in the chapter to help you revise.
Exam-style questions provide an opportunity to relate your learning to the formal assessment and practise writing longer answers.
The Sample answer and activity provide an example answer to one of the exam-style questions, with an explanation of why that answer is successful, and an activity to help you build on your understanding.
Chapter 1: Socialisation and the creation of social identity
Learning objectives: Understand the process of learning and socialisation, social control, social conformity and resistance, and social identity and change.
Before you start: Consider how we become members of human groups, learn to get on with others, and judge what others think of us.
Reflection: How much control have you had over things that have happened in your life so far? How much has been decided for you by others?
1.1 The process of learning and socialisation
Culture, roles, norms, values, beliefs, customs, ideology, power and status as elements in the social construction of reality
Defining society: A society is a group of people who see themselves as having something in common with others in their society and, by extension, they consider themselves to be different from people in other societies.
Physical space: A distinctive geographical area marked by either a physical border, such as a river, or a non-physical border – perhaps a made up line that marks where one society ends and another begins.
Mental space: Separates people based on the beliefs they have about the similarities they share with people in ‘their’ society and the differences from people in other societies.
Anderson (1983) describes societies as ‘imagined communities’ – things that exist only in the mind. Societies are mentally constructed by geographic borders, a system of government, common language, customs and traditions, and a sense of belonging and identification.
The social construction of reality: Societies are mental constructions, therefore their reality is socially constructed. Culture refers to a ‘way of life’ that has to be taught and learnt through primary and secondary socialisation.
Cultures are ‘dynamic’ and constantly changing.
Material culture involves the physical objects (‘artefacts’), such as cars, phones and books that a society produces and that reflect cultural knowledge, skills and interests.
Non-material culture consists of the knowledge and beliefs valued by a particular culture. This includes religious and scientific beliefs, as well as the meanings people give to material objects.
Merton (1957) suggested that objects such as cars, houses and clothes can function in two ways. Their manifest function refers to the purpose for which they exist; clothes, for example, function to keep you warm. Their latent function, however, may be hidden. For example, material objects may function as status symbols – owning something a culture feels is desirable says something about you to others.
To make sense of cultural interaction, we need to create common meanings and establish a structure within which behaviour can happen in predictable ways. For a society to function it must have order and stability, and for these to exist people’s behaviour must display patterns and regularities. While cultures may develop differently, they are all constructed from the same basic materials: roles, values and norms.
Roles
Roles are a building block of culture for two reasons: They are always played in relation to other roles. For someone to play the role of teacher, for example, others must play the role of student. Roles contribute to the creation of culture because they demand both social interactions – people have to cooperate to successfully perform certain tasks – and that people are aware of others. In this respect, roles help individuals develop the ability to form groups and communities. This is particularly the case when they involve role-sets; that is, when the role involves a set of different relationships with different types of people, such as a doctor’s relationship with patients, nurses, other doctors, patient’s relatives and so on. This adds a further dimension to the cultural framework because it locks people into a range of relationships, each with its own routines and responsibilities.
Every role has a name (or label). This name identifies a particular role and carries with it a sense of how people are expected to behave in any situation.
Values: Provide only broad guidance for role behaviour. For example, it is understood that someone playing the role of teacher should teach, but values do not tell them how to play this role. The specific behavioural guides that tell people how to successfully play a role are known as norms.
Norms: Are specific rules showing how people should act in a particular situation (whereas values give only a general idea). Norms, therefore, are rules used to perform roles predictably and acceptably. This is important, according to Merton (1938), because without order and predictability, behaviour becomes risky and confusing. He used the term anomie to describe a condition where people who fail to understand the norms operating in a particular situation react in a range of ways – from confusion, through anger to fear. Goffman (1959) argues that norms are more open to interpretation and negotiation than either roles or values. This means that they can quickly adapt to changes in the social environment.
Beliefs: Are the important, deep-rooted ideas that shape our values and are, in some respects, shaped by them. They are more general behavioural guidelines that include ideas, opinions, views and attitudes. These may, or may not, be true; what matters is that they are believed to be true. Beliefs in contemporary societies are many and varied, but they perform a significant structuring role when combined with ideologies, which are discussed later in the chapter.
The importance of socialisation in influencing human behaviour, including the nurture versus nature debate
Socialisation is a process that describes how we are taught the behavioural rules we need to become both a member of a particular society/culture and an able social actor.
Biology, rather than culture, may influence some of the ways people behave. Like all animal species, humans seem to be programmed by their genes to some extent, for example, there seem to be ‘drives’ for procreation and for self-preservation. Genetics suggests that behaviour may be guided by instincts based on biological instructions that can be seen as part of ‘human nature’ . Instincts are fixed human features. These are things we are born knowing and our cultural environment plays little or no role in the development of these instincts, for example many females have a ‘mothering instinct’ . A weaker expression of this idea is that people are born with certain capabilities that are then put into practice through environmental experiences. ‘Nature’ gives us strong hints about behavioural rules, but people are free to ignore those hints. If women have greater child-caring capabilities than men, then it makes genetic sense for them to take on a caring role within a family. However, this is not something their genes force them to do.
