Understanding Society: Culture, Socialization, Status, and Roles
Sociological Perspective
Different perceptions of social reality are not only due to individual factors but also to other social factors such as the time and place in which one lives. It also depends on whether you perceive things alone or accompanied, the individual’s definition of the situation, the surrounding social environment, and social class.
The sociological perspective seeks to move us away from intuitive thinking about the things we have and the behaviors of the majority. It tries to remove the subject from their personal drama and place them in a wider arena.
Birth of Sociology: During the Industrial Revolution, there were societal changes that had not happened before. The aim was to find a science that, like the natural sciences, would solve societal problems and foresee the future.
Sociology is not the only science that studies humans; other sciences such as psychology, philosophy, and medicine also study them.
In what aspect does sociology deal with humans? Sociology studies humans in society, or as “partners” of society.
Sociology is a science that is identified by its method: The Scientific Method. This is a way to solve problems by following a form of action that consists essentially of observing, classifying, interpreting phenomena, and demonstrating ways that enable prediction and explanation of explanatory questions. Its features are: Goal and Purpose Invariably.
Culture: Elements, Ethnocentrism, and Cultural Relativism
We are products of culture. Culture is learned (through immediacy or imitation), and there are institutions dedicated to teaching it. Culture is the defining characteristic of humans.
- Definitions of Culture:
- Taylor: “That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of a society.”
- Johnson: “A set of abstract patterns on life and death.”
Subculture: Delimiting criteria include ecological perspective (from rural to metropolitan areas), cultural varieties typical of the different strata of society (upper, middle, lower class), subcultures of different types of social classes, regional basis, political or religious basis, and generational terms.
- Elements of Culture:
- Values: Basic elements of culture; principles that define good or bad.
- Rules: The specification of the principles that define good or bad behavior; guides are social norms.
- Ideas and Beliefs: It is within ideas and beliefs.
- Symbols: It matters for what it represents, not for what it is.
Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism: The cultural tendency to view oneself as good and right, and others as strange and even immoral, is called ethnocentrism. Cultural relativism insists that any element of culture is related to time, place, and a set of circumstances.
Socialization
The central concept of life in society is social interaction. It is the process whereby a person acts and reacts in relation to others, following pre-established cultural guidelines. Social interaction allows us to create and recreate the reality we perceive. In our daily lives, we are constantly interacting with other people, but not in any way, but according to specific social guidelines.
Rocher defines socialization as the process by which human beings learn and internalize, in the course of their lives, the socio-cultural factors of their environment, integrate them into the structure of their personality under the influence of experience and significant social agents, and adapt to the social environment within which they live.
Socialization involves three basic aspects:
- Acquisition of culture (internalizing behavior patterns of the elements of culture and integrating them into our own personality).
- Integration of culture into personality (so that our behavior responds to the values, standards, etc., that guide our behavior, even without being aware of it).
- Adaptation to the social environment (family, group, university, company, etc.) to become part of those communities. Adaptation is performed at three levels: biological, emotional, and a level of thinking.
Personality = Biology + Culture within a social environment (the environment).
- Primary Socialization: Takes place during the infancy of individuals, through which they become members of society. It is absolutely essential.
- Secondary Socialization: Occurs in adulthood. Internalized roles are specific to the division of labor.
Status and Role
Status in sociology is not synonymous with prestige; in sociology, it refers to social position.
Everyone occupies more than one status at any point in their lives. Example: daughter, friend, sister, student, etc.
The status that a person ends up with is not only the result of their personal efforts but also other factors over which the person has not had any influence (gender, family, origin, race, etc.).
- Role (Expectations, Behavior) refers to the conduct a person would expect to serve their status. Roles vary from one society to another.
- Types of Roles:
- Prescribed Role (objective): Example: Student (one who goes to school to acquire knowledge).
- Subjective Role: The role that each person perceives in a certain way.
- Role Played: Specific overt behavior of the occupant of a position when interacting with any other position.
Prototypes of Roles:
- Affectivity-Affective Neutrality: Refers to whether a certain type of role allows the expression of feelings or emotions, or otherwise requires that these feelings be repressed. Example: Emotional role (family), neutral role (school).
- Assignment-Procurement: From birth, it is acquired. Example: Assigned (son), Acquired (student).
- Particularism-Universalism: Particularism is when the action is focused on membership or not in a particular social group, and universalism is when the action is oriented towards the characteristics of a person regardless of group membership.
- Diffusivity-Specificity: The occupant of a role in their interactions with others can be strictly limited to specific duties toward these persons, or they may have an infinitely variable number of obligations according to the occasions. Example: Diffuse (friend), Specific (physician).
- Self-Guidance – Collective Guidance: Depends on whether the subject’s activity is focused on achieving private purposes (for themselves) or collective ones. Example: Self-Oriented (Businessman), Collective (teacher).
Traditional Society: Affectivity, Self-Guidance, Particularism, Assignment, and Diffusivity.
Modern Society: Affective Neutrality, Collective Orientation, Universalism, Procurement, and Specificity.
Socialization Agents
- Family: The socialization provided by the family cannot be replaced by anyone. It is the first agent of socialization and introduces the child into society.
- Age-Groups: Also known as peer groups. It is the first group the child chooses because the family is imposed. Peers can teach subjects that adults consider appropriate or banned.
- School: Teaches skills, cultural values, and attitudes that prepare children for adult roles. Treatment is unequal and not based on feelings. Customary and bureaucratic treatment differs from the role of the family.
- The Mass Media: Exerts a powerful influence on people’s lives. It encompasses a wide variety of media (radio, TV, magazines, internet, etc.) and influences children and youth.