SOCIALSCIENCE FOR SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE SW010101 MODULE 1 UNIT 3 - CULTURE AND SOCIALIZATIONSOCIOLOGY.pptx

SW010101
MODULE-1
IntroductionTo
SociologyAndRelation
ToSocialWork
Kesiyamol Mathew
Faculty
PAGE 1
UNIT 3

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

 UNIT–CULTURE&SOCIALIZATION
• Culture: Definition,
Characteristics, Structure and
Functions
• Sub-culture
• Contra-culture
• CulturalChange
• CulturalLag
• Folkways
• Norms
• Mores
• Values
• Socialization: Meaning
• Definition
• Internalizing Norms
• Agents of Socialization
• Theories of Socialization

CULTURE
All the characteristic that are indicative of a person’s
CULTURE include the LANGUAGE, BELIEFS,
VALUES, NORMS, BEHAVIORS, and even MATERIAL
OBJECTS that are passed from one generation to the next.
All the learned and shared ways of believing and doing
penetrate our beings at an early age and quickly become
part of our taken-for- granted assumptions concerning
normal behavior; Culture becomes the lens through which
we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us
(James M, 1999).

Culture: Definition
"Culture is a complex whole which includes knowledge, art, beliefs,
morals, laws, customs and any other capabilities acquired by man as
a member of the
society” - Edward B. Taylor
• "Culture is the cumulative creation of man" -B. Malinowski

Culture Shock
“The disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally
different culture and can no longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life.”
James M. Henslin , 1999

Ethnocentrism
The use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies,
generally leading to a negative evaluation of other values, norms, and behaviors

CULTURAL RELATIVISM
 Understanding people from the framework of
it’s own culture/ try to understand another
culture on it’s own terms.
 It requires the suspension of our own
perspectives in order to grasp the perspectives of
others
 Cultural Relativism is to look at how the
elements of a culture work together, without
judging those elements as superior or inferior to
one’s own way of life.

Characteristics of Culture
Culture is the sum of our past experiences, providing a foundation for present
living.
Inter-related consisting of a complex whole
Transmitted from generations to generations or historically driven
It is a means of survival and adaptation.
 Culture is consistent and integrated.
Culture is gratifying.
Both super individual and superorganic (Its formation and continuity do not
depend on any one individual)
Composed of ethos(fundamental values) and eidos( Cognitive process of culture)
Culture is learned and shared by members of a society.
Culture is acquired, social, idealistic, fulfills needs, and Transmitted through
the vehicle of language
Culture is continuing and cumulative, dynamic and adaptive, varies from society
to society.

Structure of Culture:
Material & Non – Material Culture
Material Culture
 Visible Manifestations of Culture
 Material objects that distinguish a group
of people
eg. Art Forms, Fashion, Jewelry, buildings,
weapons, utensils, hairstyle, etc.
Non -material Culture/
Symbolic Culture
 Non- Visible
 A group’s way of thinking (beliefs,
values, and other assumptions about
the world) and doing (it’s common
patterns of behaviour, including
language and other forms of interaction)

Functions of Culture
 Culture gives the lens through which we see the world and obtain our perception of reality
 Culture provides implicit instructions that tell us what we ought to do in various situations
 Culture lays a fundamental basis for our decision making
 By internalizing a culture it provides a “moral imperative” in which people learn ideas of right
and wrong.
 Culture itself is universal even if it differ from one group to another group. That is all people
have culture. Because society cannot exist without developing shared, learned ways of
dealing with the demands of life.
 Ethnocentrism has both functional and dysfunctional consequences.
 Culture decides our career. Culture sets limitation on our choices to select different careers.
 Culture gives us the sense of belonging.
 Culture is the treasury of Knowledge.
 Culture mould personality. ( “Pattern of Culture” – A book written by Ruth Benedict)

Sub-Culture
Culture Sub-culture
 A portion of a culture distinguished from the larger
society around it by its customs or other features; a world
within a world.
 Duncan Mitchell defined that “A sub-culture is generally
taken to mean a section of a national culture.”
 The main sub- cultures are: regional sub-culture, urban
and rural sub- culture, class sub-culture, occupational sub-
culture, religious sub-culture, ethnic or nationality sub-
culture. (Sutherland, Woodward and Maxwell)

Contra-culture / Counter Culture
The term is applied to designate those groups which not only differ from the prevailing
patterns but sharply challenge them. Their norms are different compared to the
dominant culture.

Culture Growth
 Cultural Diffusion: The borrowing of cultural elements – Cognitive elements, Beliefs, Values and
Norms, Signs/Gestures, Non- normative ways of being from another society.
 Invention: “An invention is any recombination of existing cultural elements in such a fashion as to
produce something new” – Leslie, Lorman and Gorman
E. g: Bow and arrow, gun, spacecraft, radio, computer OR alphabet, dance, literature, constitutional government.
 Discovery: A discovery is a shared human perception of an aspect of reality which already exists-
Horton and Hunt
E. g: Newton’s Gravitational Theory, new continent, medical theories (composition of blood) etc.

