What do sociologists mean by culture?

Culture is the whole way of life of a group or society — its shared norms, values, beliefs, language, customs, knowledge and material objects — which is learned and passed on from one generation to the next.

A value is a general belief about what is right, important or worth aiming for in a society, which underpins its more specific norms.

Why do sociologists insist that culture is learned rather than inherited?

Because a child born into any society acquires that society's culture through socialisation, and children raised in different societies grow up with entirely different norms, values and languages.

What does cultural relativism mean?

Cultural relativism is the principle that the norms and values of a society should be judged in the context of that society rather than measured against the standards of another, so no culture is objectively superior.

OCR A-Level Sociology H580

Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Topic overview Culture, norms, values and cultural relativism Subculture, high culture and popular culture Global and consumer culture, cultural diversity and hybridity Primary and secondary socialisation, the family and peer group Media, religion, education and the workplace as agencies of socialisation Lifelong socialisation and the nature/nurture debate Social control, sanctions and formal agencies of control Informal agencies and theories of social control The concept of identity, ethnicity and nationality Gender, class and sexual identity Age, disability, hybrid and intersecting identities

Families and RelationshipsComponent 01

Topic overview Family types and trends in marriage, divorce and cohabitation Demographic change, family diversity and newer family types Nuclear family ideology, functionalism and the New Right Marxist, feminist and postmodern views and the diversity debate Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour Power, the dark side of the family and theories of partner roles The child-centred family, views of childhood and its extension Parent-child power, grandparents in an ageing population and feminist views

Youth SubculturesComponent 01

Topic overview Functionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth culture Hebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subcultures Class, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflict Delinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subcultures Gangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offending Functionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth deviance Labelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance

MediaComponent 01

Topic overview Representations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gaze Representations of gender, social class and young people Representations of older people and theories of media representation Direct and indirect media effects models Active audience models, deviance amplification and moral panics

Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities

Topic overview Positivism, quantitative data and interpretivism Verstehen, qualitative data and validity Reliability, representativeness, generalisability and theory Research topics, aims, hypotheses and primary and secondary data Operationalisation, pilot studies and respondent validation Longitudinal studies, interpreting data and social policy Sampling frames, sampling techniques and choosing a sample Access, gatekeepers and research ethics Questionnaires, structured interviews, statistics, content analysis and observation Unstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralism

Understanding Social Inequalities

Topic overview Stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequality Ethnicity, age, work and health inequalities Functionalist and Marxist explanations of inequality Weberian, feminist and New Right explanations of inequality

Globalisation and the Digital Social World

Topic overview Globalisation, the digital revolution and media convergence Social media, social capital and theoretical views of digital communication Digital identities, the digital divide and social class Gender, age, relationships and cultural impacts of digital communication

Crime and DevianceComponent 03

Topic overview Defining crime and deviance, social control and relativity Social construction of crime and police recorded crime The Crime Survey, victim surveys and self-report studies Crime patterns by social class, gender and age Crime patterns by ethnicity, crime trends and global organised crime Glocal organised crime and green crime Functionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crime Marxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crime Right realism, New Right, feminism and explaining ethnic and age patterns Left-wing crime reduction, social crime prevention and restorative justice Situational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justice

EducationComponent 03

Topic overview Functionalist, Marxist and liberal views of the role of education Social democratic, New Right and feminist views and vocational education Class and ethnic patterns in educational attainment Gender patterns, global educational inequality and intersectionality Inside-school factors: labelling, setting, triage and institutional racism Material and cultural deprivation and cultural capital Explaining gender and ethnic differences and theoretical views of achievement Types of school and education policy since 1988 Ideology, marketisation and equality of opportunity in education policy

Religion, Belief and FaithComponent 03

Topic overview Defining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominations Sects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalism Measuring religiosity and believing without belonging Functionalist and Marxist views of the role of religion Neo-Marxist, Weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religion Religion, social change and whether religion is positive or negative Class and gender patterns in religiosity Women's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patterns Age cohorts, global religious trends and resurgence Defining secularisation and evidence of religious decline Pro- and anti-secularisation theories Religion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patterns

Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Culture, norms, values and cultural relativism

3 things to know
Component 01

Overview

Recall questions on culture, norms and values, why culture is learned rather than inherited, cultural relativism and ethnocentrism, Margaret Mead's New Guinea research on gender roles and Freeman's challenge to it, and Horace Miner's Nacirema as evidence of the relative nature of culture.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

Define the term norm.

Key term

What is a value?

Key term

What is ethnocentrism?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What do sociologists mean by culture?
Model answer
Culture is the whole way of life of a group or society — its shared norms, values, beliefs, language, customs, knowledge and material objects — which is learned and passed on from one generation to the next.
2
Define the term norm.
Model answer
A norm is an informal rule that sets out the behaviour expected of people in a particular social situation.
3
What is a value?
Model answer
A value is a general belief about what is right, important or worth aiming for in a society, which underpins its more specific norms.
4
Why do sociologists insist that culture is learned rather than inherited?
Model answer
Because a child born into any society acquires that society's culture through socialisation, and children raised in different societies grow up with entirely different norms, values and languages.
5
What does cultural relativism mean?
Model answer
Cultural relativism is the principle that the norms and values of a society should be judged in the context of that society rather than measured against the standards of another, so no culture is objectively superior.
6
What is ethnocentrism?
Model answer
Ethnocentrism is judging another culture by the standards of one's own and treating one's own culture as the normal or superior benchmark.

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Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Families and Relationships

Youth Subcultures

Media

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AVictims may fear reprisal, or feel shame or economic dependence.

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CMany incidents are never reported or recorded.

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Sex refers to the biological category of male or female.

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