Socialisation and Its Agencies

What Socialisation and Its Agencies covers

Socialisation and Its Agencies is examined in Unit 1 Section A, Acquiring Culture — compulsory for every student. It covers primary and secondary socialisation, role models, imitation and sanctions, families and primary cultural transmission, peer groups as an agency of socialisation, education as an agency of socialisation, religion as an agency of socialisation, the media as an agency of socialisation, work, resocialisation and total institutions and formal and informal social control.

The 9 subtopics

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

• Primary and secondary socialisationPrimary socialisation, secondary socialisation and anticipatory socialisation.Open →
• Role models, imitation and sanctionsRole model, part imitation plays in socialisation and vicarious reinforcement.Open →
• Families and primary cultural transmissionCultural transmission, oakley's four processes of gender socialisation within the family and what Oakley meant by manipulation.Open →
• Peer groups as an agency of socialisationPeer group and peer pressure.Open →
• Education as an agency of socialisationHidden curriculum, school's ethos and body that inspects schools in Wales.Open →
• Religion as an agency of socialisationRecall questions on collective worship, the Protestant ethic, the Nonconformist chapels and Sunday schools of Wales, faith schools, secularisation, rites of passage and religion as resistance.Open →
• The media as an agency of socialisationMedia representation, symbolic annihilation and argument that new media have weakened the media's socialising power.Open →
• Work, resocialisation and total institutionsOccupational socialisation, canteen culture in policing and total institution.Open →
• Formal and informal social controlRecall questions on the agencies that enforce conformity, the real function of punishment, the shift towards surveillance, the control of women, and the media's part in it.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Socialisation and Its Agencies further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Anticipatory socialisation vs Resocialisation

  Anticipatory socialisation: learning the norms of a group one expects to join in future. Resocialisation: learning a new set of norms after leaving an old setting, as on entering prison.

• Hidden curriculum vs Formal curriculum

  Hidden curriculum: what is learned from how an institution is organised. Formal curriculum: the content that is deliberately taught and examined.

• In Oakley's account, manipulation vs In Oakley's account, canalisation

  In Oakley's account, manipulation: encouraging or discouraging a child's appearance and conduct by gender. In Oakley's account, canalisation: it means steering the child towards particular toys and activities.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Define socialisation.

   Model answer

   Socialisation is the lifelong process by which a person learns the culture of their society, including its language, norms, values and roles, so that they can take part in it.

2. 2

   What is primary socialisation?

   Model answer

   Primary socialisation is the first and most intense stage, carried out in early childhood mainly by the family, in which a child learns language, basic norms and the core values of its culture.

3. 3

   What is secondary socialisation?

   Model answer

   Secondary socialisation is the learning that continues beyond the family through agencies such as school, peer groups, religion, the media and work, teaching the wider norms of society.

4. 4

   Explain how the relationships involved in primary and secondary socialisation differ.

   Model answer

   Primary socialisation happens in small, emotionally close, face-to-face relationships, while secondary socialisation happens in larger and more impersonal settings governed by formal rules.

5. 5

   What did Parsons mean by calling families factories that produce human personalities?

   Model answer

   Parsons argued that the family manufactures personalities suited to the culture, so that a child absorbs society's values until they become part of who the child is.

6. 6

   What is internalisation?

   Model answer

   Internalisation is the point at which a learned rule stops feeling imposed from outside and is accepted as the person's own, so it is obeyed without anyone needing to watch.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Socialisation and Its Agencies revision questions

Is Socialisation and Its Agencies 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 Socialisation and Its Agencies cover in WJEC AS-Level Sociology?

9 subtopics: primary and secondary socialisation, role models, imitation and sanctions, families and primary cultural transmission, peer groups as an agency of socialisation, education as an agency of socialisation, religion as an agency of socialisation, the media as an agency of socialisation, work, resocialisation and total institutions and formal and informal social control. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Socialisation and Its Agencies organised?

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