One way to test whether nature, in the form of instincts, or nurture, in the form of socialisation, is the more important factor is to take advantage of a naturally occurring form of experimentation – the study of unsocialised or feral children.
Feral children: Have missed out on primary socialisation by humans. Feral children can be raised by animals or survive on their own. Evidence of human infants raised by animals is rare and not always reliable. One recent example is Saturday Mthiyane, who was discovered in 1987, aged five, living with a pack of monkeys in South Africa and who years later still behaved in ways associated with monkeys rather than humans. However, evidence of children raised with little, or no, human contact is more common. A well-documented example is ‘Genie’, a 13-year-old Californian girl discovered in 1970. Pines (1997) notes that Genie had been ‘isolated in a small room and had not been spoken to by her parents since infancy. She was malnourished, abused, unloved, bereft of any toys or companionship’ . When Genie was found, ‘she could not stand erect … she was unable to speak: she could only whimper’ .
Feral children are sociologically significant for two main reasons. First, when children are raised without human contact they fail to show the social and physical development we would expect from an ordinary raised child – for example, walking upright, talking, using a knife and fork. Children raised by animals behave as the animals do, suggesting that they learn by imitation. Second, if human behaviour is instinctive it is not clear why children such as Genie should develop so differently from children raised with human contact. We would also expect that, once returned to human society, feral children would quickly pick up normal human behaviours. This, however, is not the case, suggesting that if children miss out on socialisation by humans at an early stage in their life this cannot be corrected later.
Further evidence for the significance of socialisation is the fact that different cultures develop different ways of doing things. If human behaviours were governed by instinct, we would expect there to be few, if any, differences between societies. In fact, of course, there are huge variations between cultures, Sometimes, these cultural differences are relatively trivial. Billikopf (1999) discovered through his own experience that ‘in Russia, when a man peels a banana for a lady it means he has a romantic interest in her’ . At other times, cultural differences are more fundamental. Wojtczak (2009) argues that in Victorian Britain most women ‘lived in a state little better than slavery’ . As she notes: ‘women’s sole purpose was to marry and reproduce. ’ This is not a situation we would recognise in British society today. If human behaviour was instinctive, it would be much the same, in any place or time.
The ‘I’ and the ‘Me’
Basic human skills have to be taught and learnt. The symbolic interactionist George Herbert Mead (1934) argued that the same was true of more advanced social skills. He claimed that the social context in which behaviour occurs conditions how people behave. While self-awareness – the ability to see ourselves as others see us and react accordingly – is often seen as an instinctive human skill, Mead argued that it is in fact learnt. It involves developing a concept of Self and this is what sets humans apart from animals. For Mead, ‘the Self’ (an awareness of who we are) has two related aspects:
an ‘I’ aspect based around our opinion of ourselves as a whole. We each respond to the behaviour of others as an ‘I’ . Mead called this the ‘unsocialised self’ .
a ‘Me’ aspect that consists of an awareness of how others expect us to behave in a given situation. Mead called this the ‘social self’ because it develops through socialisation.
The presentation of self
If the social context of an act changes both its meaning and how people react, it follows that an awareness of self is constructed and developed socially. Goffman (1959) argues that who we believe ourselves to be – our sense of identity – is also constructed socially through how we present ourselves to others.
Goffman proposed a model of self and identity in which he described social life as a series of dramatic episodes. People are actors. Sometimes, they write and speak their own lines – this is their personal identity. Sometimes, they follow lines that are written for them – the external influences that inform how people behave in particular situations and roles. For example, because we understand how our society defines masculinity and femininity, we know how we are expected to behave if we are male or female. We can also work out how others will react to our behaviour; we can see ourselves as others do and adjust our behaviour so as to try to make the impression on them that we want to achieve.
The idea of creating an impression is also significant in relation to how we present ourselves in different situations. Goffman suggests that when we adopt a particular identity, we ‘perform’ to others in order to ‘manage’ the impression they have of us. Identity performance, therefore, is about achieving a desired result: when you want to create a favourable impression on someone, you ‘act’ in ways you believe they will like. For example, if you want to be seen as a good Sociology student, you could carry around a textbook and a full folder of notes.
Fifty years before Goffman, Cooley (1909) suggested that in the majority of social encounters other people are used as a looking-glass self. They are like mirrors reflecting our self as others see us; when we ‘look into the mirror’ of how others behave towards us, we see reflected an image of the person they think we are.
