Culture, Identity and Socialisation
Culture, identity and socialisation
This domain tests how societies transmit norms, values and identities, and how individuals actively negotiate them. Expect questions linking agencies of socialisation to identity formation, and asking you to distinguish culture from nature.
Culture and identity
- Culture comprises norms (rules), values (shared ideals), beliefs, symbols, language and sanctions; it is learned, shared and transmitted.
- Ethnocentrism judges others by one's own culture; cultural relativism understands practices in context, but does not require moral approval.
- Subcultures share elements with the wider culture while differing in style or values; countercultures oppose core values.
- Socialisation is primary (family, early childhood, emotional) and secondary (school, peers, media, work, religion).
- Identity is both social (roles, group memberships) and personal (self-narrative); Goffman shows stigma and 'spoiled identity' can arise from labelling.
Worked example
Question: how do toys socialise children into gender roles? Reasoning: identify agencies (family, peer group, media) and mechanisms (canalisation, verbal appellation, different activities - Oakley). Note that children are not passive: they choose, resist and reinterpret toys, so socialisation is negotiated. Link to wider consequences: occupational segregation and the domestic division of labour. A strong answer shows both structural transmission and individual agency, using concepts precisely.
Traps
Equating culture with nationality or ethnicity; treating socialisation as finished in childhood; assuming primary socialisation is always positive; using identity without specifying social or personal.
Key points
- Culture is learned and shared, not biological.
- Distinguish norms, values, beliefs and sanctions.
- Primary and secondary socialisation involve different agencies.
- Identity involves both social roles and self-narrative.
- Children negotiate, not just absorb, socialisation.