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Theoretical Perspectives on Socialisation and Culture
Structural Theories
Structuralists see culture and individual identities as created by society.
Individuals are socialised by social institutions (agents of socialisation), e.g. the family which
form and limit people’s identities
Individuals have little choice over their identities.
Functionalism
Functionalists like Durkheim and Parsons see learning culture through socialisation as
positive. It transmits the norms and values of society.
The socialisation process acts as a social glue with shared norms and values (value
consensus) ensuring we all agree about how we should behave.
Functionalists see socialisation as beneficial for all of society because it allows us all to feel
part of society (social solidarity) because we all share the same norms and values. This
allows us to cooperate with each other and reduces conflict.
It is important that members of a society see themselves as part of a wider group. This social
solidarity ensures we don’t do anything to damage the group (society).
Parsons
Socialisation ensures we internalise society’s values and then keep to them when performing
different roles in society. The expectations of different roles reflect the values of society. For
example, the norms expected in the role of an employee, such as being hard work, reflect the
value society places on hard work.
Society remains stable because, most of the time, individuals keep to the requirements of
particular roles.
Parsons sees family as important in moulding and shaping human identity. Secondary
socialisation involves people then adjusting their personality as they encounter different
agents of socialisation, e.g. peers.
Religion is also a key agent of socialisation that reinforces the social solidarity of a group.
Parsons sees people as the sum of the values, beliefs and expectations of society. This is a
very structural point of view which sees society as moulding human behaviour.
Marxism
Marxists see socialisation as negative. They see socialisation and agents of socialisation as a
form of social control.
The culture of society is the culture of the ruling or dominant class. There is not a value
consensus, instead people are socialised into the values of the dominant class. This is known
as ruling class ideology and is passed on via socialisation
Socialisation reproduces and legitimises existing social inequalities making them seem
normal and natural and therefore preventing people from challenging these inequalities. This
ensures there is false class consciousness where the proletariat do not realise they are
being exploited and do not challenge their exploitation.
Bowles and Gintis
Argue the education system teaches values such as punctuality, discipline and obedience
within the individual via the hidden curriculum. These are qualities that the Marxists think
are needed in a capitalist workforce, which make them hardworking but easy to exploit.
Feminism
Socialisation reinforces and reproduces patriarchy. Feminists see socialisation as a way of
reinforcing gender inequality.
Heaton and Lawson
Argue the hidden curriculum is a major source of gender socialisation within schools. They
believe that schools seem to show or have:
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Textbooks where children are taught from an early age that males are dominant within
the family.
Different subjects for different genders, e.g. girls do subjects related to traditional
roles, such as caring.
Sports that are segregated by gender.
Majority of teachers are female but head teachers are mainly male.
Oakley
Argues that the family uses four methods to reproduce gender roles and therefore inequality
in society, which maintains patriarchy:
1) Manipulation: children are encouraged to behave in ways appropriate for their
gender, e.g. boys are encouraged not to cry.
2) Canalisation: children are directed into activities and toys that are seen as
appropriate for their gender, e.g. girls are given kitchen sets as toys.
3) Verbal appellations: parents refer to their children in ways that reinforce gender
stereotypes, e.g. boys are called ‘Mummy’s little soldier’.
4) Different activities: children take part in different activities with their parents, e.g. girls
help their Mum with cooking.
Criticisms of Structural Theories
Individuals are seen as simply puppets or what Garfinkel called cultural dopes, where they
simply accept norms and values with little input from the individual. According to the
interpretivists, individuals can make choices about norms and values.
Interpretivist/Social Action Theories
Social action theories place more emphasis on the role of individuals in creating culture and
their identities.
The Looking Glass Self
Mead argued that as children grow up they learn to develop a sense of who they are (their
self-concept) and what makes them different from others. This occurs during socialisation
through social interaction (interacting with other people).
As they interact with other people they develop ideas about how others see them and by
seeing how people respond to them, they may modify their self-concept and sense of identity
and begin to see themselves as others see them. This means the self-concepts and identities
of individuals are changing and developing all the time.
Cooley developed the concept of the looking glass self to explain this. Cooley argues that
our identity is formed based on how we think other people see us. We either behave as we
think people see us or we try to change our behaviour to modify people’s views of us.
For example, an individual may see themselves as outgoing, friendly and sociable, but others
may see them as unfriendly and standoffish. This might result in the individual adopting a
new identity where they conform to how others see them or where they change their
behaviour to try and change people’s views of them.
Impression Management
Goffman sees society as like a stage, with people acting out performances. People try to
project particular impressions of themselves (the presentation of self and try to convince
other people that that is their identity.
Goffman also says that whilst there is a public area where we act out our performances, there
is also a private area where individuals stop performing and are themselves, such as at
home.
While the individual may try to present a certain impression to others, there is no certainty
that they will succeed.
Labelling
Becker argues that our identity is influenced by other people’s perceptions of us. This is
similar to Mead and Cooley but Becker argues that once people begin to see us as having a
particular type of identity that becomes our master status. It becomes very difficult to get
rid of this identity and eventually the individual may conform to it.
Criticisms of Interpretivist/Social Action Theories
Individuals are seen as having too much control over their identity and not enough emphasis
is given to the importance of inequality in society and the role of social institutions in
influencing people’s identities.
While individuals may be able to choose some aspects of their identity, their choices are
limited by factors such as wealth, employment etc.
Structuration
Giddens argues that social structures limit the identities people may adopt, but they also
make it possible for people to form identities in the first place. Therefore, whilst there is a
structure to society that limits individuals’ identities, individuals can still make choices about
the identities they adopt within that framework.
The Reflexive Self
This refers to the idea that an individual’s identity is formed and develops through a process
of reflecting on their identity as they interact with other individuals and the agents of
socialisation. Individuals can change their identities as they reflect on themselves.
1) Explain what Goffman means by impression management.
2) Suggest ways in which you try to manage the impressions of yourself that you give to
other people. Do you always succeed in giving the impression you want? Why?
3) With reference to Cooley’s idea of the looking glass self, explain, with examples, how
the reactions of other might encourage people to change how they view themselves.
4) What is the difference between Becker’s labelling theory and Cooley’s looking glass
self?
5) How does the reflexive self differ from the looking glass self?
Postmodernism
Theorists such as Baudrillard, Lyotard and Jameson all agree that metanarratives cannot
explain how society works. These are structuralist theories such as Functionalism, Marxism
and Feminism which say all of society behaves in this way, e.g. for Marxism culture, identity
and socialisation are all to do with capitalism and class inequality. Postmodernists believe that
the norms and values of our society are not transmitted through agents of socialisation in
order to benefit rich businessmen, for example.
They argue that in a society such as ours which celebrates diversity, there is so much choice
for individuals about what identity they adopt. This is helped by consumer culture and the
media which provides us with all these choices.
We as consumers choose our identity and pick and mix our identities based on what norms
and values we want to adopt. Bauman argues we go shopping for identities and can easily
change our identity and adopt any identity we want.
Because of all the choice available, this has also led to blurring boundaries of different
cultures and identities. For example males are increasingly adopting traditional feminine
behaviours such as focusing on their appearance.
Postmodernist sociologists emphasise how the idea of ‘self’ can change, and they also
emphasise the degree of choice we have over our identities.