The presentation of self always involves:
The importance of interpretation: identities are broad social categories whose meaning differs both historically and across different cultures.
The significance of negotiation. Identities are always open to discussion; what it means to be male, female, young, old and so on, is constantly changing as people ‘push the negotiated boundaries’ of these identities.
Alternatives: Not all scientific disciplines place the same emphasis on socialisation as sociology does when explaining how individuals become competent social actors. For example, biological ideas about evolution have sometimes been used to explain social development. These ideas range from relatively simple forms of ‘social Darwinism’, based on the idea that social life simply involves ‘the survival of the fittest’, to the more sophisticated arguments of sociobiology. In these, biological principles of natural selection and evolution are applied to the ‘human animal’ to produce what Wilson (1979) argued is a ‘biological basis’ for all human behaviour. He claimed that although human behaviour is not genetically determined, it is strongly influenced by ‘biological programming’ or ‘biogrammars’ .
Evolutionary psychology explains contemporary psychological and social traits in terms of the general principles of natural selection: those behaviours that are evolutionarily successful are selected and reproduced. In this way, various forms of social behaviour, such as family development and gender roles, can be explained as evolutionary adaptations occurring over many centuries. They represent successful adaptations to problems common to all human societies, such as how to raise children while also providing the things family members need for survival.
Psychology is, however, a diverse field and there are many different explanations for human development. These range from those focused on genetics (such as evolutionary psychology), through disciplines such as neuropsychology, to social psychological approaches broadly similar to the interactionist theories found in the works of Mead and Goffman.
Social psychology places greater stress on how environmental factors, such as family and work relationships, affect the development of genetic or psychological predispositions.
Agencies of socialisation and social control, including family, education, peer- group, media and religion
The socialisation process takes two main forms:
Primary socialisation occurs mainly within the family and is the first stage of socialisation. This type of socialisation is essential to the development of behaviours we recognise as fundamentally human, such as learning language. The first primary relationship we form is usually with our parents. This is followed by primary attachments to other family members, people of our own age (friends) and, subsequently, to other adults such as work colleagues. Primary socialisation is necessary because human infants need other people in order to develop both as human beings and as members of a particular culture. We do not just need to learn general human behaviours, we must also learn about social relationships, how to play roles and so on.
Secondary socialisation involves secondary groups and is characterised, according to Berger and Luckmann (1967), by ‘a sense of detachment from the ones teaching socialisation’ . Secondary socialisations are situations in which we do not necessarily have close, personal contacts with those doing the socialising. Parsons (1959a) argued that one of the main purposes of secondary socialisation is to ‘liberate the individual from a dependence on the primary attachments and relationships formed within the family group’ . In contemporary societies, where the majority of people we meet are strangers, it would be impossible and undesirable to treat them in the same way that we treat people we love or know well. This is why we develop instrumental relationships – those based on what people can do for us, or what we can do for them, in particular situations. Berger and Luckmann suggest that while primary socialisation involves ‘emotionally charged identification’ with people such as our parents, secondary socialisation is characterised by ‘formality and anonymity’ . You do not, for example, treat a stranger who asks you for directions as your closest friend.
Social control: The process of socialisation brings order, stability and predictability to people’s behaviour. If a child is socialised into a perceived ‘right’ way of doing something, such as eating with a knife and fork, there must also be a perceived ‘wrong’ or deviant way (in this example perhaps eating with their fingers), which should be discouraged. Socialisation, therefore, is also a form of social control – it involves limiting the range of behaviours open to individuals. Social control is linked to the idea that human behaviour involves a life-long process of rule-learning, built on sanctions – the things we do to make people conform. The agencies of socialisation described below are also agencies of social control.
Agencies of socialisation
Primary socialisation
Family: Although there are only a small number of family roles, these tend to be played out over long periods and involve complex forms of role development, especially in societies that allow divorce and remarriage. Adults may have to learn roles ranging from husband/wife to parent/step-parent. Child development also involves a range of roles: baby, infant, child, teenager and, eventually perhaps, an adult with children of their own. The ability to develop roles within the context of a group mainly governed by relationships based on love, responsibility and duty, means that we can make mistakes and learn lessons as we go without causing too much harm. Mead refers to parents as significant others. They shape both our basic values, such as how to address adults, and our moral values, for example our understanding of the difference between right and wrong. Basic norms, such as how to address family members (for example, ‘Mum’, ‘Dad’), when, where and how to eat and sleep, and definitions of acceptable behaviour are normally taught within the family.
Sanctions are mainly informal, with positive sanctions involving things such as: facial expressions (for example, smiling) verbal approval/reinforcement (‘good boy/girl’) physical rewards (such as gifts). Negative sanctions are similarly wide-ranging – from showing disapproval through language (such as shouting) to physical punishment.