Cultural Change
 Any change that takes place in the realm of culture.
 Culture being dynamic in nature itself undergoes change in different ways and in
different rates.
 Change in one area of culture affect other parts of the culture as it is strongly integrated
in nature.
 One change may lead to another.
 It’s a developmental or evolutionary process that occurs in a sequence of analytically
distinct stages in response to changing societal conditions.
 David Dressler and Donald Carns – “cultural change is the modifications or
discontinuance of existing 'tried' and 'tested' procedures transmitted to us from
the culture of the past as well as the introduction of new procedures."

Causes for cultural Change – David Dressler and Donald Carns
 Cultural Eclecticism : Situation in which people adopt new customs, reject others and
following modified versions when they are confronted by a different customs.
 New customs/practices are readily accepted more likely under two conditions: (1) they
represent socially desirable and useful culture (2) they are not causing trouble to the
pre-existed one and still valued customs and practices.
 Changes are superimposed on existing one during culture contact.
 Changes are always relative i.e. culture emerge gradually and continuously. E. g: Rural
Village to a Civilized Society, Mother/Wife being a house wife to working mother/wife
etc.
 Crisis/emergencies result to accelerate cultural change. They tend to persist. E.g.
Covid Protocols.
 Cultural change is cumulative in it’s total effect.
 It leads to chain reaction. E. g: Single use cell phone to Android to Mac Book to AI .

Causes for cultural Change (Contd.)
 Transportation
 Communication
 Migration and Immigration
 Technological Innovation
 Conquering Nations / War E. g: East India Company invasion in Pre- Independent
India

Cultural Lag (Theory of Cultural Change)- William F
.
Ogburn
W. F Ogburn – American Sociologist – Introduced the
concept in his book “ Social Change with Respect to
Culture and Original Nature” published in 1922.
Word “Lag” connotes crippled movement.
Causes of Cultural Lag:
 Difference in the degree of changeability of various
elements in culture
Changes in Law
 Change in the psychological dogmatism of man

Cultural Lag (Contd.)
 The gap between material culture and non
material culture is known as Cultural Lag.
 The term cultural lag refers to a situation
where culture takes time to meet with
technological innovations.
 It is a situation where there is an unequal rate
of change between various aspects of culture
which is causing a gap between them.
 This lag creates social problems or
disorganization and conflicts in a society in
many ways
 E. g: Modern Farming V/s Traditional
Farming

 Medical advancement like test tube babies, surrogacy, advent of stem calls, many
advanced software's, cyber technologies, Nano technologies, Farming and Agro
technologies, android phones, computers are potentially beneficial technologies.
 But still most people, especially in the rural parts of the country is refusing to take
the benefits for the advancement in their life.

Structural Aspects of Culture
1) STATUS
2) ROLE
3) NORMS – 1) MORES 2)
FOLKWAYS
4) VALUES

1. STATUS
• Status- socially defined position characterized by certain expectations rights
and duties.
• Ascribed status and achieved status.
• Ascribed status- Given to individual generally at birth and from
which they cannot escape.
Eg: sex, caste, age, ethnicity

Types of status
1. Ascribed Status
Position, which one is born into or one acquires without one’s
effort.
eg. Kinship status.
2. Achieved Status
Positions people acquired through their own efforts.
eg. occupational position
3. Multiple Statuses
Every individual occupies multiple status.
eg. An infant is a son, grandson, brother,
nephew etc.
4. Key Status
In terms of which an individual is ultimately identified and
evaluated .
eg. Student, Doctor, Teacher

2. Role
Roles are set of norms that specify the rights
and obligations of each status.
Role is the behavioral aspect of status.
1) Role conflicts: When a person is expected to
fulfill the duties of two contradictory positions
2) Role strains: The stress that results from the
differing demands and expectations associated
with a social role.

3. Social Norms: Meaning
 The term first used by M. Sherif in his book ‘The
Psychology of Social Norms’ in 1936
 It is a pattern setting limits on individual behavior. It
determine, guides, control and predict human behavior.
 How people should /should not behave in certain
situations. They are the “Blueprints” of behavior.
 They are the rules for social living or social being.
 The degree of conformity may vary from society to
society E.g.- Decides what to wear for each
occasions

Social Norms: Definition
 Young and Mack – “Norms refer to the Group-
shared expectations”
 Donald Light Jr. & Suzanne Keller – “Norms refer to
the ‘rules that guide behavior in everyday situations
and are derived from the value’.

