Module 6: Enculturation and Socialization

At the end of this module, I can:

1. Explain the development of myself and others as a

product of socialization and enculturation.

2. Identify the context, content, processes, and

consequence of enculturation and socialization.

3. Identify the social goals and the socially acceptable

means of achieving these goals.
How is culture ingrained in children?

-Is it through biological inheritance (nature) or through

cultural inheritance (nurture)?
-The issue on nature and nurture has been a long-standing
debate in the fields of social science such as associology
and anthropology.
-Two primary opposing perspective are held by social
learning theorists and sociobiologists.
Social Learning Theorists

-argue that the set of behaviors of an individual is

acquired through enculturation and socialization
processes.
-The variation in human behavior is attributed to the
differences in cultural templates of every society that the
individual learns from.
Sociobiology
-argue that the human acquire their behavior genetically.
Socialization

-Today, the social learning perspective is more accepted

by sociologist and anthropologists in explaining the
development of behavior and attitude among humans.

-Socialization is the term used to refer the process by

which an individual is oriented and taught by his or her
social norms.

-This norms include beliefs, attitude, practices, and

behaviors. Similarly, this process is studied in anthropology
through the concept of enculturation.
Identity Formation

-Social Identity is a person’s notion of who he or she is in

the society. This includes the roles and statuses that he or
she performs in accord to what the society expects of him
or her.

-There are two primary types of identity that an individual

takes on: Primary Identity and Secondary Identity
Primary Identity

-consists of the roles and statuses that an individual learns

as a child. This includes the core social identities that are
often ascribed to an individual such as sex, age, and
ethnicity.

Secondary Identity

-This includes roles and statuses that are achieved such as

occupation, education background, economics status, and
gender.
Identity Formation

-the existential “I,” the doing

“me,” the cultural “I,” and
the performing “me.”

-These categories promote a

holonic concept of the self-
the self is both a whole and a
part.
Theories and Identity

-There are two primary theories related to the

understanding of identity formation and practice.

-The Role Learning Theory and the Theory on Symbolic

Interactionism
Role Learning Theory

-promotes the argument that individuals learn a repertoire

of social roles from their society. They then reproduce this
repertoire in their behavior. Roles constitute the social
facts (e.g., gender role, occupation role, family role) that
inhibits, empower, and influence an individual’s actions.
Theory on Symbolic Interactionism

-promotes the idea that individuals construct their notion

of the self through social interactions performed within a
society. This implies that roles and their performance are
part of a creative process wherein the individual sees the
behavior of others and responds to it by creating a role
that it can play.
-This presents humans as social actors performing within a
cultural or social field.
Norm and Values

-The concept of cultural values refers to all those ideas

held in society that are considered good, acceptable, and
right.
-Cultural Values inform the types of aspiration that
members of society aspire for, and these are labeled as
social goals.
-A society that is rooted in individualism would have one
of its social goals to have its dependent population
emancipated from parental support at an earlier age.
Conflict Theory

-Using Conflict Theory, it can be said that these goal are

sometimes the source of conflict within a society, as
individuals have varying access and experiences relating to
it.
-For example, the values which center on wealth
acquisition and its accompanying prestige and power are
not held true by all individuals in a society, as these values
are scarce and unattainable for some individuals.
Category of Norms

Folkways – are the socially approved behaviors that have

no moral underpinning.
Mores – are the norms related to moral conventions.
These includes behavior that are considered acceptable in
relation to religion practices.
Taboos – are behaviors that are absolutely forbidden in a
specific culture. Performance of taboos are met with
stricter punishment.
Laws – consist of the rules and regulations that are
implemented by the state, making them the prime source
of social control.
Status and Role

-Our forms of social interaction are always within the

context of our status and that of the people we are
interacting with.
-This is to say that we speak and behave differently
towards different sets of people.
-You have a set of vocabularies and nonverbal cues that
you use for your parents, which you may not use with your
peers.
Status

-A Status is an individual’s position in his or her society,

which carries with it a set of defined rights and
obligations.
-Your status as a student comes with obligations and
rights, which are defined as your roles.

Roles
-are set of expectation from people who occupy a
particular status. From the vocabulary that they would use
to their performance of their statuses, these are all within
the framework of roles.
Role Performance
-behavior of an individual within a social space in
accordance to his or her status.
Role Set
-Sometimes a status has multiple roles attached to it. This
multiplicity of roles within a given status is called role
set.
Role Strain
-Role conflict stems from the divergent expectations of
the statuses that an individual simultaneously occupies.
Such conflict may create role strain on the individual.
Conformity and Deviance

Conformity – is the act of following the roles and goals of

one’s society. This behavior is often met with
rewards and acceptance from other members
of the society.

Deviance – is the act of violating the prescribed social

norms. Acts of deviance are often associated
with a stigma. A stigma is a strong sense of
disapproval on nonconforming behavior from
members of a society.
Theories that Explain the Existence of Deviance

Social Control Theory – Deviance is primarily caused by a

lack in stronger social bonds within a society. As
an individual feels less attached to his or her
society, there is a higher chance for him or her
to deviate from social norms.

Rational Choice Theory – The individual’s decision to

follow or to go against social norms is dependent
on their perceived cost and benefits of such
actions.
Theories that Explain the Existence of Deviance
Differential Association Theory – Conformity or deviance
is learned by an individual from those he
or she associates with.

Labeling Theory – Actions are initially not considered

deviant until they are labelled as such by
members of the community. There are
two stages of deviance.
-Primary Deviance is a type of act that does not end
with the individual being labelled as such.
-Secondary Deviance is the type of act that results
from being labelled by society as a deviant.
Theories that Explain the Existence of Deviance

Conflict Theory – Society consists of opposing groups of

people whose access to power is unequal.
The group that has access to power
determines which actions are deviant
based on their perceived advantage.

Structural-Functionalist Theory – This theory proposes

two perspective in the formation of deviant
behavior.
Two Perspective of Structural-Functionalist Theory

Macro Level – deviance is a product of the breakdown of

social norms which produces anomie or social
disorganization.

Microlevel –deviance is a product of the role strain that

an individual experiences due to lack of
resources to cope with the demands of the
social norms.
Cultural Goals

-Consist of the values that are important for the society.

Institutional Means

-are the processes that have been established through

social structures such as the government, school, church,
and even family.
Cultural Goals

-In Merton’s typology, individuals who accept their

society’s cultural goals and that of the process to
accomplish it are labelled as conformists, whereas those
who accept the goal but not the process are called
innovators.

-Individuals who reject the goal but accept the prosses are
prone to ritualism, whereas those who rejected both
goals and the approach are in the form of rebellion.
Social Control

-To maintain social order and stability, social control is

needed. The two elements that promote social control are
internalization and sanctions.
Internalization

-Internalization is an integral part of communicating and

incorporating social norms to an individual’s personality.

-It is in this process that an individual is made to

automatically conform to the dictates of his or her society
through a cost-benefits orientation.

-One key element in ensuring that individuals are able to

internalize social norms is the establishment of sanctions.
Sanctions

-Sanctions are powerful in leading an individual to

conform to social norms.

-Despite an individual’s disinclination to conform, when

the sanction is stronger, there is a high possibility that he
or she will decide to follow the norm.
Types of Sanctions

Formal Sanctions – these are the rewards or form of

punishment that are formally awarded by an institution
such as a government, a council, or an establishment.

Informal Sanction – These are the reward and forms of

punishment that are spontaneously given by an individual
or a group of people as a response to a behavior that was
either accepted or disapproved.

Positive Sanction – These are actions or statements that

reward a particular behavior, which reinforce its repetition.