Functionalists often see primary socialisation as a one-way process that passes from adults to children. However, socialisation involves more than an unquestioning acceptance of the behaviours we learn within the family group. Although children are socialised by being encouraged to copy behaviour, they are also actively involved in negotiating their socialisation. For example, children do not always obey their parents; they may even choose not to obey as part of a test of the limits of social control. Children may also receive different socialisation messages: a relative may reward behaviour that a parent would punish. Children have to learn that the same behaviour may receive different reactions from different people in different situations. Faced with a new situation, they need to be able to judge what the reactions are likely to be.
Peers: Peer-groups are made up of people of a similar age, for example, teenagers. They can be considered primary agencies of socialisation because we usually choose friends of a similar age, and personal interaction with them influences our behaviour – from how we dress and talk to the things we love or hate. Peer-groups can also be secondary agencies because they may be used as a reference group – what Hughes et al. (2002) call ‘the models we use for appraising and shaping our attitudes, feelings and actions’ . In the recent past, this has included youth subcultures such as hippies and punks. Although most people do not interact with groups as specific as this, we all have reference groups of people we identify with and whose appearance and behaviour we model our own on. Our behaviour may be influenced by things such as the fashions and the general behaviour of people our own age or status. This is an example of peer pressure as a form of social control.
We play a range of peer-related roles, depending on our age group and situation. ‘Friend’, for example, expresses very personal role play, whereas at school or work we may have a variety of people we don’t know very well (acquaintances). In the workplace, too, we are likely to play the role of colleague to at least some of our peers. Similarly, the values we are taught within a friendship or peer-group vary with age and circumstances. However, we will probably carry the value of friendship with us throughout our lives. Peer-group norms often relate to ideas about age-appropriate behaviour. Young children, for example, are usually not permitted by law to smoke cigarettes or to buy alcohol. Also, it is generally not considered age- appropriate for the elderly to take part in extreme sports or wear clothes designed for younger people. Peer- group sanctions, or social sanctions, are generally informal and include things such as disapproving looks and negative comments. This is mainly because peer-group norms vary considerably, and the same behaviour may result in different responses depending on the situation. Swearing at a grandparent will probably be met with disapproval; swearing among friends may be perfectly acceptable. Approving gestures and language, laughing at your jokes and seeking out your company may represent positive sanctions. Refusing to speak to someone, rejecting friendship or engaging in physical violence are negative sanctions associated with peer-group.
Secondary socialisation
Agencies of secondary socialisation include schools, religious organizations and the media. In some cases, such as education, we are in daily contact with other members of the group without ever developing a primary attachment to them. In other examples, such as admiring a particular actor or musician, we may never meet the rest of the group, yet we might be influenced by their behaviour in several ways.
Education: Education involves two kinds of curriculum:
the formal curriculum that specifies the subjects, knowledge and skills that children are explicitly taught in school
a hidden curriculum: the things we learn from the experience of attending school, such as how to deal with strangers, listen to adult authority and have respect for the system. School is also a place where we ‘learn to limit our individual desires’ – to think about the needs of others rather than our own. School may be one of the first times that children are separated from their parent(s) for any length of time. It provides both opportunities (to demonstrate talents to a wider, non-family, audience) and challenges – the need to learn, for example, how to deal with people who are not family and with authority figures such as teachers.
Parsons (1959a) argued that school plays a particularly significant role in secondary socialisation for two reasons:
It ‘emancipates the child from primary attachment’ to their family. It moves children away from the affective relationships found in the family and introduces them to the instrumental relationships they will meet in adult life. It is in effect a bridge between the family home and the wider social world.
It allows children to ‘internalise a level of society’s values and norms that is a step higher than those learnt within families’ . Through interaction with ‘strangers’ in the educational system, a child begins to adopt wider social values into their personal value system. This process loosens the hold of primary groups and allows children to gradually mix into adult society, something that also promotes social solidarity and value consensus.
Like any institution, schools involve a range of roles, such as teacher and student, which are themselves linked to a range of related roles called a role-set. This further extends the idea of cultural relationships because we become fixed into a range of expected behaviours.
Schools teach a range of values. These range from the idea that students should work hard to achieve qualifications, to ideas about individual competition for academic rewards, teamwork, conformity to authority (not questioning what is being learnt and why it is necessary to learn it) and achievement on the basis of merit. Sometimes values are openly taught (for example, an assembly may be all about the importance of helping others, or why bullying is wrong), but more often they are present in the way that schools and education are organised. In many education systems, for example, one hidden value is that academic ability, such as a talent for writing essays, is more highly valued than work-related ability, such as bricklaying. Another value is individual achievement; working with others may be valued in the workplace but in school may be seen as ‘copying’ and wrong.
