Culture and the Social Construction of Culture

What Culture and the Social Construction of Culture covers

Culture and the Social Construction of Culture is examined in Component 1 Section A, Socialisation, Identity and Culture — compulsory. It covers culture as a way of life, norms, values and beliefs, roles, status and role conflict, dress, appearance and cultural identity, language and cultural transmission, food, diet and cultural rules, music, the arts and high and popular culture, the social construction of culture, feral children and extreme isolation, the nature and nurture debate, culture and social change, cultural diversity, multiculturalism and hybridity and subcultures and countercultures.

The 13 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Culture as a way of lifeTerm culture as sociologists use it, material culture and culture and society.Open →
• Norms, values and beliefsTerm norm, term value and norm that varies between societies.Open →
• Roles, status and role conflictTerm social role, achieved status and role set.Open →
• Dress, appearance and cultural identityClothing signalling religious identity, gendered dress codes and commodification of style.Open →
• Language and cultural transmissionSapir-Whorf hypothesis, elaborated code and non-verbal communication.Open →
• Food, diet and cultural rulesFood taboo, halal food and kosher food.Open →
• Music, the arts and high and popular cultureHigh culture, popular culture and mass culture.Open →
• The social construction of cultureBerger and Luckmann's externalisation, objectivation and internalisation, the cross-cultural and historical variation that supports them, and the criticisms — Mead's New Guinea fieldwork, and Wrong on the oversocialised view of man.Open →
• Feral children and extreme isolationFeral child and case of Oxana Malaya.Open →
• The nature and nurture debateNature and nurture debate, biological determinism and interactionist position in this debate.Open →
• Culture and social changeWhy culture is dynamic rather than fixed: cultural lag, migration, secularisation, technology and legislation, and what globalisation and glocalisation do to identity.Open →
• Cultural diversity, multiculturalism and hybridityCultural diversity, cultural relativism and cultural hybridity.Open →
• Subcultures and counterculturesDeviant subculture and religious subculture.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Culture and the Social Construction of Culture further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Values vs Norms

  Values: a broad principle about what matters. Norms: a specific rule for acting in a given situation.

• Status vs Role

  Status: a position occupied in society. Role: the behaviour expected of whoever occupies a status.

• Society vs Culture

  Society: a group of people sharing a territory and interacting regularly. Culture: the shared way of life of a group.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Define the term culture as sociologists use it.

   Model answer

   Culture is the whole way of life of a society, including its language, customs, beliefs and everyday practices. Culture is learned and shared rather than biologically inherited.

2. 2

   Why do sociologists describe culture as learned rather than instinctive?

   Model answer

   Sociologists point out that a child raised in another society acquires that society's way of life. Culture is therefore transmitted through socialisation, not carried in the genes.

3. 3

   What is meant by material culture?

   Model answer

   Material culture consists of the physical objects a society produces and gives meaning to. Tools, clothing, buildings and technology are examples.

4. 4

   What is meant by non-material culture?

   Model answer

   Non-material culture consists of the intangible parts of a way of life. Ideas, norms, values, beliefs and language all belong to non-material culture.

5. 5

   Distinguish between culture and society.

   Model answer

   A society is a group of people who share a territory and interact regularly. Culture is the shared way of life those people follow.

6. 6

   What did George Murdock mean by cultural universals?

   Model answer

   Murdock argued in 1945 that certain practices appear in every known society. Marriage, funeral rites, language and the incest taboo were among his examples.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Culture and the Social Construction of Culture revision questions

What does Culture and the Social Construction of Culture cover in Eduqas A-Level Sociology?

13 subtopics: culture as a way of life, norms, values and beliefs, roles, status and role conflict, dress, appearance and cultural identity, language and cultural transmission, food, diet and cultural rules, music, the arts and high and popular culture, the social construction of culture, feral children and extreme isolation, the nature and nurture debate, culture and social change, cultural diversity, multiculturalism and hybridity and subcultures and countercultures. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Culture and the Social Construction of Culture organised?

By the Eduqas A200QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.