Types of Social Norms
• Prescriptive norms: Behaviors that role players are expected
to perform
• Proscriptive norm: Directs a role player to avoid or abstain
from certain type of activity.
• Private Norms: purely individual and resides with the
individuals only. E. g: routine things on time schedule
• Operative/Formal/Codified Norms: backed by sanctions;
(reward and punishment used to enforce norms); should or
ought to behave. E. g: LAW
• Informal norms : Understood yet nonrecorded
Eg: Dress code

Social Norms (classification based on relative importance to society )
 Mores
 Folkways
 Customs
 Fashions
 Rites
 Rituals
 Ceremonies
 Taboos
 Traditions
 Conventions
 Statutes
 Laws
 Etiquettes

Characteristics of Social Norms
 Social Norms are Universal
 Norms are related to the factual order.
 Norms incorporate value judgements.
 Norms are relative to situations and groups.
 Norms are not always obeyed at all.
 Norms vary with sanctions.
 Norms are normally internalized by the people.

FOLKWAY
S: Meaning &
Definition
 Term introduced by William G Sumner in his book “Folk ways” in
1906.
 Norms which we conform because it is customary to do so in
our society. Degree of compulsion and punishment is less rigid
 behavior pattern that govern most of our daily life and contact
with other people. They are the accepted ways of behavior.
 Merill – “ Folkways are literally the ways of folk, that is, social
habits or group expectations that have arisen in the daily life of
the group”
 Lundberg – “Folkways are the typical or habitual beliefs,
attitudes, and styles of conduct observed within a group of
community”
 E. g: Table Manners, Pilgrim manners, respecting elders and
teachers.

Nature of
Folkways
Social In Nature: created for the sustenance of groups
Repetitive in Character: when a social practice is
observed constantly and regularly it becomes a folkway
Unplanned Origin: arise automatically and unconsciously
E. g: Hairstyle/greeting style
Informal Enforcement: not compulsive or obligatory as
norms or laws.
Folkways Differ a Lot
Folkways are Numerous
Folkways are subject to Change

Mores
• These are norms that are more important by the group and even vital for
its welfare. Related to the moral judgment of the etc.
eg. Prohibition of the consumption of alcoholic drinks is a part of the mores of
Muslim society., caring of aged parents
• “When the folk ways have added the conceptions of group welfare , standards
of right and wrong , they are converted into more”(Maclever and Page)
• Used to denote behavior patterns which are not only accepted but are prescribed
and act as regulators of behavior.

Types of Mores
1) POSITIVE MORES: prescribe behavior
patterns. They represent the “do’s”.
They give instructions and provide
guidance for the people to behave in a
particular way.
E. g: respecting elders, protection
children.
2) NEGATIVE MORES: They represent the
“don’ts”. They are often called “Taboos”.
E. g: don’t be cruel, don’t steal, don’t tell
lies etc.

Characteristics of Mores
1) Regulators of our social life: Morally right and violation is morally wrong; hence they are
compulsive in nature and put restrictions in behavior.
2) Relatively more persistent: being conservative elements in the society, thus it put up
resistance to changes.
3) Mores vary from groups to group
4) Mores are backed by Values and Religion

Functions of Mores
1) Determine much of our individual behavior: Act as powerful instrument of
social control by moulding our character and restraining our tendencies.
2) Mores identify the individual with the group: mores are the means by which
the individual gains identification with his fellows in the group. It helps to
maintain his social relations and are essential for satisfactory living.
3) Mores are guardians of social solidarity : It bring people together and form a
cohesiveness and likeness among the members in the group

4. Values: Meaning
General conceptions/orientation
towards the world/ interests
/preferences/ sentiments/higher
order norms /general guidelines
for conduct
“ The generalized end
which has connotations
of rightness, goodness
or inherent desirability”
Something good
and desirable
Internalized
through
conditioning
Eg : Privacy, loyalty, honesty ,
kindness

Values: Definition
 Young and Mack – “Values are assumptions, largely
unconscious, of what is right and important”
 Michael Haralambos – “A value is a belief that
something is good and worthwhile. It defines what is
worth having and worth striving for”

Types of Values
Dominant Values Variant Values
• Bounded by society rules
• Violation of values is not expected
• Individuals have the choice whether to
follow or not
Intrinsic Values Extrinsic values
• The value that one has of itself • Means to acquire things that have
value
Innate Values Acquired Values
• Values by conscience • Imparted by social institutions

Functions of Values
1) Values provide for stabilities and uniformities in group interaction: they hold the
society together since they are shared in common.
2) Values bring legitimacy to the rules that govern specific activities: rules are
accepted as rules because they embody the values that most people accept.
3) It helps to bring about some kind of adjustment between different sets of rules:
the people seek the same kinds of end or goals in different field of activity.
Hence it is possible to modify the rules to achieve the end result.

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