Culture and Socialisation: Elements, Relativism, Agencies and Theories of Self
What this domain tests
This domain covers what culture contains, how cultures judge one another, and how individuals become social beings. It tests Tylor's definition, culture lag, ethnocentrism versus cultural relativism, the stages and agencies of socialisation, and the theories of self advanced by Cooley, Mead, Freud, Piaget and Kohlberg.
Culture
- E.B. Tylor (1871): culture is 'that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society'.
- Material culture (tools, buildings, technology) versus non-material culture (ideas, values, norms); Ogburn's culture lag describes the delay of non-material culture behind technological change.
- Elements: symbols, language, values, beliefs, norms, technology; cultural universals (Murdock) are features found in every society.
- Ethnocentrism (Sumner) judges other cultures by one's own; cultural relativism requires understanding a culture on its own terms; culture shock is disorientation in an unfamiliar culture; subcultures differ from countercultures, which oppose dominant norms. Diffusion, acculturation and assimilation describe cultural contact.
Socialisation
- Primary socialisation occurs in the family; secondary socialisation in school and workplace (Berger and Luckmann). Anticipatory socialisation (Merton) prepares for future roles; re-socialisation occurs in total institutions (Goffman).
- Cooley's looking-glass self has three steps: imagining how we appear, imagining the judgement, and the resulting self-feeling. Mead's stages are imitation, play and game, ending in the generalised other, with the 'I' as spontaneous and the 'Me' as socially regulated.
- Freud: id, ego, superego; Piaget: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational; Kohlberg: pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional; Gilligan critiques Kohlberg for a male bias, stressing an ethic of care.
Worked example
A child born into a Marathi household acquires language, food habits and festivals by enculturation within primary socialisation; school then teaches impersonal rules, making it secondary socialisation; a transfer to a residential hostel demands re-socialisation into new routines and authority patterns.
Traps that cost marks
- Confusing socialisation with formal education.
- Attributing culture lag to Tylor rather than Ogburn.
- Defining cultural relativism as 'anything is acceptable' - it is a methodological stance.
- Mixing Mead's 'I' and 'Me', or Cooley's three steps with Mead's three stages.