From a Marxist perspective, Bowles and Gintis (2002) argue that there is a correspondence between school norms and workplace norms: Schools prepare students for adult work by socialising them into values and norms that will make them uncomplaining workers. This correspondence theory is shown through school norms such as: the daily need for attendance always being in the place you are supposed to be at certain times the right of those in authority to give orders that must be obeyed.
These ideas are backed up by positive sanctions that include the gaining of grades, qualifications and prizes, as well as more personal things such as praise and encouragement. On the negative side, schools use punishments: detentions, suspensions and exclusions. Failure to achieve qualifications or gaining a reputation for being unintelligent also function as negative sanctions. These sanctions prepare children for sanctions at work – from bonuses for good work to the threat of being sacked.
Mass media: The media are slightly unusual secondary agencies because our relationship with it is impersonal; we are unlikely to meet those doing the socialising. While there is little evidence that the media have a direct, long-term effect on behaviour, there is stronger evidence of short-term effects. Advertising, for example, aims to make short-term changes in behaviour by encouraging people to try different consumer products.
Potter (2003) suggests that short-term effects include:
imitation, such as copying behaviour seen on television
desensitisation – the idea that constant and repeated experience of something, such as violence or poverty, gradually lowers our emotional reaction
learning, in which we are introduced to new ideas and places.
There is also some evidence for indirect long-term effects, in that people come to accept as ‘natural’ values or other aspects of social life that are socially constructed:
consumerism – advertising, and much other media content, takes as natural the active and ever-increasing pursuit of goods and services that define lifestyles and identities in contemporary capitalist societies
fear – experience of negative and violent media leads some people to overestimate things such as the extent of crime or their chances of being a victim of terrorism or of a disaster
agenda setting – Philo et al. (1982) argue that the media determine how something will be debated; in the UK, for example, immigration is discussed in the media mainly in terms of numbers of immigrants, with an assumption that high numbers are bad. This gets in the way of consideration of the qualitative effects of immigration on British society.
The extent to which the media can enforce values is uncertain. However, the media are undoubtedly influential in supporting or weakening certain values. It has a loud voice in debates over nationality (for example, what it means to be ‘Peruvian’ or ‘Chinese’). It also promotes certain values over others – for example, many English newspapers take an ‘anti-European Union’ stance. Potter suggests that media influence comes about through a process of habituation: the more people experience certain images and ideas, the more likely it is that they will add them to their personal value systems.
In relation to norms, the media have what Durkheim (1912) called a ‘boundary-marking function’ . It promotes acceptable and unacceptable forms of behaviour to strengthen perceptions of expected behaviours. The media may try to preserve particular ways of behaving, through campaigns to ‘save the family’, for example, but they may also promote changes in behaviour, such as campaigns against racism.
To strengthen (reinforce) their message, the media use a range of sanctions:
Positive sanctions involve the use of praise, positive pictures and uncritical features.
Negative sanctions might include being pictured in a negative pose, critical articles or behaviour being publicly criticised.
Religion: Whether or not we see ourselves as ‘religious’, religion plays a significant role in the general socialisation process in many societies, particularly in relation to ceremonial functions, such as marriages and funerals. It can also be argued that important moral values – very strong beliefs about how people should behave – are influenced by religious values. For example, several of the Ten Commandments in the Christian religion are reflected in legal systems around the world. The unacceptability of some crimes, such as theft and murder, is emphasised in world religions.
Religious values are powerful forces for those who believe. Religion can be regarded as a ‘design for living’ – a force that provides help and guidance to live a life as God wishes, but religious beliefs and values can also be a source of conflict: between religions, such as the history of conflict between Christians and Muslims dating back to the 11th century within the same religion: Northern Ireland, for example, has experienced major conflicts between Protestant and Catholic Christians over the past 50 years.
Religious values are frequently displayed through styles of dress, such as the Muslim hijab or Sikh turban, something that indicates both religiosity (a measure of people’s commitment to religion) and ethnic identity.
Many of the world’s major religions, from Christianity to Islam, have been said to promote patriarchy through both their general organisation (many religions have an entirely male leadership) and the gender roles and values they encourage. However, they also promote concepts of love and care that can be attractive to people, and can be seen as providing women with a sense of shelter and safety in a threatening world and belonging. Swatos (1998) argues that religions are going through important changes that are making them more ‘female friendly’ . For example, God is increasingly shown as loving and consoling rather than as authoritarian and judgemental, and clergy are seen as ‘helping professionals’ rather than as ‘representatives of God’s justice’ .
Religions apply positive sanctions on their followers in different ways: Hinduism involves a belief in reincarnation (when you die you are reborn into a new life) based on how well you observed religious laws in your previous life; the reward for good behaviour in one lifetime is rebirth into a higher social position. Ideas of sin in Christian religions can also be significant features of religious control, because the believer is encouraged to live a life free of sin in the hope of rewards in heaven. Negative sanctions are also many and varied. Catholicism, for example, has the sanction of excommunication (exclusion from the church), whereas some forms of Islam specify a range of punishments for those who break Shari’ah law. Such punishments may also be applied to ‘non-believers’ in theocratic societies, such as Iran, where government is dominated by religious authorities.
