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 Unit 1 Section A, Acquiring Culture — compulsory for every student. It covers culture as a way of life, norms, values and beliefs, roles, status and role conflict, Aspects of culture: dress, language, food and music, heritage and cultural tradition in Wales, high culture, popular culture and global culture, nature, nurture and the social construction of culture and cultural diversity and sub-cultures.

The 8 subtopics

Each one has its own page. WJEC AS Sociology students sit this topic in the first year.

• Culture as a way of lifeTerm culture as sociologists use it, difference between material and non-material culture and cultural universals.Open →
• Norms, values and beliefsTerm norm, term value and relationship between a value and a norm.Open →
• Roles, status and role conflictTerm social role, difference between ascribed and achieved status and status inconsistency.Open →
• Aspects of culture: dress, language, food and musicHow dress expresses cultural identity, cultural marker and cultural artefact.Open →
• Heritage and cultural tradition in WalesWelsh Government service responsible for the historic environment of Wales, marxist criticism of the heritage industry and cultural erosion.Open →
• High culture, popular culture and global cultureHigh culture, popular culture and mass culture.Open →
• Nature, nurture and the social construction of cultureCentral question of the nature-nurture debate, biological determinism and feral children.Open →
• Cultural diversity and sub-culturesCultural diversity, multicultural society and difference between assimilation and multiculturalism as responses to diversity.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.

• Norm vs Value

  Norm: a specific rule for a particular situation, such as not talking in a library. Value: a general principle about what matters, such as respect for learning.

• Role conflict vs Role strain

  Role conflict: a clash between two positions held at once. Role strain: competing pressure inside one position.

• Cultural relativism vs Ethnocentrism

  Cultural relativism: judging a practice by the standards of the group that follows it. Ethnocentrism: judging everyone by one's own standards and assuming they are best.

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 group or society, including its knowledge, language, customs, beliefs and objects, learned by each generation from the one before.

2. 2

   What is the difference between material and non-material culture?

   Model answer

   Material culture is the physical things a society makes, such as tools, clothing and buildings, while non-material culture is the shared ideas behind them, such as values, beliefs and language.

3. 3

   What are cultural universals?

   Model answer

   Cultural universals are practices found in every known society, such as language, marriage, religion and the incest taboo, although the form each takes varies widely.

4. 4

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

   Model answer

   Members of a society acquire their culture through socialisation, which is why a baby raised in a different society grows up with that society's way of life and not the one its birth parents were born into.

5. 5

   Explain what is meant by cultural relativism.

   Model answer

   Cultural relativism is the principle that a practice should be understood and judged by the standards of the culture it belongs to rather than by the observer's own.

6. 6

   Define ethnocentrism.

   Model answer

   Ethnocentrism is judging other cultures by the standards of one's own and treating one's own way of life as normal and superior.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Culture and the Social Construction of Culture revision questions

Is Culture and the Social Construction of Culture examined at AS in WJEC Sociology?

Yes. It sits in AS Unit 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does Culture and the Social Construction of Culture cover in WJEC AS-Level Sociology?

8 subtopics: culture as a way of life, norms, values and beliefs, roles, status and role conflict, aspects of culture: dress, language, food and music, heritage and cultural tradition in wales, high culture, popular culture and global culture, nature, nurture and the social construction of culture and cultural diversity and sub-cultures. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Culture and the Social Construction of Culture organised?

By the WJEC 601-5237-0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.