1.2 Social control, conformity and resistance
The role of structure and agency in shaping the relationship between the individual and society, including an awareness of the differences between structuralist and interactionist views
The two main theories in sociology, functionalist theory and Marxist theory, provide different interpretations of how order and control are created and maintained.
Both perspectives are structuralist (or macrosociological); they argue that how societies are organised at the level of families, governments and economies (the institutional or system level), determines how individuals view their world and behave within it (structural determinism). This perspective presents society as a powerful force that controls and shapes how people think and behave. This makes them fundamentally different to another approach that has always been present in sociology, the interactionist view, which focuses on the microsociological and how individuals can shape the social world. Human lives are not seen as decided by social forces; rather, people have agency.
Structuralist theories originated in the work of Durkheim and Marx. From a structuralist perspective, social action is the product of deep, underlying forces in society that reach beyond the level of individual consciousness and control. These structural forces shape our behaviour and have a major influence on our thought processes.
Marx claimed that the capitalist relations of production were the main structural force in modern industrial societies. The way in which capitalist production of goods and services is organised, with the workers separated from ownership of land and factories, can be seen as an invisible system that controls the way in which all other aspects of a society operate.
By contrast, the functionalist perspective sees the structure of society more in terms of the institutional arrangements required to ensure the smooth running of society. So, for example, institutions such as the family, education and government are associated with established patterns of behaviour that together create an order and structure in society.
For structuralists, the established social order represents a powerful force that the individual has little or no freedom to oppose. For various reasons, people accept
1.3 Social identity and change
Social identities as a product of individual agency and social structure
People’s sense of identity is composed of their personal qualities, beliefs, personality, a sense of their own history, and aspects of their group memberships, such as gender, ethnicity, class or nationality. The balance between the qualities you feel are specific to you as an individual and those you share with wider social groups, is constantly changing throughout each person’s life.
Individual agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. The ways in which individual agency can affect group identity can be considered in terms of identity types:
Ascribed identity: something people are born with, such as their gender, ethnicity or the social class of their family. These identities reflect how society sees us and are not necessarily something we have chosen for ourselves. Ascribed identities influence how we are socialised and the opportunities available to us; for example, how some people’s life chances are limited because of negative stereotypes about the social class they were born into (Reay, 1998).
Achieved identity: what we become through our own efforts, choices and accomplishments. This involves both individual and social factors. For example, although you might feel you have chosen your friends, the education you receive at school could influence the type of people you are likely to become friends with.
Master identity: the most important or significant identity we hold. This often changes over time and in different situations. For example, you may see yourself primarily as a student when you are at school; during periods of work you may see yourself more as a worker. At other times, things such as gender or ethnicity might become your master identity.
Interactionists argue that identity is not fixed or stable but fluid and constantly changing. Bauman (2004) argues that in pre-modern societies identities were clear and fixed, whereas in modern societies they have become blurred and uncertain, and in postmodernity, identity is fluid and a matter of choice. One option is to identify with various groups and adopt an essentially collective identity. Another is to emphasise your separate individuality and create a personalised identity that is unique to you.
Consequences:
Personal troubles: individual failings largely unconnected to wider society. For example, someone who has lost their job through being lazy or dishonest.
Public issues: difficulties resulting from the way society is organised. For example, someone who has been made redundant because their workplace has closed down.
From a sociological perspective, problems that may initially appear to be personal troubles are, in reality, caused by wider public issues. A third possible consequence is that people may wrongly attribute blame. For example, during periods of high unemployment, the media frequently run stories portraying the unemployed as work-shy while ignoring the economic factors that cause job losses.
The social construction of childhood, adolescence, youth, adulthood and old age, including variations in experience and treatment
The terms childhood, adolescence, youth, adulthood and old age, are socially constructed; their meaning and significance vary across different societies, cultures and historical periods. Cunningham (1995) argues that although children have always existed, ‘childhood’ is a relatively recent invention. It was only from the 17th century onwards that childhood began to be seen as a separate stage of life, distinct from adulthood. This separation involves what Jenks (1996) calls the ‘infantilisation of children’ ; that is, children came to be seen as different (rather than inferior) to, and radically innocent in comparison with, adults.
Childhood: Prior to the 17th century, children were seen as ‘mini-adults’. They were expected to take part in aspects of adult life, such as working. There was no clear distinction between the behaviour expected of adults and children. This can still be the case in some pre-industrial societies. For example, children might be expected to work alongside adults, rather than attend school. Cunningham identifies several factors that contributed to the social construction of childhood:
Medical: Increased medical knowledge about the vulnerability of children to disease led to various measures designed to improve their health and welfare. This, in turn, further reinforced perceptions of children as ‘innocent’ and in need of protection.
Economic: Changes in the nature of work meant that for the first time, some adults were able to earn sufficient money to support their families, including their children. As families became more privatised, this also strengthened ideas about the vulnerability of children and the need to keep them separate from the adult world.
Legal: Child labour laws were introduced that restricted the employment of children. This was followed by laws making education compulsory, further separating children from the adult world.
Cultural: Punch (2001) compared the experiences of children in rural Bolivia with those of children in the UK. He found that Bolivian children as young as five years old were expected to work alongside other family members in both the home and the fields. They were not seen as radically different to, or innocent compared with, adults. These were perceptions that Punch found in the UK.
Adolescence: The term adolescence is a relatively recent historical development and is closely linked to the idea of childhood, which sees children and adolescents as fundamentally different and in need of protection from, the adult world. By marking a further distinction between childhood and adulthood, adolescence prepares the individual for adult roles and responsibilities. However, like childhood, adolescence is not always seen in the same way by all societies. For example, modern (industrial) societies tend to see adolescence as:
A time of great stress and uncertainty: The transition from dependent child to independent adult can be a difficult process. There are choices to be made about things like education and a career that can be stressful, and because adolescents are no longer children but not yet adults, their changing status can cause confusion and uncertainty.
A time of rebellion against adult authority: Rebellious behaviour, such as experimenting with petty crime, sex and drugs, can be symptomatic of the confusions associated with the adolescent stage of life.
By contrast, other societies have a completely different view of what becoming an adult entails:
Some see it as something that happens relatively quickly
Some have rites of passage that clearly mark the transition from child to adult (Van Gennep, 1960).
A rite of passage is a ceremony that marks a change in a person’s social status. For example, the Jewish bar mitzvah ceremony celebrates a boy’s transition to manhood; the coming-out ball does something similar for girls in some areas of Latin America. Preparation for the ceremony involves learning how to behave as an adult; the ceremony itself marks the transition from child to adult.
Youth: Another phase in the transition from childhood to adulthood. Parsons (1959b) argued that youth is a period characterised by:
Social irresponsibility: Young people are neither children nor adults, but something in between. They have freedom from the full responsibilities of adulthood but without the full supervision and control of childhood.
Value experimentation: A time when young people experiment with different identities. From the 1950s onwards, for example, youth subcultures such as beatniks and teddy boys developed, offering different lifestyles to those of the adult world.
Peer-group conformity: In order to establish a sense of identity, young people conform to group norms that differ from those of parental socialisation.
Adulthood: This term is culturally defined; it is associated with particular roles, responsibilities and ways of life that are not necessarily the same for all societies. Bradley (1996) suggests that adulthood is usually associated with status and responsibilities such as:
Employment: Being in full-time, paid employment is a key aspect of adult status in most societies. It carries an expectation that adults should be economically self-sufficient and support any dependants, such as children.
Starting a family: A widely held (but not universal) expectation is that adults will start a family of their own. This creates inter-generational relationships, strengthens emotional and economic ties and demonstrates a willingness to take on responsibilities, such as child-rearing.
Home ownership: A cultural expectation in many societies is that adults should aspire to home ownership rather than rent accommodation. This represents a commitment to the local community and demonstrates economic success and stability.
Old age: Like childhood, old age has been socially constructed. However, until relatively recently, old age was rarely seen as a distinct stage of life. This has changed in modern societies because people are:
Living longer: Improvements in healthcare over the past 100 years or so have extended people’s lifespans. In modern societies, it is increasingly common for people to live well into their 70s or 80s.
Experiencing improved living standards: Improved living standards have helped to reduce poverty, maintain health and enhance quality of life.
Experiencing improved pension provisions: Many people receive a state pension and/or have their own occupational or private pension schemes. This improves living standards and can make people over 65 economically independent.
Hockey and James (1993) suggest that, like childhood, old age has been infantilised; that is, older people are increasingly seen as innocent and vulnerable, an image promoted by factors such as improved pension provisions and healthcare and by the establishment of social services departments tasked with their care. However, unlike children, old people are often portrayed negatively, using images such as sick, lonely, dependent and poor. The reality, of course, is more complex, although a lot depends on factors such as social class and gender;
Middle-class older people are more likely to have an adequate pension, to own their own home and to have supportive family and friendship networks – all of which contribute to independence and well-being.
Working-class older people are more likely to be dependent on a state pension and have few savings. They may be in poor health and have limited social networks. These all contribute to low self-esteem and social exclusion.
Older women are more likely to be widowed and living alone in poverty. They may be socially isolated, have poor health and be dependent on others for their care.
Older men are more likely to have an occupational pension that provides a comfortable standard of living and to have supportive partnership and friendship networks.
The relationship between social identity and the life course
Factors such as gender, ethnicity, social class and nationality can significantly affect people’s experience of the life course. The norms, values and expectations attached to these factors may vary and change across different societies, cultures and historical periods. For example, in many societies:
Males are expected to be the ‘breadwinners’ and financial providers. This is less likely to be expected of females, who may be seen primarily as carers and homemakers.
Some ethnic groups face discrimination; this can limit their life chances and social mobility, which leads to under-achievement in education and poor career prospects.
People from higher social classes are more likely to benefit from family wealth, good schooling and a range of social and economic opportunities that are not available to those from lower social class backgrounds.
Some nationalities may face discrimination and racism; this makes it difficult for them to integrate into a new society. They may also be excluded from certain types of employment and accommodation.
As well as affecting people’s experience of the life course, identity also shapes the identities they form. For example:
Gender:
Mac an Ghaill (1994) found that working-class boys developed hyper- masculine identities based on physical strength and toughness, partly as a reaction to their poor educational attainment. Education was perceived as ‘feminine’, so boys developed an explicitly anti-school culture.
Archer (2003) found that working-class girls often adopted hyper- feminine identities that were explicitly sexualised, in order to gain status. This involved having a boyfriend, dressing in a particular style and being flirtatious and confident. In contrast, girls from middle-class backgrounds tended to adopt more ‘respectable’ identities centred on educational success.
Ethnicity:
Archer and Francis (2007) found that Chinese pupils often adopted a ‘model minority’ identity. This involved working hard, being quiet and well behaved and achieving good grades. This identity was partly shaped by societal expectations of how Chinese pupils should perform at school, as well as by their own aspirations for educational success.
Sewell (1997) found that some black boys developed a ‘hyper-male, anti-school’ identity in response to what they saw as a racist and discriminatory education system. This involved rejecting school values, forming oppositional peer-groups and achieving status through alternative means, such as music and sport.
Social class:
Reay (1998) found that working-class students were less likely to apply to elite universities as they felt these were ‘not for them’. They sensed that these universities were traditionally middle class and that working-class students would not fit in. As a result, some students adopted an explicitly working-class identity, rejecting what they saw as the ‘middle-class values’ of higher education.
Ingram (2011) found that working-class children often faced a difficult choice between maintaining their local, working-class identity and adopting a middle-class identity that would help them succeed in education. Children who were academically successful often felt torn between these two identities – what Ingram refers to as ‘identity struggle’.
The extent to which social identities are changing over time
Some sociologists believe that traditional sources of identity (such as social class, gender and ethnicity) are becoming less important. This may be because:
Social class is becoming less clear-cut: Traditional class distinctions have become more blurred as a result of changes to the economy and the emergence of a ‘service society’.
The influence of gender is declining: Traditional gender roles and stereotypes are becoming less relevant as women have gained greater equality in areas such as employment and politics.
Ethnic identities are becoming fragmented: Ethnic identities are becoming more diverse and complex as a result of increased migration and cultural hybridity.
Other sociologists believe that traditional sources of identity are still important but are changing in form. This may be because:
Social class is still a major source of identity: Although traditional class distinctions may be becoming more blurred, social class still shapes people’s experiences, opportunities and life chances.
Social class identities are changing: Social class identities are becoming more fluid and individualised, but they are still based on economic resources, social status and cultural capital.
Gender is still a major source of identity: Although traditional gender roles and stereotypes may be declining, gender still shapes people’s identities and experiences.
Gender identities are changing: Gender identities are becoming more diverse and complex, but they are still based on sex, sexuality and gender expression.
Ethnic identities are still a major source of identity: Although ethnic identities may be becoming more fragmented, they still provide people with a sense of belonging, community and cultural heritage.
Ethnic identities are changing: Ethnic identities are becoming more hybrid and fluid, but they are still shaped by factors such as migration, globalisation and cultural exchange.
The rise of individual or lifestyle identities: Some sociologists argue that traditional sources of identity are being replaced by individual or lifestyle identities. This is because:
People are increasingly free to choose their own identities: People are no longer constrained by traditional social structures and norms.
People are more focused on individual self-expression: People are more interested in expressing their unique individuality rather than conforming to group norms.
People are more influenced by consumer culture: Consumer culture provides people with a range of options for expressing their identities through lifestyle choices such as fashion, music and leisure activities.
Others suggest that individual or lifestyle identities are simply a reflection of underlying structural inequalities. This is because:
People’s choices are still limited by their material circumstances: People’s ability to express their identities through lifestyle choices is still constrained by their economic resources.
Individual identities can reinforce existing social inequalities: Individual identities can be used to justify existing social inequalities.
Individual identities are often shaped by media and popular culture: The media and popular culture can promote certain identities and lifestyles over others.